Does this sound like incorrect info to you?
 

Howdy folks, I just wanted to ask your opinion on a section of the Fodor's Paris 2007 guidebook describing how to get from ORLY airport into Paris because a reviewer on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Fodors-Paris-2...F8&s=books) seems to think I got it wrong (I wrote that section). If you don't have the guide handy, it basically says you can take either the RER C (with a shuttle bus connection to the airport from the station) or RER B (aka OrlyVal) with a monorail link to the airport from the station. I live here, so I use both depending on where I want to get in to Paris. The information on the RATP public transport website confirms this (http://www.ratp.info/orienter/aeropo...hp?partenaire=).
I think the reviewer was just confused (he refers to the train as the "metro", which it isn't) or the ticket agent only knew about the RER B connection (oddly enough, it does occur sometimes that Parisians, even those working in the RATP or the tourism office, don't know as much about their city as we guidebook writers do). The RER B is definitely faster, but for those going to areas of Paris that are closer to RER C stations (ie Eiffel Tower, Musée d'Orsay), then the latter is more convenient in the end. Does this make sense to all of you, or have I been drinking too much red wine? ;)

Note in a recent post on this the dicey area the Pont de Rungis station is in and the unsavory-looking crowd there the times i've been there. And then the dumpy grafitti-covered, oft torn-seated RER C trains - the worse i've seen on any RER line. I think most tourists would pay a bit more and take the OrlyVal, called an automated metro on the ratp.fr web site to B - then even if going to Eiffel area change at Notre Dame-Saint Michel to line C.

And i don't think the free navette shuttle bus to Pont de Rungis, outside the airport, is as seemless for folks with luggage than the OrlyVal to B link is. Guidebooks are written generally for a well-heeled tourist who would rather have comfort and nice trains, etc. This is an aspect i would criticize by presenting both alternatives with some comment.

And i think they may use the word metro to include the RER because most novice tourists would not know the difference - to them it's all the metro and indeed inside Paris the RER is for all purposes part of the metro system.

Perhaps some people think any train run by the RATP is "the Metro" just as a lot of people think all facial tissues are "Kleenex."

You live there so you obviously know what you are talking about and I'm a little surprised you are even asking the question.

Dear Heather,

FYI, when you copy a long URL it messes up the formatting.

Please copy and paste the URL at www.tinyurl.com and paste the tinyurl here.

Your 140 chqaracter link becomes http://tinyurl.com/y3vrpd

((I))

I don't know as I don't do it, but I really think you are being too critical by commenting on someone's use of the term "metro" versus "train" or RER. I wouldn't base any judgment on that reason. Also, a lot of guidebook writers don't know what they are talking about, so just being a guidebook writer doesn't prove anything. The Eyewitness Paris guidebook is full of errors about the transportation system, and I've known Parisian residents who know less bout the public transportation system than I do because they don't use it that much when living there.

Sorry, your post just comes off with the wrong tone to me.

ttt

I have used both the RER C and the RER B. In most cases, the RER B (with Orlyval, which is not a monorail, because it runs on 2 rails like a normal train) is faster. In other cases, the RER C can be more convenient, if you are staying near the Eiffel Tower or at Saint Michel, for example, but it is slower. I have not worried about security using either method, but I will admit that the RER C is dirtier.

Heather is actually very self-deprecating and open to opinions in her post. There's nothing at all wrong with her "tone." Others, on the other hand, could work on being less abrupt and dogmatic.

I did find the OP extremely hard to understand the point she was trying to make - it seems the Fodor's write up was very accurate and i can't quite see what the incorrect info Heather was trying to point out. If it was just using the word 'metro' for the RER it's petty and a word many people would use for the RER as it's part of the Paris metro system once it gets to town.
I'm just confused as to what her point was otherwise?????
Confounded in Ohio

I agree that it could have been clearer.

But I really can't see criticizing someone who is clearly open to finding out if she was misleading her readers in Fodor's Paris. That seems like a noble intention to me. Don't understand why folks are coming down on her so hard.

Perhaps there is a misunderstanding here. Perhaps some of the people responding to this post think it is Heather who is criticizing the description in the Fodor's guide. Actually it is Heather who wrote the description and she is trying to figure out whether the person who reviewed the book on Amazon and said her information was wrong has a point.

As I don't have the book, I can't look at it to see whether the instructions are difficult to follow, which may have led to the reviewer's confusion.

A more careful reading of the hard-to-read IMO OP leads me to be sympathetic to Heather and what she says she wrote in Fodors regards Orly RER links (forgetting that it's not a monorail as she incorrectly calls it but a VAL-type automatic metro, which is what i believe the ratp.fr web site calls it) - otherwise her advice is right on. And no otherwise it is not incorrect info.

For others who didn't read the Amazon critque's comments, here they are:

<For starters, this book gives the wrong Metro to take from Orlly airport into the city. The information person at the Metro ticket counter kept repeating "Take Metro __"(I've now forgotten which) And I kept saying, but this book says to take the other Metro. She just shook her head in knowing disgust.>

Yes Heather you are completely correct in what you wrote and, as others said, the local info at Orly personnel was wrong and this is not unusual in my experience. That said i think i would automatically route novice travelers via the nicer OrlyVal into RER B, even if they are going to points on RER C and have them change at Notre-Dame Sain Michel, which i think the airport info person was also doing.
The amazon reviewer was completely out of order, from his/her own ignorance abated by the ignorance of the Orly info person.
C'est la vie!