1. Learn some French. Learn the pleasantries - Hello, goodbye, please, thank you, etc. You would be surprised how far this will get you. We ... ]]> So you are planning on visiting France. Here are a few things you should know before you go.

1. Learn some French. Learn the pleasantries – Hello, goodbye, please, thank you, etc. You would be surprised how far this will get you. We all have heard horror stories of how rude the french can be. I only ran into one man who was rude and I suspect he was just having a bad day. You will be in their country, show respect and you will be shown respect.

2. Buy a book/map. This is important. Since museums and monuments are all over the city, you need to plan your day ahead of time. We purchased a book on Paris before our trip. It included a wonderful map. Every morning during breakfast, we would look over the book to see what was closed for the day (a lot of the smaller museums are closed on Wednesdays for some reason). We would decide where we wanted to go, map it out using our map and the Metro map we purchased and then head out for the day.

3. Pack comfortable shoes. You will be doing a lot of walking. Several months before my trip, I started walking in my local mall with a new pair of tennis shoes. At first I only made 2 trips around. A few days before my trip, I was up to over a mile per walk. Physically, I was ready for my trip and my shoes were broke in!

4. Buy the Museum Pass. If you are planning on visiting several museums and places of interest, buy the Museum Pass. It will save you money (entry into over 60 museums and monuments!). You can purchase the pass on-line before your trip or at some Metro stations. By purchasing the pass, you can also save time. We just showed our pass and walked right into several museums.

5. Eiffel Tower. When purchasing your ticket to go up into the Eiffel Tower, beware! Make sure you are at a ticket booth that sells tickets to take the elevator up, not the stairs. We made that mistake. We climbed and climbed and climbed to just reach the first level (its a LOT higher than you think!). From level 1, we were able to take the elevator to the second and third levels and we were able to take it all the way down.

6. Restaurants. Be daring. Try something new! Try something out of the way! We tried different ethnic restaurants daily. On our last night there, we asked our hotel clerk where an authentic, local french restaurant was. He pointed us away from the busy streets towards a neighborhood nearby and told us this is where they eat. I can honestly say, this was the best