How do I get around Paris?

The Métro is your default for any trip longer than a fifteen-minute walk. Sixteen lines, stations every 500 meters in central Paris, trains every two to four minutes during the morning rush. Buy a Navigo Easy card for €2 at any station kiosk, load it with t+ tickets at €2.15 each — one ticket, one trip, any distance within the city. The card taps on buses and trams too. Trains run from roughly 5:30 in the morning until about 1:15 at night, pushing to 2:15 on Fridays and Saturdays. Miss that window and you're looking at a €25 Uber home. Line 1 and Line 14 are driverless and run slightly more often. Line 6 crosses the Seine on an elevated track above the Bir-Hakeim bridge — the Eiffel Tower fills the left-hand windows and nobody charges extra for it.

Paris rewards walking more than most European capitals. The whole city fits inside a rough circle about 10 km wide — you could cross from the Marais to the Eiffel Tower on foot in 90 minutes if you kept moving, but you won't keep moving because every block shifts. The 3rd and 4th arrondissements feel medieval: narrow limestone corridors where the smell of warm bread from a boulangerie hits you before you see the shop. Around Saint-Germain-des-Prés in the 6th, the sidewalks widen and you hear espresso cups landing on zinc countertops through open café doors. To be fair, the cobblestones in the Marais and on the hill up to Montmartre will punish flimsy shoes inside an hour. Bring something with a real sole. The funicular to Sacré-Cœur saves your knees for €2.15 — same t+ ticket.

For anything outside the city proper — Charles de Gaulle airport, Versailles, Disneyland — you need the RER, a commuter rail that runs through central Paris and keeps going. The RER B from Gare du Nord to CDG takes about 35 minutes for roughly €11.45; the RER C from Saint-Michel to Versailles-Château-Rive-Gauche runs about 40 minutes for around €4.65. These are not Métro fares — buy them separately at the machines. If your stay covers a full Monday-to-Sunday span, the Navigo Découverte weekly pass at around €30 covers every Métro, bus, tram, and RER line across all five zones, airports included. That said, the pass resets every Monday no matter when you buy it. Buying one on a Thursday gives you four days for a seven-day price. If your trip doesn't line up with a Monday start, stick with individual t+ tickets and spend the savings on a bottle of Côtes du Rhône instead.

Uber and Bolt both operate in Paris, and they're the right move after 1 AM when the Métro shuts down or when you're dragging a suitcase across town. Expect €15-25 for a cross-city ride during the day, surging to €35-45 on weekend nights near Place de la Bastille or Pigalle. Licensed taxis charge a base of about €4 plus roughly €1.10 per kilometer — they tend to undercut Uber outside of surge, but good luck flagging one after midnight. Use the designated taxi stands, not the curb. Vélib' bike-share docks appear every 300 meters in the center: €5 for a day pass, first 30 minutes of each trip free. The lanes along the Seine and through the Canal Saint-Martin are smooth and separated from traffic, with the river air cool on your face and the odd accordion player drifting past. Skip the electric scooter rentals — Paris has been tightening rules and the fleet keeps shrinking.