One Day in Paris

Q: We will be in Paris for only one day. We arrive at 07h30 and depart at 23h00. Please give us some advice on what we can fit in without travelling too much. - Arlene Emmenes A: Two of the ways to enjoy your day in Paris is to choose three or four attractions and explore them thoroughly or try to see as many of the city's thrilling sights as you can. The easiest way to accomplish both these objectives is to join a hop-on hop-off bus tour. You get to see most of the attractions, with the opportunity of stopping off at two or three to check them out more fully. The Paris L'Open tour has four interconnected routes, giving you total flexibility in where you want to go. You can visit the Left Bank, the Eiffel Tour, the Louvre and get your picture taken at the Arc de Triomphe. The Paris Grand Tour gets you to these as well as other major attractions - the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Champs-Elysees, Saint-Germain-des-Pres, Orsay Museum, Concorde, Champs-Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, Trocadero, Invalides, the Montmartre and Saint-Paul. The tour runs from from 9:30am to 6:00pm, which suits your itinerary. You can buy a day ticket for 31 Euros on the www.parislopentour.com website. You should check out the interactive map on the website and plan where you want to go. You can also decide where you want to have lunch. If you want to try out one of the famous Michelin star restaurants, lunch is the best time to do it as it is cheaper than at night. You will get great value at most restaurants at lunch, so you could just try your luck wherever you end up. If you want to book in advance and plan your sightseeing around that, check out the www.bestrestaurantsparis.com website. If I was forced to decide in advance, I would go for one of the traditional bistros that never seems to change like L’Ambassade d’Auvergne at 22 rue du Grenier St-Lazare (www.ambassade-auvergne.com). It serves up food from central France, such as lentil salad with bacon and goose fat, and sausages with aligot (cheesy mashed potato). And I would stop off at Angelina at 226 rue de Rivoli for its famous deserts.