Buses, Paris

Especially if you have not previously been to Paris, I would strongly recommend that you begin by spending a day (or maybe two) on one of the open double deck buses which will take you past most of the main tourist attractions. If you carry a city map (readily available free) you will gain a reasonable feeling for the city’s layout and of what most attracts you, should your time be limited. Later I would suggest you use the Metro for general transport – but you learn little of the city from underground!

I travelled on a “L’Open Tour”, which has multilingual headphones to give a commentary on what you are passing. They cover four routes around the city and your ticket allows you to get on and off at will, or to change between routes. You can join the system at any of their stops (most hotels will have the details) and pay the driver – with luck there will be a stop near your hotel! At a cost of 25€ for one day and 28€ for two days, it might be useful to do the full tour on the first day, then use the bus for transport on the second day.

The Yellow "L'OPEN" double decker tour bus is the way to go if you
do not have a lot of time to see the sights. You can catch the bus
at any of its stops and pay the driver for a ticket (1 day 26Euro).
You receive a set of headphones and sit either inside or up top outside.
You then plug in and choose whichever language you wish.
Check your route map to see which "tours" you would like to visit
and where you can pick up each bus...they all intersect at several
locations, so when you are finished with one its easy to get on
another. You can also get off the bus to spend some time
at a site as another one will be along shortly.
Overall its the best way to see the layout of the city and all the
main points of interest especially if you are short on time. There
is a 2 day pass which is an excellent value.

I agree that the open-top bus tours are very "touristy", but I don't know how else we'd have gotten anywhere...those people drive like maniacs! Great opportunity to see all the major sights without the hassle of parking and taxis.

I took this tour in 1964 on my second visit to Paris. It was a good solution to getting an overview of the city when I was by myself. I liked that the individual commentaries were recorded so that I didn't have to listen to the same information several times in different languages. Of course with this you give up the individual guide antedotes. And possibly mis-information given out by individual guides.

Cityrama is still around. Their website says

The best of Paris, in 1.30 hours; discover the city, with our famous double decker buses and registered commentaries : Opera, Champs Elysées, Arch of Triumph, Eiffel tower, Louvre Museum, Notre Dame cathedral.

Individual earphones. Recorded commentary in 13 languages.
Available at each departure: English, French, Chinese, Dutch, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.

In Summer (except May 1st, July 14 in the morning + exceptional events)
Daily departures: AM: 10.00am, 11.30am
PM: at 1.30pm, 3.30pm (From April 1st at 2.30pm)
In Winter
Daily departures: AM: at 10.00, 11.30
PM: at 2.00pm (From April 1st at 2.30pm)

Adult: 18.00 €URO
Child: 9.00 €URO

Free for children under 12 (applicable for 1 child fare accompanied by 1 paying adult).

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This is a good way to get a feel for where things are located and the places that might command a priority for seeing first and foremost. Another plus we found to using the services of one of the city bus tour companies is that part of their package provided us with tickets to go up the Eifel Tower (but not the very top). The biggest advantage of this extra package plus was that we were able to cut in front of all the crowds of people standing in line.

Our bus tour included:

-a drive around the city and its main tourist attractions (for which the tour was conducted in English but headsets are provided so that details are provided in a variety of languages).

-went by Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Arch de Triumph, the Eifel Tower, and much...

-given priority treatment at the Eifle Tower

-provided a ride on the Seine River via one of their boats

Everything was very romantic (of course) and all worth it.

I took a bus from the south of Paris and got off on the North side of the city (near the Garnier' Opera and the Gar d'Nord train station).

The ride was cheap, free in fact since we (the two people I did the bus ride with never got tickets! We entered the bus when the driver was out getting a snack between his route times and we were never questioned about stamping tickets or buying one either which I thought was odd but I saved the couple of Euros so I was happy.

The bus ride showed me a lot of the city in only one hour and I got to mingle and fit in with the native city people of Paris, something I wouldn't be able to do on a tour bus.
It's cheap, easy to use and fairly timely and a great way to see the city without feeling like a tourist.

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We jumped on this guided tour bus at the Eiffel Tower. The tour was well done and in understandable English. This really is the best way (when you're only in town for 48 hours!) to get the lay of the land and decide what you really want to go back to and spend more time with.

It is a must for anyone visiting Paris for the first time. Take the open bus tour of the city to see the main tourist attractions as well as to get your bearings of the city layout. You can get on and off the bus as much as you like throughout the day.