Paris Information
 

Family is headed to Paris during Thanksgiving week. YIPEE! Four days in city.

-Get Viste pass or not? 1-2 or 1-5 because of airport inclusion. 3 or 5 days?

-Get museum pass or not?

-How close is everything when looking at the maps. We like to walk around. Don't mind using the metro to get to a starting point. And will break down sightseeing to areas of the city.

-Open bus looks fun? Yes or no- your thoughts. Probably something tourists like, but not locals.

-Any other advice for first time visitors?

Travel includes myself, husband, and 15 year old daughter. When we travelled to London, Foderites offered lots of suggestions and posted places with offers for tourists.

Thanks for help!
Debbie

Paris proper covers an area of 49 square miles, the same as San Francisco or Boston. I consider anything between the Eiffel Tower and the Ile St. Louis to be within walking distance. I would purchase the airport RER tickets separately, and if you are walkers, a carnet or two may be the way to go.

It's 3.2 miles from the Eiffel Tower to Île St-Louis, and takes 1:17 to walk (according to mappy.com). I think you have better things to do with your time on such a short visit than walk across Paris.

The Open Tour bus is expensive for what you get. Here's my cheapo alternative:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34568214

As far as transport is concerned, there are better options than <i>Paris Visite</i>. A 5-zone <i>Carte Orange</i> costs less, and is good for Monday-Sunday.

Lucky you!
Passes - depends on how much you will be using transport. The 3 day pass is 18.25 (~6.10/day)for zones 1-3, 37.35 (12.45/day) for zones 1-5. The break even point is six rides a day with the 3 day/zone 1-3 pass. OW on RER to CDG is about 8.5,or 17 r/t. But if you are there 4 days you would have to buy a 5 day Visite to cover both arrival and departure to CDG, and that runs 47.50.
WAIT - this is too much math for a Friday! Bottom line: buy an RER ticket to get to/from CDG, then buy a carnet of 10 single tickets for each of you to use Metro/buses, unless you want to hop on and off buses all over the place, then the 3 day Visite may be a better deal. And buses are actually a fun way to get around becasue you get to see more than when on the underground Metro.

Museum passes - probably not a great deal for the limited time you will be there, unless all you plan to do is visit museums (not that that would be a bad thing!)

Distances - Paris is actually very walkable if you are accustomed to that. Since it is your first visit, though, you may have a list of major sights you want to see, and it may be more efficient to use transport (see note above about buses.) When playing tourist we usually put together a loose itinerary of things in the same general area then walk around in that neighborhood, taking a metro or bus between neighborhoods. Can work well to plan one neighborhood for morning, one for afternoon, with a nice lunch break.

Other advice:
Realize there is no way to do it all in 3 or 4 days, just choose what interests you the mosts at the moment or is most acccessible, and prepare to flex - one of my best Paris memories was a Ramadan supper at the Institute of Arab Cultures that I just stumbled upon.
Almost everybody does better with a little bit of &quot;alone time&quot; so build it in - even if it is just a &quot;we will all meet back here in one hour&quot; kind of thing. Particularly helpful in large places (e.g, Louvre, department stores) where you may each be interested in different things
For your peace of mind, make sure your daughter is carrying a card with the name and address of your hotel. Most hotels have these at the reception desk. Should you become separated she can use it to get back there.
That time of year it will get dark fairly early - not a bad thing, as Paris looks lovely at night - just take into account when planning you time.
And, of course, the classic pircepof travel advice: plan to wear layers that you can add and subtract as you go in and out of places or the weather changes, as it is wont to do this time of year.

Have a wonderful trip!!

r/t RER to CDG plus 2 <i>carnets</i> 37.40&euro;

3-zone <i>Paris Visite</i> plus r/t RER to CDG 42.65&euro;

5-zone <i>Paris Visite</i> 45.70&euro;

5-zone <i>Carte Orange</i> 30.90&euro;

Can you say &quot;no-brainer&quot;?

Hi tbs,

Check the guide to Paris under destinations.

See Paris Superthread for more info
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34519236

Enjoy your visit. (Only 4 days?)

((I))

1. Don't bother with Paris Visite. Get weekly Carte Orange passes instead.

2. Don't get museum passes unless you plan to spend the majority of your time visiting museums. Museums are not expensive in Paris.

3. You can walk completely across the city in about three hours; it is only a few miles wide. Walking is the best way to see the city. If you are pressed for time or just tired at any point, you can always hop onto the M&eacute;tro, which is never very far away.

3. Open Tour is an interesting way to tour and gives good views of some sights, but it is rather expensive for what you get. Ditto for the competition (Les Cars Rouges, etc.).

4. Bring the most comfortable shoes you can. Bring clothing in layers so that you can remove a layer if you feel too warm or add a layer if you feel too cool&mdash;weather in November is quite variable. Usually it is overcast, cool, and rather humid, with occasional sprinkles. The sunny days are very nice.

Paris is best on foot if you're used to walking (from Manhattan, for example). The walking may be a bit much if you never walk at home (from Beverly Hills, for example). Walking from the Eiffel Tower to the &Icirc;le Saint Louis does indeed take over an hour, but it's a very scenic walk along the river; by RER, it's more like 30 minutes.

Carte Orange (CO) would indeed be a good idea if your trip has you arriving by Wednesday and leaving by Sunday; keep a few things in mind:
1. Validity is Monday through Sunday, and you must purchase it by Wednesday of the week you will use it, so the strategey only works if you will arrive in Paris by Wednesday.
2. It is valid through Sunday, so if you are still in Paris on Monday your CO would not work and you would need to pay for any transit you use,
3. To purchase CO will need a small passport type photo of yourself when purchasing the pass. Many, but not all, stations have booths that sell such photos (usually a couple euros each) but they may or may not be available or in service. Safest bet is to get the photo before you leave and have it with you on arrival.
4. One nice thing is that once you have the CO, you can hang on to the pass card w/ photo (comes with a plastic holder) and just buy a &quot;recharge&quot; ticket (coupon hebdomadaire) the next time you are in town.

Thanks for all the information. Travel is budget, but this has worked fine for us in China and London.

-We are working on a list of things we want to see. I will check out the Paris thread you sent. I figured there had to be one somewhere. thanks!

-We arrive on Sunday morning, leave on TH afternoon. Staying at Kyriad Bercy Village. So I figure we will need RER to get to sights. Will use RER from CDG to village. Will have to check options between Viste pass or Carte Orange plus Sunday. thanks.

-thanks for info on distance. We will mostly definitely group sights by areas for each day.

-okay, simple question- are sneakers acceptable in Paris?

Layers for clothing, most definitely for comfort as well as getting everything in the small suitcase! :)

Flexiblity is VERY important. We always make our list of two major things each day (one morning, one afternoon)- have other things we want to see if time and we always need wander time.

Thanks,
Debbie

Debbie, I think that you are misunderstanding your hotel address. The closest public rail transportation from your hotel is the m&eacute;tro. It's the new line and your stop is Bercy. Your hotel is in Paris proper.

The Metro stop is Cour St. Emillion [one stop past Bercy] on Line 14. Transfer from the RER at Chatelet. This is a pretty remote hotel location given the numerous choices available.

r/t RER to CDG plus 2-zone <i>Carte Orange</i> 31.70&euro;, and your RER ticket includes M&eacute;tro connections to your destination.

Once there, you can evaluate whether <i>carnet</i> tickets or a <i>Mobilis</i> pass is what you need for Sunday, or if you just want to walk around the neighborhood. Just to give you an idea of Paris distances, Mappy.com says it would take an hour to walk to Notre Dame.

For Sunday, your daughter can use a <i>Ticket Jeunes</i> for unimited travel all over town, including the airport transfer, for 6.40&euro;.

Congratulations on getting a hotel out away from the high-rent district, yet 7 minutes from the city center by M&eacute;tro. This is the way I prefer doing it, too.

Thanks all! Keep your thoughts coming.

I figured the hotel wasn't real close, but it doesn't sound to far either. I am sure it isn't anything fancy, but if it is a triple and is clean- we are okay with it. We never seem to spend much time in the hotel anyway. We got a great price which will allow us to travel with our daughter.

We have taken advantage of travel specials in February for the past two years (China 2004 and London 2005). Husband wasn't able to get vacation this time in Feb. But had Nov, so we just moved our travel plans when we found a good deal.

We don't mind riding the metro to get to a starting point. You get a good feel of a city riding the metro and watching the people.

-Does the open bus cost for one day or for a 24 hour period? I noticed they have a two day price that is just 3E more. (We really made good use of the DD bus ticket in London, by using half one day and half the second day). While this might not be fun to some, riding the bus might allow us to see everything first, get our bearings, and then head to our favorite destinations. My daugther just HAD to ride the bus in London. It was exciting to see everything the first time from the bus and hear the commentary. Plus, we talked with the drivers and they gave us some great tips on restaurants and shopping.

-t is hard to get a picture of a city before going the first time. I was very grateful to Foderites for all the help and suggestions before heading to London. It helped a bunch.I even think Robespierre might have been in on them. thanks! We would never have done all the great things we did because we wouldn't have known without everyones suggestions and tips.

Feel free to suggest. It might just be something I didn't know about or think about!

Debbie

I would suggest you try the #24 city bus. The very nice route can be looked up on the web site below, and the stop is near your Metro station.

http://www.ratp.info/orienter/bus.php?partenaire=

why not to use a taxi for transfer airport-hotel and hotel-airport?
it will cost around 50 or 60 EUR, this is 20 EUR /person. You save hauling your luggage up and down, jet-lagged as you are, and will be driven right in front of your hotel.

a museum pass will enable you to cut the line, so you would first check out, wether there is a big line at musee d orsay, and then decide, wether wou would like to wait or get this carte musee at the next metro station. for le louvre, you can get advance tickets at either fnac at champs elysees, also opened on sundays. check out their homepage http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home...sp?bmLocale=en
le louvre is closed on tuesdays, it´s different departments are opened to a schedule of room closures, so visit their homepage. and your daughter, as under 18, gets in for free.

if you like going around, you will enjoy yourself in paris.

and, as seamus said: lucky you!

I'd skip on the Viste pass and do as Robespierre suggests for transpot. If you want a discount pass for various venues but a City of Paris Passport for 5 Euro. It offers discounts at over 200 places and does not expire until the end of the year. You can purchase them at the welcome centers at Gare du Nord, eiffel Tower, Pyramides, Carrousel de Louvre and various other places.

http://en.parisinfo.com

Here's the full url and it sholud be 300 places.

http://en.parisinfo.com/rub6758.html...ction=citypass

The Open Tour ticket is good for a calendar day. $100 (3 * 27&euro;) is a lot to pay for a little commentary, in my opinion. See my post of 10/07/2005, 11:12 pm.

If it was mentioned already, I apologize. I just skimmed the responses.

Check out the bicycle and Segway tours offered by Fat Tire Bicycle. We had lots of fun! There is a thread or two out there already.

I keep reading about all the long lines at the museums, Effiel Tower, etc.

-Will I encounter long lines during Nov. 20-24?

-Also, besides the museum pass (which I don't think we want to get), is there another way to get special entrance to front of the lines?

thanks,
debbie