Short Paris Trip Report
Aug 8th, 2009, 08:17 PM
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Short Paris Trip Report
Just back from 5 weeks in Paris with my daughter, and I wanted to post a short commentary on the trip, since I got so much help and reassurance from fodorites... The purpose of our trip was to spend some time together (my daughter just graduated college) and to take French classes at the Sorbonne, and of course, to enjoy Paris. We rented an apartment from perfectplaces.com:
http://www.perfectplaces.com/a_Apart...tals/69293.htm
I was very nervous about it since I hadn't rented an apartment before and I didn't really have recommendations that had not been directly provided by the owner, but it turned out fine. The modern Ikea-like decor pleased my daughter, the bed was firm and very comfortable, and although the apartment was on the street and quite noisy with the windows open, it was just fine with the windows closed. The blackout drapes worked great. The landlady thoughtfully sent us a fan partway through our stay, and that made all the difference. The location turned out to be perfect for us because it was just far enough away from the intense tourist streets to feel "real," but it was close enough to all sights and the Sorbonne so that we could walk most places. The landlady and her husband were nice and easy to deal with, and I am so glad I had wifi and free telephone back to the States. We both enjoyed our classes at the Sorbonne, and I was NOT the only older person there, as I had feared, though older folks were definitely in the minority. We did a little sightseeing each day and spent a lot of time in the Jardin de Luxembourg, which is really a treasure full of unexpected things, like one side that has hundreds of espaliered apple trees, each a different type, and a Statue of Liberty, a puppet theatre and pony rides for children, and hundreds or maybe thousands of chairs that can be moved around wherever you want...a beautiful fountain in the middle where kids rent funny little wooden sailboats on the weekend and push them around with sticks... Well, I wish I had time to post a detailed trip report, but I don't, so I'll just hit the highlights: The Musee D'Orsay was great; we loved the river tour with the Vedettes at 10 p.m. because we could watch the sun go down and the lights come up, and the night life along the river was starting to bubble (get 7 euro tickets online instead of 12 euro tickets on the boat); the Tour D'Eiffel was awesome at 11 p.m. It sparkled as we went up the elevator and again as we came down at midnight (it is lit up at night and sparkles after dark for 5 minutes on the hour until 1 a.m.) It was so worth going to the top. Picnicking on the Pont des Arts, browsing bookstores, nursing a cafe expres or a Stella Artois in the outdoor seating somewhere, getting our daily baguettes and mignonettes...it was all great. We hit most of the museums and some of the churches, chickened out of the catacombes, enjoyed three cemeteries, and learned a few tricks for saving money in this expensive city. We had so much fun at Versailles! But I don't have time to post anymore, so I'm going to go now. Bon voyage to all of you going to Paris! Enjoy!
http://www.perfectplaces.com/a_Apart...tals/69293.htm
I was very nervous about it since I hadn't rented an apartment before and I didn't really have recommendations that had not been directly provided by the owner, but it turned out fine. The modern Ikea-like decor pleased my daughter, the bed was firm and very comfortable, and although the apartment was on the street and quite noisy with the windows open, it was just fine with the windows closed. The blackout drapes worked great. The landlady thoughtfully sent us a fan partway through our stay, and that made all the difference. The location turned out to be perfect for us because it was just far enough away from the intense tourist streets to feel "real," but it was close enough to all sights and the Sorbonne so that we could walk most places. The landlady and her husband were nice and easy to deal with, and I am so glad I had wifi and free telephone back to the States. We both enjoyed our classes at the Sorbonne, and I was NOT the only older person there, as I had feared, though older folks were definitely in the minority. We did a little sightseeing each day and spent a lot of time in the Jardin de Luxembourg, which is really a treasure full of unexpected things, like one side that has hundreds of espaliered apple trees, each a different type, and a Statue of Liberty, a puppet theatre and pony rides for children, and hundreds or maybe thousands of chairs that can be moved around wherever you want...a beautiful fountain in the middle where kids rent funny little wooden sailboats on the weekend and push them around with sticks... Well, I wish I had time to post a detailed trip report, but I don't, so I'll just hit the highlights: The Musee D'Orsay was great; we loved the river tour with the Vedettes at 10 p.m. because we could watch the sun go down and the lights come up, and the night life along the river was starting to bubble (get 7 euro tickets online instead of 12 euro tickets on the boat); the Tour D'Eiffel was awesome at 11 p.m. It sparkled as we went up the elevator and again as we came down at midnight (it is lit up at night and sparkles after dark for 5 minutes on the hour until 1 a.m.) It was so worth going to the top. Picnicking on the Pont des Arts, browsing bookstores, nursing a cafe expres or a Stella Artois in the outdoor seating somewhere, getting our daily baguettes and mignonettes...it was all great. We hit most of the museums and some of the churches, chickened out of the catacombes, enjoyed three cemeteries, and learned a few tricks for saving money in this expensive city. We had so much fun at Versailles! But I don't have time to post anymore, so I'm going to go now. Bon voyage to all of you going to Paris! Enjoy!
Aug 10th, 2009, 09:26 AM
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"learned a few tricks for saving money in this expensive city"
How about sharing those tricks with the rest of us. Always interested in saving money, especially in an expensive city like Paris.
Thanks,
kay
How about sharing those tricks with the rest of us. Always interested in saving money, especially in an expensive city like Paris.
Thanks,
kay
Aug 15th, 2009, 04:34 PM
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Kay_P,
I will just list what comes to mind from our particular situation, and again, we were there 5 weeks and attending classes, so that is a little different from trying to hit all the high spots in 5 days. We cooked at home a fair amount. Groceries were expensive, and we went to the Monoprix on St. Michel until we realized there was an "Ed" closeby in the 5th arondissement at the corner of Notre Dame des Champs and Bara, right near the Luxembourg Gardens and on my way to class. The decor was lacking, yes, but the prices on most items were way, way cheaper. Other cheaper supermarkets are Leader Price (but these tend to be in the outskirts). Also, we discovered that any Chinese grocery has lower prices, and that our little grocery store on Gay Lussac, "Maison Marie," heavily discounted some lovely fruit and veggies at the end of each day. The street market at Bastille is much cheaper than the market on Mouffetard, we noticed too. As far as tickets go, we saved on the Louvre by going Fri. evening--it's 6E for adults on Wed. and Fri. eves and open until 9:30 or 10 (you'll have to check the website--can't remember). The Versailles tickets we ordered online and got a nice discount, too. You might think you can't do this because you don't have a printer to print them out, but they were very nice about finding the confirmation online for me (I had written down the information). This saves you a LOT of time standing in line for tickets, because you go straight to an internet-tickets-only kiosk, and on the Sunday in July when we went, there were 3 people ahead of us in line and 2 behind us! Also--the gardens, which you might be tempted to pay extra for, are free at 5:30 p.m. and much nicer after all the tourists have gone...
The vedettes boat ride on the Seine was 7E instead of 12E because we ordered the tickets online instead of buying them at the window. Also, there is a lot of free entertainment along the river in summer--picnicking on the bridges, tango, swing and other dancing on the river, Paris plage, which was surprisingly nice, etc.
If I think of anything else, I'll add.
I will just list what comes to mind from our particular situation, and again, we were there 5 weeks and attending classes, so that is a little different from trying to hit all the high spots in 5 days. We cooked at home a fair amount. Groceries were expensive, and we went to the Monoprix on St. Michel until we realized there was an "Ed" closeby in the 5th arondissement at the corner of Notre Dame des Champs and Bara, right near the Luxembourg Gardens and on my way to class. The decor was lacking, yes, but the prices on most items were way, way cheaper. Other cheaper supermarkets are Leader Price (but these tend to be in the outskirts). Also, we discovered that any Chinese grocery has lower prices, and that our little grocery store on Gay Lussac, "Maison Marie," heavily discounted some lovely fruit and veggies at the end of each day. The street market at Bastille is much cheaper than the market on Mouffetard, we noticed too. As far as tickets go, we saved on the Louvre by going Fri. evening--it's 6E for adults on Wed. and Fri. eves and open until 9:30 or 10 (you'll have to check the website--can't remember). The Versailles tickets we ordered online and got a nice discount, too. You might think you can't do this because you don't have a printer to print them out, but they were very nice about finding the confirmation online for me (I had written down the information). This saves you a LOT of time standing in line for tickets, because you go straight to an internet-tickets-only kiosk, and on the Sunday in July when we went, there were 3 people ahead of us in line and 2 behind us! Also--the gardens, which you might be tempted to pay extra for, are free at 5:30 p.m. and much nicer after all the tourists have gone...
The vedettes boat ride on the Seine was 7E instead of 12E because we ordered the tickets online instead of buying them at the window. Also, there is a lot of free entertainment along the river in summer--picnicking on the bridges, tango, swing and other dancing on the river, Paris plage, which was surprisingly nice, etc.If I think of anything else, I'll add.
