10 Easy Ways to be a Tourist in Paris

The travel buzz phrase we hear is “live like a local” which sets everyone up to travel somewhere with the intention of not sticking out like a tourist. What does that mean anyway?

Vivre la belle vie - comme un touriste

Paris, France, is one of the most visited cities in the world, with something like 11 million visitors annually. People flock here to see the unique Eiffel Tower. To speak French (or fake speaking French). To pretend they’re cultured and cool and dress tres chic, sit at a café with un café (smoking maybe) to be seen and to see.

Oh yes, there are all kinds of other reasons too, but think back to your first visit to Paris. What did you do? How did you feel? Did it live up to your expectations? Or did you end up feeling like a tourist?

The first time I went to Paris I didn’t see the Eiffel. I didn’t sit in a Café. I was there only to connect through on my way to the airport, so the first two introductions I got were a rude taxi driver and experiencing the shitty Gare du Nord train station. I was 19. I had my small dog with me coming from Germany on the train and had to catch a plane home. So this first-time visit didn’t really count in my mind.

In subsequent years I went back several times, and here are the touristy things I did.

1. I hopped on the Hop-On Hop-Off bus. Why? Because it’s a fantastic deal to see the city in a day riding around for 2 hours just to get the lay of the land. It shows you all the tourist places you do want to visit and helps you figure out how to plan to get to those places.
2. The Louvre Museum. This is always on a tourist’s visit to Paris. Why? Because you know everyone says you must visit it! It takes more than a day to see it fully. Sometimes the lines to get in can be long if you bought the wrong pass or ticket. And once you are in, you are elbowing your way through the throngs of people from around the world just to catch a glimpse of the Mona Lisa or Venus De Milo.
3. Take a zillion photos of the Eiffel Tower. From every different angle. Some photos with you in it (the self-centered selfie) and some with everyone in it. Ride up the elevator to the different levels all the way to the top. Visit it in Spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter to see what it feels like in different weather settings. Check it off your bucket list, and you have earned your first Parisian tourist badge.
4. Walk through the Champ du Mars Park adjacent to the Eiffel Tower. It’s where people picnic, children play, and tourists party hearty. I don’t really like to advocate partying in the park, but I can’t tell you how many young tourists I’ve seen in groups getting drunk on cheap red wine. It’s a big turn-off, but hey, it’s a touristy thing to do, especially if you’re American.
5. Take a zillion photos of the Seine River. Walk on both sides of it. Stop and stare endlessly at all the architecture around. Sit and enjoy the river flow watching the Bateaux Mouches go by, thinking to yourself, “hey, look at all those tourists!”
6. Take a boat ride on the Seine. Cruise up to just past Notre Dame Cathedral, turn around and return to a starting point around the 7th arrdt. That’s arrondissement, which means a district, of which Paris has 20. Yes, you have several more to visit as a tourist!
7. Tour the Notre Dame Cathedral. This was easier done before it burnt down in April 2019, unfortunately. Many tourists got their first visit to Paris by seeing the long-standing icon of Paris, gawking at the gargoyles on top. The view is stunning. When Notre Dame is rebuilt, you can make your own tourist visit here, citing you were one of the first to come back after it was re-opened.
8. Ride the metro subway. You just have to be able to tell everyone back home, “it smelled like pee,” “it smelled like perfume,” or “it didn’t smell”
9. Ride the bus. Tell everyone back home how cheap it was! Only a 2 Euro coin got you across town to another arrondissement you got lost in. Yep, that’s being a real tourist!
10. Get over to the infamous Pere Lachaise cemetery in the 20th. Follow the map to view Jim Morrison’s grave. Or Edith Piaf. Or Oscar Wilde. Oh, there’s many more notables, but these are usually the ones that come to mind upon a first visit.

Of course, this list can go on, but it’s a starting point of ten things you can do in Paris to become an official tourist. It’s easy to do. It doesn’t get you feeling “like a local,” but it does get you out of your regular comfort zone because you are experiencing what everyone else has experienced. Then you can feel like you fit in with all the other tourists who say they are really a traveler. 😉

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