Three days outside Paris vs. three "day trips"
 

We, a group of 9 ranging from 15-50, will be spending four nights in Paris in early July, travel to Asia for two weeks and then return to Paris for three more nights. Our flight to Paris arrives by 9AM on a Wednesday and we leave late morning on a Saturday. I'm trying to debate the benefits of stationing ourselves in Paris and taking a day trip to Normandy/Mont St. Michel, another to Versaille, and spending another just relaxing in Paris - versus organizing a three day trip to Mont. St. Michel, Normandy and a small town like Camembert.

The latter option sounds more appealing to me, but I worry about the logistics. I read about a guide who would pick you up at the airport and do something similar to what I have described. However, I think the max he takes are 8 people.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

Versailles is very easy to get to from Paris and is a short train ride away (RER B, I think)

There are many easy options from Paris to consider: Giverny, Reims,a TGV to the Loire Valley. I am not sure if you have been to Paris before or not. If not, stay in Paris and maybe see Versailles. You don't want to spend too much time trapped in vans and trains.

I am sure you will get some suggestions on guides. We tend to go on our own, so I don't have a suggestion for a guide

I think Normandy would be too far for a daytrip from Paris, so if that's a must-see, then go with your three-day visit.

There are day trips to Normandy available from Paris. It is a LONG day, but doable.
You really don't have all that much time in Paris. The time you describe is only 3 days, and with checking in and out of a hotel, is actually less.
You could spend ALL of your available time in Paris and still not cover this gem of a city.
The logistics of moving 9 people to another place and then back to the airport would be a nightmare to my thinking.
The "3day trip to MSM, Normandy, and Camembert" is folly.

Enjoy Paris on Wednesday. See Versailles on Thursday. Pick another day trip on Friday or enjoy Paris. Leave on Saturday. That is a plan to make the most efficient use of your time.

Agree that day trip to Normandy is a long day. There are coach tours by Cityrama, Parisvision,etc if you want a package deal.

You could use the fact that there is a TGV station at CDG to consider landing, walk over to station, go somewhere, return flight day to CDG. I've only done Lyon that way.

Is the issue you think you will have 'done' Paris at the beginning? As mentionned above, you lose a big chunk of first day with logistics, and a less optimal time at beginning due to jet lag...last day getting back to airport.

I totally agree with Gretchen, and FMT is also hinting that your time might be a tad short. Your total trip time in Paris with transport time ( and not counting jet lag) is actually quite limited, especially if most of your party has never been to Paris before. Am I inferring correctly that your trip to China will be on a very tight sightseeing schedule? All the more important to be able to soak up the sights, sounds, and tastes of Paris.

What I would do if I were you: Research options for 4-6 easy day trips IN Paris, decide at dinner if everyone in or some of the party has the energy and/or the inclination to do a day trip the following day. You guys could vote or pull a destination out of the hat. Then go the next day.

In other words, plan options but don't do a forced march.

Here are some of the most common options:

--Versailles /RER C towards Versailles-Rive Gauche, travel time 45 minutes or less/ Arrival Station--Versailles-Rive Gauche/Follow the avenue de Sceaux a few blocks until you reach the palace

--Giverny (Monet's home with all those gardens and waterlilies) /Train from the Gare Saint Lazare towards Rouen, get off at Vernon--around 45 minutes/6 trains per day(more in the morning hours and more frequent trains on Saturdays)/take taxi, shuttle bus or walk (not recommended) to Giverny. Get there EARLY or LATE to avoid tour buses. You could also get back on the train to go to Rouen and take a look see at the cathedral Monet painted over and over again PLUS peek at the place where they fried poor Joan d'Arc.

--Reims (Think coronations with Chagall stained glass and champagne) /Train from Gare l'Est around 45 minutes

--Chartres (stain-glassed windows to die for)/train from Gare Montparnasse--about one hour or less)/advise you to bring binoculars and show up for one of Malcolm Miller's tours (no prearrangement necessary)

I could name more and I could give you more details of the above, but you get the drift. There are entire books on Paris day trips.

By offering daytime options, no one will feel "deprived" of some experience, but at the same time, if members in your group say, "Hey, I just want to spend my days here roaming through Paris since I can see, eat, hear so much", then you're the best travel planner ever!

Good advice above. We took our adult children to Paris for a week (there were 8 of us) and told them what I had in mind (including two days with Michael), but if anyone wanted to do something different, and I could tell them how, it was fine. One couple had their mind set on Versailles. On Thursday i mentioned that they had two more days to go. They said "OH, no!! We have too much to see and do here."
It is also pretty important to make reservations unless you are going to eat at the neighborhood "delis". It's hard to fit 8/9 in some places.

All good advice. Will just add that you have a really short amount of actual time to visit Paris alone, given jetlag upon arrival, getting ready to leave for Asia, jetlag upon arrival back from Asia, then packing-up time for the final leg of the trip. Just stay in Paris. It's not as though you'll get bored and run out of things to do. And you've got 9 people, which is a bit of a logistical nightmare (I've been a tour guide with fewer people than that and it got hairy almost every day at some point). Let people decide what they want to do and figure it out on their own - don't think you'll be able to herd them around, especially out of the city to faraway places like le Mont-St-Michel with any ease.

I wouldn;t even attempt tp travel with the entire group. Make a list of the options and let each set of people decide what they want to do each day - stay in Paris (for which you have very little time unless yuo have seen most of it before) or take one of the day trips. Trying to get everyone to agree to all of this is going to e inmpossible.

(We prefer totravel either alone or with just 2 relatives - and even then we break into smaller groups to see specific things.)

Alright. I have no doubts now. Perhaps now I can look into staying in the 4th, 5th, or 6th arr. for this leg of the trip. I posted in another thread about constraints for the first Paris leg. I know part of the group will want to take a day trip to Normandy and all of us will want to visit Versaille. Does it make much of a difference what area we stay in for ease? We will be at the Renaissance Arc de Triomphe in the 17th arr. for our first four nights.

Thank you all so very much for helping me. So many exciting options to explore, guides to look into (Michael and Malcolm Miller), wise tips (restaurant reservations, playing some of it by ear the night before, listing options etc.)

I provided a comprehensive list of popular day trips from Paris on another thread and with each destination I gave a link to a tourist office website so you may want to have a look at that list to get some reference material. Here is the link:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...s-431343-2.cfm

If some in your group absolutely have to do a D-Day tour here are some links from another forum you may want to look at for some ideas of how to do it:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...-Normandy.html

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic..._Normandy.html

Where you stay does matter in terms of walking out the door and strolling, soaking up culture.

Yep, you are near the Champs Elysees at the Renaissance Arc de Triomphe, but the Champs Elysees can be an awful lot like the main drag in any major city, be it Madrid, Paris or NY...

Busy and rather bland.

Your Metro connections are excellent, so at least you can get somewhere by transport rather fast. As far as I can tell, you are 7 minutes walk to Charles de Gaulle Etoile stop on Metro Line 1*, which can zip you down to Trocadero, the Louvre area and then you will have options to visit other areas along the Seine pretty darn quickly. Your other Metro option, Ternes, can get you guys right to Gare du Nord and then CDG if you want to do that. Buses 92/93 run out that way--I haven't checked those out yet.

*Metro Line 1 is packed during rush hours, and your group of nine should take heed to just find a way to GET ON any train rather than all nine of you trying to get on in the same door. Would sort of look like the Nine Stooges :)

Wow! You guys are terrific. What great links! The Nine Stooges thing made me smile. I am going to revisit the other thread and search for hotels in a different area for the second half of the trip. Might have to be Marriott affiliated for points purposes. :(

For going to Versaiiles, staying near the St Michel RER station would solve two issues. This station goes directly to CDG, and another RER line, to Versailles. It is very well located on Left Bank. We stayed at the Notre Dame hotel across street from station..views of Notre Dame.

Michel just posted what I was going to - if you are arriving/leaving Paris via CDG, staying near an RER B stop is very convenient.

we are booked to stay here for 4 nights in March:Hotel Europe St Severin. [www.hoteleurope.net].

they have 59 rooms so the may be able to accommodate your group.

Don't forget about buses. They sometimes come a LOT closer to where you want to be, and you get to actually see paris on the way.
The Champs is probably the most sterile and uninteresting part of Paris.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Sorry I have not responded earlier. We have decided not to do the D Day tour thanks to your suggestions. I'll update you once we have the other stuff figured out.