Lessons Learned

1. Buy a SIM chip with a voice and data plan for your cell phone.

 

2. Download the RATP app.  Familiarize yourself with it, with Google Maps, and with Apple Maps.

 

3. Buy Navigo (transit) cards if it makes sense from a schedule standpoint.

 

4. Cultivate patience!

 

5. Try to speak French.

 

6. Bring your dog!  You WILL be treated differently.  AND you will have a richer experience.

 

7. Clothes washers are imperative.  Elevators are desirable.  Kitchens are not that important.

 

8. You need good walking shoes.  No, really good walking shoes...

 

9. Have a Plan B, or at least something else you're interested in, in the area you're going.

 

10. Embrace the food.  Revel in it. Don't even attempt to hold to a diet.

 

11. You won't find vegetables on restaurant menus.

 

12. The quality of the event is not necessarily correlated with how much it costs.

 

13. Try to come up with groupings of things you want to see in a particular area.  It's a small city and very often you can "kill 2 birds with 1 stone".

 

From Maxine – a few additions

 

14.  Take buses if you’re going a short distance.  It’s much more fun to see the city rather than the subway tunnel.

 

15.  After 3 months in Paris eating bread every day, croissants often, and one 3 course meal daily, I came home 3 pounds lighter.  Eating well-prepared, real food and not snacking combined with walking really worked to stay in shape and to enjoy Paris.