3 Common Mistakes Tourists Make in Paris, Episode 266

Join Us in France Travel Podcast

Annie Sargent

History, Places & Travel, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2020

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We all make mistakes sometimes. But when your vacation time is precious, it's best to learn how to avoid them!

In this episode I am not talking about tourists who are totally clueless and unprepared. My podcast guests are typically well informed about France! And yet they still find themselves making the same mistakes.

So, this episode is all about helping you make small changes in mindset that will help you be better prepared for your trip to Paris.

What Are the 3 Common Mistakes Tourists Make in Paris?

Here are the small snafus people commonly run into in Paris:

#1 Opening and Closing Times [01:12]

Check opening and closing times more than once because you will forget! This is especially true if you are forced to make last-minute changes and assume you'll push today's visit to tomorrow.

#2 Beware of Distances Between Paris Attractions [06:16]

You've heard your whole life that when in Paris you'll get the most enjoyment when walking. And while that is true, for those of us who are not athletes it's important to make good choices. You don't want to be exhausted by the time you arrive at the Orsay Museum!

This map shows walking distances between metro stations in Paris. Even better, check walking times on Google maps before you decide to walk![/caption]

#3 Don't Schedule Any Timed Visits on Your First Day [09:49]

Flights get delayed. You might be terribly tired from the flight. Because things happen, it's best to avoid visits that require you to show up at a specific time. What can you do instead?

Walk around your neighborhood, try some cafés
Take a river cruise
Take one of my self-guided walking tours with the VoiceMap App

Show notes for this episode are here: https://joinusinfrance.com/266

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is Join us in France episode 266.
0:04.0	Bonsieur, I'm Annie Sergeant and today's episode is going to be a solo show
0:08.7	where I tell you about three things you might be doing wrong when planning your trip to France.
0:15.8	At least these are three things that you should consider when coming to France that wouldn't
0:20.8	matter so much in other parts of the world.
0:24.0	Show notes for this episode are on join us in France.com
0:28.0	466. That's the number 266.
0:31.0	That's the number 266.
0:32.0	And if you're planning a trip to France the site is chock full of great
0:37.1	resources you should check it out The The So here you go. Here are the three things that I think people do wrong when planning a trip to Paris
1:17.0	and if you're thinking how preposterous how would you know well I've been doing a lot of trip reports. I think there are a lot, there are 150 trip reports in the lineup for this podcast.
1:30.0	And so I've been talking to a lot of people and I kind of get a bird's eye view of what happens when people plan a trip to France.
1:42.0	And one of the things that I think a lot of people get
1:45.1	wrong is not checking opening and closing times. Now we look at them of course when
1:52.2	we first look at you know we're thinking oh I want to go see the USA museum
1:56.7	So at that time you'll look at it and you'll you realize that it's closed on Mondays and so you put it on a different day.
2:05.0	But if something happens and all of a sudden you didn't get to go to the Orsem Museum on Sunday, you say,
2:12.0	oh, we'll go tomorrow.
2:13.4	Yeah, uh-uh, you won't.
2:16.4	And at least half of the people I talk to mention at some point in their trip report that they went and did something that didn't work out because it was closed.
2:28.0	So I'm going to tell you that you should not assume that stores and museums will be open every day.
2:35.7	French people don't keep long hours like Americans.
	...

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