Quick Tips

The Market Experience:

Try to make it on a Wednesday, Friday or Sunday morning. That is when the Marché Boulevard de l'Hôpital (or nearby Marché Monge) sets up offering incredible fresh produce, rotisserie chickens and cheeses. It’s a great way to see how locals shop. Buying some fruit and cheese for a picnic in the Jardin des Plantes is a great lunch option.

If you are a light sleeper, ask for a room "sur cour" (facing the courtyard). Boulevard Saint-Marcel is a wide avenue used by ambulances heading to the nearby Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital. While the windows are good, a courtyard room eliminates the siren noise entirely.

Dining Smart: The French eat with their eyes as well as their mouths and most of what will be placed in front of you during your stay here will have awesome eye-appeal. Don’t hesitate to poke around produce stores, charcuteries or bakeries where something luscious looking has caught your gaze—most shop keepers are friendly and patient with bumbling tourists attempting to make simple purchasesin mangled Franglais.

Do not eat at the brasseries directly next to the train stations (Austerlitz/Lyon) as they are often overpriced and mediocre. Walk towards Butte-aux-Cailles (hilltop village-like neighborhood in the 13th) or Rue Mouffetard for better food at better prices.

Navigo Easy Pass:

The Metro is very close to the hotel, so buy a "Navigo Easy" card at the station as soon as you arrive and load it with 10 tickets ("carnet"). You will use the metro several times from here because Line 5 is very useful for a north-to-south cross-town trip.

Hydration:

Paris tap water is perfectly fine. Most likely, the hotel has left a carafe in your room. Do not waste your money buying plastic bottles; fill up before you leave for the day. Also, hunt down some "Wallace Fountains" around town (green cast-iron fountains)—free drinking water.