EXPLORE PARIS FROM YOUR
HOLIDAY APARTMENT

Visit Paris from the comfort of Paris Hideaway

There are plenty of guides to Paris and the following does not mean to be exhaustive. Here we present some of the places and activities we have enjoyed in Paris.

TRANSPORT

Metro: With its Art-Deco arches and fast and frequent trains, the Metro is the key to Paris for visitors and residents alike. Individual tickets can be bought but it is cheaper to buy a "carnet" of ten. Week and months passes called Navigo are available for 18,5€and 62€ for Zones 1 and 2. The nearest station is Malesherbes (four minutes' walk). Villiers, 10 minutes away, is on the intersection of two lines (find them both on Line 3, near the top left). Click on the thumbnails below to see where the stations are in relation to the flat, and for a map of the metro.

On foot: Paris is a compact city and more places are walkable than you may realise. There is a large map of the city on the wall in the hall of the flat, and the interactive map on the RATP website can help plan journeys on foot.

Hired bikes: Paris blazed a trail with its system of bikes that can be hired from, and dropped off at, a multitude of collections points throughout the city. This model has been copied in other French towns as well as capital cities throughout the world. The Paris original is called Velib and its nearest bike point is in Rue de Tocqueville, turn right out of the building. Read more...

Electric cars: On the same model as the bikes are the hired electric cars, Autolib. These were launched in late 2011 and the system is still being rolled out. The Autolib website has information in English. A car can be hired for as little as 10€ a day plus 7€per half-hour consumption. The nearest collection point is at 50 Boulevard Pereire (turn left into Rue de Tocqueville, Bd Pereire crosses the road).

ACTIVITIES

Architecture on a winter's day: want to know more about France's architecture without having to travel through the whole country to see it? Let the country's heritage come to you instead. A museum called Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine chronicles the country's architecture through faithful mouldings of its most famous and significant buildings. Within an hour you can compare Romanesque churches in different parts of France with early and high Gothic, the later "flamboyant" style and the Renaissance just by walking though a series of interconnected galeries. These light-filled rooms display life-size replicas of the major exponents of each style — all the main cathedrals are represented, including Chartres, Rouen and more. When you're travelled down the centures, nip upstairs for a taste of modernism and discover how architecture was used to make statements in keeping with the different decades of the 20th Century. There's also a room devoted to mural painting and stained glass.

The museum is located in part of the Palais de Chaillot at the Trocadéo next to the eiffel tower - needless to say the windows of the museum command a stunning view of this unique 19th Century monument. The museum's café, which can be accessed without paying for to enter the museum itself, must have one of the best views in all of Paris.

Open daily except Tuesdays, from 11am; the entry fee is 8€per adult and under-26s go free.

Last updated: December 2015