BigHead

Hi,

My husband and myself are staying in Paris end Dec for 7 nights. I'm not too sure if it worth to join tours (e.g. thru Citirama, etc) to Verailles(euro37), Chartres(53) and Mont st Michel(159)? or shall we just go by ourselves? Would you have any idea how much we will spend if we go by ourselves? Is it difficult to get there? Thanks so much again!

elaine

Versailles is easy:
To get there, take the RER line C to Versailles Rive Gauche (R.G.). The RER lines are suburban trains to and from Paris. You can catch the RER train in Paris at Invalides, Champ de Mars, Musee d'Orsay, St Michel, and Gare d'Austerlitz (consult your metro map for these stops). Make sure your C train goes to Versailles Rive Gauche as the end destination.You?ll have about a half-mile walk to the Chateau. You don?t want any other Versailles stops as you will be farther from the chateau.

When you leave the Versailles Rive Gauche station you will be on Avenue General de Gaulle. There is a clean bathroom at the MacDonald?s near the RER station?be nice and buy something. Head right on Ave. G deG and then left on the big Avenue de Paris which goes straight to the chateau. Tourist information offices: across the street from the Rive Gauche Station; also at the chateau at the entrance.

Chartres: for train service, go to http://voyages.sncf.fr/
At the Cathedral, Englishman Malcolm Miller gives his wonderful tours at 12 and again at approx. 2:30 daily excepting Sundays, or on days a special event is taking place in the cathedral (like a wedding).
The noon tour is different from the afternoon presentation. Each is about an hour and a quarter, and starts near the gift shop in the cathedral. If you want to check to make certain he will be there:
Tel : 02 37 28 15 58 0 2 37 28 33 03) Email : [email protected]

If he's not going to be there, there are other guides available
Service Accueil-Visites de la Cathédrale Tel : 02 37 21 75 02 Fax : 02 37 36 51 43
Email : [email protected]
A pair of binoculars is very useful for seeing the detail in the windows.

not such a good website except that you can see a map of the town:
www.chartres.com/va/bienvenu.htm

Mont St-Michel is more complicated as the train doesn't go straight there--on that one, a bus tour makes more sense.

rex

As usual, elaine gives good, and thorough advice. Note that for the telephone number she lists, there are two tlephone numbers run together (maybe the second one is fax?) - - and that calls to France are ++33, omitting the initial "0" after the country code for calls placed outside France.

And I think the advice on Mont St Michel is half-right, half "another way you could look at it" (I am reluctant to say wrong). She is right that bus will be easier than other (mixed) modes of public transportation. But even by bus, it's way too much time (for my taste) to spend on a bus to do a a single day trip. The rea around PAris is brimming with other choices. Save MSM for a separate trip of 3-30 days to Normandy and/or Brittany.

Best wishes,

Rex

elaine

rex, thanks for catching the run-on telephone numbers, that was a sloppy copy and paste from my Paris file. Good point as well about dropping the 0 if calling Mr Miller from outside of France.

I also meant to note that the Cathedral is perhaps a 10 minute walk from the train station.

Kristinelaine

Another reason for postponing a trip to MSM: it is wonderful to stay overnight one night there -- to be there when it is not completely overrun by day-trippers.

ira

Hi BH,

I agree with saving MSM for an overnight visit.

You only have 7 days. Either Chartres or Versailles would be sufficient, and you cn do them independently.