Paris in February
 

Two adults with 2 12 year old girls spending 5 days,4nights in Paris in February. Does anyone know how to contact Paris Airport Service? Do taxis take 4 poeple from the airport into town? Cost? Also, am considering these hotels: Esmerald, Grand Hotel jeanne d'Arc, Hotel Champs du Mars. Any opinions?
Any good, cheap restaurants? Ideas for souvenirs? What to do and see?

Thanks.

Hello, For the Airport Shuttle go to www.paris-anglo.com. Look in the commerce section and they're listed. You can reserve on line, price 89FF/person. Another service is Euro Greetings, www.wfi.fr/eurogreetings/home.html. For 4, the price ange is 350 - 450 FF.

Unless you are carrying about 4 pieces of luggage apiece, it is so very easy and inexpensive to take the Metro on into the city. Just follow the signs and directions from the airport. You should have a map of Paris first, which I assume you do, so you will know which Metro station is closest to your hotel. The Metro from the airport will probably cost you less than $10 each, vs. the $70-80 mentioned above.

I vote to get your map handy and take the metro in to your hotel site unless you do have an enormous amt of luggage (talk the girls into just taking 1 suitcase!!!) The girls would enjoy the ride. Take a tour of Paris to get a feel of it all then pick your favorites. My I suggest: go to the top of the Eiffel tower and visit it again at night to see the lights, Montmartre area for artists and climb the steps of Sacre Coeur (again: get to the church late afternoon then enjoy Montmartre at night), Louvre: make them go to see the Mona Lisa if nothing else, spend a day at Versailles (go by train--very easy-don't forget the Petit Trianon and walk the grounds), walk along the Left Bank,visit Notre Dame, if you want to give them the "willies" visit the Catacombs. Souveniers: mini Eiffel towers, art purchased along the river, postcards, berets, the girls will find plenty of "good junk"! Just be sure you all have good walking shoes and very warm clothes--I was there in Feb and had to buy an umbrella, too! Bon Voyage! p.s. watch out for pickpockets on the subways.

Phone for PAS is 01-49-62-78-78; fax 01-49-62-78-79 Highly recommend the shuttle. Better than a taxi because you can reserve and the rate is set (unlike a taxi, where the rate varies with the amount of traffic). Do NOT recommend taking the metro. You may have to transfer more than once, and travelling on the metro with even one piece of luggage is a huge drag (literally) with all the stairways and hallways. And, having all of your luggage and belongings with you will make you serious prey for the pickpockets. When you are all out and about, be sure to have a contingency plan in case you should happen to get separated. It's not likely, but sometimes the doors of the train close quickly and the train speeds off. And, be sure to follow all of the advice for avoiding pickpockets. If you do, you'll never know they're around. If you don't, you'll get nabbed!

For a family, I would not recommend Esmerelda. It's just too "quirky". Some folks find it "charming", but I think it's rundown and tacky. The Jean d'Arc is not in the best of neighborhoods. Your best bet would be the Hotel du Champs de Mars which is in the rue Cler neighborhood (of Rick Steves fame) which is also very near the Eiffel Tower. All of the hotels in the rue Cler area recommended by Rick receive rave reviews on all the travel boards. You must book early, though, because they are getting very popular with Americans thanks to Rick.

And one more thing about Paris in February. It does, on occasion, snow. We arrived in the midst of a snowstorm one Valentine's Day. Granted it was all gone the next day, but we hadn't planned on snow and did some slipping and sliding while it lasted.

The metro is the WORST means of getting to your hotel from the airport. If you must be economical, take the Air France bus (you do not have to be flying Air France) for about $10 per person to downtown Paris. Then, take a taxi to the hotel. You positively do not want to travel on the metro with luggage. As for what to see and do, you really should read at least two good tour guides. The kids should read them also.

I doubt there is any such thing as a restaurant in Paris that is good and cheap. You will be utterly amazed at the cost of a Coca Cola in Paris. If you want to eat well AND economically, you MUST get yourself some good resources prior to leaving and plan your meals. You will find that there are lots of wonderful and reasonably (for Paris) priced restaurants around the St. Michel and Ecole Militaire metro stops. You should note also that in the vicinity of most of the major tourist attractions the restaurants are expensive and the food is not worth the price. Highly recommend you visit your local bookstore and peruse the guides relative to "budget" travel for economical dining in paris.

I just returned from Paris on the 20th and think that traveling with children away from home depends on how you travel with them when you're home. For instance if you are from a medium or large city where you regularly use public transportation to get about, then you will have no trouble doing so in Paris. If you can read in any language you will have no problem following the metro, bus and nieghborhood maps that seem to be located everywhere. My husband and I and our 4 peices of luggage armed with only my high school (from which I am 15yrs removed) traveled from the airport and back as well as everywhere we didn't walk this past week on public transportation with no problem, that paying attention to the normal caution we excercise at home wouldn't have prevented. I admit that being from NYC were I daily take the subway helped me, but my husband who had just moved to NYC from Albany N.Y. didn't seem to have any concerns when he went out alone. I would suggest picking up a Faulk Guide which is a city map of EVERY STREET in Paris. We were also able to get a detailed map of our route from the net. I can't remember the web address but try a search using the words: city and or subways. If you decide to use the Metro E-mail me and I'll make a point of hunting it down for you. We were given directions from the airport (starting from the terminal to our hotel using the RER and the Metro that listed not only which trains to board and stops to get off, but the stops in between so that we could ascertain whether we were heading in the right direction and how soon our stop was coming up. We took 1 RER and 2 Metro trains from the airport to our hotel and became sufficiently comfortable with our ability to get around, to redisgn the return route to the airport so that we took the RER only, with 1 transfer on the way back. The RER is more like a commuter train so it was less crowded and had overhead racks for baggage I would also recconmend getting a PARISVISTE card that allows unlimited travel on the metro, buses, and RER as well as other discounts, depending on the type you choose. You can get the pass before you leave. Check www.parisguide.com Enjoy your trip.