Below, you'll find articles and products about Transportation and Tours in Paris.

Paris - A Self-guided Tour

While there are many excellent Paris guided tours, if you're only in the city for a short time, you might prefer to skip those and do this simple walk instead.

It can be done in a few hours without having to rush and it takes in many of the city's most famous sites:

Start at Hotel De Ville (easy enough to get to, the nearby metro station is also called "Hotel De Ville"). This is Paris' city hall and has a long and colorful past. Perhaps most famously, it was the place where De Gaulle announced the liberation of Paris to the crowds in the adjacent square.

The next step on your walking tour of Paris with a guide is the Ile De La Cite. So, cross the bridge next to Hotel De Ville and that'll take you to Notre Dame.

The Ile De La Cite is the island in the middle of the river Seine. It's the oldest part of Paris and, as well as being home to Notre Dame, it also has the famous church of Saint Chapelle.

If you head west along the island (if you want to know which direction is west, the front of Notre Dame faces west), you'll get to the end of the island and you'll be at the famous Pont Neuf bridge.

From there, you'll get amazing views of the river, it's beautiful bridges and the many famous buildings that grace its banks.

In particular, the Louvre, which is approximately 200m away on the right hand side.

That's where you're headed next on your "not guided" tour of Paris, so cross the bridge and walk along the riverbank.

You could easily spend an entire day at the Louvre, but for now, you should just spend some time appreciating the magnitude and splendour of the building.

After the Louvre and continuing in the same direction you've been heading, you'll come to the Tuileries gardens. These formerly royal gardens can give you some compensation for not going into the Louvre as they contain a number of sculptures.

After the Tuileries, you'll come out at Concorde, home to one of the three "Cleopatra's Needles". It'll also be the first time on this non guided trip around Paris that you'll get a view up the Champs Elysees to the Arc De Triomphe

And it's to the Arc you're headed.

The "Champs" is good for shopping and good for people watching, but there's not a lot to say about it for sightseers. However, the Arc is another story. It's a truly spectacular monument and, even if you don't go up to the top, at the very least, you should go through the underpass and see the arch up close.

That's the end of the walk. Maybe your next stop will be to a cafe terrace to have a coffee and rest your feet.

These do-it-yourself walks can be a fun and inventive way of seeing the city, but if you're staying longer, I'd still recommend one of the proper Paris guided tours as the best way to see and learn about the city.

By Steve D Gibson - Steve Gibson writes about Paris Sightseeing on his site. For more information on tours of Paris, visit Paris Sightseeing Tours.