My Paris experience: what not to do on your first trip to Paris

We visited Paris and were thoroughly impressed by it (surprise, surprise!), in terms of how beautiful the city is, the myriad of cultural things it has to offer, and just plain stylishness in everything. With only five days on my first visit and still many things left to be seen, I definitely plan to revisit in the near future.

Looking back at my first Paris travel experience, here are some of the things I will take note not to do when I prepare for my next trip to Paris:

Believing in the stereotype

This is what everyone told me before I went to Paris: that French people are arrogant, unwilling to speak English and will ignore you without guilt if you ever beg for directions. We found this to be NOT the case at all! I had an instance where I needed to buy a ticket for the metro. I went to the service center hoping to buy a ticket by credit card but to my frustration, it didn't work. I only had bills but not coins so the nice lady at the counter went all the way, personally grabbed her wallet and exchange some coins for us. And there was another bus driver who patiently gave me directions and alerted me to get off at the right stop when I was hugely unsure I even got on the right bus.

These were just some examples of kindness and friendliness in Paris. While I might just be lucky to meet nice people, it also tells me not to necessarily assume that people will be unfriendly there. I should also mention that if you are a petite, Asian-looking woman, you'd also be more than likely to encounter some "very friendly" Parisian men (good news if you are single).

Dressing down

We all know that Paris is the fashion capital of the world. But to my amazement, this really is not just about having all the fashion houses in Paris - it is about everyone embracing style in their daily lives. Most people were dressed well, and even more impressive is that many ladies in their 80s still care to be in trendy coats and stylish hats. In my experience, I don't think this is the case even for New York.

The department store, Galeries Lafayette, is easily the most stylish one I've ever seen

While I talked about not stereotyping people just now, the stereotype that "there is no fat people in Paris" is true. The typical Parisian women is really this: in shape, slim and tall!

My lesson: while you don't have to dress like you're joining a Great Gatsby-themed party, wear something nice (i.e. leave your hiking windbreaker in the closet) so you won't feel completely dressed down in the city.

Taking metro as the only means of transportation

While the metro in Paris is very good in terms of coverage and most places are reachable by metro, I found that the metro lines were often making detours. For example, going from my hotel to the Tour Eiffel was just 10 minutes by bus on a straight line (I can see it from my hotel), but the metro would require me to change at one station in the wrong direction, and then took all the time to go back to the right direction to reach the Tour Eiffel stop. Even then, the walk to the actual Tour Eiffel site takes 20 minutes. Similar story for some of the other attractions. (Related advice: don't take the metro to Tour Eiffel)

What I did in the end was trying to take the bus as much as possible. That would mean you do need to familiarize yourself with the bus lines and the map of Paris. So an even better idea would be to take the Hop On Hop Off bus. Usually I would not jump to recommend others to take this as I always felt you can explore more through public transportation or by walking, if possible. But in Paris' case, the metro is really not worth the time wasted and the bus can be frustrating as you need to look for the right number and line (not like you have forever to figure that out as a tourist!). So to maximize your trip, I suggest not wasting time on transport and just do the hop on hop off option for at least some of the days you are there.

Not eating enough at the Saint Germain area

Before we visited the Saint Germain area, we had eaten a few relatively pricey meals (around 50 + euros for two on average) at restaurants in the residential neighborhood near our hotel. The price was for one main course plus non-alcoholic drinks. The food quality were okay but not stellar. We then visited the Saint Germain area and discovered the food paradise. Three course meals for 10 euros while many others offering for around 20 euro for fancier things like rib eye steak. We were excited to discover this area and thought, we totally should have eaten all our meals here (OK, maybe not all) because there are so many restaurants to explore!

If you are planning a trip in Paris and looking for a hotel, staying in that arrondisement (6th) might be a good idea.

Staying in the wrong arrondisement

This is my struggle every time I visit a city. When I booked my hotel, I thought I didn't want to stay right in the touristy area to avoid the crowd and noise. But after a day of sightseeing, my feet was hurting and I asked myself why I was not staying at one of the hotels I passed by on my way back to my hotel. Along with my earlier point that the metro in Paris can be a bit cumbersome at times, I would opt for a hotel close to the sights I'll be visiting. This means I probably would not go outside of the 1st, 2nd 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th arrondisements.

Definitely do not stay in the suburbs as safety could be an issue and the commute will be long.

Planning for a shopping trip without watching the time

We were excited to go shopping in the fashion capital of the world. Being there in November, we found that there is absolutely no discounts and things are quite pricey, compared to the United States. So if you in there only for style and not price sensitive, Paris might be good for you but if you want to shop things on sale, you should visit in the summer (before end of July) or in January. These are the official sales season and shops really don't go on sale outside of these time period. This is unlike in America where there is almost always a sales corner in shops all year round.

Visiting La Vallee Village (outlet mall)

The selection of brands are good but not as good as New York's Woodbury Outlet. Same as above, you need to visit at specific times of the year in order to find good deals. You need to take the same train as the Disneyland train for this one (takes about an hour). I will not be wasting my time on this outlet the next time I am in Paris.

Walking all the way from Louvre to Champs Elysee and Arc de Triomphe

I love walking as a way to explore cities. As I was planning my itinerary for Paris, I thought it was a good idea to walk through the Avenue des Champs Elysee to explore everything that the world famous Champs Elysee has to offer. Sounds good? It has to!

Turns out this was a big mistake. First of all, the Avenue des Champs Elysee, which the famed Champs Elysee is part of, is actually a very long avenue running between the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre area. Only the part close to the Arc de Triomphe has shops and restaurants, and the rest has absolutely NOTHING on it. It's just a boulevard with trees lining up on both sides of the avenue, not more. If you walk all the way from the Louvre to Arc de Triomphe, there will be 45 minutes of walk with absolutely nothing to see. Along with the fact that I stylishly wore heels (I practice what I preach) and dragged my mom along, it was no fun and just not worth the time wasted. Take a bus or hop on hop off instead if you want to go between these two main sights!

Holding high hopes for Mona Lisa

I was warned before visiting that the painting is tiny. But I still managed to be surprised by HOW tiny it really is. Luckily for us, the line to the Louvre was not long even though we only went at around 10:30 am. The crowd in front of Mona Lisa was pretty big already and we had to squeeze ourselves in. If you're wondering what most other visitors were saying, it was nothing other than that, "She IS tiny!"

My point: There are many other awesome things to see in the Louvre and do not just go for that one painting.

City of Lights

This title was bestowed on Paris way back and as much as I love Paris, let's be real. Compared to "newer" international cities like New York City, Hong Kong, or Tokyo, they easily dwarf Paris in terms of night lights. Paris is still every bit as romantic and beautiful as everyone says, but depending on where you've lived/visited, you may have a different interpretation of "City of Lights."