Michelin Green Guide Paris

"Les Guides Mich" as the French refer to this series, is a series of tour books for different regions of France. Some are available only in French; the most popular are in English. A trip to Paris DEMANDS this guide -- far superior to Rick Steve's series. Walking tours, wonderful maps, and enough information for even the persons who have often visited Paris. I also suggest, for the photography, National Geographic's "PARIS" The Michelin RED guides are for lodging and restaurants, by the way.

The Michelin Green Guide to Paris is the best, the finest guide to the sights. No other guide that I have found is so complete with the history of the sights down to the smallest of detail. Once you've done the Louvre (covered completely here) and all the other primary & secondary sights in Paris, the Miche will tell you about the the police museum, the erotica museum, the hunting museum, etc. HOWEVER, especially for the first or second visit to Paris, you will still need a Frommer's or Fodor's because the Miche is weak on hotels & restaurants and does very little on the standard tourist stuff such as getting to Paris from the airport, what to bring, etc.

I've made >20 visits to France all together. Here are my reviews of the best guides....to meet you r exact needs.....I hope these are helpful and that you have a great visit! I always gauge the quality of my visit by how much I remember a year later......this review is designed to help you get the guide that will be sure YOU remember your trip many years into the future. Travel Safe and enjoy yourself to the max! <br /> <br />Michelin <br />Famous for their quality reviews, the Red Michelin Guides are for hotels & Restaurants, the Green Michelin Guides are for main tourist destinations. However, the English language Green guide is the one most people use and it has now been supplemented with hotel and restaurant information. These are the serious review guides as the famous Michelin ratings are issued via these books. <br /> <br />Fodor's <br />Fodor's is the best selling guide among Americans. They have a bewildering array of different guides. Here's which is what: <br />The Gold Guide is the main book with good reviews of everything and lots of tours, walks, and just about everything else you could think of. It's not called the Gold guide for nothing though....it assumes you have money and are willing to spend it. <br />SeeIt! is a concise guide that extracts the most popular items from the Gold Guide <br />PocketGuide is designed for a quick first visit <br />UpCLOSE for independent travel that is cheap and well thought out <br />CityPack is a plastic pocket map with some guide information <br />Exploring is for cultural interests, lots of photos and designed to supplement the Gold guide <br /> <br />MapGuide <br />MapGuide is very easy to use and has the best location information for hotels, tourist attractions, museums, churches etc. that they manage to keep fairly up to date. It's great for teaching you how to use the Metro. The text sections are quick overviews, not reviews, but the strong suite here is brevity, not depth. I strongly recommend this for your first few times learning your way around the classic tourist sites and experiences. MapGuide is excellent as long as you are staying pretty much in the center of the city. <br /> <br />Time Out <br />The Time Out guides are very good. Easy reading, short reviews of restaurants, hotels, and other sites, with good public transport maps that go beyond the city centre. Many people who buy more than one guidebook end up liking this one best! <br /> <br />Blue Guides <br />Without doubt, the best of the walks guides.... the Blue Guide has been around since 1918 and has extremely well designed walks with lots of unique little side stops to hit on just about any interest you have. If you want to pick up the feel of the city, this is the best book to do that for you. This is one that you end up packing on your 10th trip, by which time it is well worn. <br /> <br />Let's Go <br />Let's Go is a great guide series that specializes in the niche interest details that turn a trip in

The Paris Michelin Green Guide was invaluable for my last visit to France. When I was a kid and lived in Paris we used to have one of these as well and I ordered the updated one this summer before going on my first trip back since I was a teenager. I highly recommend the book for those who want a detailed arrondisement and museum guide on everything there is to do in Paris. Since I lived there, I wanted something that would give me specific details on smaller, lesser known museums as well. This guide does a fabulous job of that. However, if you are a first timer to Paris and France and/or have only a few short days there I am not sure this is the guide for you - you might be better off with an Eyewitness guide or Lonely Planet Guide that will tell you what to see if you only have a short time period to work with. If you have been before or are spending a while in the city this is the guide you want - it will list places you have never even heard of before with details about times/days open (very important to know in Paris!!) and phone numbers, prices, etc etc with mini maps on each area of Paris.

It would be hard to plan a visit to Paris with just this book, the alphabetical organization means you have to keep referring to a map (provided) or other guide. The hotel and restaurant information is brief, about 25-30 pages.This book is the ideal guide to the cultural sites in the city. I think that you will not find the breadth of information contained in this book anywhere else, certainly not in such a condensed form. One is tempted to say: if it is not in the Michelin Guide, then it is not important.