Paris travel essentials: your first hours sorted

From Charles de Gaulle (CDG), the RER B train runs straight into the centre (Gare du Nord, Châtelet, Saint-Michel) in around 30–45 minutes and is the cheapest option; the Roissybus goes to Opéra, and private transfers meet you by name. From Orly (ORY) the Orlyval shuttle links to the RER B, the tram T7 and Orlybus serve the south of the city, and the newer Metro Line 14 extension now reaches Orly directly.

The single most useful thing to know: official Paris taxis charge a government-set FIXED fare between the airports and the city — no meter, no negotiation. From CDG it’s a flat fare to the Right Bank or Left Bank; from Orly a lower flat fare. Only ever take a taxi from the official marked rank, and confirm the driver is charging the fixed airport fare before you set off.

A travel eSIM you install before you fly is the easiest way to land connected — you’re online the moment you clear the plane, with no queue at an airport counter and no swapping your physical SIM. France has excellent 4G/5G across the city and Metro, on the main networks (Orange, SFR, Bouygues, Free).

France has an open, uncensored internet, so unlike some destinations you don’t need a VPN to reach Google, WhatsApp or your banking app. A VPN is still worth having on public café and station wifi for privacy, but it isn’t a requirement here.

Paris is comfortable for getting work done: free wifi is widespread (the city runs free “Paris Wi-Fi” hotspots in parks, libraries and museums), and laptop-friendly cafés and co-working spaces are easy to find, though in a busy traditional café at lunchtime it’s polite to order regularly rather than camp for hours on one coffee.

On a long day out, charging is the usual gap — sockets aren’t always beside the bed in older, cheaper hotels, so a compact multi-port charger and a power bank keep your phone alive while you’re map-reading and hopping the Metro.

Paris runs almost entirely on cards — contactless is accepted in shops, cafés, bakeries, taxis and the Metro, so you can get by with barely any cash. Keep a few euros for a market stall, a tip or the occasional small independent that has a card minimum.

At ATMs, use machines attached to actual banks and decline the “convert to your home currency” (dynamic currency conversion) offer — choosing euros and letting your own bank do the conversion is almost always cheaper.

The Paris Metro is dense, fast and covers almost everywhere you’ll want to go, backed by the RER (faster regional lines) and an extensive bus network. Since the 2025 fare simplification, a single flat fare covers any Metro journey within Paris regardless of distance, and you can pay with a contactless bank card or phone, or load a reusable Navigo Easy card — no need for the old paper tickets.

For solo travellers, the Metro is well-used and generally comfortable, including in the evening on the busier central lines. The one thing to stay switched-on about is pickpocketing around the busiest tourist stations and on Line 1 — a practical annoyance rather than a danger, and we cover it properly on the safety page.

The single most useful cultural tip in Paris: always open with “Bonjour” (or “Bonsoir” in the evening) before you ask anything — in a shop, a café, at a ticket window. Skipping the greeting and launching straight into a question in English is what reads as rude to Parisians, and the reputation for “unfriendly” service largely melts away once you lead with bonjour and a “parlez-vous anglais?”.

Beyond that, Paris is an easy, cosmopolitan city for solo women, LGBTQ+ travellers and older visitors alike — dress is anything-goes, and the Marais is the heart of a long-established LGBTQ+ scene.

The familiar gap between an early landing and afternoon check-in (or a late flight after check-out) is easy to solve in Paris. The big mainline stations — Gare du Nord, Gare de Lyon, Gare Montparnasse — have paid left-luggage (“consigne”), and app-based storage networks let you book a vetted shop or hotel desk by the hour so you’re not hauling a case up Metro steps.

Paris’s headline sights — the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Musée d’Orsay, the Catacombs, Versailles — run on timed-entry tickets, and the on-the-day queues (or “sold out” signs) are the classic Paris time-sink. Booking a timed slot online ahead almost always means walking past the line, and it’s the only reliable way into the busiest ones in high season. Note the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays and the Musée d’Orsay on Mondays.