Tours in paris
Boat tours
Bateaux Parisiens, one of the main boat tour operators of bateau-mouches, glass-enclosed boats that ride the Seine. Fare isn’t too pricy at €10 for adults, €5 for children, for the basic one-hour sightseeing tour. The company also offers lunch and dinner cruises, as well as an “enchanted cruise” geared towards children.
Paris Canal offers a two-and-a-half-hour tour of the Seine and Saint Martin Canal and features passage through a tunnel beneath Place de la Bastille. Although a bit more expensive at €16 for adults, €9 for children, you get to see a lesser-known part of the area.
Walking tours
Get oriented to much of the city with Classic Walks Paris’ four-hour walk, which costs €20. The company also offers a DaVinci Code walk, as well as bike and segway tours. Get in Shape provides an active way to discover the tourist sites on foot by pairing tourists with personal trainers/guides for a tourist-oriented run around Paris. Paris à Pied, French for “Paris on Foot,” features a mix of themed neighborhood tours, such as Montmartre, the Latin Quarter, and the Marais.
Helicopter Tours
HeliParis (% 08 25 82 60 04, www.heliparis.com) offers helicop-
ter tours around Paris (i119 per person) and Paris-Versailles
(i199 per person). Flights take off conveniently from the
Héliport de Paris (Porte de Sèvres, 15th). They also have piloting initia-
tions for anyone at least 15 years old (from the heliport at Toussus le No-
ble, near Versailles), and Porsche 911 driving on a race track. The web site
is currently only in French, so call or e-mail particuliers@heliparis.com
for more information.
Paris en Helicoptère (% 01 48 35 90 44, www.helifrance.fr) organizes
Sunday helicopter flights from Le Bourget airport around Paris (i122,
i110 for kids) and Paris-Versailles (i149, kids i140). They also have
flights around Paris-Versailles-Abbaye des Vaux-de-Cernay from the He-
liport de Paris (Porte de Sèvres, 15th), with a free one-hour visit of the Ab-
bey, for i185 (i152 for kids).
Bus tours
Although there are many tour operators in Paris, France Tourisme offers a diverse mix of excursions ranging from Seine River cruises to Paris nighttime tours. Although they can get expensive, basic tours are reasonably priced at around €22 for adults and include two days on the double-decker bus.
Paris Cityrama is another quality tour operator featuring English-language commentary via headphones. The hop-on-hop-off bus can be a good value, especially if you spend an extra €3 for the two-day pass. One-day passes cost €25.
The Batobus boats shuttle passengers up and down the river, stopping at sights such as the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame, and near the Jardin des Plantes. They’re a novel way to get around and see the city from the water. A one-day pass costs €11 for adults, and €5 for kids under 16.
