I just returned from a week in Paris and had a wonderful trip. Before I left I asked for help with using the bus and got great advice and interactive website information, well, I loved the bus in Paris. The apartment I had was on the bus #69 route, along with several others, and it was so nice traveling above ground rather than in the dark hubs of hell on the Metro all of the time. I wanted to thank everyone for the encouragement, it opened up a whole new method of city travel. I also bought a Navigo Decouverte for the week and loved the ease of use, so much better than the single tickets of the carnet. Thanks to all.
Susan

I always recommend the amazing 69 bus. What a route!!! It is absolutely great, I do not know if I had the chance to tell you about it, but anyway it makes me happy to find someone that enjoys it as much as I do...

I just returned from Paris and used the bus for the first time. It was a much faster trip from Hotel de Ville to where were staying in the 6th. Although we were in a terrible crush of shoving people. I see the benefits of the bus but I must be a Metro rat because I love, love, love it and certainly do not consider it a "dark hub of hell."

Hopefully your post will pursade more people to use the bus in Paris. I finally tried the buses on my last trip and I kept wondering why I hadn't done that on previous trips!!! Buses are great and I don't miss the "disoriented feeling" that I get when I emerge from a Metro station.

I love the buses. I think people are a little shy of using them at first. They are the way to go once you start with them. Also the Navigo Decouverte...

Joan

The bus certainly can be uncomfortable if you are caught in the shoving mass described by Gomiki, but the metro can be tremendously overcrowded as well. I try to avoid the most crowded times, and an uncrowded bus is more comfortable and convenient for me than the metro.

Although there was a time I was a real subway lover, when I spent a lot of time in New York, I don't feel the love any more, and I find myself learning the bus routes wherever I travel.