Paris

Old Mar 10th, 2006, 04:31 PM
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Paris

Hello fellow Fodorites! I just joined Fodor's Travel Talk, and I've read many posts on here which have been very helpful.

This summer, I'm planning on taking a tour with Globus to Paris, Normandy, Brittany, and the Loire Valley with my 13 year old daughter. Here's the Itinerary from the Globus website, and an overview too.

This nine-day trip is the perfect way to see the highlights of Paris plus the World War II Normandy landing beaches, Brittany, and the Loire Valley in a short amount of time. In Paris, enjoy guided sightseeing, a Seine cruise, and a visit to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. An optional excursion to the Palace and Gardens of Versailles is available. World War II comes alive at the fascinating Memorial Museum for Peace and the Normandy American Cemetery. Next are Queen Mathilda’s Tapestry in Bayeux and the famous Abbey of Mont St. Michel. Then via Brittany into the Loire Valley, where a special “châteaux day” has been included: visit the jewel of the French Renaissance, Château Chambord; Catherine de Medici’s lovely Chenonceaux; and Clos Lucé to admire Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions. To top it off you’ll explore Chartres’ Cathedral and, back in Paris, a guided visit to the Louvre Museum has been included.

Day 1 (Fri.) Board your overnight transatlantic flight.
Day 2 Arrival in Paris, France. (Sat.) The day is free to rest or to start exploring the splendid French capital. At 4 p.m. meet your traveling companions for a welcome drink hosted by your Tour Director.
Day 3 Paris. (Sun.) Sightseeing with a Local Guide features the Arc de Triomphe, Opéra, Madeleine, Louvre, Champs-Elysées. Enjoy a SEINE CRUISE to take pictures of Notre Dame Cathedral and for a panoramic view. Take the elevator to the second floor of the EIFFEL TOWER. Balance of the day at leisure and lots to do. An optional excursion to Versailles Palace and gardens, and exciting evening outings are available (BB)
Day 4 Paris-Rouen-Caen. (Mon.) A pleasant morning drive takes you to historic Rouen in the lower valley of the River Seine. Time here for a leisurely stroll along the lovely cobbled Rue du Gros-Horloge leading from the cathedral to the square where Joan of Arc was burned in 1431. From Rouen continue to Caen and look forward to the highlight of the day, a visit to the fascinating MEMORIAL MUSEUM FOR PEACE. Its great exhibits and audiovisual show focus on the Battle of Normandy. (BB,D)
Day 5 Caen-Normandy Beaches-Bayeux-Mont St. Michel. (Tue.) Drive to the scene of the Allied Forces’ landing on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Visit the NORMANDY AMERICAN CEMETERY and see the Rangers Memorial at Point du Hoc. Then to Bayeux where you admire QUEEN MATILDA’S TAPESTRY, depicting in extraordinary detail William the Conqueror’s conquest of England. In the afternoon visit the famous ABBEY OF MONT ST. MICHEL, perched on a rocky isle in the Gulf of Saint Malo. Overnight on the coast near Mont St. Michel. (BB,D)
Day 6 Mont St. Michel-Blois. (Wed.) Enjoy a scenic ride right across Brittany to Angers. Stop here for pictures of an impressive 13th-century castle. Continue your journey eastward to Saumur, known for its cavalry school and a great sparkling wine. Then on to Blois where you will stay for the next two nights. (BB,D)
Day 7 Blois. Châteaux Country Excursion. (Thu.) A rich day of sightseeing. Visit the jewel of the French Renaissance, Château CHAMBORD, and the 16th-century château of Catherine de Medici, lovely CHENONCEAU. On to Amboise. Visit CLOS LUCÉ and marvel at an amazing collection of models of Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions, painstakingly reconstructed from the drawings of the great Renaissance genius. Tonight is your chance to sample French cuisine at one of the area’s excellent bistros. (BB)
Day 8 Blois-Chartres-Paris. (Fri.) This morning visit Chartres with its superb 13th-century GOTHIC CATHEDRAL—a jewel of medieval architecture. Continue to Paris where a guided visit to the LOUVRE MUSEUM has been included. Tonight, a lively cabaret show might be a good idea to make your last night in France an unforgettable experience. (BB)
Day 9 (Sat.) Your homebound flight arrives the same day. (BB)

Do you think it's really worth it, does this trip look interesting and educational? How was your travel experience
Liora is offline  
Old Mar 10th, 2006, 04:39 PM
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Quite frankly I think it's a little too much traveling around for 7 nights, with only three in Paris, the first to recover from the jet lag. It would be much nicer to spend 7 nights in Paris discovering the city. It has a lot to offer. You could possibly arrange a side trip to Normandy for the day if you want, but there is enough to see and do in Paris to keep you busy. Besides, it's a vacation. Try to enjoy it.
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Old Mar 10th, 2006, 05:18 PM
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You could forget the tour and do it yourself, at your pace. We'll be glad to help.
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Old Mar 10th, 2006, 05:43 PM
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Hi
I agree with Sandi and Robert. Skip the tour and do it on your own. One can never spend too much time in Paris and it's easy to get around. Just walking around and enjoying the sites is a treat. You can easily catch a train to those other areas and that's part of the experience. Versailles and Chartres are easy trips from Paris by train. If this is your first time to France, save the Loire Valley and Normandy for another time. It's hard to beat the grandeaur of Versailles and other chateaus will pale in comparison. They are worth seeing but not this trip. In Paris, go to the markets, walk the streets, have a cafe latte & croissant, sit on the banks of the Seine with your baguette sandwich and most importantly, buy a musueum pass.
An evening concert St. Chappelle is magical and if you want to do a boat trip on the Seine, the sunset ride is great. For fun, walk down Rue Moufftard. The markets and shops are truly fun.
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Old Mar 11th, 2006, 04:11 AM
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Oh, posh, there is nothing wrong with taking this tour for a first visit. An escorted tour is a fine way to "get your feet wet" if you've never been to Europe before.
Yes, you will be on the move, getting up early and covering a lot of ground. Your transportion and hotel logistics will be decided for you, and you'll have some basic information provided by the tour director and local guides.
Yes, you probably could do it cheaper on your own, and have a more "in-depth" experience of Paris and one other location. However, you can always return for a followup after you've sampled more of the country on the tour.

Globus is a reputable tour company.
Travelnut is offline  
Old Mar 11th, 2006, 05:02 AM
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Liora - since you ask if we think it is "worth" it I'm going to assume you have not yet signed up. If that is the case then I (and about 90% of the people on this forum) are going to try to talk you out of it. Reading that itinerary reminded me just why I think tours are, for the most part, awful.

Several questions will help us give you better advice. One - why did you consider a tour in the first place? Becasue you think it will be too hard/confusing/scarry to plan it on your own? Or because you want to see all those areas very badly? If you really want to see Normandy, Brittany, The Loire and Paris and you only have a week, then maybe it's not such a bad deal. But if you just want to see Paris and maybe a little French countryside - then it's a terrible idea.

Does this tour meet your plane and get you to your hotel? Doesn't sound like it since you don't meet the rest of the tour till dinner the first night. So the getting into Paris, finding the hotel, etc - you'll have to manage that on your own anyway. You'll have to eat in the restaurants the tour arranges (not usually the best or the cheapest) and stay at the hotel they pick (is it in a good location, often tour hotels are not - meaning the time "on your own" will involve alot of transportation into the areas you want to see). Given all the stuff they list to see on their sightseeing tour of Paris in half a day (afternoon free to go to Versailles) means you are going to have about 5 minutes in each place. And you don't get to see any of the parts of Paris that most people really love (the Latin Quarter, Montmartre, the Marais) unless you do them on your own that first day or second afternoon. So if you have to do them on your own anyway, you might as well skip the tour.

Give us more idea of what you want out of this trip, what your concerns are - and you'll get more "advice" than you'll know what to do with.
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Old Mar 11th, 2006, 05:16 AM
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Liora,

About your Day 3, sightseeing in Paris...Isabel said she thinks it would mean 5 minutes in each place...I actually thought it would be a drive-by..how can there be time left for leisure???
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Old Mar 11th, 2006, 05:17 AM
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I echo EVERYTHING Isabel says. This tour is pretty awful - and I definitely would not want to be a 13 yo along on this trek. Not that I think kids should be making family vacation decisions - but just think about it. How will she do being up, having her suitcase in the hall, through w/ breakfast and on the bus by 7:00 or (if you are lucky 8:00) a.m. every morning.

And you will really see hardly any of Paris.

It would be much cheaper (and MUCH more enjoyable) for you and your daughter to just stay in Paris and maybe take one overnight trip to Normandy or the Loire (or even a day trip to one of them)
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Old Mar 11th, 2006, 05:28 AM
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A similar itinerary we made on our own in three weeks: one week in Paris, one in Normandy - Brittany and one in Loire Valley.

The places to be visited are very interesting and nice, but not in 9 days!

As other said, it is very easy to visit France without a tour.
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Old Mar 11th, 2006, 05:44 AM
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Hi Liora,
I'll say ditto to the above. In my past, I took an organized tour as my first visit to europe, because I had no idea on how to do it on my own, nor the confidence that I could do it solo. After going, I realized that I loved traveling, and it was not impossible for me to do this, so the next year I went back with a relative.

So if you feel comfortable with the idea of taking charge of your trip, many people here will help you with a Paris plan including hotels, restaurants, itineraries, hints, etc...and we can throw in a day trip or two.
Sometimes the best moments in a trip are those little moments when you discover something out of the way, spend a moment at a street cafe, see a street performer, find a park frequented only by locals...these moments will not happen as easily on a tour. Yes, you will see the sights, but there will be a layer below, that you may not experience.
Either way, good luck and I think you've picked a great country to visit.
Mike
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Old Mar 11th, 2006, 05:56 AM
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Hi L,

One more vote against the tour.

You can spend the whole 9 days, not just Sat and Sun, in Paris and actually enjoy being there.

This is certainly something that you can do on your own. You will even be able to plan some things just for your daughter.

ira is offline  
Old Mar 11th, 2006, 06:44 AM
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There are just different tastes and goals often in choosing packaged tours over do-it-yourself. I've taken a couple tours (like others, when I started traveling) and enjoyed them all, actually. You just have to be a wise consumer, and know your tastes.

I don't personally think that Globus tour is so bad, although I'd look at comparisons. I think Liona wants to see a lot of different things in a short time, many people do, and you will see more of them, and easier, if you have a tour like that than doing them on your own.

I know some folks on Fodors always advise people to just stay in one large city for their entire vacation, like Paris, and that's that. Well, some people don't want to do that. You can do day trips, but not easily to some of those locations on the tour, actually. Also, it is a lot of trouble and time (and lots of chance of error) to figure out all those transportation options yourself. There are a lot of people who have trouble figuring out how to get from the airport into central Paris, or how to buy a metro ticket, or how to get a public rail site, or how to even use a train or read a metro map.

Now I think someone can do things on their own, and some are more capable than others or at least able to roll with the punches. I think Teri's recent trip report on here about her trip to Paris with her daughter was a perfect example. She stayed in Paris but did day trips. A lot of those trips did not work out so well, or she made a lot of mistakes, or missed trains. So, she didn't see some things she wanted, but she was able to roll on with things and not get really upset about them, and just do alternatives. I really admired that, but it isn't for everyone and some people would fall apart at some of the things that happened to her (ie, arriving in London and being unable to get any local money and forgetting they don't use the euro, or missing trains to places you planned to go).

Even Day 3 doesn't sound as bad to me as some people think. I think those are mainly "drive by" events on an introductory city tour, but what's wrong with that. I like those kind of things. You don't need to spend time visiting the Arc and Madeleine, etc., those are drive-by events and I think that is the point of this. There is a more thorough tour of the Louvre on the last day, so I don't think the original day is meant to be a museum expedition.

I've been on some city tours like that and actually enjoyed them. I've also been on a city tour that included only about 1-2 hours in the Louvre (as an introduction), and tours often have special privileges of immediate entry (and guides who know right where to go and want to do), that makes a short tour more feasible for an introduction.
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Old Mar 11th, 2006, 07:10 AM
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I know I'll get clobbered, but I think for Liora and her daughter, the tour will be good. Not everyone can strike out on their own in a place they've never been and where they don't speak the language.

I've never taken a tour, but I am about to lead one in May, a group of 21 students and parents on almost this very same itinerary. Would I do it for me? No, but I speak French, and I've been traveling to Europe since 1983. For 90% of the travlers in my group, they will love it. It will be the only European trip they will ever take, and they will be able to look back and say they were able to see a lot in 10 days.
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Old Mar 11th, 2006, 07:50 AM
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The tour will arrange for pickup at the airport and transfer to the hotel.
The 'meet your tour group' event is a get-together will all the people who will be traveling with you (and the tour director).

My first visit to Europe would make you all gasp and faint, as we 'covered' 6 countries in 17 days. Of course we didn't visit any one place in depth - that's why the next year we returned to Paris for 12 days. The tour was FANTASTIC and made our first trip DOABLE for someone who didn't have a clue or much free time to plan such an extensive venture on her own.

In the 10 years since then, I've planned city visits in Netherlands, Belgium, and France, and train trips from Amsterdam-Germany-Switzerland, and a car trip in the Loire. But it all started with that first escorted tour.
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Old Mar 11th, 2006, 09:12 AM
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Liora - Take the tour, after all it sounds like your first trip to France, so sit back and relax. Even if you miss things like the Apocalypse Tapestry(see you say stop for photos of the 13C castle only) so what? - come back another day and do your own tour.
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Old Mar 11th, 2006, 10:31 AM
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Liora,
I'll be taking the Globus Popular Tour this summer which has an even more hectic pace with 6 other people. However, since I now have become fond of this forum and all the wonderful and good advice it gives -- My next trip will be an independant one. I'm just a little too nevous to try it on my won the first time.
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Old Mar 11th, 2006, 11:15 AM
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Take the tour. My first trip to Europe was a Globus 11 countries in 21 days deal. I had never thought I could go to Europe, and my daughter pity-party-ed me into it. We were dead when we got home, but we loved it and have been going strong on our own ever since.

My husband mostly prefers tours. He has a heart condition and doesn't want to cope with foreign languages or driving on the "other" side of the road. He's a dear, but my daughter is my best travel companion.



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Old Mar 11th, 2006, 11:37 AM
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Another vote torwards the tour!

I'm 21 years old and have taken tours with my family to various destinations around the globe with Globus. Every single one of them was fabulous, and had very nice itineraries. I traveled to Africa, Japan, China, Greece, and Scandinavia with my family and Globus. Since my parents are avid travelers but hate to do all the work themselves, they have always been a pleasure for my parents, younger brother, older sister, and I. Even though the itineraries often full, we had much time ot shop, leisure, and explore places independently. When I was younger, I loved all these fun trips and I'm sure your daughter will too. So my advice is, go on the trip, you won't be disapointed!

One last thing - I just checked the website and Globus does allows you to add another day to the beginning or end to your trip, which would be an option if you want more time to see Paris.
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Old Mar 11th, 2006, 12:45 PM
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Liora,

I won't do a tour - I don't like the packaged aspect of it. I prefer to find my own hotels, decide where I want to go, explore on my own. I'm also comfortable in a foreign language (I speak French, but I traveled to Yugoslavia and Russia 20 years ago alone when they were behind the Iron Curtain - French certainly didn't help me then!).

My parents will never travel without a tour. They like the fact that they don't have to drive or take trains, find a place to eat, or hotels. Basically, they are extremely content to NOT make a decision and follow.

Do what your heart says. I think the folks above have laid out pretty compelling reasons FOR and AGAINST a tour.
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Old Mar 11th, 2006, 02:10 PM
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I took a Globus tour more than two decades ago so maybe it was lots worse then or my mother just booked the cheapest tour category available. For example, when the tour mentioned we'd stay in Paris it was actually at a Novotel near CDG. Highly disappointing not to take a nice stroll on our final tour night there. That was pretty much the way it went in the other cities. We stayed outside the central districts.

As to the tours themselves they were allright but I do remember that we logged many hours just travelling on the bus going from one city to the next.
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