nicerue50

Thank you SS. I'll take several credit card and ATM and also have left over euro from our 2011 Nice trip. Your report was wonderful. I too do Paris not touristy and love it staying in 11th. Looking forward to my stay.

TDudette

FYI, if you are at a manned venue that rejects your non-chip card, supposedly the clerk can enter the numbers and expiry date manually and it will go through. Another Fodorite posted that on one of the chip threads. That happened to me once at the Prado gift shop and it went through fine manually. As you say though, bring a few!

Nice TR, thanks.

Sue4

Enjoyed the report. Sounds like you had a wonderful time. In rereading some of your report I see that I was leaving Paris around the time you were arriving. I wanted to go to the Paris 1900 Exhibition, too, but those LONG lines to to get in were everyday. I love the Petit Palais (and they have a great cafe for lunch, where you can sit outside by the garden) so I just visited their permanent collections and had lunch there.
I think all of Paris must be going to the exhibition. I wish I had known about it to get a ticket beforehand.
From what I've seen, that's the only way to get into exhibitions - at least the popular ones.

paris1953

Really enjoyed your report! You've provided many new reasons for another trip to Paris (although who actually needs a reason? ).

kerouac

This has of course been an excellent report, but one of the most mundane things is one of the most important: one should always have more than one payment card on a trip like this.

ParisAmsterdam

Thanks for such an interesting and enjoyable trip report!

denisea

Dying to go to Vauz le Vicomte but want to save it for a spring/summer visit and we always end up going over Christmas. Someday. Great report.

progol

Thoroughly enjoying this report -- you've given me many good ideas for a future trip and very helpful info.

I've never been to la musee d'art moderne and will definitely include it on the next trip!

Paule

latedaytraveler

Hi SSander,

Let me add my kudos for your wonderful report. Interesting side trips out of town too. Very interested in your visit to the LeClerc Museum (Paris Liberation) and Jean Moulin Museum (French Resistance) at the Gare Montparnasse.

I am a huge WWII buff with special interest in that sad complex chapter in French history. Thanks for sharing.

Scootoir

So glad you went to Vaux le Vicomte ssander. We enjoyed a lovely day there one September . Gardens were quite nice and we loved the chateau but it sounds like your visit was really special. There were four of us at the time and we splurged on a car and driver booked by our hotel to take us there.

ssander

latedaytraveler...

Here's the link to those two WWII museums:

http://parismusees.paris.fr/en/city-...iberation-jean

Though not large each has a ton of interesting display information, and much of the items have English descriptions.

...and I forgot to mention in my TR, there is an upstairs room with a short film introducing the liberation.

SS

Kathie

Based on your report, I've started my notes for our next Paris trip. Thanks!

mmebev

Thank you for the wonderful trip report! My husband & I have managed to get to France every year since 1996--8 of those trips with lots of high school students and others in tow (I am a newly retired French teacher). When on our own, we do things very similar to what you describe, with a couple of exceptions. We always get a room in a hotel with a small terrace so we can enjoy our picnic meals on the terrace, often after dark while catching up with kids and grandkids on skype, email or text (we usually stay 2-3 weeks). We have stayed quaint all over France, so now we go for more budget-we spend very little time in the room anyway, but we feel air conditioning is necessary for us older folks in July and August--the least expensive time to visit. So we have found a few IBIS hotels that we love with air, terrace and great quartiers. The other really great time and hassle saver is that we load our Navigos weekly for all 5 zones for 34 euros 40, and we can go so many places with no ticket lines at all. We've done dozens of places on the RER--you can easily get to Fountainebleau, Auvers-sur-Oise, Rambouillet, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Chantilly, Reuil-Malmaison, the medieval town of Provins, Versailles, Disney, Meaux, Argentueil, Meudon, Chamarande. We ride the trains and Trams and just get off at random towns and wander--we find great little cafés and so many places where people say, "How did you find us? We never have Americans here!" We're taking our adult children and 3 young grandsons to Normandy and Paris this summer (10 people), and have even decided to get the kids Navigos so we don't have to hassle with the ticket lines! We have always visited Vaux-le-Vicomte while we had a rental car--the Saturday night candle lit tours are amazing!! We hope to get there this year for the Christmas light display. We also loved the museums on the roof of Montparnasse! Other favorite museums of ours are the Cluny museum of medieval Paris in the Latin Quarter, the Rodin gardens and museum across from the Invalides, and the Delacroix atelier and museum. The Sèvres museum of porcelain is beautiful also. We also really enjoyed France Miniature if that sort of thing appeals. We have found that our credit union debit card has the fewest fees for ATM withdrawals. Our Cap One cards are generally fine. This year, AMEX has dropped foreign fees on many of its cards, so we will try to rack up some SKYmiles any place that accepts AMEX (many places in France do not!) The situation with non-chipped cards was actually at its worst a few years ago, at least in Paris--most businesses have gone back to machines that read either chipped or magnetic stripe cards. For a while, none of the machines at the train stations took non-chipped cards, but slowly, more and more of them do accept our magnetic stripes--at least the ones that recharge Navigos. That being said, we tend to carry cash more as many of the small merchants and those outside of Paris really are not thrilled with credit cards at all, especially for small purchases.

latedaytraveler

Hi again SSander,

Thank you for the link to those interesting WWII museums.

For a fascinating up-close description of the Nazis' last days in Paris, I suggest reading IS PARIS BURNING? How Paris Miraculously Escaped Adolph Hitler's Sentence of Death in August 1944 by Larry Collins and Dominique La Pierre. It was written not long after the war and contains hundreds of first hand account of the events.

Again, thanks for your TR...

ssander

Late...

Thanks...sounds fascinating...I know they made a film from the book years ago, and I may have seen it...but I can't remember.

SS

kerouac

<I>The situation with non-chipped cards was actually at its worst a few years ago, at least in Paris--most businesses have gone back to machines that read either chipped or magnetic stripe cards. For a while, none of the machines at the train stations took non-chipped cards, but slowly, more and more of them do accept our magnetic stripes--at least the ones that recharge Navigos.</I>

You should know that the only reason that most machines in Europe refuse non chipped cards is because the card issuers do not want them to be accepted due to fear of fraud. The machines themselves are completely pure of heart and would gladly accept any card as long as the issuer accepts the responsibility. The renewed acceptance of some of the cards is because the American banks have had a change of heart (or tens of thousands of complaints from their customers).

kerouac

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_fTJUGSZ-M

ssander

Cool you tube clip ...I just ordered the book from my regional library system...should be at my local branch in a couple of days.

Netflix does not have the film on streaming (which is all I subscribe to).

SS

latedaytraveler

Kerouac, thanks for the link ....

ssander

ERROR CORRECTION:

(Just checked my photos)

On Day 4, I said we had lunch at Restaurant Sampson. That was wrong...it was Pizzeria Maestro.

Sorry.

SS