Paris in September with Elderly Mom
May 27th, 2009, 09:18 PM
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Paris in September with Elderly Mom
I have recieved alot of very good advise on a previous thread regarding a trip planned in September for my mothers 80th birthday in Tuscany. All the arrangements are made for that leg of our trip.
My question today has to do with getting my artist mom to Giverny from Paris. We have 4 days in paris at the beginning of our jouney to Tuscany. I would like to arrange a minibus tour because mom doesn't really walk that well. Do you have any particular company you recommend? Also, we are avid Monet fans, is the Musee
Marmottan worth a look, and if so how do we best get there from our hotel near the Luxemberg gardens, mom can do some walking but we would like to keep it to a minimum and save her energy for Tuscany!! We have good access to Metro and RER from our hotel.
Since we won't be able to do alot of walking or standing in ques, besides the obvious buy tickets in advance and rent a wheel chair to cruz the Louve, any tips to make the most of our time and keep mom comfortable? I want this trip to be her dream come true. Thanks!!
My question today has to do with getting my artist mom to Giverny from Paris. We have 4 days in paris at the beginning of our jouney to Tuscany. I would like to arrange a minibus tour because mom doesn't really walk that well. Do you have any particular company you recommend? Also, we are avid Monet fans, is the Musee
Marmottan worth a look, and if so how do we best get there from our hotel near the Luxemberg gardens, mom can do some walking but we would like to keep it to a minimum and save her energy for Tuscany!! We have good access to Metro and RER from our hotel.
Since we won't be able to do alot of walking or standing in ques, besides the obvious buy tickets in advance and rent a wheel chair to cruz the Louve, any tips to make the most of our time and keep mom comfortable? I want this trip to be her dream come true. Thanks!!
May 27th, 2009, 11:12 PM
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We went on a mini-van tour to Giverny with ParisVision and were very pleased. There were only six people and we were all picked up at our hotels (in pairs) and driven to the "group" gate just ahead of opening time. We were given maps and advised how to proceed so as to get photos before the masses arrived, and there was no line when we got to the house. There was plenty of time to do a bit of exploring (and visit the American Museum at the time) and have a leisurely lunch before returning to Paris, where we were dropped at the destination of our choice (our dinner reservations for us).
There is a bit of walking involved as Monet's gardens at Giverny are quite extensive, though there are direct paths from one place to the next.
Musee Marmottan is definitely worth a visit. There are three rather large floors, but there are elevators. Bus 32 will get you much closer than taking the metro. In fact, I prefer the buses to the metro in Paris anyway - avoiding the long hallways, stairs, of the metro, especially if a transfer is required to get to your destination.
The nearby Park Ranelagh is my favorite in Paris - love watching people walk their adorable purebred dogs.
Also nearby (17 Rue Bois-le-Vent) is Pascal Le Glacier for amazing ice cream, and Chez Gerard (31 Rue Vital) one of our favorite bistros in Paris.
There is a bit of walking involved as Monet's gardens at Giverny are quite extensive, though there are direct paths from one place to the next.
Musee Marmottan is definitely worth a visit. There are three rather large floors, but there are elevators. Bus 32 will get you much closer than taking the metro. In fact, I prefer the buses to the metro in Paris anyway - avoiding the long hallways, stairs, of the metro, especially if a transfer is required to get to your destination.
The nearby Park Ranelagh is my favorite in Paris - love watching people walk their adorable purebred dogs.
Also nearby (17 Rue Bois-le-Vent) is Pascal Le Glacier for amazing ice cream, and Chez Gerard (31 Rue Vital) one of our favorite bistros in Paris.
Sep 27th, 2009, 08:29 AM
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We returned from our trip 2 weeks ago with very fond memories. Everything went perfectly, mom thoroughly enjoyed herself as did the reset of us. In paris we stayed at the Hotel Des Mines in the Latin Quarter. The hotel is a short walk from RER B direct from CDG airport and metro and the beautiful Luxembourg gardens.
We bought Paris Viste tickets which turned out to be a real money saver as we found ourselves on the wronge buses and out the wrong exits of the train far to often! My ipod app paris metro was a great help in getting oriented once I figured out how to use it.
There were no lines to speak of at any of the major sites. One of our objectives was to see as many impressionist paintings, particularly Monet, as possible. Musee d' Orsay was amazing. We took a Paris Vision minibus tour to Giverny which was also amazing. Lastly we went to the Musee Marmottan Monet which was fabulous - we did this on our last day and made all of our train connections perfectly and using a map walked the last bit to the museum through a nice little park. I had read a post that this museum was a disappointment and not worth the effort to get to it, I am wondering if this person did not realize that you have to go down stairs (which are not real obvious) to see the vast collection of Monet paintings. It really topped off our thirst for impressionism and was very well worth the effort to get there.
From Paris we flew to Florence for a week in Tuscany which I will post about under that topic.
Thanks again for all the great advise it really helped us truely make this a trip of a lifetime
We bought Paris Viste tickets which turned out to be a real money saver as we found ourselves on the wronge buses and out the wrong exits of the train far to often! My ipod app paris metro was a great help in getting oriented once I figured out how to use it.
There were no lines to speak of at any of the major sites. One of our objectives was to see as many impressionist paintings, particularly Monet, as possible. Musee d' Orsay was amazing. We took a Paris Vision minibus tour to Giverny which was also amazing. Lastly we went to the Musee Marmottan Monet which was fabulous - we did this on our last day and made all of our train connections perfectly and using a map walked the last bit to the museum through a nice little park. I had read a post that this museum was a disappointment and not worth the effort to get to it, I am wondering if this person did not realize that you have to go down stairs (which are not real obvious) to see the vast collection of Monet paintings. It really topped off our thirst for impressionism and was very well worth the effort to get there.
From Paris we flew to Florence for a week in Tuscany which I will post about under that topic.
Thanks again for all the great advise it really helped us truely make this a trip of a lifetime
Sep 27th, 2009, 08:47 AM
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Glad you had a nice trip. People have different ideas about what is a great museum and what is not and what they expect, so whoever said the Marmottan was a disappointment just probably expected it to contain Monet's best paintings and be more like L'Orangerie, I imagine, which is defintely is not. I don't think it's that great a museum, either, it doesn't have his best works. I don't think I'd call it a disappointment exactly, unless I thought it was going to be the best Monet museum.
