Portable Paris guide

I use the Michelin Green Guide to Paris as my portable guide. As you can see in the Amazon listing, it's more long than thick - which makes for easy stashing in a day bag. It has a thorough listing of sites, hours, metro and bus stops, restaurants, metro maps and hotel listings. It has flaps for tucking away slips of paper and very strong binding.

The AAA Guide looks pretty good as well. No word on whether it has thorough transport information, though.

You can take any book you like to Kinko's and they will put a spiral binding on it. If you already have a book you like I would suggest that.

Andrea, that sounds like a good idea - unless the content is copyrighted. Employees are obliged to respect copyright laws.

But if you're feeling crafty, collect all pertinent materials and bind them yourself :)

Michelin Green is terrific for Paris, for sightseeing. For food and lodging, however, you will need the Michelin RED guide - or someone else's guide.

I haven't bought a Michelin for years, but the ones I have (NY, London, Paris) are all more than 10 years old and still in excellent condition, despite a LOT of use. I will be buying a new one soon for my upcoming Paris trip (June) - so much has changed in the last 25 years!

Hello Anthony. I am planning my trip to Paris in the Spring of 2009. I looked at all of the travel guide books on Paris. The book that I decided to bring with me to Paris is "Paris Smart Guide" from Insight Guides. That book is new this year. It is a thinner book than the other Insight Guides book on Paris. I also own the book "Rick Steves' PARIS 2009". I will make a photo copy of the map for each of three of the Self - Guided Walks described in that book. On the back of the photo copy paper (size = 8 1/2 inch x 11 inch) I will write the basic directions and information for the Self - Guided Walk. I will bring those three photo copy pages with me to Paris. The book "Rick Steves' PARIS 2009" is a helpful and enjoyable to read book -- a wonderful book to read before you go to Paris. I choose to bring only the book "Paris Smart Guide" (Insight Guides) with me to Paris, because that book is small, thin, light weight. And it is well organized, easy to find information in it. The print is small, but easy and pleasant to read. And it has very very very many good small color photographs of all kinds of things in Paris.

My friends have just moved to Paris and I gave them a great dining book. It is called Great Eats Paris by Sandra Gustafson. They have used it and they said that it is wonderful. They know Paris quite well and yet they have found great places to eat and many interesting suggestions to reduce your dining budget.
Don't forget to bring a good map with you. I alway carry a full map of the city (not just the area I will be in) because you may walk or go off in a different direction and it is important to know where you are so that you can get home safely.