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Accessible Travel Paris

Accessible Travel Paris – Paris is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world and is accessible to wheelchair users. There are accessible busses which provide accessible travel Paris. The Metro system has a few stations with elevators to get to the platforms, however most of the stations are not accessible and should not be relied upon for getting around.

Several of the popular tourist attractions in Paris have good wheelchair access. The Eiffel Tower has an elevator to transport wheelchair users to the 2nd landing. Getting to the top (3rd) landing has 18 steps to ascend before you have to get in an elevator to get up to the third landing.
The Panthéon and the Arc de Triomphe are not wheelchair friendly. Both have steps to enter and are worth skipping.
There are several wheelchair accessible museums. The Musée du Louvre is accessed via an elevator in the pyramid in the main courtyard. From there it will take you down to the ticket counter. The Orangerie Museum is location in the Garden des Tuileries near the Louvre Museum and has a wheelchair accessible entrance that a staff member will need to open. The Musée d’Orsay is also wheelchair accessible and is access via a flat entrance at the southwest corner of the building. The Musée Rodin has a ramp to enter the building and flat access throughout the garden. The nearby Hotel National des Invalides contains Napoleon’s tomb and has a an accessible entrance on the east side of the building facing the Musée Rodin. The Jewish Art and History Museum has a ramp at the entrance. The Cluny Museum has numerous steps and is not wheelchair accessible.
Notre Dame church has a single step at the entrance. At the nearby Sainte-Chapelle Church a staff member will need to escort you to the adjacent building to use the elevator to get to the upper chapel. The Sacre-Coeur church is located on the north side of town and is accessed via an elevator in the adjacent building.
I recommend using the bus system to get around. It provides the best option for accessible travel Paris. Not all the bus lines are accessible but you can find a map showing which bus lines are accessible at the page on getting around Paris with a disability. Another possible way to get around town is using the wheelchair accessible taxis described on the page above. Rental cars are another possibility but I would not recommend it for accessible travel Paris because the large amount of traffic and expensive parking in Paris.
Paris has cobblestones in certain parts of the city. They are especially prevalent in the Latin Quarter. Paris is flatter than many other hilly cities in Europe such as Rome, Athens, Istanbul, and Edinburgh. There are more hills than flat cities such as London, Amsterdam, and Berlin.
Because Paris was not bombed in either of the World Wars, there are many buildings in the city centre that are housed in 18th century buildings. Many of these buildings have steps to enter them, and if they have had elevators installed they may be very small. Consequently, finding wheelchair accessible Paris hotels may be a challenge. I have done research on several hotels near Notre Dame, near the Louvre, near the Eiffel Tower, and in the 9th Arrondisement.

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