Paris map help
 

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.

Of the free maps, I don't like the ones Galeries Lafayette maps because it gives the metro stops as numbers which you have to then match to the list at the side. Also, they have a big glob of type around their store location (for the purpose of obscuring the street location of Au Printemps, IMO).
We've used the same blue Paris Plan (by arrondissement) for years and it suits us fine. I like that it's got notes scribbled in the margins from previous trips, with stars noting our favorite shops, etc. I think of it as my work in progress, adding a bit to it on each Paris trip.

Well, just to belabor the point, I can see that the "Let's Go" mapguide's Metro map has the error. From Denfert-R going south, it lays out M-line 4 over to the right, and RER over to the left (basically reversing how they actually lie). I think if someone were consulting the system map, they might head off on foot in the wrong direction and not realize it until they started looking for the stop on the street map.

If anybody cares to see what I mean, just go to Amazon.com, and look inside a copy of the Lets Go Paris map guide - it will page thru about 8 times until the Metro map comes up.

That's it - I'm done. :)

I have used the "Paris par Arrondissement" map since my first trip to Paris in 1979. You can look up the street name in the front and it gives the arrondissement number and location on the page. Then it's just a matter of focusing your eyes to find it! The "Streetwise" maps are good for an overall view, but lots of the little streets (which I love!) are not on them.

I need to find a slightly larger Paris par Arrondissement since my eyes are not what they were in 1979! If anyone knows if they are making it a little larger, let me know.

joy/luvparee

<i>Oui, Michel, c'est &ccedil;a. <u>Pigalle</u> aussi.</i>

I don't want to sound like a broken record, but computerization has addressed all the issues people allude to above: the maps zoom to any resolution needed, users can set pushpins at galleries, shops, restaurants, and anything else they might want to go back to, and both the pushpins as well as general addresses can be zipped to without the least bit of searching.

Everyone who objects to the idea of carrying a navigation computer can now get microsoft.com/pocketstreets and install it on their SmartPhone.

I used a Streetwise map during both of my trips, it takes a beating.

Robespierre, that may be true, but I CHOOSE not to tote around a PDA. I LIKE carrying around my low-tech dog-eared book.
Also, the notes I've written in the margins go beyond mere pushpins.
Yes, I know how to use a computer, we have plenty of devices at home, but the paper version is my CHOICE. It's not that I &quot;object&quot; to carrying an electronic device, I simply CHOOSE not to. I respect your choice to go electronic and of course you fully respsect the choice of others NOT to, right?

I don't give a damn what anyone chooses to use, I'm just offering an alternative here to those who might not have considered it or are ignorant of what it can do for them.

PocketStreets allows one to annotate pushpins with text of any length - FAR beyone mere marginal notes.

Why are you so wound up tonight?

Thank you Ben Haines for the addresses where I may find a replacement for my very old but best Michelin Map on Paris I have ever seen (1cm:100m).
Thank you also to Robespierre for the iPAQ info - this will be the first thing I will put onto mine(with help!)as I launch myself into the 21st century of electronics - with an old safety back-up called a paper map!!

Roger on the backup requirement - but I figure if the iPAQ goes missing/bellyup, I can always get back to the hotel by finding the nearest M&eacute;tro and acquiring a map later.

I'm not wound up and it wasn't night in Europe when I posted. It's just that I don't want this thread to go down the road similar threads HAVE gone in the past where posters were hectored and mocked for not wanting to go the electronic route. YOu know, where every time someone mentioned that they preferred to go with a hard copy map or guidebook, someone would immediately shoot back and say that electronic versions were better in every way.

By the way, my marginal notes aren't just text, they've also included sketches. Plus notes from friends traveling with us at the time.

Why do you care where the thread goes? This forum is for sharing information, and that's what I'm doing.

As far as &quot;hectoring and mocking&quot; - this is a debate. When, in an effort to make a point, someone says something that is simply flat wrong (such as &quot;pushpins don't carry text&quot;), I correct it.

I think you are entitled to use paper maps and graphite pencils if you choose to. Some people are technophobic for a variety of reasons, and others' pros are others' cons. I'm just telling the world why I don't lug trees.

<i>p.s.</i> Sketches and notes by others can be entered into the software I use.