You can always find something to do when it rains…. Riding the #69 Bus in Paris is one thing you will always remember. The Paris buses are clean, comfortable and run on dedicated lanes in the streets.
Bus #69 runs from the Eiffel Tower (the Champs de Mars stop) to Pere Lachaise Cemetery (the Gambetta stop). You can start at either end and ride it one way, within 1.5 hours, on a single one-way ticket costing less than 2 euros. Pick up a Paris transit map at any Metro ticket office and locate the #69 bus route. You can hop on at any point along the line and hop off as long as you complete your one way trip within one and a half hours. If you have a month long Metro pass your all set getting on and off all day, because it also covers the buses within central Paris.
Along the route (west to east) will be: Eiffel Tower, Tuileries Garden, Louvre Museum, Le Marais, Place de la Bastille, Pere Lachaise Cemetery and other areas of interest. If you are staying in the La Marais area this will become a “local” bus for you and you will use it often. It should be noted that the east and west busses take slightly different streets at times.
We got on mid-route near the Chatelet Metro station at a route 69 Champs de Mars bus stop and headed West past the Lourve and Tuileries Gardens. We got off along Rue de Grenella and had lunch on one of the few pedestrian only street in the area, Rue Cler. We hopped back on the bus for the last five minutes to the Eiffle Tower. Just like on the Metro when you ride the bus the bus stop sign will have the route number and a name. The name indicates the last stop on that line. Stops marked 69 Champs de Mars are headed West, 69 Gambetta are going East.
All passengers exit at the Champ de Mars stop near the Eiffel Tower. After a few minute break the bus will make a U turn and pick up passengers at the stop on the other side of Ave. Joseph Blvd. This stop is labeled 69 Gambetta. We rode the bus all the way to the other end, grabbed some McDonalds fries and a Coke and took the Metro back home. I was an easy direct shot, no transfers.
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