Paris

💡Watch the terraces and the same three scams

A coffee on the terrace of a famous square costs three times what it costs inside at the bar, and that is legal: there are three prices depending on where you sit. And on the Sacré-Cœur steps and under the tower you will be approached with the friendship bracelet, the gold ring "you dropped" and the charity petition. Do not stop.

💡Everything that matters is bought in advance

The Louvre, Orsay, the Eiffel Tower and Sainte-Chapelle all go with a day and time, and in season they vanish. On the first Sunday of the month many museums are free: it sounds good, but it is the busiest day of the month. If the trip is short, pay and go first thing.

💡On the first Sunday of the month many museums are free

Not all of them and not all year, but several of the big ones. In exchange the queues are longer than usual. Check each museum's site before buying, because the terms differ from one to the next.

💡The districts spiral outwards and the number places you

The twenty arrondissements spiral from the centre outwards, so the number in an address tells you roughly how far you are from the river. Districts 1 to 8 are the tourist centre; from the 10th onwards is where the city lives and eats.

💡The metro reaches everything, and there is a ten-ticket carnet

Paris is walkable but big. Single tickets add up: ask for a carnet of ten, or a Navigo card if you are there a week. Note that many stations have no lift or escalator, so with a big case think about the line first.

💡Versailles is a full day, not a morning

The palace, the gardens and the Trianon are far apart and the grounds are enormous. You get there on the suburban train from the centre and the queues are long even with a ticket. Pairing it with something else in one day is a reliable way to see neither properly.

💡The lunchtime set menu costs half what dinner does

Almost every restaurant has a midday formule — starter and main, or main and dessert — for considerably less than the evening à la carte. Eating well at lunch and lightly at night is what stops Paris being expensive.

💡You can climb the Eiffel Tower by stairs

There are stairs up to the second floor, they cost considerably less than the lift and the queue is far shorter. It's around seven hundred steps split into two sections with a break. From there you switch to the lift if you want the summit.

💡Picnicking by the river is what locals actually do

A bakery, a cheese shop and a bottle, then down to the banks of the Seine or the Canal Saint-Martin at dusk. It isn't a backpacker workaround: it's a local habit, and in summer the banks fill with people doing exactly that.