My wife and I are planning a trip to Paris <BR>in late September or October.I realize Paris is a walking city but my wife is limited in her ability to walk. Any suggestion out there other than stay home.Our plans are to rent a car for trip out of Paris. Maybe I answered my question but how is the traffic in the city.Maybe just a series of bus trips would be the answer? Thanks for whatever.

Hi John. I am in sympathy with someone who cannot walk well. I had a major problem with my foot last year in Paris and I had to totally give up at the Louvre. I suggest that Cityrama has good bus tours of Paris. <BR>The city buses give a good tour, too. <BR>I had my map out and traced our routes as we rode several times. Also, taking a boat trip on the Seine is a good way to see some of the famous monuments, particularly at night. I think you can see a lot from the bus. Good luck. <BR>By the way there are good route maps of the city buses on most of the shelters that mark the bus stops.

A couple of ideas: <BR>1) take the city buses rather than the subway (no stairs or long corridors) to get one place to another, and see the city while doing so (like, no point in walking to the Arc de Triomphe, when a ride by does the trick). <BR>2) boat rides - there are cruises on the river and the Canal St Martin - see the city! no walking! snappy patter from the guide! <BR>3) a car in Paris is no fun - parking sucks, traffic sucks, gas prices suck. If you want to visit Versailles or Giverny or Fontainebleu, find a bus tour from Parisvision or Cityrama - or hire a car and driver! HE has to park the stupid thing; HE has to deal with the loco locals...no offense, Parisians, I wouldn't drive in NYC or Boston or Chicago eithere if I had free will. <BR>4) the Louvre is all walking but you can rent wheelchairs for the visit. <BR> <BR>Lots of places to sit down and rest in Paris (ask my mother, who polished many a bench on our visit), and, hey, worse comes to worst, you spend your entire time sitting in cafes and restaurants and eat and drink 'til it's time to take the RER to the airport... <BR> <BR>That time of year too is not so crowded with tourists, so shuffling along won't get you knocked down. <BR> <BR>Enjoy Paris; it is designed for leisurely enjoyment...

Public transit in Paris is excellent; I agree with the above advice to take the bus to get to places. Many museums have elelvators and wheelchairs available to rent or borrow. www.intermusee.com should lead to info on individual ones you may be interested in. Good views from on high that don't involve stairs include the Tour Montparnasse and the 6th floor of the Centre George Pompidou, reached by elelvator or escalators on the outside of the building enclosed in glass. Usae this URL to get some info on Paris for non-walkers: http://www.disabilitynet.co.uk/info/...ris/index.html

I highly recommend the Paris Bus system. There's a wealth of information at the www.ratp.fr website for using the buses - the routes, neighborhood maps annotating all the stops, you can even get "door to door directions" - with "minimum walking". Additionally, there's the Balabus which runs through the city on Sundays and holidays, and the L'Opentour which also runs past all the major sites and attractions with commentary (information for both is available at the aforementioned website). Your best bet would be to determine where the stops are located and select a hotel very nearby. It's not prohibitively expensive to take the occasional taxi either - especially handy late at night for getting "home". Or, find a hotel where lots of bus routes intersect (near Ecole Militaire metro stop is an excellent spot, with lots of reasonably priced hotels nearby and a fabulous neighborhood). You may find it more economical and less stressful to take day trips to destinations out of the city with any of the three bus companies (Paris Vision, Cityrama, Touringscope - all have websites). You definitely do not want to drive in Paris. Even if you did, parking would be impossible and probably a much longer walk to your destination than the nearest bus stop. Another fabulous resource for taking the buses is the Paris Mapguide, a booklet with neighborhood maps that are annotated with all the bus routes and stops. I have terrible feet (very limited endurance). Be advised though that some of the museums are huge and you'd do a lot of walking just getting from one end of one wing to the other...

One thing you will get to do that others won't is ride in the cool elevator at the entrance of the Louvre. It is a tubular platform that rises from the lower main floor through the center of the main spriral staircase to the entrance level of the museum. It has no walls or ceiling, you simply stand on the top of the tube. When I was there, only people unable to manage the stairs could use it.

Donna--

Donna-- <BR> <BR>can you get the Paris mapguide here in the US?