• Blog
  • Buses are Better!
  • Me
  • Paris Bus Lady

Paris Bus Lady

~ Allons-y!

Paris Bus Lady

Monthly Archives: September 2014

The Paris Bus Without Wheels

26 Friday Sep 2014

Posted by the Paris Bus Lady in Busing Around, Franglish, Paris!

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Batobus, Boulevard Saint-Germain, bus line, Musée d'Orsay, Musée du Louvre, Notre Dame, Notre Dame de Paris, Orsay, Paris, Paris attractions, Paris bus lines, Paris visitors, the Louvre, Tour Eiffel

I love busing around Paris using the above ground wheeled vehicles.  And I’m especially delighted when I’m on one of the Best Tourist Bus Lines.  However my absolutely favorite bus line uses a “bus” that doesn’t have wheels.  It’s the Batobus line, a hop-on-hop-off boat service that is both joyful and practical.  The Batobus boats cruise the river Seine in the absolute heart of Paris.  Here’s their route map.  You can’t get closer to the main tourist sites by any other method.

The Bus on/in the River Seine

The Bus on/in the River Seine

Here are the names of the eight Batobus stops you can hop-on-or-off.  See if any of these names ring tourist bells for you.

  • Tour Eiffel
  • Notre Dame
  • Louvre
  • Musée d’Orsay
  • Champs Élysées
  • Sainte Germain-des-Pres
  • Hotel de Ville
  • Jardin des Plantes

The Batobus service uses a different ticketing system from the RATP system and therefore costs “extra”.  Currently their posted price for a one day unlimited pass is 16€.  A two day unlimited pass is 18€.  Hopefully you’ll be able to take advantage of the additional day for a mere 2€.

Batobus turning pointThe Batobus route turns around at the Eiffel Tower.  You’ll have a nice long unobstructed view of this iconic edifice.  You can “hop off” and join the mob of visitors, or you can stay on your <<Bateau>> and disembark at one of the other “stations”.

The French word for boat is <<bateau>>.  The Batobus service cleverly used the sound of the French word converted to an English phonetic spelling to come up with “Bato”.  I honestly didn’t get the play-on-words until very recently partly because I was pronouncing it BATobus instead of baTObus.  The “bus” part of the name has the same letters but sounds like “bews” in French (apologies to real phoneticists).

I’m frequently asked about the double-decker tourists buses.  There are several competing services and I saw about half a dozen different companies during my July 2014 visit.  Each service has their own pricing/ticketing system and routes.  A quick survey of their prices suggests that a one day pass will run approximately 26€.  You can check out the various privately run double-decker buses for yourself, but my recommendation is to use the public bus system at the street level followed by a delightful cruise on a Batobus.  I’d be glad to provide you with the specific information you need to make that happen.  Contact me.

 

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • October 2017
  • December 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013

Categories

  • Busing Around
  • Franglish
  • Paris!

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel