Walking around Paris

Stew, I sent you a couple of private messages re your question..

Well..to walk all of the 20, I think you'd need more than a few days. It's pretty spread out. However, you CAN walk to almost all of the sites you'd be interested in seeing in central Paris.

A few years ago on my "super broke college student" trip we walked EVERYWHERE. Our hotel was on Cité and we walked all over the 1-6th, and at night we'd hike all the way down the Seine to the 7/8th. It's about an hour each way from Cité to the Eiffel Tower (beautiful walk though!), and Montmartre is going to be about the same, although a lot will be uphill!

If your feet start to hurt, check out the Paris bus system. It's just as good as the metro but above ground so you get to see everything!

I concur with the bus idea. I used a power scooter this summer in Paris. Rode the bus to town, then scootered about all day, then took the bus home. You could walk home if the weather is nice. We were staying at the Etap on Rue Dr. Babinski, in the 17, outside of the ring road, so it is a long way to the center of Paris. We did fine. Walking in Paris is not like walking in US. They have sidewalks and are handicapped friendly. As we walked, if my wife got tired, we would stop, get coffee or glass of wine and maybe a crepe to share. Walk a bit, buy a sandwich, or a stuffed baguette, we carried cola in the basket of the scooter, and stop in a park to eat and people watch.

I'm in my middle 60s with bad feet & I walk thru about 3 arron in an afternoon stopping as I want to visit shops, small museums, etc. At night, I've walked from my hotel in the 7th to the Arc de Triomphe & back. If you're in better shape than I am, I think you could walk thru each of the arron although not everywhere in each.

I can't figure out why you'd want to do this unless it's just to say you had. If I had only 3 days, I'd stay within the 1st thru the 8th or 9th. If you like long walks, you can see these pretty well although you won't have much time to visit anything.

Also, you might check out City Walks: Paris by Christina Henry de Tessan. It's 50 cards with walks outlined on each. They will help you see what's important in the area. Most of the 20 arron are featured.

If I am going to walk that much I will combine walking with the confenience of the Metro.

In that way you can get to the next important point you want to see faster and therefore cover more distance in fewer days.

Using the combination also allows you a choice of how much walking you want to do each day. Those Metro maps will be useful.