youtube travel paris

8 Best YouTube Guides for Travelling Paris

These Youtubers have all the insider information you need

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• 08 March 2018
• • 4 min read

Whether you’re looking to venture off the beaten Parisian track, or you’re a bit nervous about navigating the French metro, YouTube’s travel vloggers have all the tips. We’ve gathered the best Paris video guides that deliver on every bit of info you might want or need so you can really make the most of your trip to the dreamy French capital. These guys have all the inside knowledge on food, culture and quick trips to Paris, so sit back, watch and take note...

BEST THINGS TO DO

Canadian YouTuber Christian LeBlanc from ‘Lost LeBlanc’ travels all over the world making incredible YouTube videos with his girlfriend Laura. His top 10 things to do in Paris include all the tourist sights you can’t miss on a first trip to the French capital. Not only are they great tips, but the footage he’s shot of the city are mesmerising! You’ll definitely want to watch this one to the end.

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‘HOW TO’ USE THE METRO

We love Jay Swanson’s videos - they’re funny, informative and they’re ALL about Paris! This one we found particularly useful as it’s a guide to using the Paris metro. The prospect of using public transport in an unfamiliar, foreign speaking city can be very daunting for some people. Jay’s ‘How to Use the Paris Metro’ will put your mind at ease once you see just how easily he gets around.

‘HOW TO’ SURVIVE A PARISIAN PATISSERIE

Jay does a whole bunch of ‘how to’ videos based around Paris on his YouTube channel, but we thought this one was super handy. Having lived in the city for a number of years, he knows his way around a French patisserie and has all the inside knowledge on what to order and in the local language, too. Check this video out for useful tips on what and how to get delicious coffee and heavenly pastries in a local, Parisian patisserie.

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A PARIS FOOD TOUR

American couple and avid travel vloggers Eric and Allison from The Endless Adventure travel the world vlogging and testing out the local delicacies. In this video they try 5 of the must eat places in Paris. Their vlog is super casual yet full of great foodie tips that you’ll be dying to visit next time you’re in the capital. Check out the crêpe they order, it’s enormous!

PARIS’ CHEAP EATS

Another brilliant foodie’s YouTube guide to Paris, and in this one everything costs less than €1,50…YouTuber LivingBobby resided in Paris for a year, so he knows where the cheap eats are hiding. From bargain boulangerie buys to huge gourmet pizza slices for €1, not only could you feast until you burst but it all tastes incredible, too - just watch Bobby’s facial expressions to know he’s not lying.

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HOW TO SPEND 24 HOURS IN PARIS

Louis Cole from Fun For Louis is a hugely popular travel vlogger from the UK. His ‘One Day in Paris’ vlog starts in London and ends in London with a whole load of Paris in between! See what he gets up to with just 16 hours to spend exploring the French capital. Perfect for Brits who are planning a spontaneous one day trip to the Parisian city, travelling from London on the Eurostar.

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GENERAL TRAVEL TIPS

Melanie Mellinger is an American travel vlogger. While she has a smaller audience compared to the others, her great must-know travel tips for visiting Paris are easily worthy of a spot on this list. From planning your trip wisely to the best photo spots in the city, Melanie’s video is the one to watch before embarking on your trip. She definitely deserves more views for this handy video guide!

PARIS’ HIDDEN GEMS

Mathieu Stern is a French photographer whose YouTube channel consists of a lot of handy tips for those keen with cameras, however this video is based all around beautiful images of Paris’ hidden gems. Mathieu’s ‘Top 10 Most Secret Places in Paris’ videography will have you captivated until the end and will leave you with yet more places to add to your Paris bucket list that you’ve probably never even heard of.

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The 'original' High Line is in Paris — here's why you should walk it

Walk the original ‘High Line’ or seek out other abandoned spaces repurposed as parks, propelling plans to make Paris one of Europe’s greenest capitals.

Sunlight filters through swaying trees, starlings flit between neat hedges and a man trots after an errant golden retriever, which is making a beeline for the reflecting pool. It’s difficult to believe I’m standing on a railway viaduct in the 12th arrondissement of Paris.

Ten metres below, life continues as normal: cars take turns to pause one by one at a zebra crossing as shoppers mill between the high-end glassblowers’ galleries and ceramic workshops of the Viaduc des Arts, seemingly oblivious to the green ribbon of cherry trees, maples and bamboo running three storeys above their heads.

But this is, in reality, one of the city’s worst-kept   secrets. The inspiration for the New York High Line, the Coulée Verte René-Dumont, or Promenade Plantée as it’s become known, was the world’s first elevated urban park when it opened in the late 1980s — a joint effort from landscaper Jacques Vergely and architect Philippe Mathieux. Stretching for just over three miles between Opéra Bastille and Bois de Vincennes on the obsolete Vincennes train line, it now holds a special place in Parisian hearts.

“It’s so high up that you’d never know it was here, and at one time it was totally unique,” says Aloïs, a Tours by Locals guide and former resident of the 12th arrondissement. “When I used to live in this neighbourhood, I’d go jogging up here to get away from the traffic,” she says, tying her auburn hair into a ponytail with a pink ribbon as a warm late-summer’s breeze washes in over the railings.

Paris plans to become — quite literally — one of Europe’s greenest capitals, with current mayor Anne Hidalgo promising a “massive greening” when she was elected. This has already started, with the plan to plant 170,000 trees by 2026 underway, in an effort to create urban forests across the city. By 2030, city authorities want half of Paris covered in planted areas, whether they’re parkland or living rooftops.

Our plan today is to walk the Coulée Verte and then find its little sister La Petite Ceinture — another former train line that’s currently part community garden, part secret passage into the city’s underbelly. Translating as the ‘Little Belt’, this rewilded railroad circles Paris, but with only a few sections safe enough to open to the public — thanks in part to the active electrical lines that remain in places.

But first we set off to explore the city along the Coulée Verte, passing through several ivy-covered arches, level with the treetops, church spires and roofs of elegant Haussmann apartment blocks on either side. On the right, the 1991 Commissariat de Police building on Avenue Daumesnil comes into view, adorned with a troop of identical carved stone figures tugging exasperatedly at their tousled hair, each with one elbow raised to the sky — inspired by Michelangelo’s Dying Slave sculpture in the Louvre. Down on the street, I would have barely noticed them.  

Soon, the path descends to the Jardin de Reuilly, where we find the lawns dotted with picnickers, and we stumble across a local celebrity: La Pétillante, or ‘She Who Sparkles’. There are many ornate cast-iron water fountains across Paris, but this one is a little different. It dispenses fizzy water and was installed over a decade ago to cut down on single-use plastics. We watch as a man with a copy of Le Monde newspaper under one arm fills up his bottle. “ Voilà , you see the bubbles?” says Aloïs, gesturing enthusiastically.

From here, via the echoey stretches of dark railway tunnel signalling the end of the Coulée Verte, we head off in search of La Petite Ceinture in the 18th arrondissement. Circling the city in a rattling orbit from 1862, the Little Belt predates the Paris Metro by several decades and was eventually made obsolete by it, its trains whistling their final fond farewells shortly after the Metro’s 1900 launch. After La Petite Ceinture’s closure, in rushed the flora, fauna and street artists, the abandoned stations eventually becoming almost apocalyptic-looking, the tunnels and tracks accented with wildflowers and neon-bright graffiti tags. Parisians are divided on what to do with this ghost line. Some are calling to preserve its biodiversity and open up the entire stretch to pedestrians, while others are keen to usher in the housing developers. For now, while city authorities are still deciding what to do with it, it runs in a broken circle, punctuated by chain-link fences beyond which only urban explorers make illicit trips into the 18th-century catacombs.

Initially, La Petit Ceinture proves difficult for us to find. “How do we get down there?” Aloïs calls from an overpass as we peer down at the people walking on former train platforms. “By the Metro,” comes the response from below, so we set off towards La Recyclerie — a train station in its past life, which has been repurposed into an industrial cafe, urban farm and recycling workshop that attracts hip young Parisians from miles around. Today there’s a craft fair being held beside the rails, and it’s so popular that the queue to get in meanders onto the street. Inside the former station, Gallic chatter and the clattering of cutlery is punctuated by the whirring of a tattoo gun.

We step out of La Recyclerie’s back door and into a melee of vintage clothes rails and jewellery stalls, set up around bug hotels and compost heaps. “Many people want La Petite Ceinture to become like the Coulée Vert,” Aloïs says as we descend towards the tracks, passing clucking chickens fed on scraps from the kitchens. “Lots of us want it to open all the way around. I’d like it to be open; it could be a gigantic green space available to all of us Parisians.”

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Paris Promised the Olympics Would Be Accessible. The Clock Is Ticking.

The city, which put inclusivity at the center of its bid, has improved access for people with disabilities, but with the opening ceremony about 12 weeks away, obstacles remain.

By Anne-Marie Williams

During a trip to Paris last November, Samantha Renke just couldn’t seem to find a taxi that could accommodate her motorized wheelchair.

“Every time I logged on, it just kept saying, ‘Unavailable, unavailable, unavailable,’” Ms. Renke said, recounting her struggle to book an accessible cab using the G7 taxi app . Eating out was also a problem for Ms. Renke, a 38-year-old British actress and disability campaigner who has a genetic condition commonly known as brittle bones: Too few restaurants had step-free access.

As Paris prepares to welcome around 15 million visitors — an estimated 350,000 with disabilities — for the Olympics and Paralympics, the city is still working to fulfill its promise to make itself “universally accessible” before the opening ceremony, on July 26.

“Paris will be accessible. We are rising to the challenge,” said Fadila Khattabi , the minister delegate for disabled people.

Paris put inclusivity and accessibility at the center of its bid to host the Summer Games, and the city has made a great deal of headway. For example, the newly built 128-acre Olympic and Paralympic Village , hailed by the organizers and advocacy groups as a shining example of universal design, offers accessible buildings, multisensory signage and zones for assistance dogs. The city plans to have 1,000 wheelchair-accessible taxis by the time the Games open (it had just 250 in 2022), and Uber will increase its fleet of accessible vehicles to 170, from 40.

Despite this progress, advocacy groups like APF France Handicap are concerned that the city remains unprepared for visitors with disabilities. For example, said Pascale Ribes, the group’s president, train and airline companies need to be notified in advance to accommodate passengers in wheelchairs.

And even that isn’t always enough, explained Ms. Ribes, who uses a wheelchair: Recently, she said, staff members at a Paris airport refused to bring her personal wheelchair to the jet bridge after a domestic flight. Another time she almost missed her connecting flight waiting for promised assistance.

A new urgency

France’s first law mandating accessibility in public spaces dates back to 1975, but effective enforcement has been a challenge. The Olympics and Paralympics have brought new urgency to the issue. “It’s not just accessibility for people with reduced mobility,” said Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, in an interview last month. It is about all disabilities, including sensory disabilities. “This will be a very important legacy of the Games,” she added.

Lamia El Aaraje , the deputy mayor in charge of universal accessibility and people with disabilities, has worked to make shops, schools, public services, cultural and sports facilities, and buses and trams accessible across the city. In the last 10 months, at least 1,750 bus shelters have been renovated to be compatible with bus wheelchair ramps.

Unfortunately, even this hasn’t always made life easier for people with disabilities. Ms. Ribes recounts instances when buses have parked too far from the curb, making it impossible for the ramp to reach the sidewalk. On crowded buses, wheelchair users may have difficulty gaining access to the two places designated for them.

The Olympics and Paralympics have also driven change at the city’s two main airports, which have added changing areas, sensory rooms and zones for assistance dogs. The airports are also working toward a long-term goal: transitioning from assisting passengers to removing the barriers that prevent disabled fliers from being autonomous; this includes letting passengers use their own wheelchairs, instead of airport wheelchairs, on jet bridges.

The city’s extensive Metro system poses its own special challenges for visitors with disabilities, with only one line (No. 14) fully accessible. This line, part of the ambitious Grand Paris Express project, will serve Orly Airport this summer. Other lines incorporate tactile paving, which has textures that help blind and visually impaired people, and more than half offer audio and visual announcements inside the trains.

Two suburban lines, RER A and B are also considered accessible by the regional transport agency. RER B serves both airports, though Ms. Ribes says people with disabilities still often need assistance on this line. For the Games, the city will also offer what Ms. Ribes considers temporary solutions: 200 shuttles for wheelchair users and their companions between Paris train stations and sports sites.

‘The law is not enough’

Since the 2012 Games in London, there has been a significant shift in the Olympics’ approach to accessibility. For those Games, access was integrated into the construction of new sites. But starting with the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, a big move toward sustainability meant that Paris 2024 used more existing venues instead of building new ones. This has posed both challenges and opportunities for accessibility.

The Paris 2024 committee has reserved 280,000 tickets for spectators with disabilities, and the venues themselves will be accessible. Many, but not all, of the events will have audio descriptions in French and English, and the organizers are being as inclusive as possible, said Julien Zéléla, a board member for the French Federation for the Blind .

French regulations require 4 percent of hotel rooms to be accessible, but the total number of such rooms in Paris is unknown. Airbnb (which has 13 accessibility filters) and Vrbo (which has a wheelchair filter) also offer accessible listings in the Paris region.

The Paralympian and wheelchair rugby player Ryadh Sallem acknowledges that hotels are making efforts to be more accessible, but said, “When we want to host a major competition, it becomes very problematic; sometimes we need to book several hotels” for a group of athletes.

Despite the progress, one barrier to accessibility remains stubbornly persistent: public attitudes.

“The law is not enough. We really need to change mentalities,” Ms. Ribes said. For example, cabs have refused to pick her up, she said, telling her that her wheelchair would dirty the vehicle’s interior. Last year, an Uber driver was accused of attacking a blind man for getting into his car with a guide dog. Since then, Uber has made its 40,000 drivers in France watch a short disability awareness video . In anticipation of the Games, other companies, including the operator of Paris’s airports, the Accor hotel group and the G7 taxi service are providing their employees with training on disability awareness.

With the Games about three months away, Mr. Sallem is cautiously optimistic about their long-term benefits for the city. The Olympics and Paralympics have made everyone think of accessibility “as an investment,” he said, “a project for the future.”

Catherine Porter contributed reporting.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

2024 Paris Summer Olympics

The summer olympic games in paris are expected to draw millions of spectators..

Olympic Flame Arrives in Marseille: The flame will be carried on a 79-day journey across France  and its territories, culminating in Paris with the start of the Olympic Games on July 26.

World Anti-Doping Agency: Ahead of the Olympics, the global agency tasked with policing doping in sports is facing a growing crisis  as it fends off allegations it helped cover up the positive tests of elite Chinese swimmers .

Friends Competing for Spots: Conner Mantz and Clayton Young had run side by side for more than 10,000 miles. Both vied for a place in the marathon at the Paris Games . Who would make it?

Fencing Rattled by Suspensions: Concerns about refereeing integrity and preferential treatment  for top saber competitors have cast a shadow over a sport decided by the finest of margins.

Did France Build the Olympics Safely: Undocumented workers played a larger and more dangerous role  in delivering the Games than the Macron administration acknowledges.

Taylor Swift sings 'The Alchemy' as Travis Kelce attends Eras Tour in Paris

PARIS — Taylor Swift sang "The Alchemy" as part of her acoustic set of surprise songs during Sunday's Eras Tour show with boyfriend Travis Kelce in attendance. Several football metaphors in the song have led fans to believe Swift wrote it about the Kansas City Chiefs tight end.

"Can you believe this is the 87th show?" Swift asked during her acoustic set in La Défense Arena. Kelce wears No. 87. She then played a mashup on guitar of "The Alchemy" from her new album "The Tortured Poets Department" with "Treacherous" from "Red."

Kelce stood in his box as Swift glanced up at him and the crowd looked back and forth between the two.

"This happens once every few lifetimes," Swift sang. "These chemicals hit me like white wine.”

The crowd roared.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

Kelce joined 40,000-plus fans for the fourth and final night of Taylor Swift 's Eras Tour in Paris. He watched from a box seat alongside actor Bradley Cooper, super model Gigi Hadid and rock star Lenny Kravitz.

The concert marks the fifth time Kelce has appeared at the tour since the couple went public last year. His first stop was Buenos Aires, Argentina, followed by Sydney, Australia, and two nights in Singapore . Swift has changed the “Karma” lyrics to "guy on the Chiefs" every time Kelce has cheered her on from the sidelines.

Kelce hadn’t seen the new set list live since Swift switched up the eras and added her 11th era, “ The Tortured Poets Department .” The singer-songwriter said she’s been working on the changes for 8-9 months (since last fall).

Hadid has famously been a member of Swift's squad for years now and has been dating Cooper for several months.

Other celebrities spotted in the crowd included Grey's Anatomy actor Jessica Capshaw and singer Christina Milian.

Her next stop is Stockholm, Sweden, as she continues the European leg of the tour.

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Taylor Swift Shouted Out Travis Kelce Again and Again While He Danced at Eras Tour in Paris

By Kase Wickman

Talk about a rookie season: In less than a year , Travis Kelce has gone from attending a Taylor Swift concert with the hopes of giving the singer his number (mission failed) to attending another Swift concert and watching her perform not one but two love songs about him. Then again, Swift won a Super Bowl in her first season out there, so it’s been a championship year for everyone.

Kelce made use of his off-season flexibility and headed to Paris to attend the fourth and final night of Swift’s stayover in the city, the first stop on the latest just-launched leg of her record-breaking Eras Tour. The Sunday show just so happened to be her 87th performance on the tour—which is also Kelce’s jersey number.

“Can you believe this is our 87th show of the Eras tour?” Swift said during the concert, eliciting screams from the audience who knew exactly which tight end she was shouting out. Swift played her new song “The Alchemy,” which is chockablock with football references and seems to be about Kelce, as one of the “surprise songs” in her set, as well as “So High School,” her ode to watching American Pie and having a darn good time with a guy, again, seemingly Kelce. She blew him a kiss as she launched into the song, then looked directly up at where Kelce was seated as she hit the closing “you already know, babe” line. The Tortured Poets Department was released while Swift was on hiatus from the tour, and this leg's setlist shifted to allow her to perform a number of songs from the new album and also integrate a UFO into the stage show. Now the Eras Tour really does have everything.

That’s not all: During the 1989 portion of the night, Swift debuted a new costume, decking herself out in the red and yellow signature colors of Kelce’s team, the Kansas City Chiefs.

Fans captured Kelce vibing at the concert , dancing to “Love Story” and other songs alongside Bradley Cooper and Gigi Hadid . The two couples have also spent quality time together on a post-release getaway to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California after her behemoth double album The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology was released last month.

In a further heart-clenching fan video, onlookers caught Kelce waiting to greet Swift backstage for one of their patented run-jump-kiss post-show celebrations (which has now presumably happened on five continents, for those keeping track, with only Africa and Antarctica left to complete the Infinity Gauntlet), clapping for her band and thoroughly enjoying the “guy on the Chiefs” shoutout in her closing song, “Karma.” Hey, that’s him!

A representative for Swift did not immediately respond to Vanity Fair ’s request for comment.

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Macron, von der Leyen press China's Xi on trade in Paris talks

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• Xi visits Europe for first time in five years
• France, EU Commission, have toughened their stance on trade
• Europe is not united on China, though
• Xi in Paris Monday, in the Pyrenees Tuesday

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Putin says oil pipeline could run alongside planned new gas link to China

Russia could deliver oil as well as gas to China along a planned route via Mongolia, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.