L'Hôtel de Ville is the headquarters for the City of Light since 1357. L'Hôtel de Ville de Paris is one of the biggest municipal building in Europe.

But the actual building with its Renaissance Revival architecture, which you have in front of you, was constructed in 1882.

On the frontage you will notice statues of important people for the story of the city of Paris:

• Artists such as Eugène Delacroix (famous for his painting of the epitome of the French Revolution Liberty Leading the People  "la liberté guidant le peuple"), André le Nôtre  (garden landscaper of Louis XIV), Charles Perrault (fairytale writer of "Little Red Riding Hood"), Molière (Louis XIV comedy author and actor), Voltaire (philosopher renown for the "Age of Enlightenment")
• Scientists such as Antoine Lavoisier (chemist known as "the father of modern chemistry)
• Politicians such as Richelieu (1^st minister of Louis XIII in 1620, whom inspired the story of "The 3 Musketeers" written by Alexandre Dumas in 1844)  

On the square in front of Paris City Hall you will find lots of events to attend and enjoy during your Erasmus. Ice skating rink during winter, beach volley-ball during summer, football games and theatre projections, live musical performances on stage… are just a sample of activities that you can enjoy at Place de l'Hôtel de Ville!

A sample of Paris City Hall – Hôtel de Ville de Paris:

How to get to Hôtel de Ville: Place de l'Hôtel de Ville 75004 Paris

• M1-11 Hôtel de Ville
  Bus: 38-67-69-75-76-96
  Vélib' (City Bike): 4017 Hôtel de Ville – 4018 Saint Bon – 4016 Lobau
  Noctilien (Night Bus): N11-N15-N16-N21-N22-N24

• Maps:
  
  

L'Arc de Triomphe was ordered in 1806 by Napoleon Bonaparte to celebrate the victories of his army.

If you walk around place de l'étoile roundabout you will notice that lots of streets have either the name of Napoleon's battle victory (Friedland, Iéna, Wagram) or his Generals' names (Carnot, Hoche, Kébler, Marceau).

Today the Arc de Triomphe glorifies the armies of the French Republic and the armies of Napoleon's Empire.

From the top of the Arch you have a nice view over Paris:

• The Champs Elysées Avenue
• The Eiffel Tower
• The business district of La Défense
• Le Sacré-Cœur and Montmartre

A sample of Paris Arc de Triomphe: 

How to get to L'Arc de Triomphe: Arc de Triomphe – Place Charles de Gaulle Etoile 75008 Paris

• M1-2-6 RERA Charles de Gaulle Etoile
  Bus: 22-30-31-52-73-92-Balabus
  Vélib' (City Bike): 8028 Arsene Houssaye – 8057 Hoche – 8056 Wagram – 17033 Carnot
  Noctilien (Night Bus): N11-N24 Charles de Gaulle Etoile Grande Armée or CDG Etoile Champs Elysées, N53 CDG Etoile Kébler or CDG Etoile Friedland, N151-N153 CDG Etoile Friedland

• Maps:
  
  

• Opening hours and prices for the Arc de Triomphe Paris

If we call Paris "City of Light" this is for a reason. Parisian's Nightlife is amazing!
We have so many plans that I'll give you the main tips here, but feel free to complete with our event list or this dedicated website Parisnightlife.fr.

Clubbing:

Check our event list to see when we are planning the next party for international student.
Apart from that you'll find clubs in popular district or close to Champs Elysées avenue.

Pub:

You will find nice Pubs to meet your friends in popular night's districts.

Popular districts:

The best places to go during the night in Paris. Those places are simply amazing with lights and monuments.
You can meet your friends in a pub or go to the club. It's also a good choice to have an amazing pub crawl.

• Montmartre-Moulin Rouge: this is the red light district. French cancan, sex shops and clubs are everywhere.

• Quartier Latin: A cheerful Parisian place who never sleeps!

• Bastille: Popular place for French students who go there with friends for a drink after school.

• Tour Eiffel: Just go there one time to admire the view. Stay in Trocadéro and wait every hour for the sparkling time ;).

Whatever you like, you will always find something to do in Paris.

Sightsee popular district:

Don't have any plan? Why not starting by giving a call to your friends and go to sightsee popular districts?

• Montmartre

Wanna quit city's style but without leaving Paris? Here you are: just go to Montmartre and discover the atmosphere of this small artistic village inside the capital. Enjoy this lovely typical French spirit because Montmartre represents exactly what you expect about Paris ;)
Have a walk around the "Sacré Coeur", just admire the view on Paris from the Hill, discover street shops and restaurant and appreciate your time as an Erasmus!

• Quartier Latin

Want to sit at a coffee and admire the view on Notre-Dame's cathedral? Or just profit of the cheerful melting pot in those small street?
Latin's quarter is also the perfect place to find a restaurant with food from your country if you already miss it or if you want to make it to discover to your Erasmus friends.
Trust me Latin's quarter is one of the best places to sit and have a drink with friends.
If you like it during the day, you're gonna love it during the night ;)

• Le Marais

Known by foreign tourist as a place to stay in hotel if you have a certain amount of money, "Le Marais" can be assimilated as the Jewish district during the day and the Gay district during the night.
Apart from that "Le Marais" is an historic cheerful district to go for window shopping. Get of at "Saint-Paul" station on line 1 and check some French food in shops like chocolate for example. After you can go for a walk in "Rue de Rivoli" towards "Châtelet". Those street is the most important commercial street of Paris.

• Châtelet

Popular district of Paris, go there if you like street artists. Just one thing, if you go there people will always ask you to sign petition or sell you things for charity. Never accept their offer, they are not official member. Just say "no" politely and do not worry to be strict when you say no ;)

Parks and Monuments:

For those who prefer to meet in greener place, Paris is full of Parks to hang out with your friends.
And our main monuments are never away from parks, so you can just relax in a park and enjoy the view of Paris monuments.

Let me tell you one thing, if you like monuments you are going to love Paris.
First monuments are masterpiece.
Second you can have free entrance if you're under 26 to all our national monument.

Museums:

For those rainy days, you can also go to museums because there is plenty of it. The funniest part in the story is you don’t even need to have plenty of it, because only Louvre's one can easily occupied you for the month.
Here's the best part. Lots of our museums are also national monuments so you can have free entrance if you're under 26!

Sports:

If you like sports you can practice it everywhere, even if you live in the city center. And I'm not only talking about running to catch your metro to go to school :D.
In Paris, you can do you're jogging in a wonderful Park. Or play football with your friends during the afternoon. You will find the fields and equipment here [Fr].

Shopping:

Paris cannot be the city of fashion without big shopping places.
If you like window shopping and luxurious shops start with Champs Elysées Avenue. You're gonna love this place. Guys if you're attending marketing course peak a sneak to the merch inside those shop because it's simply fantastic.
Joe Dassin was truly right when he wrote his song "il y a tout c'que vous voulez aux Champs Elysées" (they're everything you want in Champs Elyséées).

I've also mention it before when I was speaking about Parisian's districts. You can also window shop in the longest street for that: Rivoli Street (between Saint Paul and Louvre's Museum).

If you prefer commercial center, you have at least to go once to the famous Parisian's one.
You'll find Lafayette's Gallery close to the Opera in Metro stop "Chausée d'Antin – La Fayette" on line 7 or 9. You have the other Lafayette's Gallery in Montparnasse station (line 4 – 6 – 12 -13).
You have "Le Bon Marché" in "Rue de Sèvre" M 10-12 Sèvre-Babylone.
To finish you'll find " Le Printemps" on "Boulevard Haussmann" street close to Lafayette's Gallery.

We will first present you all the way of transport that you have in Paris and we will let you know about the transport fares and monthly pass in a second time.

Transportation system:

Transportation system in Paris is huge. It can even be a bit confusing if you're not used to crowded places.
But apart from the fact that our public transports are crowded, it's common to have a technical breakdown and strikes make them being late.
But I'm pretty sure you're gonna like them. Because our lines are well developed and you can go everywhere with them!
But we preferred to warn you, some stations are really big so if you have some change, don't worry if you get lost in the station (it also happens every time even for the inhabitant). It's also normal if you have to walk inside some station 10mn to reach an other line ;).

Metro: favorite way to go for the Parisians. Composed of 16 lines (14 lines + 2 secondary lines), the metro start at 5 Am and close at 1h15 Am from Sunday to Thursday and 2h15 Am Friday and Saturday. It operates every 2'mn during rush hours and commonly every 5'mn. If you are one of those who are going out everynight there's an iPhone app to let you know when is the last metro ;)

RER: This is something in between the Metro and an Urban Train. It covers suburbs area around 30 km of Paris from East to West, North to South and go through the main stations in Paris.
Composed of 5 lines (A,B,C,D,E) it start working around 5 and close around midnight.
It operates approximately every 6mn.

Bus: There are lots of buses in Paris. It's impossible to know all the lines. The best way for you to know which buses you can take is to ask the cashier at the Metro ticket office close to your accommodation or university which lines you could take and where they go.
Buses are one of the best ways to discover the city.
But be aware that taking the bus during rush hours is a complete madness because you'll be blocked in the traffic jam for ages! So avoid buses between 8-9.30 Am and 4-6 Pm.

Noctilien (aka Night Bus): When Metro, RER, Urban Train and normal buses stop to operate, Noctilien take it over.
It's a night bus and you will recognize it because the number of the line start with 'N' such as 'N 141'.
To get to know the timetable and where they go we recommend you to check the website first.
And be careful when you take one of them because most of the line go far away in the suburbs so pay attention to your stop if you don't wanna have an improvise night trip ;)

Tramway: just renewed we have 4 lines available (T1,T2-T3-T4)

Taxi: We suggest you to avoid to take a cab because it's really expensive (you are charged more than 6€ just to get in). In case you need one we let you the call center number: +33 1 41 27 66 99 (operates 24 hours a day, English spoken).

Vélib': A good way to have fun with your friends and discover the city at the same time is to rent a city bike. And our city hall team provides you a renting service for peanuts so enjoy it!
When you want to rent a bike you can directly register on the ATM (English, French, Spanish, German and Italian spoken). You can pay with a Mastercard & Visa International cards.
The fee for renting a bike for a day is 1.70€. After registration you can use the bike during 30 mn for free. That free time over, you'll pay 1€ for 1 hour of use, 2€ for 1.30 hour and 4€ for 2 hour and more.
When you give back the bike, make sure you put your bike back properly if you wanna see back your 150€ deposit ;).
Guys, have a look on the official website to get to know about all the details.
Don't forget to respect the Highway Code as your mum wanted to see you riding a bike.
Last but not least, we recommend you to rent the bike on Sunday when there is less traffic in the city.

Transilien (aka Urban Train): Transilien is our urban train who goes to Paris suburbs like RER one. The only difference is that Urban Train goes much further in the suburbs when RER stay only in the close suburbs. Transilien is the best way to discover Paris region.
You have several destinations. You can start your trip from Parisian train station (Paris Est, Paris Nord, Paris gare de Lyon, Paris Montparnasse, Paris Saint Lazare).
For more info check the transport map or the official website.

Transport Fares:

Here you have two different family of transport title:

For the last one, you need to choose in which area you want to travel to know which zone you will need for making your pass. You can see our zone system on this map.

As you're gonna use public transport a lot, we fully advise you to make your pass as soon as you can.

• The Pass System:

Navigo Card: Optimal for a frequent use, you can use this pass in several way of transport (metro, bus, rer, urban train, tramway).
You can charge the pass weekly or monthly and choose the zone you want in the ticket office or on ATM's.
As your not a permanent resident here and to avoid to justify that you lived here, we suggest us to order the "Navigo Decouverte" card. Of course you are able to recharge and change the zone as classic Navigo pass with your "decouverte" card.
To know how much you are going to pay, we invite you to check the price which corresponds to your transport zone.
You will also pay 5€ more the first time to make the card.

Nb:since the 1st of September 2012 you can travel to all the zones for free during week-ends or National holidays with your Navigo Pass.
(free zones journey from zone 1 to 5 from Friday at midnight till Sunday at midnight. You need to own a monthly or yearly Navigo pass charged for your usual travel zones. Free zones journey doesn't work with weekly top up).

Mobilis: Mobilis card is a day pass that you can use if you wanna explore the suburbs. This card looks like a metro ticket but you can use it all day long. Check also "Ticket Jeune Week-end".

Ticket Jeune Week-end: recommended because 50% cheaper than Mobilis card, you can use this day pass only during week-ends and public holiday if you're under 26.

• Journey Ticket:

Ticket t+: this is the metro ticket.
You can use it for 1 journey in the Metro, Bus, RER (only inside Paris) and Tramway.
If you need to use it for taking a bus, we suggest you to buy it in advance in metro stations because it's a little bit cheaper.
Check the website for more information about prices and use.

Train and RER ticket: you can use it from Paris to the suburbs with different railway transport (Metro, RER, Urban train). Choose the station you want to go and pay for the journey distance.

From the French baguette to fashion, going thought all the kind of art, this article will gives you an overview of Paris Culture and History.
You will also discover the main things to see in the city and finish with famous examples of French clichés.

Culture & History

Paris was first chosen as a capital city by Clovis. It was just after he kicks Roman Empire out of France in 500 A.D.

But despite of that, Paris as a city is born during the second empire, 50 years after French Revolution of 1789.

This was Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon I, accompanied with the precious help of the government official Haussmann who gives the lead to renew everything.
Indeed, Paris at this time looks more like a dirty medieval village than a capital.
In 1850's was decided a complete new urban plan for the city.
The small medieval houses were replaced by massive building. All the narrow streets were replaced by big avenue with the aim to make a lighter and cleaner city in order to erase the disease due to the filth.
In only 20 years, they had created buildings, roads, shops and train stations to link Paris with the other main city of France.

And guys, as you may remember if you weren't sleeping in classes or chatting with your friends, this period was for Europe the beginning of the biggest economical change: the Industrial Revolution.
Yes, again a revolution to add in French history :D
Those new infrastructures helped the city to profit of that Economical boom. It made a modern and rich city.
By the time people where making more money and have better situation their desire for cultures grows up. It permits of all the artistic expression to develop freely with painting, sculpture, theater…
We were also having lots of cultural exhibition such as the big exhibition in 1889 where the Eiffel Tower was 'temporarily' exposed. Yes I said 'temporarily' but fate decided otherwise…

All those change made that popular city and brings that image through the world.
Let's see what kind of activities brought the lovely image that you have about the city of light ;)

Paris is first the "City of Art"
City's atmosphere attracted lots of artists up to a point that some district where only occupied by artists. I though about Montmartre and Latin's quarter for example.
If Paris is important as an Art City, it's because all the kind of art found there way whatever the period.
From writers like Victor Hugo and his famous Hunchback of Notre Dame to foreign painters like Picasso who found a place to express his creativity freely.
Close to our eyes, Paris spirit is still inspiring filmmaker like Woody Allen and his "Midnight in Paris" or Jean Pierre Jeunet and his "Amelie Poulain".
And not to forget an important part, the City of Lights also inspire music creation, not to mention the successful song and video clip of Adele "Someone Like You".

Apart from being an Artistic city, Paris, by being the capital of France is also recognized as the 'City of Flavor' with the delicious French Cuisine.
So by the time you're here, we can suggest you to try at least once to have a French breakfast with baguette and croissants.
During the afternoon, just give you the permission to have a sweet and soft break and try this typical Parisian Cake called 'Macarons'.

And because eating all those sweet things can make you thirsty, why not try once in you life real Champagne?

For those who want to fit in the personage, you may need some new clothes to appreciate Macarons and Champagne.
Do not worry because here you are in the "City of Fashion".
Ladies, what a French glamour to walk in the City with an Hermes bag and this smell of Coco Chanel?!
Gentleman, just avoid to bring your girlfriend for window shop if you don't wanna run out of money :D

"Mesdemoiselles" to finish your dream we will definitely make you see "la vie en rose".

Because finally you are in the City of Love. Here's now time for you to enjoy that lovely atmosphere with that cultural melting pot and all those flavor of the world.
Get ready to have this felling of romance when you will feel Paris' spirit and, who knows, maybe experience a romantic relation here ;D.

Place to see

Here are the most important places to see in Paris

Behavior

Is this the real behavior of the inhabitant or is this only clichés?
You will tell us what you think after you've discover Parisian's life!