City notes
Is Paris Good for a Woman Traveling Alone Over 50?
Paris has bistro and wine-bar counters where one person can eat, as well as café terraces for a coffee break. These are useful options when you want a meal or a seat on your own.
Pickpocketing occurs on the Métro, on RER trains and at mainline stations. Keep your belongings close and take care in crowds.
Where to base yourself
Paris is not sprawling, and most of it is walkable. The guide suggests staying in the Marais, the Latin Quarter, the canal-side 10th or the 11th. They sit within a métro ride or a long walk of one another. Here is how it sorts them:
- The Marais (3rd and 4th) offers short walking distances and museums and galleries close together. The guide suggests its southern and eastern edges for a quieter base.
- Bastille and the 11th offer wine bars and neighborhood restaurants, with fewer monuments immediately around you.
- Canal Saint-Martin and the 10th has restaurants that were not designed for visitors. Book near the canal rather than right around the two mainline stations.
- The Latin Quarter (5th) has bookshops, the Panthéon and the Rue Mouffetard market. Choose the exact street with care, because the quarter is hillier and noisier than it looks on a map.
Two hotels on the guide's shortlist, Hôtel de Roubaix and Hôtel Le Clément, sell single rooms as a category of their own. Then pick one base and use it. Paris repays repetition.
Getting around
Use the metro and buses for longer journeys and walk when it suits you. The metro has 16 numbered, color-coded lines; check the destination and any transfer before boarding.
Buy a Navigo Easy card at a station ticket office and load tickets onto it, or load them onto your phone with the Île-de-France Mobilités app.
Two cautions. Many stations have no elevators, so check your stations first if you have mobility limits. And pickpocketing occurs on crowded trains and at major stations, so keep your bag in front of you.
Eating alone
A counter at a bistro, wine bar or oyster bar can be a useful place to start. You can eat near the staff without needing a table in the middle of the room.
Other tips from the book:
- Try lunch or an early dinner if you prefer a less crowded room. Check the restaurant's serving times before you go.
- "Un verre de vin, et le plat du jour" asks for a glass of wine and the dish of the day.
For company when you want it, try the stools at Juveniles on Rue de Richelieu.
Evenings and safety
Dinner often starts around eight, and the guide suggests wine bars, jazz or a cinema afterward. Plan the return journey for the time you expect to leave.
After dark, choose streets that are lit and in use, and reconsider the walk when terraces close and streets become quiet. Check the route back to your accommodation before going out.
On an evening metro journey, sit near other passengers if possible. If you feel threatened, ask station staff for help; you can choose a taxi for the return journey instead.
If unwanted attention feels threatening, leave and ask staff for help. For an emergency, call 17 for police or 112.
Pacing
For three or four days, the guide suggests keeping the plan small: the islands, one museum and the Marais. A week allows a slower first visit from North America.
Start light. On day one, stay within a short walk of the hotel, with a bakery, a bench or café terrace, and a picnic dinner if you would rather not face a restaurant. Put a slow afternoon in the middle of the week, around the third day, when cobbles, museum floors and métro stairs start to tell. Keep one fixed point in each day, and leave the rest open.
Plan around the Louvre's Tuesday closure and the Musée d'Orsay's Monday closure, and check their official calendars before booking.
The next step
Paris Alone includes selected neighborhood profiles, seven day plans and practical advice on eating alone. Start at the Paris Alone page.
If this is the nudge you needed, the free starter guide is the next step.
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