Paris (France)guide featuring 360 degree images, maps, photos, video, hotels and transport. |
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Paris has so many world famous landmarks to see such as the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Place de la Concorde & The Louvre, Notre Dam Cathedral, Montmarte (Moulin Rouge & the Sacre Coeur Basilica), Versailles Palace and even Disneyland. I also went rollerblading through central Paris with thousands others if you're looking for something pretty special to do.
I took these photos, 360° images and videos while on holiday with my wife for a few days in May 2012. Refer to my customised Paris Google map for where we saw the main points of interest. This is part of a 6 week adventure that my wife and I took in the middle of 2012 that includes: |
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Paris videoabout 7 minutes, full HD available (1080p) which is best viewed in full screen. |
Arc de Triomphe[3 on the map]One of the best locations to see Paris because you can see so many features from here including the huge roundabout below that has no specific rules so the traffic just works itself out...most of the time. Be sure to take the underground passage to get here - don't even think about trying to walk across the roundabout! We stayed at Hotel Cecilia with a view to the Arc de Triomphe so it was the easiest place to get to, but more importantly, a major subway terminal (Charles de Gaulle - not the airport with the same name!) is loacted here for easy access anywhere. |
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Eiffel Tower[5 on the map]Only one of the lifts were working when we were there but you could also walk up too. The lines were huge but a bit shorter for the walk up as you might expect. We noticed there were 2 entrances for the walk up - one with a huge line of people and one empty. We asked the staff why one was empty and they shrugged their shoulders and said "People are like sheep, they just line up behind one another without question." So we just went straight in and up the tower immediately without no waiting time! It's 347 steps to the first level, 674 steps to the second platform and 1710 steps to the top - sounds like a lot but it's not that bad because it's an exciting place to be. We didn't bother going to the top because the weather wasn't that great and the view was fine from level 1 and 2. |
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Place de la Concorde & The Louvre[8, 9 & 10 on the map]A crazy huge place where we got lost in the maze of levels in the Louvre. I like the sculptures the best hence the many photos of them :) The Louvre is open till 5:30pm except Wednesday and Fridays when it closes at 9:45pm so our strategy was to go Friday at the middle of the day and stay till late which seemed to work great avoiding super large crowds, especially the package tour people. It didn't get dark till 10pm in June while we were there anyway. |
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Notre Dame Cathedral[12 on the map]You can take a tour up to the top of the cathedral for some nice views over Paris. It was one of the first buildings in the world to use the flying buttress (arched exterior supports). This French Gothic architecture styled building also contains some very large and impressive stained glass windows. |
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Montmarte[17 & 18 on the map]The highest place in Paris and famous for Moulin Rouge and the Sacre Coeur Basilica. We had a dinner and show package for Moulin Rouge at a ridiculous price of A$460 for the two us. I was surprised to see so many families with young children, women and gay men it made me think it's gone from a men's porno show to now the complete opposite of just a cliched dance show with fancy outfits :P |
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Versailles Palace[19 on the map]Located 20km SW of the centre Paris, this is another immense European landmark. It's just insane how big and ornate the palace is and then you see the gardens that literally go all the way to the horizon. Then adding to all that there is the Grand Trianon buildings and the Estate of Marie Antoinette down the back! |
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Disneyland[19 on the map]Located just outside Paris, not in America! Even people from London can visit here quickly and easily via the Eurostar train that travels under the English channel. |
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The best way to travel around France (and Europe) is by train because they are very fast, frequent, safe, reliable, cheap and the stations are in the middle of the city. I prefer to book the routes individually (point to point ticket) instead of buying a pass (like Eurail or Swiss pass) because it's usually cheaper unless you are frequently travelling long distances which I don't do anyway because I want to spend more time enjoying the location than travelling to and from it. The catch with a Eurail pass is that you still need to book and pay extra for a seat reservation, whereas buying just a normal point to point ticket includes the reservation, saving time and confusion. I always buy first class tickets too because they aren't much more expensive than the normal ticket, they usually include more seating space and I feel a little more safer considering that the train company gives a little more attention to first class passengers. The main concern was for the storage and security of our luggage, having heard too many stories about bags being stolen. Many trains have a rack above the seats (so it's safe) that can easily hold a large suitcase (like those allowed for checked luggage on planes). My bag (35cm [14in] x 45cm [18in] x 70cm [27.5in]) was just below the maximum size limit for planes which was fine on all the trains during our holiday through Europe. It weighed about 19kg and you must lift your bag up on to these high racks which was fine for a tall, strong, dashing, handsome, sexy and modest young man like me, otherwise you will probably need another passenger to help you. Some trains only have storage at the end of each carriage which makes it easier to get in and out but also makes it easier for someone to steal your bags too. We took a wire cable bike combination lock to attach our bags to the rack in these cases but only used it twice and both times it probably wasn't really necessary, but gives you peace of mind so you don't need to worry about it. We also used small combination padlocks on the zippers. Having locks on your bags can draw attention because being so secure then there is probably something valuable in it worth stealing, but most criminals are just opportunistic and simply take the next bag that is easier to remove. |
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How to book European train tickets:
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This is the best way that I know of to find a hotel on the internet. I used this method for every place we stayed at for our entire six week holiday in Europe/UK/Singapore and it worked very well. The basic steps are:
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How to actually do it:
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I've been a keen photographer for over 10 years and have been creating 360° panoramic images for about that long too. I've sold some individually, for web sites, a couple of weddings and projects for clients where I work as a visualisation artist. All the panoramas on this page were taken handheld because you are not allowed to use tripods in most of the places I visited so you may find some strange gaps where the photos are stitched together because of this. | The camera used for all of these photos is a Canon 5D MkIII digital SLR with a 24-105mm L series lens. This camera works great in low light situations, has a full frame sensor to get wide angle shots and produces super sharp photos. Unfortuantely it is very big, heavy and expensive so I made the decision to choose quality over comfort. A camera store assistant once told me: A man invited a lady over to his place one night to show her his photos. She said, "Gee, they're great photos. You must have a great camera." She invited the man to her place for dinner the next night and after the meal he said "Gee, that was a great meal. You must have a great oven." |
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