I've been in a few local UK bookstores, and I'm having real trouble finding a good Paris map I like. I want a good amount of detail in the 1-7 districts, but I also want something that extends a bit to 12 (where I'll be staying - Doree) and the 16. I'd also like something that isn't very big/cumbersome/hard to fold up again. I'd like to spend about 5-6 pounds.

I've looked at so many ... Insight, Lonely Planet, Time Out, DK, but I just can't seem to feel really great about any of them.

Thanks

Wait until you arrive in Paris, then go to any bookstore or news kiosk and buy Paris Par Arrondissement.

Thanks .. was wondering if I shouldn't just wait until I get to Paris.

You can also look at the Michelin Blue Map (small book).

We bought a fantastic map of Paris in the bookstore at the Eurostar station in London - it's a laminated map of the 1st - 20th - laminated is excellent as it has been known to drizzle a bit in Paris and you don't have to worry about soggy paper, and its easier to fold. As I recall, it only cost £5 or so...

Hi

Have you checked out the Eyewitness Travel Pocket Map series - http://cn.dk.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay...0.html?sym=PSP

For Paris I bought a similar laminated folding map that is far superior to the Streetwise in its overall coverage and detail. It is called "City Flash Paris" and is printed by Hallwag International. Has a very legible Metro map, an overview map of Ile de France, a shopping map of Champs E., and a layout of CDG-both terminals.

The very best street map for Paris are the 4x6" booklets sold at the newstands - Paris Pratique par Arrondissement - it fit into my jeans pocket. Again it breaks city up into pieces, but there's a small overview image with that page's area highlighted so you can get the placement.

Just be sure that your map correctly displays the relative positioning of metro line 4 and RER-B in the 14th - it drives me mad to see those displayed in reversed position (that is - with RER line to the left of the metro line). I've seen that several times and it makes me wonder what else they've misrepresented.

The very best street map for Paris (for me, anyway) are the free ones I downloaded to my iPAQ from Microsoft.

Not only do they zoom in and out from regional scale to individual streets, but the Points of Interest data (which can be selected and de-selected at will).

They are also integrated with my onboard GPS, so when I pull up any map with it turned on, a target in the middle of the screen shows me where I am.

http://www.microsoft.com/pocketstreets

(Did I mention they were free?)

If you set Google to ISBN 2-06-700011-X Michelin Paris Plan you see a note on the most useful map, which is a book, with clear street maps, plans for metro, RER and busses, and lists of museums and churches. This is Michelin Blue Map that Michel Paris chooses. (I have not used the Penguin Paris map guide, but it looks good, too).

As to shops, you might phone these to see whether they have the Michelin.
The French Bookshop
28 Bute Street
London SW7
T 020 7584 2840
La Page
7 Harrington Road
London SW7
T 020 7589 5991
The European Bookshop
5 Warwick Street
London W1R 5RA
T 020 7734 5259
Grant & Cutler
(http://www.grantandcutler.com/)
55-57 Great Marlborough Street
London W1V 2AY
T 020 7734 2012
Au fil des mots
19 Bute Street
London SW7 3Ey 2AY
T 020 589 9400

Ben Haines, London
[email protected]

Free maps you can get at Paris hotels, sponsored by Gallerie Lafayette or Le Printemps are good enougn for me.

I have used this one on all three trips to Paris. It is page by page reference, detailed streets, metro, points of interest.

http://www.amazon.com/Paris-Mapguide.../dp/0140469621

Middleditch's Mapguide (Penguin) doesn't cover all of Paris (around the edges) and leaves off the 15th almost entirely. Doesn't work for me anymore as my boundaries are much wider now...

Travelnut - would you explain why the position of the RER and Métro lines in the XIV is important? It seems to me that if the stations are shown in the correct locations, that's good enough.

And did I mention that http://nanika.net/metro is a program for PDAs and smartphones that will instantly compute a Métro or bus route anywhere in Paris? And it's free?

Yes, Robes you mentioned it a few times! I will get there yet.

I'm talking about the metro system map - I think it might stem from a British publication like Roughguides or something - haven't you ever seen a map of the metro system that shows the RER-B line passing south and to the left of the M-line 4? A newbie would be a bit thrown off by the disparity between that overview and the actual stops' positions. That's all - maybe it's stupid of me, but details like that (especially on MAPS) bug me no end.

Okay, I agree that if the STOPS aren't depicted accurately, it's a bad map. Just for grins: What's Wrong With This Picture?

http://www.ratp.info/picts/plans/pdf...s/abbesses.pdf

Abbesses is on Line 12?

My favorite Paris map, the only one we ended up using daily, was the free one we picked up in the hotel lobby after we arrived.

Okay, thanks very much for all the thoughts. I might just wait to see what's in the hotel when I arrive, as I can figure out my plans until check-in. Then I'll just seek for something good in Paris.

I don't like the Michelin and don't consider it the best. Really, just wait until you get there and you can pick one up easily at a newsstand or bookstore. Hotels have free maps of the whole city that may be good enough for you, and certainly have enough detail of the city overview for most purposes (use in conjunction with the page-size arrondisements, if you want). The free hotel maps won't have every small street on them, but can give you the big picture more than some other maps.

I didn't understand the issue of line 4 and RER in the 14th either, or why that's so important. No one really cares where the line is (underground), I don't think, it's just important that the stop be fairly correct. Maybe I'm missing the point. One Paris map I have at my desk (Paris Circulation by Leconte) does have line 4 to the left of the RERB at Denfert on the overview metro map--but it would be impossible to have the RER line to the left of line 4 totally as line 4 goes through the west of St Germain. It could be at the intersection, I suppose, on a map (this one is not), but I don't see why that matters so much.

I do have a free hotel map here, also (this one by Printemps) and it had the same metro map as the arrondisement book. Actually, this is the map that RATP itself gives out, I think all the maps just copy it.

The Paris par Arrondisement is what we mostly use. I like the DK map also.