Paris

Your tickets to Paris are bought and the dates are set, but the plan is not there yet. This is usually when the practical questions come up: which neighborhood to stay in, which tickets to get in advance, how to get in from the airport and how many days are enough for the essentials. The "Paris" section brings together the answers. Each guide handles one task.

Most of the guides cover individual places. There are detailed pieces on the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame Cathedral after the restoration, the Catacombs, the Opéra Garnier, Les Invalides and Père Lachaise Cemetery. Each one explains what kinds of tickets exist, how entry works and what to see inside. For the big picture there are roundups: the city's main sights, museums, viewpoints, parks and ideas for a trip with kids. They are a good place to start if you have not made your list yet.

The second large group is lodging and transportation. We go through the neighborhoods that make a convenient base, and separately round up central hotels by star rating, hotels with a view of the Eiffel Tower and options near Disneyland. On transportation, there are guides to getting from the airport to the center, to the RER B line from Charles de Gaulle Airport, to the metro and to visiting by car, including parking and fines. These pieces help you work out time and costs before you go.

The third group is ready-made plans. These are walking routes through Montmartre, the Latin Quarter, the Tuileries Garden and from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower, plus itineraries for one day, three days and five days. Guides to the Palace of Versailles, Disneyland and Parc Astérix take you out of town. There are also pieces on restaurants by arrondissement, Seine cruises, a weekend on a budget, late fall events and the city rules that tourists find out about too late. A separate guide explains what is currently playing on the stage of the Lido cabaret.

Every guide opens with a short answer to the main question. The practical blocks follow: tickets, opening hours, how to get there, where the time goes. We check prices and schedules against the official websites of museums and transit operators, and we give the source and the date of the check. We are direct about the downsides: lines, closed rooms, awkward transfers. The roundup for kids, for example, notes which places are currently closed.

The section is meant for people who travel independently and want to make their decisions before takeoff. It works for a first trip and for a return visit, when the main sights are already familiar. It is a weaker fit for anyone looking for historical essays or travelers' personal impressions. We write about organizing the trip, not about the history of the city.

We suggest starting with the overview of the main sights and the three-day itinerary. That will show how much time you personally need. Then choose a neighborhood and a hotel, because all the logistics that follow depend on the address. After that, read about the trip from the airport and about the metro. Open the guides to specific places last, and decide which tickets you need to buy in advance.

The section belongs to "France", which sits under "Europe" in the overall "Destinations" catalog. If Paris is only one part of your route, go up a level: the "France" section collects guides to the country as a whole. The "Europe" section comes in handy when a trip spans several countries. Paris has no subsections, and all the guides sit in a single list.

Prices, time slots and entry rules in Paris change often, so we go back to published guides and check them against official sources. The date of the latest check is given in the text. Before buying tickets, still open the website of the museum or operator itself: the current terms are listed there. We add new guides on the same topics: tickets, lodging, transportation, itineraries. Put your plan together ahead of time, and in the city itself you will have more time left for walking.