teacherCanada

At the very end of an 11 day tour celebrating the 65th anniversary of the end of WWII we will be staying at the Mercure Noisy, located in Noisy Le Grand about 13 km east of central Paris. The hotel is located just north of the A4 directly east from Paris. Sadly, we have only one night in the area (arriving about 5 p.m. and flying out to Canada the next morning). I want to take a group of my students from the hotel to central Paris for the evening (and get back to the hotel). Is there an RER line or some other type of public transit available to us to do this. I would think a public taxi would be prohibitively expensive. How much would the RER cost? What hours does it run? We will be there on May 8 (a Saturday night).

I wish for two things: more time in Paris and a more centrally located hotel - but these items were beyond my control (I am a very small cog in a large machine).

Looking forward to hearing some replies.

tC

kerouac

The RER A is direct to Paris from Noisy-le-Grand. It will run until just before 1 a.m. (maybe 2 a.m. on a Saturday).

docdan

There are two RER stations in Noisy-le-Grand, one near the Bd du Mont d-Est and one near a Bd de Champy-Nesles. This is on the A4 line which goes to Disney Europe (Marne-la-Vallee-Chessy - NOT the line to Boissy Saint-Leger) If I am reading the timetable correctly - Looks like a train runs every 15 min all the way up to 1 AM, so this appears to be a good option. These RER trains will connect to the Metro system at Gare de Lyon, Chatalet, (being just north of Notre Dame and then on to C de Gaulle Etoile, where the Arc is, recommended for youngsters as it gets them tired easily and the boys will like the Army stuff. Do not have cost info for you, but you may want to peruse the Paris transit system's website at www.ratp.fr. A fairly user-friendly website that is mostly in English, except you can plan on the one piece of information that is most critical for your planning will be only in french. Bon voyage!!

kerouac

If you are along the A4, I presume that you are at Noisy le Grand-Mont d'Est (with shopping mall and cineplex).

teacherCanada

kerouac and docdan - Thanks for the quick replies and positive suggestions. I certainly appreciate knowing that there is a possibility for us to get into and out of Paris on the Saturday evening. I'm not sure which (or what) attraction we'll be able to visit - but I'll be darned if I am going to sit in a hotel room while we have our one night in the city of light.

I will examine the ratp.fr website and see if I can figure out the optimal options. Merci beaucoup!

tC

docdan

Naturally most kids will want to go to top of Eiffel Twr and that is OK - but at the cost of alot of time waiitng in line. - A more time-efficient idea will be to try to get to the top of the Arc ( you'll need to check opening times) then stoll down the Champs until you get bored, then cut over to the river and try to do a Bato-bus trip along the river - tell the kids that looking up the Eiffel is jsut as cool as looking down - one problem with going to the top of the tower is that the tower is not in the View!! Being at the top of the Arc at dusk is really worth whatever effort you put into being there.

teacherCanada

Well, we're back safe and sound from our wonderful time in Europe. Thanks to kerouac and docdan for their positive and correct advice. Our hotel was attached to the shopping mall which was attached to the RER station. We arrived in Paris at about 5 p.m. and by 6 p.m. we were on the train headed towards Paris and supper (tarte flambee) on Rue Lombard near the Pompidou Center. Some of the group returned directly to the hotel after supper, but the adventurous ones (about 20 of us) went for a 4 hour walk around the downtown. We walked to Notre Dame (where we went inside for about 30 minutes), walked past the Louvre to the Tulieres Gardens and Place de la Concorde. After spending a few minutes gazing up the Champs Elysee toward the arc de Triomphe we boarded the metro to Trocadero arriving just in time to see the sparkles light up the view. We then returned via the metro to the RER station and back to the hotel. Our wakeup call was 5:00 a.m. to get us to CDG by 7:00 a.m.

Thanks for the great advice. The students and chaperones who had the evening in Paris absolutely loved the warm, damp walk in the city of light.

tC

cynthia_booker

Thanks for the follow-up. Sometimes we never learn how something worked out. I bet they had a wonderful time!

kerouac

I'm glad that everything worked out fine.

Mathieu

Hey tC,

This sounds like another of your usual excellent trips, and I hope this means that we can all look forward to another of your usual excellent trip reports !

Cheers,

M.

PS: Still woking on but nearly done my St.P, Czech, Budapest and London TR from last Nov. and hope to post in parts soon - so I'm not hassling you !

teacherCanada

Ahhh Mathieu, I was considering doing a short trip report on our 11 days away. I had great support from Anselm Adorne and Lavendrye for some of the logistics. We had 2 days in Berlin, 1 in Hamburg, 4 in Deventer (Amsterdam), 1 in Kortricht (Brussels) and 1 in Paris. A very educational trip for me and one that was truly worthwhile for our students. The trip was history-based and we had the chance to relate to some of the horrors that are war.

I will try to find a few minutes to put fingers to keyboard in the next few days and relate our experiences in Europe.

I am hoping to see a more detailed record of your experiences while you were in Russia and the eastern European countries of your most recent travels. If I remember correctly, there was a chance for a small GTG to review your pics and hear your tales. I am still up for that!

tC