Organized Tours

By Bus

Before plunging into sightseeing on your own, you may like to take the most popular get-acquainted tour in Paris: Cityrama, 2 rue des Pyramides, 1er (tel. 01-44-55-61-00; Métro: Palais-Royal-Musée du Louvre). On a double-decker bus with enough windows for Versailles, you take a 2-hour ride through the city. You don't go inside any attractions, but you get a look at the outside of Notre-Dame and the Eiffel Tower, among other sites, and it helps you get a feel for the city. There's commentary in eight languages on earphones. Tours depart daily at 10am, 11:30am, and 2:30pm. A 1 1/2-hour orientation tour is 18€ ($26) adults, 9.50€ ($14) children. A morning tour with interior visits to the Louvre costs 40€ ($58). Half-day tours to Versailles (62€/$90) and Chartres (56€/$81) are a good value and relieve some of the hassle associated with visiting those monuments. A joint ticket that includes Versailles and Chartres costs 99€ ($144). A tour of the nighttime illuminations leaves daily at 10pm in summer, 7pm in winter, and costs 23€ ($33); it tends to be tame and touristy.

The RATP (tel. 08-92-68-77-14; www.ratp.fr), which runs regular public transportation, also operates the Balabus, a fleet of orange-and-white big-windowed motor coaches. The only drawback is their limited operating times: Sunday and national holidays from 12:30 to 8:30pm, from April to the end of September. Itineraries run in both directions between Gare de Lyon and the Grand Arche de La Défense. Three Métro tickets will carry you along the entire route. You'll recognize the bus, and the route it follows, by the Bb symbol on its side and on signs posted along its route.

Cruises on the Seine

A boat tour on the Seine provides vistas of the riverbanks and some of the best views of Notre-Dame. Many boats have sun decks, bars, and restaurants. Bateaux-Mouche (tel. 01-42-25-96-10; www.bateaux-mouches.fr; Métro: Alma-Marceau) cruises depart from the Right Bank of the Seine, adjacent to pont de l'Alma, and last about 75 minutes. Tours leave daily at 20- to 30-minute intervals from 10am to 11pm between April and September. Between October and March, there are at least five departures daily between 11am and 9pm, with a schedule that changes according to demand and the weather. Fares are 9€ ($13) for adults and 4€ ($5.80) for children 4 to 13. Dinner cruises depart daily at 8:30pm, last 2 hours, and cost 95€ to 125€ ($138-$181). On dinner cruises, jackets and ties are required for men. There are also lunch cruises Saturday and Sunday at 1pm, costing 50€ ($73) for adults or 25€ ($36) for ages 11 and younger.

Some people enjoy excursions on the Seine and its canals. The 2 1/2-hour Seine et le Canal St-Martin tour, offered by Paris Canal (tel. 01-42-40-96-97; www.pariscanal.com), requires reservations. The tour begins at 9:30am on the quays in front of the Musée d'Orsay (Métro: Solférino) and at 2:30pm in front of the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie at Parc de la Villette (Métro: Porte de la Villette). Excursions negotiate the waterways of Paris, including the Seine, an underground tunnel below place de la Bastille, and the Canal St-Martin. Tours are offered twice daily from mid-March to mid-November; the rest of the year, on Sunday only. As you glide along the waterways, recorded commentary in French and English relates how building supplies and food staples were hauled, with relative efficiency, into central Paris during the capital's building boom in the Napoleonic age of the 19th century. The cost is 17€ ($25) for adults, 14€ ($20) for seniors 60 and older and students ages 12 to 25, 10€ ($15) ages 4 to 11, and free for children 3 and younger.

Other Tours

The first audio-guided tours of Paris have been launched by Audio Visit, which takes you through such famous neighborhoods as the Champs-Elysées district, Louvre/Opéra, and Montmartre. English commentaries are available, costing 8€ ($12) per half-day or 15€ ($22) for both audioguide and bike during the same time frame. Rentals of the audioguide are available at the Syndicat d'Initiative de Montmartre, 21 place du Tertre, 18e; Paris Story, 11 bis, rue Scribe, 9e; and Maison Roue Libre, Forum de Halles, 1 Passage Montdétour, 1er. For more information, call tel. 04-78-29-60-72, or visit www.audiovisit.com.

Context:Paris (tel. 888/467-1986 in the U.S., or 06-13-09-67-11; www.contextparis.com) is an organization of graduate students and art-history professors who lead thematic walking tours of the city. Tours range from 1-hour orientation "chats" to 4-hour in-depth visits of the Louvre. Being academics, the guides try to create a college seminar feeling without being too obscure and scholarly. Context:Paris also rents cellphones, arranges transportation, and organizes culinary excursions. Prices vary widely depending on what itinerary you select, but many tours cost 30€ to 90€ ($44-$131) per person.