Hi All,
We are a young couple planning a week-long trip to Belgium and Paris in mid-February 2008. We’ll be staying in each for 3 nights and looking for some helpful suggestions from others as we plan our budget and itinerary!
We’ve looked at many many websites and googled ourselves mad but we’ve both traveled enough / lived in enough places to know that the best itineraries are created from suggestions given to us by locals / friends and families! Although fairly seasoned travelers, this will be our first time to either of these places so we’re not sure what we should be expecting so if you are able to be as specific as possible with addresses / websites / prices these would be a great help too! Also, Jen speaks French, so if that helps to broaden the choice in “local activities” it’d be great to hear them!
We’ll continue to read through more forums (we’ve gone through and saved many posts and replies applicable for this trip) but in the meantime any input would be truly fantastic and greatly appreciated! We’ll also come back and post our reviews / photos / share our experiences once we’ve been. We’re hoping also that this thread and its replies will help many others on their future plans for similar travel!
Unfortunately money flow is a little dry as we are Uni students, so those that have been there will understand!! As a result we’re on a tight budget and it’s a short trip too, so we’ll ask that you keep these things in mind when / if answering / commenting on 1, some or all of the questions we’ve prepared below.
* We’ll be staying in Epinay sur Seine, which we’ve heard is about ½ an hour away from the city by train (RER C). We’ll be using the Eurail Regional (France – Benelux) Youth Pass and from as far as we can tell we’ll be able to use this pass on the local trains (RER and Metro)… can anyone confirm this?
* To make our travels simple and cost-effective we’d like to do the hop on/off bus tour. But just for the day as we’d like to spend the other 2 exploring ourselves. The bus tour effectively would help us familiarize ourselves with the city and some of the sights – we would hopefully, then, be able to make our own way back to / check out the rest of the city at our leisure for the other 2 days.
Does anyone have “Must hop off for” suggestions? These can be the typical tourist attractions or special local treasures? Or do people have an itinerary that’s worked for them in the past / a logical itinerary they can suggest?
* We’ll be staying in an apartment so we’ll have breakfast and dinner taken care of. We’re looking to divulge ourselves on French bread / pastries for lunch rather than full meals – can anyone suggest cheap café’s or local boulangeries (with addresses/prices/websites where possible) that they’ve enjoyed in the past?
* The big touristy things we’d love to be able to see would include the Louvre, Musee d%26#39;Orsay, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame de Paris, Ave des Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, Montmartre and of course the Eiffel Tower. The plan is to not be too ambitious but to get to them (at least the outside!!) and explore. Is there a logical route to visit these if we’re getting to them in our own time (not on the bus tour)? Are there certain things we’ll need tickets for and is it better to buy these in advance or can we get away with purchasing them on the day (i.e. long lines?) (We’ve checked the sites out but would love to hear personal accounts).
We%26#39;d like to find a balance between the big tourist traps and some local treasure troves so if you’ve got favourite shops / corner stalls / café’s / boulangeries etc. please feel free to share them! (We’ve posted previously and have gotten some delightful feedback: under “How much should we accommodate for food?” in Belgium and Paris forum)
We would love for you to have a bit of fun with these too rather than attack it as a Q%26amp;A!! We’ll have another forum posted under ‘Belgium’ so if you’re able answer those questions too have a look out for it!
Cheers and happy travels, Jen %26amp; Matt.
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First of all, congratulations on your thorough post :-)
I%26#39;ll try to answer some of your questions to the best of my ability. I hope others wiser than me follow suit.
1) I can say from personal experience that RailPasses are amazing :-) The French Rail Pass does include some goodies, but not completely free travel on the RER and Métro.
It DOES include:
* Line B, valid between Charles-de-Gaulle airport and Paris Gare-du-Nord railway station.
* Line C, valid between Orly airport and downtown Paris/Versailles
* Line D, valid between Paris Nord and Auvers sur Oise
* Line E, valid on the complete line
To take advantage of a goodie, go the ticket desk, show your Rail Pass, and use the special marked coupon they give you for your journey.
For the complete list, visit the Eurail site:
http://www.eurail.com/1_pass_benefits_france
2) BEFORE doing the bus tour, try to stay %26quot;underground.%26quot; Take the métro to Concorde at sunset. Be amazed at the view.
Attractions shown on the bus tour can be broken up into 3 categories: 1)things that deserve lots of time (exs. Le Grand Louvre, Musée d%26#39;Orsay; 2)things you can appreciate from the bus (ex. La Madeleine); 3)things that sort of take time to see (exs. Pont Neuf, Tour Eiffel, Arc de Triomphe). More information -%26gt; www.pariscityrama.com/en/paris_open_tour
You should visit them all, but you don%26#39;t have to spend a lot of time on what doesn%26#39;t interest you. I%26#39;m really bad with itineraries....and so is Paris. I suggest wondering around instead...with a map, of course ;-) A pseudo-itinerary could be visiting all the attractions along the Seine.
3) Cheap Eats. There%26#39;s a boulangérie on the Avenue du Faubourg St. Antoine near Rue Trousseau that has odd hours and cheap, delicious bread. Check it out. There%26#39;s also a restaurant called Stratto in the Latin Quarter near the Odéon métro stop that sells delicious sandwiches. Address: 95 Bd St. Germain 75006 Paris.
For more tips on being frugal in Paris, consult my goList, Paris Without a Wallet - it%26#39;s a list of great places/things to do that cost very little or nothing:
tripadvisor.com/GoListDetail-i15415-Paris_Wi…
and this website:
http://home.comcast.net/~zilax/paris.html - Notes on living cheaply in Paris
4) the Louvre* - Need tickets. Free admission for those under 26 on Fridays after 6pm. Free admission for everyone on the first Sunday of the month. If you can get tickets in advance, do it. Lines are long. Use the Palais-Royal-Musée du Louvre métro entrance if you go during the day. It%26#39;s quicker than through the fancy pyramid.
Musee d%26#39;Orsay* - Need tickets. Also free on the first Sunday of the month. Purchase in advance if possible.
Sacre Coeur - Need regular métro tickets for the funiculaire, unless you don%26#39;t mind climbing four gigantic sets of steps. Not sure about the attraction itself.
Notre Dame de Paris* - Need tickets if you want to visit the tours. Entrance to the cathedral itself is free.
Ave des Champs Elysees - It%26#39;s a giant street. No tickets needed.
Arc de Triomphe - Need tickets if you want to mount it. I%26#39;m quite happy seeing it from the ground, thank you very much!
Montmartre - Neighborhood in northern Paris. No tickets needed.
Eiffel Tower - Need tickets if you want to mount it. Purchase in advance, or get there two hours before it opens.
Visit the attractions in the center of town (*marked with an asterisk) and then branch out either in the direction of the Eiffel Tower or Montmartre (w/ Sacré Coeur).
N.D. de Paris -%26gt; Musée d%26#39;Orsay -%26gt; Louvre
and then Eiffel Tower -%26gt; Arc de Triomphe -%26gt; Ave des Champs Elysées
or Montmartre w/ Sacré Coeur
There are plenty of additional attractions around all these places. Make space for them, too! You also may want to consider doing some walking tours, found in most travel guides (Rick Steves, Michelin Green Guide).
Hope that helps.
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If you only have 3-4 days and are on a budget, I would recommend picking one city. Of course, I would recommend that that city be Paris. If you stick with Paris, you will have more time to see the sites you want to hit, and you will save money on the train or plane fare between Belgium and Paris.
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Thanks for the replies so far!
OuiParis -
Sorry, the title of the post is rather mis-leading and I apologise. We%26#39;ll actually we travelling for a week and spending 4 days, 3 nights in Paris and the same again in Belgium!
France-Maniac -
As you can probably tell we%26#39;re new on the forum / trip advisor having googled most of our research and %26quot;trip advisor%26quot; links popping up left and right! Finally succumbed to signing up and giving back to the community that%26#39;s been of great help to us. We%26#39;ve definitely gotten most of our information from here which is excellent because it%26#39;s all one collective resource with real people who know the real deal and we both do a lot of travel so we are absolutely in love with it!
Thank you so much for your reply, it%26#39;s all exactly what we were after as our Paris geography is rubbish and we really had no idea how to go about even planning an itinerary!... Having said that I%26#39;ve called it an %26quot;itinerary%26quot; because it%26#39;s easier to put it under that %26#39;umbrella title%26#39; but like you prefer to walk around and explore things a little more leisurely and at our own pace. We did however, need to find out logical routes or which sites needed more time to check out, what was close to each other %26amp; reasonable to see in a day etc. etc. so we can set ourselves %26quot;day goals%26quot; i.e. things we should try to see on a particular day and spread them throughout the 3 so we don%26#39;t miss out. Everything you%26#39;ve told us is a real blessing!
We%26#39;ll take your advice about %26quot;going underground%26quot; before the bus - I suppose it makes sense to use up our 1 travel day (on our arrival) on the pass so we can maximise it!
Thank you for your tips about the tickets too... a little worried about getting lost etc. actually and wasn%26#39;t sure how the tickets worked either. We just show them our passes and ask for specific tickets, or is it a coupon that works for all of the lines you mentioned?
Thanks and thanks again - I know our trip isn%26#39;t til February but it never hurts to plan ahead and as much feedback from everyone would be fantastic. Even if it turns into discussions about various aspects of Paris etc. We%26#39;ll also have more to say / contribute ourselves when we return! x
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France-Maniac,
Sent you a message already but I thought I would include our thanks again in public because your GoList linked above is top notch and definitely what we%26#39;d want to be looking for! Hoping to spread these in and around the big tourist do%26#39;s so the beauty of the city isn%26#39;t lost in all of the commercial!!
Jen %26amp; Matt, x.
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I think I might have been unclear about the %26quot;underground%26quot; thing. The first thing you should see in Paris should be the Place de la Concorde. The view is absolutely stunning. Until you see that, don%26#39;t visit any other sites...just ride the metro or enjoy the area around your lodging. That%26#39;s what I meant by %26quot;staying underground.%26quot; First impressions are everything!
Use your Paris bonus wisely. If you will only have one rail day left, use it to get to the airport if you%26#39;re flying out of CDG...or, use it to go to Versailles on the 3rd/4th day of your trip. If you will be using it for the airport, use regular metro tickets to get to Gare du Nord, THEN use your special coupon. It is only valid in between that station and the airport.
Each bonus has a different coupon. You have to request the specific ticket at the counter. They will be marked %26quot;valid with eurail pass%26quot; or something to that effect.
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Point noted about the Place de la Concorde (many thanks about clarification) and will definitely make it there for sunset although not sure we%26#39;ll be able to hold off doing other things the entire day!... we%26#39;ll be arriving early morning by train (we will be based in Geneva with Jen%26#39;s family, being driven across the border and starting our journey from there), which will be our first travel day so when we mentioned %26quot;maximising it%26quot; we meant using the rail pass to get to places as much as we could / was possible on the train as it will count as our first %26quot;travel day%26quot; out of 4 on the pass. Are these bonuses you speak of one-time trips only?
From the sounds of it, trying to maximise our travel day by travelling places on the train the first day isn%26#39;t really an issue then, if we need to buy seperate tickets for the Metro and RER (if the bonuses are, in fact, 1 time trips).
How far away is Versailles and what would you recommend for a day trip?
J %26amp; M
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Re: Place de la Concorde
Oh, that will be hard....didn%26#39;t realize you would be arriving in the morning. Maybe just one attraction, then! ;-)
Re: bonuses
The Rail Pass is more for city-to-city travel, but you could take advantage of the bonuses to move around in the city itself. To tell you the truth, I%26#39;m not sure the bonuses are one-time trips. I don%26#39;t think it would matter, though. For example, if you used a bonus ticket to go from A to B, and you needed to go from B to A later that day, you could just request another bonus ticket, because it%26#39;s still the same rail day. If you use the bonus the next day, you would need another rail day. Does that make sense? If not, I could contact the Eurail people on your behalf.
Re: Versailles
It takes about 30 minutes on the RER from the Champ de Mars-Eiffel Tower RER C stop, plus about 10 minutes of walking to get to the Chateau de Versailles. Allow at least a half a day to appreciate the chateau and surrounding gardens. Arrive early; lines are long. You may also explore the grounds on two wheels by renting a bike. Search the forum for more information. I believe there is a thread called %26quot;biking through versailles, renting a bike in versailles, etc.%26quot;
NB: Before boarding any RER train, check the list of stops for the next train on a black sign with little square lights next to each stop. It should hanging from the ceiling, a few feet from your head.
They look like this:
…google.com/politicslovr/…5131081274794335250
Certain stops will be observed while others will be skipped. Sometimes lines split into different directions. Make sure the particular train is going in the direction of Versailles-Rive Gauche (C5). Make sure the code in the front of the train begins with a V.
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Bicycling in Versailles thread:
tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187147-i14-k15776…
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