Before you get to this list, make sure you have covered the universal apps that belong on your phone for any international trip. CityMapper, Google Maps offline, Google Translate camera mode, Apple Translate for conversation, WhatsApp, Wanderlog, and a few others are all covered in Apps I Never Travel Without. Those are the foundation. CityMapper in particular is excellent for Paris, and you will use it constantly. This list is what Paris specifically adds on top of them.
Bonjour RATP: The Official Paris Transit App
CityMapper will handle most of your navigation in Paris. But Bonjour RATP is the official app from the transit authority itself, and it is worth having for one reason: it knows things about the Paris metro that CityMapper does not. Specifically, it tells you which car to board to be closest to the exit at your destination station. At a large interchange like Châtelet, where different exits can be several minutes apart on foot, that is not a small thing.
The app covers the full Paris transit network: metro, RER, bus, tram, and the night bus. Real-time traffic, service alerts, and line maps are all included.
One honest note: the app is navigation and information only on iPhone. Buying tickets or loading your Navigo pass through the app on iOS was not yet available when we traveled in 2022. For tickets, you buy at the machine in the station. The app gets you there; it just does not replace the ticket window.
Rick Steves Audio Europe: Build Your Paris Playlist Before You Leave
The Rick Steves Audio Europe app is covered in the parent article. What is worth adding here is the same thing worth adding for every city: the app downloads and stores audio tracks directly on your device. Once downloaded, you do not need wifi or cell service to listen. Download your Paris playlist at home, on wifi, before you leave. Do not try to download tracks at the airport or standing in front of a museum entrance.
We pushed this list on our group for months before we left for Paris in 2022. Here is the playlist we built. Open the app, find France, and download these before you go:
- Sainte-Chapelle Stained Glass: one of the most extraordinary Gothic interiors in the world, and most visitors walk through too fast. This track slows you down and tells you what you are looking at.
- Versailles Palace Sightseeing Tips: listen to this one before you go. It will change how you approach the day.
- Versailles Palace: the full palace tour. Download both the tips and the tour; they work together.
- Père Lachaise Cemetery: one of Paris’s most remarkable places, and most tourists skip it entirely. The audio tour makes it something you will remember for years.
- Bridges of Paris: a walking tour along the Seine. Do this one on a slow afternoon when you have nowhere to be.
- Walking Across Paris: a longer walk that ties neighborhoods together. Good for a day when you want to move through the city rather than anchor at a single site.
- Wandering Paris: Rick’s general Paris audio. Good for the flight over, or an evening when you want to get oriented before the next day.
For the Louvre, Rick Steves has a Denon Wing walking tour worth adding if you are going. The museum is large enough that a focused audio guide on the highlights prevents the kind of overwhelm that makes people stop seeing things after the first hour.