AT#1002 - Travel to Paris, France

Travel with Amateur Traveler Podcast - Chris Christensen

This episode of Amateur Traveler celebrates Paris with Angela J Reed, a Paris-based travel expert. She shares insider tips on museums, neighborhoods, and unique experiences that go beyond typical tourist traps. The focus is on planning smart, immersive visits to make the most of limited time in the City of Light.

Key takeaways

• Visit the Louvre on Sunday mornings for fewer crowds
• Use the Paris Museum Pass for multiple attractions
• Cluster nearby sites to save time and transit

Transcript preview

This episode is sponsored by Smart Travel, a new podcast from Nerd Wallet. You know that one friend who always finds the best travel deals, picks the right cards, and somehow ends up in first class for the price of coach. Smart Travel is like that friend, but in podcast form. They cover all things financed, like how to book busy season trips without the busy season sticker shock, which airport lounges are worth it, and which are basically free Wi-Fi and chairs. How travel advisors can snag. How travel advisors can snag can snag. secret perks you don't even know to ask for and how to get real value from points, not just a tiny reward at checkout. The nerds at Nerd Wallet know this stuff better than me and that's why I feel great about recommending the Smart Travel Podcast. After all we nerds have to stick together. Travel smarter and spend less with a help from Nerd Wallet. Follow Smart Travel wherever you get your podcasts. Hey it's Christopher Kimball from Mill Street Radio. Sounds like I'm bragging and I am. most your food podcast in America. You know, most your radio travels the world in search of the very best food stories. You'll hear about smuggling eels on the black market, the secret intelligence of plants, and insider tips to eating in Paris. And every week, Lister's Colin were their toughest culinary mysteries. Discover a world of food stories by searching your podcast app for Mill Street Radio. Amateur Traveler episode 1002. museums and markets, neighborhoods and viewpoints as we go to Paris, France. This is Chris Christensen from Amateur Traveler. Let's talk about Paris. I'd like to welcome to the show Angela J Reed from Paris. much for having me Chris yeah I had to be difficult when I created that website go with that feminine spelling of Parisian I thought it looked beautiful it's very French forward there I appreciate that and not surprisingly you pitched me that we haven't done a show on Paris much to my surprise since 2014 so we're gonna talk about Paris yeah it's my favorite thing to talk about. What is your connection with Paris why did you become Paris? from Paris originally? That is a great question. I have beloved grandparents at a family farm that I would spend summers at and then was introduced to French culture by way of like many a high school French teacher and just fell in love with it. Just fell in love with the culture, the language. I was terrible at the language back then. For the record, absolutely awful. And it's just been a love that's been growing just year after year. Every year I love I love it a little bit more. Excellent. I feel silly asking this, but why should someone go to Paris? I love that question. So I think we have about 45 minutes or so to talk about that. Here's the thing about Paris. I believe it's maybe the number one, if not in the top three travel destinations, top tourist destinations in the world. It is alive. It has a rhythm of its own. And I think when you visit Paris, you get to become part of it. of that rhythm. You really can become a part of what's happening there, especially if you plan your trip well, which we'll talk about today. It's got so much to offer. Obviously you have the history, 15, 16, 17th, 18th, 19th century history. You can go even further back to Roman history. It has the visual aesthetic, the beautiful limestone buildings, the slate roofs, the terracotted chimney pots against a periwinkle sky, a blue skunice. sky. We say I love Paris when it drizzles. I love Paris when it sizzles for a reason. It's beautiful. It's beautiful all the time. And the food, the people, I love the people. Talk about that. Also, there's so much happening there. We each bring something unique to the table. And we each have our own interests that make us uniquely us. And we can take that into this amazing city and make our time there uniquely ours. into exercise, go on a bicycle tour of Paris or rent bicycles at Giovanni or Versailles. Are you a home cook? Take a cooking class. Are cigars your thing? Do a cigar and rum pairing workshop. Are you a woman that loves fragrance? Go to a perfume course and create a signature scent that you get to come home with and like forever you have that olfactory memory to connect to your time there. Over and above all the cliche tourist guide things there are to do. Paris can be told totally customized for you. And that's something I really love about it. You get to create your unique memory and your unique experience while you're there. Excellent. And what itiner are you going to recommend for us? I'm going to take you through all the basics and give you my sometimes very strong opinions on those basics. My first trip to Paris was a week. It was just seven days, including arriving and It was brief and so I know that feeling of just being so excited and feeling like I needed to cram in so much about really wanting to do it well and I think you can pack in a lot more in seven days than you think you can You want to do it wise you can hit those big tourist highlights and you can find those intimate moments in Paris that make you want to come back again and again Okay. Let's start with the details where are we gonna go first We're gonna look at museums There's a few. Take the Louvre for example. I think a lot of people feel like they have to avoid the Louvre because it's so big and it's so intimidating and some people put it down. Oh do this one instead, do this one instead. I think if you're going to Paris for the first time on particular you're morally obligated to go to the Louve. You've got to do it. And I think it's okay to be in and out quite frankly I think it's okay to say look it's my first time I want to see the mone I want to see the winged victory. I call those the big three. And along the way though you're going to see so much. If time is of the essence then I think a Sunday morning is a great time to go to the Louvre. There's a reason that robbery took place on a Sunday morning. Really? Paris is asleep on a Sunday morning. Anytime I watch a movie and the streets are just totally empty, like I know that was filmed on a Sunday morning. It's quite quiet. You grab that nine o'clock ticket online and have the place to yourself for a little while before the crowd start to come. You're going to see so much. I personally have this problem with websites or people's poo-pooing, the more cliche things to do. I think they're a great thing to do your first time. And scheduling in advance is highly recommended. What I tell my guess is use the actual website to whatever you want to do. So use the Use the Notre Dame website, use Versailles website, don't use the outside travel websites. I think it's best to go to the actual source and get your tickets. And there's also the Paris Museum Pass, I believe it's called, where you can do a one day, two day, three day, four day, where you can go for those consecutive days in a row and visit multiple churches and museums. Those are really great. And besides the Lou, do you have a favorite museum? I do love the museum. That is a beautiful museum. I do love the Clooney Museum. So the music of Dorsey is your post-impressionist, your impressionist museum in the old train station. A great time to go to that is Thursday evening. It's open late. Interesting. Yeah. And they often have fabulous expositions. Right now I think through this summer, Renoir and Love is happening. They do such a nice job with their expositions. They're not overwhelming. If you go on a Thursday evening, you're not overwhelming. If you go on a Thursday evening, you're to do the exposition and see a good portion of the rest of the museum. And then it's nice to go out for dinner and discuss what your favorites were. And we mentioned people saying skip the Louvre, go to another museum. I would say that is probably the number one museum that they pick because it is a more manageable museum in terms of scale. The Louvre is huge. You're not going to see everything at the Louvre. And you just need to understand that. No. And that. And that's why I think you have, and that. at the home or you've been studying art and you have certain pieces at the Louvre that you want to see map those out get a feeling for which floor they're on plan your strategy get it done and then look around at the crowds or your stomach growling or your feet aching or whatever and think okay now do we want to stay now we've checked the boxes now do we want to stay in so yander and you do the Egyptian or what have you right yeah and the Louvre is great that you're great restaurants the terrace that you can sit on so you can stay for a while wonderful gift shops you can stay for a while and decompress in between things but I think it's nice to get done what you want to see and then decide how much longer you want to stay rather than trying to do the whole thing with that intention you also mentioned that if you go at Sunday morning it's less crowded there are crowds at the Bonalisa but a lot of the bluve there are no crowds at all it's such a big museum so it's the big three that you mentioned are going to be a little more crowded than the gallery or something like that. Exactly. And I've had that beautiful hall with the staircase and everything where the winged victory is just about to myself before based on timing. So just it depends on what you want to make a beeline for right when you get in the building whatever is most important for you just have your moment with that piece of art. If you're really looking for a moment sometimes it's quite emotional to see something like that for the first time. And then you mentioned the Clooney as well. The Clooney is well. The Clooney is the Clooney is the Clooney is the middle ages museum is on the boulevard censurement, I believe, and it's built on an old Abbey. There's actually Roman baths underneath, which is a great, it's twofer. So you can see these wonderful examples of Middle Ages, religious art, 400 AD copies of the Bible, all this old church history of France, and so much more, and then the Roman baths underneath, which is really cool. I like to get a bit of the ancient history while I'm there too. And the Cluny is I don't think it's as popular as other museums but I personally really enjoy it and I think it's a great opportunity for you see some very old goodies. The Clooney is also the home of the Lady in the Unicorn Tapestry series which people might not know by name but visually they think oh I've seen that before and again with the first and second century Roman baths I think it can't be be in down in the baths during the revolution they pushed many of the statues off of Notre Dame on rebellion on rebellion against religion onto the ground and so those broken statues are down there as well. That's really cool. Yeah. In favorite museums I feel like I should give a nod to the L'Orengerie, which is one of my favorites if you love the Monet Museum. Absolutely. I feel of the works of Monet because it doesn't have a lot of pieces of art but it has the water lilies and these huge paintings where you walk into a room and each. wall is one painting. A very stunning museum. Doesn't take that long to see. No, it doesn't. Absolutely. That's definitely should be on the list. Excellent. What else are you going to put on your itinerary here? I am going to put two places that I'm rather partial to, the Conseurary and San Chappelle. Those are close to each other, which is something else I would really encourage somebody who's going for their first time, any time, but in particular their first time is to cluster, what you're going to do. So it makes really no sense to start the morning off in Monmart and then head over to the best deal to say you saw it and then finish up at the Eiffel Tower. It's so much travel time. It's not that far as the crow flies, but a lot of travel time. It doesn't make sense. It's better to take your neighborhood or your Arundism and see what's there and cluster your day accordingly. So let's jump like to the Chansilize, for example, say, say you want to this, you want to this, you want to this forward Boulevard. While you're there, think about what's in the general vicinity. We have the Eiffel Tower, you have for those who like fashion, the Dior exhibit is a really great exhibit that's been ongoing for a few years now. The Rodin Museum, I highly recommend. That's one of my favorites. The Rodin Museum, all of that's within the same area. Lezin Valid, which is the military hospital, where Napoleon is entombed. And they also, was just a phenomenal. display of old military artillery. So by clustering your activities for the day you're not ping-ponging all over the city and wasting a lot of precious time. I think that can be a really strategic move for a first-time visitor. And in terms of getting around, I assume we're going to rent a car for Paris, right? No. Not unless you're really brave. Now I come from Chicago and I always look at the Paris. I don't like driving in Paris. I think, huh, I wonder if I could do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. pedestrian friendly city so I would say walk as much as you can and they have phenomenal public transportation so the metro is safe and easy to use and there's the corresponding bus system which has a similar concept it's the great 2026 we have YouTube I might even have a video of how to use