Just back from Paris; a few observations
 

We were in Paris from Sept 26 to Oct 4, then spent 3 days in the Loire Valley around Amboise before returning home late Saturday night. A few comments:

1.) If you love impressionism and plan to visit the Musee d' Orsay, note that when we were there, the top floor, which contains most of those paintings was closed for renovation. There were some fine Van Gogh and Gaugans on display, but the closure was a disappointment to me. As an alternative, you might like to visit the Musee L'Orangerie, just across the river in the Tulleries and had 8 massive Monet waterlilies, plus a pretty good collection of Renoir and other impressionists and the Musee Marmottan, close to the La Muette metro station. Great collection of Monets there.

2.) AVOID the afternoon Giverny tour run by fcomfrance. We left at 1:30 and were back at 6:15. They neglect to tell you that you first go to Versailles to drop off people going there and then pick them up on the way back, costing about an hour of time which you don't spend at Giverny. We were there for less than an hour, rushed through the Japanese garden and the house, did not see the flower garden other than to walk through them to the house and may have been in the gift shop for 5 minutes. At least 2 or 2 1/2 hours are required to properly see the site.

3.) A big tip of the hat to the professionals who work at the restaurants where we ate. At no restaurant was anyone less than friendly and helpful and all were willing to assist two Americans with virtually no knowledge of French to navigate the menus and help with any other needs we had. The service was frequently better than good, and was often stellar. Merci beaucoup to them and to others who also helped us out. We returned from this trip convinced that far from being rude, the French are incredibly friendly people.

4.) Do yourself a favor and stay at on onsite airport hotel the night beofre you leave. Traffic from the city to CDG is helacious. We stayed at the Novotel which was very nice, then took the tram shuttle to our terminal, less than a 10 minute ride.

5.) A story: on our way into the city, we were in our taxi and watched one car bump into another right next to us. The driver of the bumped car got out, looked at his car, shrugged and got back in his car. To quote the great Chick Hearn, "no harm, no foul." I don't think that would happen here.

6.) The wines: I ordered wine at every dinner, entirely blindly. Most were good or very good and all were drinkable. All also had an alcohol content of about 12.5%, 1 to 2.5% less than most I drink here.

Addendum- you can find my restaurant reviews on that other site (TA). All were posted today.

Dave, thanks for the heads-up. Sorry that you could not see all the wonderful impressionist paintings at the Orsay. You will just have to go back soon. :) I expect to do the Orangerie and the Marottan when I go to Paris again in late spring. Did you have time to do any other of the smaller museums?

That’s a real bummer about your “tour” of Giverny. Three hours there would be about right. Great gift shop too which deserves some browsing. Sounds as if the rest of the trip was stellar.

Nice, concise and helpful report for newbies. I have rarely had a less than stellar staff experience in France, regardless of whether it was a mom & pop place, a nice (not extravagant--I don't "do" those) cafe or the guy flipping crepes on the corner.

Sorry about your Giverny experiece.A hint for others , take the train from St Lazare to Vernon, there is a free shutttle bus to Giverny from the train station. You can go directly to The gardens and house or wander thru the town an d see the church and burial place and lots of placesforlunch and to wander thru. When you finish after spending as much time as you like the bus will take you back to the trains which are frequent

re: 4) We had no issue getting from the 1st to CDG BUT is was Saturday morning so perhaps weekends are better.

re: 5) I once witnessed two NYC taxi drivers duke it out after a similar bump.

Never ever had an issue getting to CDG from the 4th, 5th or 6th any day of the week burt left for an earlyflights and had a private car sh8uttle so no meter running. Only time we mighht have had a problem but didn't was in a shared shuttle and one person did not show up as they were supposed to and thew driver kept waiting for them until the rest of us complaoned!

The renovation of the Impressionist galleries at the Orsay will be completed by Oct 20.

I think many people would prefer to stay in Paris for their last night. If you traveled to the Novotel from Paris during the afternoon or early evening, you saw traffic conditions different from what most people would encounter traveling to the airport from central Paris to catch a morning flight out of CDG.

Indeed, driving to the airport in the morning is the opposite of the rush hour direction for workers, so the drive is a breeze.

We stayed at the Novotel which was very nice, then took the tram shuttle to our terminal, less than a 10 minute ride.>

please what do you mean by tram shuttle - a train or people mover or a bus? I am a rail nut and would like to know if a tram - a train or people mover connects the Novotel to terminals or is it a shuttle bus?

thanks for answering this rather weird question.

<i>I am a rail nut and would like to know if a tram - a train or people mover connects the Novotel to terminals or is it a shuttle bus?</i>

The Novotel is located above the Roissy Pôle station of the CDGVAL.

Well, maybe I just got bad rush hour traffic! I would certainly agree that it's preferable to be in the city at ANY time rather than the airport. But it took us 2 1/2 ours to get from Gare Montparnasse to CDG, beginning around 3 on a Friday.

Askar01 and PalenQ- I think I would call the shuttle a people mover, a light rail vehicle much like at some other airports and cities. It's not a bus, although they may also have those. Definitely not a real train.

Lateday traveller- we went to Musee Rodin as well. Part of that was also closed, but we saw plenty, including the house. We also went ot the Tour Eiffel, second level. Great views.

Good info.

CDG - a good reason to take the RER outbound instead of shuttle/taxi/bus.

Some hotels at CDG have their own shuttle, for example I stayed at the Sofitel and it was a quick 5 minute drive after being picked up.

>>it took us 2 1/2 hours to get from Gare Montparnasse to CDG, beginning around 3 on a Friday<<

"Get-away" day - and at the worst possible time.

Stu Dudley

"... one car bump into another right next to us....To quote the great Chick Hearn, "no harm, no foul."

Dave, I just want to commend you for being the first person that I can remember on this board to quote Chick Hearn. Perhaps the other car didn't "draw iron."

((H))

Friday afternoon out of Paris is the opposite of counter-flow.

thanks for posting, Dave.

I agree entirely about the friendliness of Parisians - last time we were there for an England v France rugby match, they were very happy to discuss how "they" were going to beat "us" at length.

and they were right.

which they were very happy to discuss with us as well.

merci tres being askar01 - many thanks! the VAL - Vehicule Articulate Leger is yes kind of a tram but not the traditional tram on street running that I may have excpected. Thanks again.

It's actually the same system used for the entire Lille metro network, as well as metro line 14 in Paris, and to which line 1 is being converted before the end of this year.

We always take the RER to/from CDG...but we only have carry-ons, so it's a snap for us. Takes about 35 minutes from the center of the city on the B line.
----------
Another vote for the train from St-Lazare to Vernon to get to Giverny. An easy and pleasurable ride.
----------
Also agree with the comment about the professionalism and politeness of the restaurant staff - - and most everyone we've ever interacted with in Paris. If you are polite, others generally are as well wherever you are.

SS