I am taking my mother to Paris in June and she has trouble with stairs, so I am planning to take buses instead of the Metro. I know nothing about the bus system. Is there a way to figure which bus you need to take if you know the nearest Metro stop? I will appreciate any info you can offer about the bus system. By the way, we will be staying at the Hotel Leveque on Rue Cler in the 7th. Thanks so much.

See this site:

http://www.ratp.fr/ParisVisite/Eng/index.htm

It has a bus line map and a route finder.

Several buses serve the Ecole Militaire area and of those, quite a few run up and down the Avenue Bosquet and Avenue La Motte Picquet, both are near your hotel. If you are going to take buses as your main means of transportation, be sure to get a pass. I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but my experience has been that a single metro ticket can be used on only one bus. No free transfers. Therefore, riding buses could be costly without a pass.
I like riding buses in Paris, too. It's nice to see the city instead of whizzing underneath all the time. But they are slower than the metro for most routes, especially during rush hour, so you will need to build some extra time into your plans.
I don't recall many "kneeling" buses in Paris, so your mother would still have to manage the step up and down to get on/off the bus...hope that's ok.

Use this website and print off likely bus routes you will use. This way you can familiarize yourself in advance. The bus route maps have stop names similar to those of the Metro.

First, use the English version of www.ratp.com (click on the word English, upper right screen)
Under "key services" click on Route Finder
on the left side, put a street name and Paris
on the right, put a destination street name and Paris, or Metro xxxx
for "what form of transport?" select Bus, tramway
Click on Submit
You might have to revise your entries until they are recognized, or choose something from the dropdown list
It should present to you a map, the directions and the bus route(s), and how long it will take.

If you want to print out a bus route map, go to
http://www.citefutee.com/

I don't see an English option offhand, so follow these links:
On the left side, click on Plans de Lignes.
Click on the middle tab "BUS"
In the little box after "afficher le plan de la ligne n" type in your bus route number and click on the "Go" button
You will be presented a map of the bus route with all the stops, including the locations of the Metros along that line.

Hope this helps you... I plan to try the bus more on my next visit, too.

You've made an excellent decision: buses are much easier for anyone who has trouble with stairs. An added advantage is that you get to see the city, not the inside of subway tunnels, as you go from place to place.

An excellent resource for you is one of the city maps that shows bus routes. You can buy such a map at most newsstands or news shops -- ask your hotel front desk for the nearest shop or stand. The map will show the bus route number and the exact location of the bus stop. Be aware that on some bus routes, the location of the bus stop going in the reverse direction might not be across the street from where the bus dropped you off -- the bus route map will help you find the right place.

Once you get to Paris, pick up the Paris triple <i>plan</i> guide which gives three maps of each arrondissement: the street map, the metro map and a bus map. It also lists the open air march&eacute;s, taxi stands and museums.

I used the bus system quite a bit the times I have visited Paris in recent years. There are several facts about the bus system I think I should mention.

The Metro and the Bus use the same ticketing system. The big difference is that each time you board a different bus, you must validate another ticket.
There is a small machine on the bus, both in the front and the back for that purpose.

There have been discussions about Carte Orange and other passes. I simply went to a Metro station and bought a &quot;carnet&quot; of 10 tickets. There is a discount if you buy 10. The ticket sellers know the term carnet and there are machines as well that dispense the tickets.

Most of the bus stops in Paris have a small shelter over a bench. If not defaced, there will be a color coded bus route map posted on the shelter itself, or near there. The routes are numbered and matched to the color coded lines on the map.

One draw back to the Paris public transportation system is that often there is no seat available. I found, however, that on the buses, younger people frequently would yield a seat to an older person. I know I benefitted from that courtesy several times when I was in Paris. It is not reliable, however, and sometimes you will be forced to stand and hang on.
I do think you need to take that fact into account.

Another aspect of bus travel is that people offered to help us with directions more than once. For some reason, elderly Parisian men seem to want to speak English to my wife even when they cannot. (She is an attractive woman, and they are not blind.)

The buses are slower at times, but often they will get you closer to your destination than the Metro. Also they are above ground and you can see Paris as your ride, provided you are seated; otherwise, you are hemmed in by other passengers and too busy hanging onto a strap or a pole to do much sightseeing.

For several reasons I prefer to take the bus unless the bus connections are complicated and the Metro is more direct, and therefore quicker. Normally, my first consideration is the bus because, as I have expressed elsewhere, I hate the Metro.

I'm with Bob, and this may be my imagination, but passengers on the bus seem less glum than those on the metro.

We use the buses almost exclusively, and while this may not be the best method, we carry around two booklets. The first is the Paris Mapguide from amazon, which shows bus routes. The second is &quot;Le Bus,&quot; by L'Indispensable, the pocket- sized edition which contains all the bus routes overlayed on maps of the city. There is a larger version which is easier to read.

If you go to the the ParisVisite site in the second post, you can get a map of your hotel area and print it out. Just get to Paris Maps and locate La Tour-Mauberg [the maps are keyed to Metro stops]. Cler is misprinted as Clerc for some reason. Your hotel is just south of Rue de Grenelle. A map of Ecole Militaire would be helpful also. To look up routes, use this URL, which has all of them in numerical order:

http://www.ratp.fr/ParisVisite/Eng/P...st_bus_eng.htm

Line 69 is one of our favorite routes. We like to use this line along with 42 and 20 to circle around the city.

Taxis can come in handy also. There is info on this site:

http://www.parisby.com/transpor/transpor.htm

Elberko, BTilke, Travelnut, Rizzuto, Michael, Bob Brown, Michael and RonZ:
Thank you so much for this detailed information! I was afraid that my question was too mundane and I wouldn't get many responses. My mother sends her thanks as well.

Hi - you're going to be fine. The one time I stayed in the 7th, I bussed about a lot &amp; there *are* kneeling busses. What's more, I noticed that drivers are sensitive to older or less steady passengers - they won't pull away &amp; drive 'til you're safely seated.

I would just get the standard Paris par Arrondissement, which has a comprehensive bus guide. One caveat: lots of lines are restricted or don't run at all on weekends (so grab a cab). Have an awesome time with your Mom !

You've had good info above about online info and maps. Let me just add that when I took my own mother to Paris a few years ago we rode the bus nad it was actually more fun than the Metro. The stops are more numerous so you usually get closer to where you are actually going, and don't have as far to walk to a stop. One of the other nice aspects was being aboveground and seeing Paris while we traveled between points. A couple times we just got off the bus when we noticed something we wanted to explore further. Bon voyage!

I purchased a Carte Orange which was good for unlimited rides on Metro or the bus for a week. If you are going to be taking the bus exclusively, you would do better to have a pass of some sort, since it is one ticket per ride with no transfers.

Near the end of the week, I found I was riding the bus more frequently and wishing I had done so earlier. Some days I walked so far making Metro transfers I would have done better just to walk to the destination in the first place. The bus, while admittedly slower, entailed much less walking on a trip where I was already walking a lot to begin with.

Each bus stop is clearly marked with the name of the stop, and each stop has a huge, full map of all the bus routes on the back of the bus shelter.

I don't think anyone mentioned this yet... it is my understanding that when one sees the bus approaching the bus stop, one should raise a hand to indicate the driver should stop. If no one riding the bus has pushed the bell to get off at that stop, the driver may continue on past. Is that correct?

Travelnut, generally yes. If it's a bus stop where a few routes stop, you should signal or you run a good chance the driver will think you're waiting for another bus and pass by. If it's a stop served by only one line, the driver *should* stop if someone's waiting there, but it's still best to signal.