Top 7 Tips for Traveling to Paris, France as a Tourist

While many of us crave an Emily in Paris moment, traveling to a foreign country can still be intimidating. Especially when you’ve heard horror stories about tourists having unpleasant interactions with Parisians or getting stuck in a logistical nightmare. After studying abroad and visiting France several times, I can confidently say that many of these uncomfortable situations stem from preventable cultural misunderstandings.

Think of this blog as your cheat sheet to navigating the French cultural norms and expectations that will make or break your trip. By learning these tips, you’ll be set up to enjoy your experience in France and maybe even make a friend or two.

Top 7 Tips for Visiting France

1. Mind Your Manners

French culture takes etiquette to heart. Even if you break from expected etiquette by accident, this can be perceived as offensive and elicit a negative reaction from locals. As such, I highly recommend learning the following basic customs.

Upon entering or leaving a store, restaurant, or any institution, French custom dictates that you greet the host. This means greeting the person with a hello upon entry and a thank you and goodbye upon leaving. In addition, the beginning of a conversation must always start with a hello. Forgetting to say hello will likely elicit a negative attitude, leaving both parties feeling scorned.

In fact, I believe this cultural difference is the root cause of many American tourists’ unpleasant experiences. Ironically, they think the French individual was rude out of the blue, but their lack of hello brought on a negative response.

Now, when I reference hello, this can be an actual hello in English if you have no desire to practice French. If you do want to flex your language skills, it’s appropriate to say ‘bonjour’ all day until dinner time and then it switches to ‘bonsoir,’ which is essentially ‘good evening.’ When leaving an establishment in the day, it’s common to say ‘merci, au revoir, bonne journée’ and in the evening ‘merci, au revoir, bonne soirée.’

Following this practice will help you to start off on the right foot with French people, and the majority of the time they will be pleasant with you and maybe even curious about you. Other key phrases to keep top of mind include:

• S’il vous-plait = Please
• Merci = Thank you
• Excuse-moi = Excuse me

2. Be Financially Savvy

Let’s cover a few of the most important logistics for ensuring that you enjoy your trip.

Be sure to carry cash and coins with you, as many banks charge conversion fees per credit card transaction which quickly adds up over a week or two. In addition, public restrooms are not free. Depending on the neighborhood, using the toilette can cost you between .50 cents to 2 euro, and often they only accept coins. Another reason to carry coins is that Paris and many French cities have incredibly talented buskers and street musicians. Supporting artists makes the world a more beautiful place, and let’s be honest, that artistic charm is probably one of the reasons you wanted to visit France in the first place.

While exploring the beauty of France, be mindful of pickpocketing. Refrain from keeping your wallet and/or phone in your pants or jacket pocket and wear a bag with a zipper enclosure on the front of your body (thankfully cross-body bags are totally in right now). For instance, the metro and trains can get a little crowded during peak hours or close to tourist hotspots, which makes them prime pickpocket zones. Similarly, if you’re sitting out on a terrace in a crowded area, don’t leave your phone on the edge of the table where someone could easily swipe it. That being said, I’ve been pickpocketed in Italy and Spain, but never in France.

3. Order With Intention

We’re all accustomed to interacting with waiters and ordering food and drinks in our home country, for many of us, we’ve done it our whole lives. It’s easy to think that what we’re accustomed to is normal, which is why dining in a foreign country presents some of the most frustrating or confusing situations for tourists. One of the most common issues with ordering in France revolves around asking for water. In most restaurants, you will need to ask your server for water, but don’t ask for a bottle of water unless you want to pay for it. Instead, ask for a carafe of water, or ‘une carafe d’eau.’ This refers to a carafe of tap or filtered water which is free and typically larger than a paid bottle of water. Not to mention, tap water is actually high-quality and clean in France, even in Paris. Another useful trick is to order a carafe of wine or ‘une carafe du vin’ as well. This is typically a carafe of the house wine, either red or white. It’s cheaper than a bottle, comes in a generous serving, and house wine in France is nothing to snuff at.

In addition to drinks, ordering meat is another situation that tends to cause issues for tourists. In general, steak and hamburgers in France are served less cooked than they are in the US. If you’re someone who prefers a steak well done, this may come as a little shock. Here’s the translation for explaining how you would like your meat prepared:

• Bleue = Almost raw
• Sagnant = Rare
• A Point = Medium rare
• Bien cuit = Medium well
• Tres bien cuit = Technically well done, but the chef might not agree to this.

However, if you’re a tourist in France, why not go for it and try steak tartare (completely raw with a raw egg on top)?

As French waiters don’t want to rush you, when you’re ready to pay you will need to ask for the check or ‘l’addition.’ The tip or ‘pourboire’ will already be included in the total price. If you’re feeling generous, it’s normal to leave a few coins as gratuity, but there’s no need to leave 20% of your bill.

4. Take the Metro

Paris is a large city and many of the tourist destinations are spread across the arrondissements. Thankfully, the metro is super reliable to get across the city and walking is another age-old option. If you buy daily or multi-day metro tickets, write the date as specified on the back to prevent an annoying fine. Also, try not to store your metro tickets near your phone or credit cards, this can allegedly prevent them from working.

Foot traffic for the metro moves quickly, so be aware of your surroundings and stand away from the doors to allow the sea of people to come through. If you happen to score a seat while riding the metro, that’s incredible. However, keep an eye on the changing passengers and offer your seat to the elderly, pregnant, or tired. Many locals use the metro as their primary form of transportation and appreciate the mindfulness.

5. Keep a Flexible Calendar

The excitement of visiting another country can inspire spreadsheets full of site-seeing and activities, and it can be tempting to craft a packed and perfect schedule. There’s also joy in keeping a flexible schedule and letting Paris reveal herself to you. Aim for making one to two reservations maximum per day across museums, site seeing, or restaurants, and let the rest fall into place. Note that art museums are typically closed on Monday or Tuesday. If you’re a fan of impressionism, I highly recommend visiting le Musée d’Orsay and le Musée de l’Orangerie.

Lastly, if you’re roaming around site seeing all day, you might get hungry between 2 pm and 5 pm. It can be difficult to find restaurants that are open in the late afternoon, as they typically close between lunch and dinner service. This is a great time for a picnic on the Seine or one of the many parks in Paris!

Dinner is taken later in the evening than in the U.S., with apéro (light drinks and snacks) first around 5 pm. Late-night food options abound in Paris. As my travel partners can attest, I’m a big fan of late-night kebabs after an evening out in France and recommend trying kebabs avec frites.

6. Slow Down and Observe

The creativity of Paris can best be witnessed with the appreciative eye of a flâneur. That is to say, with quiet observation and an open mind. This can be the hardest part, especially for American tourists. We are accustomed to chugging a large coffee on the go, rushing through a meal to make it to our next errand, or hopping in our car and driving to our next destination. While these habits are totally normal in the U.S., they won’t help you much in France.

My biggest tip for slowing down and practicing observation in Paris is to pretend like you smoke cigarettes. I’m not saying that you should pick up chain smoking or start puffing on a candy cigar, but do what smokers do — slow down. Sit outside on a terrace in the middle of the afternoon for a three-hour lunch, lean against the corner of a building on a busy street, huddle beneath a covered doorway in the rain, or aimlessly stroll through the streets. All the while, quietly observe and take note of what you see.

By embracing these routines of observation, you will inherently learn about your surroundings. Learn about the culture, the various manners of expression, and most importantly, the etiquette.

Slowing down and observing locals interact will make that quite obvious. However, I’ll help speed along the learning process by teaching you a few etiquette tips which will help you get on the good side of the French people.

7. Be Quiet

No, really — be quiet. To make an extremely broad generalization, the French are like cats. If you approach them loudly, directly, or in a large group, there’s a high chance you will spook them. And cats don’t like to be spooked. Likewise, being loud in a shared space in France is considered rude. This is not intuitive for Americans, and we often don’t realize how loud we are, especially in a group setting. Often, you will see American tourists walking into an establishment such as the metro or a restaurant and talking very loudly amongst each other.

When looking to dine at a restaurant, I would advise that you send one person in to say hello to the host and politely ask for a table before the entire group descends upon the restaurant. Upon sitting down, observe the setting and ambiance of your surroundings. In France, there could be forty people in a restaurant and you still could not make out a single distinct conversation. Now imagine one American table and they will be louder than the entire forty people already enjoying their dinner. Queue the passive aggressive and dirty looks from neighboring tables, exasperation from the server, and potentially uncomfortable or awkward vibes. To avoid that from happening to you, keep your voice down in shared spaces such as restaurants, stores, the metro, and more.

The only exception is at a bar or club when it’s perfectly acceptable to get a little rowdy, in fact, this is when the French let loose and you might even hear a drunken Frenchie belting a song or two. However, if you want to get into the trendy bars or clubs, I would also recommend staying quiet in the queue until you’ve made it inside.

You’re going to have an incredible time in France, and I hope these tips make your experience a little smoother and more enjoyable.

Bon voyage!