Paris subway tips

A Powerful Network

Parisians are proud of their subway system. With more than a century of history, the system is vast, effective, and well-managed. If you can imagine that 6 million passengers are transported by the subway system every day, you can understand what a powerful network it is. It is said that from any location in downtown Paris there is a subway station not farther than 500 meters from you.

Traveling like Parisian

Using the subway as a means of transit is the Parisian way of life. When discussing a location, Parisians always mention the name of the nearest METRO station. If you are invited by a company to visit their office, you shouldn't be surprised if they do not arrange to pick you up from your hotel, but instead give you directions from the subway. The subway is more convenient, and avoids traffic jams. It is the easiest way around, even if you are new to Paris.

Two Systems

What we have been referring to as the "subway" is, in fact, two systems in one. The Metro (short for Metropolitan) has 14 lines (numbered 1 through 14), and runs in downtown Paris. The RER (Reseaux Express Regionale - read as Regional Express Networks) has 5 lines (lettered A through E), and runs through both downtown and the suburbs.

Tickets

There are several ticketing options available for those using public transit: individual tickets, the "Paris Visite" pass, the "Carte Orange" pass, or the "Mobilis" pass. Each of these is described in some detail below. Of all these kinds of tickets, you will be interested in Carte Orange and Mobilis most likely.

Individual tickets for the downtown area are valid within zones 1 and 2. Each can be used for a single trip on the Metro, RER, bus, or tram. The price is 1.50 euros for one ticket or 11.10 for 10 tickets (called a Carnet). Children from 4 to 11 years old can have half price discount for a Carnet, say 5.50 euros for 10 children tickets.

Individual tickets to Paris suburbs are priced based on the distance traveled. For example, from downtown Paris to the GIS hotel Paris (station NEUILLY PLAISANCE, Zone 3) is 2.8 euros one way, 22.4 euros for 10 tickets; from the GIS hotel Paris to Disneyland Paris is 4 euros one way; from Charles de Gaulle airport to downtown Paris is 10.05 euros one way, to GIS hotel Paris is the same.

The Mobilis is a one-day ticket that allows unlimited travel on the Metro, RER, bus, RATP, ADATRIF, APTR, and SNCF suburban network. It excludes the Orlybus, Orlyval, Roissybus, Roissyrail and Orlyrail. Price is based on area of coverage, for Zone 1 - 3, it is 7.50 euros.

The Paris Visite pass a bit more expensive than the Mobilis. It allows you to discover Paris and its surroundings. With it, you enjoy unlimited travel on all public transit systems, including: the Metro, RER, buses, tram, Montmartre funiculaire, Montmartobus, Noctambus, suburban trains, and private buses from ADATRIF and APTR. According to the zones you choose (1-3 or 1-6), you can travel as far as Disneyland Paris, Versailles, or the airports. Passes can be valid for 1, 2, 3, or 5 days, beginning any day of the week. They are half price for children between 4 and 11 years old. The pass also allows you to receive discounted entry into 30 of Paris' museums, not including many of the more popular ones, such as the Louvre. No photograph is required to obtain this pass.

Find a hotel for shopping in Paris

There are about 1000 hotels in Paris downtown, and ile de france area. Which Paris hotel is for you? You can spend thousands of euros for one night in a luxurious hotel in Paris, you can also find a comfortable hotel room at about 50 euros per night. So, what hotel suits your need?


For most tourists, visiting to Paris for sight seeing, shopping, a hotel with comfort, offering good service, easy access by public transportation tools, are most important consideration.

Paris is proud of its public transportation network. Especially the Metro and RER, it reaches to almost all important monuments and shopping centers. Find a hotel near RER or metro station, will make your tour happy and easy.

GIS hotel Paris is located at Paris east, 100 meters from RER A station. From GIS hotel Paris, you can easily reach departments stores, commercial centers in Champs Elysée, in Opera, in La Defense, in Châtelete Les Halles, Val de Fontenay, Noisy le Grand, Torcy and Val d’Europe.

GIS hotel Paris offers standard rooms for one or two person, twin bed rooms for two persons, triple rooms for three persons, family rooms for four persons, all at reasonable rates, all with private bathroom, TV, telephone, you can also use internet free of charge at the lobby!

Shopping duty free in Paris

In Paris, in France, consumers pay for their shopping at the price of TTC - Toutes Taxes Comprises. It means the price is including tax. In most shops, price tags indicating price TTC. People pay nothing more than the value of the price tags.

But in some shops, mainly those shops facing to companies, there are two prices in a price tag: Price Hors Taxes and price TTC. Hors Taxes means without tax. Value Added Tax - VAT, or in French TVA, should be added to the price Hors Taxes. With value added tax, it is price TTC. For companies, TVA of purchase are refunded or deducted by the government.

For non European residents, they have no duty to pay TVA for their purchase taking back home, except food and lodging. So they can benefit from Duty Free, or Detaxe.

Detaxe or tax refund does not mean that all tax will be refunded. Currently, TVA rate of most goods is 19.6% in France, but tax refund rate is normally 12%.

Not only Duty Free Shops give you tax refund service. Almost all shops can do that. Major department stores and brand-name boutiques are familiar in the process. Some shops may not be familiar with these process, so they prefer not to provide this service. It is better to ask before buying in a shop if you want to refund your tax.

The process of tax refund can be time consuming, and many travelers just give up on the whole thing because it can seem intimidating. If you do not want to buy a great deal of goods, giving it up is not a big loss. Some travelers buy their souvenirs at airport is also a good choice.


To benefit from Detaxe, there are basic requirements:

You must live outside the EU, and you must be over 15 years old.

You must be visiting for less than six months.

All of the items that you claim a refund for must be in your personal luggage when you leave - you cannot ship items home and still qualify for the refund.

Tax refund procedure is not complicate. Following information is directly quoted from official document:

How to get your tax refund?

at the store:

You should check with the store, prior to your purchase, that it is participating in the tax free scheme (not all stores are).

If so, you will have to prove that you are not a resident of the European Union and that you are 15 years old or over. This may be done, if you are not a French citizen, by showing any kind of legal identification in use in your country or, if you are a French national, by showing a consular ID or any other official document attesting that you are not a resident of the European Union.

You will then be issued a Retail Export Form ("bordereau de détaxe") that you must sign and which must be endorsed by Customs within three months of the purchase, when you leave the European Union.

at Customs:

- if you are leaving the European Union from a French port of entry:

You should present the Retail Export Form as well as the goods purchased under the tax free scheme. Customs will retain a copy of the form and you will be handed back a copy, endorsed by Customs, which you are advised to retain in case of any possible dispute with the store.

- if you are leaving the European Union from a port of entry in another Member State:

You should make sure that the local Customs Service endorses the Retail Export Form and gives them back to you. Upon arrival in your country, you should mail a copy of the form to the French store and keep the "customer" copy in case of any possible dispute with the store.


WARNING

Do not forget to keep the goods with you at all times when you apply for Customs endorsement of the Retail Export Form at the point of departure from the European Union.
Customs officers may want to check them.

You should allow ample time (for instance, at least two hours before the time required for checking-in at the airport) to apply for Customs endorsement of the Retail Export Form. At Paris (CDG and Orly) or at Nice-Côte d’Azur Airports, for example, there may be long lines of travelers waiting to get this endorsement, especially during the tourist season.

And if you fail to get through this formality before you leave the European Union, it will be burdensome - and expensive - for you to claim the tax refund when you are back home (see further on).

at home:

You should receive, within a reasonable spell of time, the amount of refunded tax directly from the store, paid according to your instructions, given on the Retail Export Form (check mailed to your address, bank transfer to your checking account or to your credit card account, etc?. If you don't receive your tax refund, you have to contact the store and not the French Customs.

Some stores may deduct the tax from the price of goods when you purchase them. They do so under their own responsibility and you are still required to apply for Customs endorsement of your Retail Export Form upon leaving the European Union, even if you did not pay tax on the goods.


If you plan to visit, and shop in, multiple European countries, the procedure is generally the same. However, because each country has a different daily spending limit and VAT rate, double-check the current rules for those countries you plan to visit before you start your trip. Remember that because you only have to visit customs once when you leave your final EU country, you should keep all of your receipts in a safe place until you go home.

The flea market in Paris

Shopping in flea markets is very interesting. Paris has very famous flea markets. Many visitors enjoy visiting, shopping in Paris flea markets.

There are three main flea markets in Paris:

One in Porte de Montreuil - 20e Porte-de-Montreuil. One of the cheapest flea markets, specialising in second-hand clothes, and also some furniture and other houseware.

One in Porte de Vanves - Avenue Georges-Lafenestre. An enormous range of bric-a-brac can be found at this popular market.

One in Saint-Ouen / Porte de Clignancourt - "Le marché aux puces de Saint-Ouen". "Le marché aux puces de Saint-Ouen" is the most famous one, and when people talking about Paris flea market, it is most likely talking about "Le marché aux puces de Saint-Ouen". We shall introduce more about "Le marché aux puces de Saint-Ouen". All photos were shot there.


Location of three Paris flea markets. You can reach all these flea markets by Mero. All these three flea markets are open on Saturday, Sunday and Monday all arround the year, 07:00 to 19:00.

“Le marché aux puces de Saint-Ouen" has a long histry. It was inaugurated in 1885 and extends over six hectares. Now, the Puces de Saint Ouen have more than 2000 shops. Just image that it recieves 70 000 visitors every week, you can understand that this is a worth visit place for a visitor.

In the fifties and sixties of 20th century, the Puces de Saint-Ouen was a market place to buy cheap but good and old furnitures. This is not the case anymore, but it is still a very interesting place to visit. The choice is large: old furnitures, old art pieces, clothes, shoses, poceline, time pieces, military pieces, almost every thing you can image. The prices are moderate to high.

The Puces de Saint-Ouen are located on the north edge of Paris. They can best be reached by the metro (station Garibaldi on line 13, station Porte de Clinagncourt on line 4). Going by car is also very easy: take the ring, exit at Porte de Clinagncourt, you are there.

The Flea market at Vanves keeps its original charm and originality. A veritable Ali-Baba cave, a large selection of goods awaits on the sidewalks of the avenues of Marc Sangnier and Georges Lafenestre in the fourteenth arrondissement.

You can hunt like a pro on Saturday morning or bring the family on Sunday morning. There are four hundred merchants most of whom are afficionados of their merchandise and some are strongly individualistic personalities, being mixture of specialists and some with a wide range of knowledge, all of whom offer you interesting merchandise gathered during the
week from all over France. Here you can find all sorts of things : furnishings and household objects from the early 19001s , Art Deco from the twenties and the thirties, and nostalgic fifties and the sixties collectibles, weird things, kitch, clothes
and old textiles, lace, worktables, dinner things, glasses, silverware, jewelry, African and Oriental art objects, small traditional tables, chandeliers, paintings and prints, bathroom things, photos, cameras and phonographs, books, garden furnitures.

The text of above two paragraphs and two pictures about Flea market at Vanves were provided by friends of Flea market at Vanves.

Here we have photos:



There are actually 13 markets in “Le marché aux puces de Saint-Ouen" .

When you get to the station Porte de Clinagncourt, you will see many people flow to a direction, and there are many shops selling clothes, shoes, low price watches and other electronic appliances in the street. That is not real “Le marché aux puces de Saint-Ouen" . The real flea markets are inside, after you go through the crowded streets.

The real flea markets “Le marché aux puces de Saint-Ouen" are calm, it is for collectors, and dealers all over the world nowadays.


Visiting to some stalls in flea markets is as if visiting a museum.


This is a modern shop in flea markets.


Perhaps you can find a treasure here!


Every thing is possible here. Who knows what these huge jars, each higher than 1.2 meters, were used for!


In an old fashion shop, we found these old rackets.


Globes of different size.


You can find very fine articles here.




You can have your old fashion furnitures or articles repaired here.


Packing and shipping companies serve to all over the world.


Many cafe bars and restaurants here. Have a cup of wine after a long time shopping in “Le marché aux puces de Saint-Ouen" ?


The Flea market at Vanves keeps its original charm and originality. A veritable Ali-Baba cave, a large selection of goods awaits on the sidewalks of the avenues of Marc Sangnier and Georges Lafenestre in the fourteenth arrondissement.


The Flea market at Vanves in the evening.

Paris fashion capital.

While talking about Paris fashion, we have to say something about the word “Haute Couture".

The term "haute couture" is French. Haute means "high" or "elegant." Couture literally means "sewing," but has come to indicate the business of designing, creating, and selling custom-made, high fashion women's clothes. In the history, “houte couture" was the symbol of Paris Fashion.

Buying Paris fashion is not necessary in Houte Couture shops, you can buy in department stores like Lafayette. But if you want to feel what Paris fashion means, you should be there.

There is a very famous street in Paris 8th arrondissement - Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honor. The Palace Elysee is on this street. On this street, there are many Houte Couture shops. The older generation foreigners might feel quite at home of the Haute Couture shops. Now, these Haute Couture shops are still existing, and they are still selling Houte Couture, but today at very limited volume: there are only 2000 women in the world buying Houte Couture every year. Houte Couture is not a profitable business today. Houte Couture companies are making money with their “byproducts" They are selling “prêt ?porter?--- ready to wear clothes, perfume and cosmetics, watches and jewelry, and so on. You can find top quality clothes, shoes, bags, and leather goods here. Though these are not real Houte Couture, the quality is guarantee, and the price is much lower than real Houte Couture. If you want to have a real feeling of Paris fashion, you should go to visit to these Houte Couture shops.

The street “Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré” is famous. The palace Elysee is also on this street.

So many shops are concentrating in this street.

In the street, Houte Couture shops are showing their prestige style. Their doors are not large. Does it mean that it is not open to masses?

Dior.

From the windows, you can see different style models.