Getting across Paris: what is really faster, depending on the time of day

Central Paris fits inside a circle about ten kilometres across. It is a fact people forget, and it changes everything: most journeys you make during a stay are under three kilometres, which means thirty-five minutes on foot. Over that distance, the metro only saves you the difference between walking and waiting.

The honest calculation for a metro journey is not the time shown between two stations. It is: walk to the station, go down, wait for the train, perhaps change, come back up, walk to the address. Count six to eight minutes of fixed costs before you even move. For fewer than two stops, walking is almost always faster, and infinitely more pleasant.

The metro takes the lead beyond three or four stops, and wins outright when the roads are jammed — between eight and ten in the morning, and between five and eight in the evening. At those times a taxi takes two to three times longer than a train, for ten times the price. The only case where a car remains unbeatable is a journey with luggage, or late at night when trains run less often.

The bike sits in between, and it has gained a lot in recent years: protected lanes now link most of the main roads. It is excellent along the Seine and on equipped boulevards, much less so in the narrow streets of the centre, where you spend your time getting off. If you have never cycled in Paris, start with a ride along the river on a Sunday morning rather than a Tuesday at six in the evening.

A note on connections, which are the real hidden cost of the Paris metro. Some interchange stations require five to seven minutes of underground walking, stairs included. A journey shown as eighteen minutes with two changes often takes twenty-five. When the times on the screen are equal, always prefer the route with one fewer change, even if it looks longer.

In the evening, services thin out after ten and the last trains run around one in the morning, a little later at weekends. That is not a problem if you are walking home from a nearby area; it is if you are on the other side of the city. Check the walking distance from your dinner spot before ordering one last drink.

The bus is the most underrated option in Paris, which is a shame. It is slow at rush hour, but it has two qualities the metro will never have: you see the city, and you never go underground — which matters with a suitcase, a pushchair or tired knees. Several lines cross the centre past all the essentials, for the price of an ordinary ticket. In the middle of the day, outside rush hour, a bus often takes the same time as a metro with a change, and is far more pleasant.

One last point, about route-planning apps. They calculate timetables well and fatigue badly: they happily suggest three changes to save four minutes, and ignore the fact that a connecting corridor is two hundred metres long. Get into the habit of looking at the suggested route on a map before following it: a slightly longer direct journey is often the much better decision.

In each apartment we list the useful stations within five minutes, with the real walking time — not the time on a map, but the time it actually takes, pushchair or suitcase included. And the walking route to the two or three places you will almost certainly go, because that is often the one people look for as they step outside.