Because Paris is such an old city, it was designed and built before modern cars. That means that today traffic can be really bad in parts of the city. There are just too many cars and not enough wide roads! Over the years, Paris had to figure out ways for people to get around without relying too much on cars. As a result, there are lots of alternative and public modes of transportation available here including the Métro, buses, bikes, scooters, and of course, walking.
Most people get around using the Métro as part of their day-to-day transportation. It is a pretty great system! The Métro only costs €1.90 (about $2.09) to go basically wherever you want in the city. Taxis provide more direct routes from point to point, but they’re more expensive, and traveling by taxi can take a lot longer sometimes if the traffic is bad.
At first, I was pretty nervous using the Paris Métro. When I first tried it, there was a river of people entering and exiting. I felt a little bit pressured to move with the flow and not seem too lost. I got my ticket with confidence and squeezed myself inside a train full of people going to work. I breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed for the first couple of stops. Then it hit me: I was on the wrong train!
