Trip To Paris/France

Hello All!

I am seeking a little advice ona trip my girlfriend and I will be taking at the end of April, which will be my first time to Europe. We plan on being in France for roughly a week and a half, any suggestions on where to visit? We will be staying in Paris for the first three nights, as well as the last three nights, which gives us roughly six nights to "explore" various other areas.

For Paris specifically, any recommendations on what area would be nice to stay in?

Where are some other places that we should go/stay? Any help/advice would be helpful, thanks in advance!

 

I went last year. In Paris, the L'Hôtel national des Invalides was very cool (nice museums, Napoleon's Tomb), National opera house, the Louvre of course, and Notre Dame. We enjoyed walking and just seeing the city.

Normandy beach and surrounding historical battlefields, to include Normandy American Cemetery.

 

Hi,

Hotels prices in Paris range from expensive to very expensive.

For a moderate price in a residential neighborhood you can try La Maison Montparnasse. Very close to the subway, you can quickly get to the center of Paris. The owner is a fellow Ferrarista But no other affiliation.
It is also close to Montparnasse Railway station, which is were you take the train to Bordeaux (3h30 trip). Interesting city to visit if you are into fine wines and foods.

If you are looking for something much more upscale there are a few hotels that are part of Paris history: Hotel du Louvre, Hotel Regina, Le Meurice, Hotel de Crillon (the last 2 being ultra high end) are on the right bank of the Seine, very close to the Louvre. On the left bank (home of the intelligentsia), Le Lutetia is also famous, but quite ageing.

If you are looking for standard hospitality try the Pullman and Novotel chains (Accor group).

Enjoy your trip!

Yves

 

If it's located near the Sevre/Babylon metro station, I stayed there as a teenager with my parents--50 years ago. It had been bombed by Algerian nationalists a few months before!

 

It is the same yes
It has indeed been part of many historic events, some of which unfortunate .

Yves

 

From what you said earlier, it sounds like it still has a lot of character. Do you have an idea of how expensive it is? My wife and I will be traveling with our two teenage children (I may be 67, but I have a young wife .) I don't want to stay in a hostel, but neither the George V.

 

It still has a lot of character and is located in one of the best spots in Paris.
But it has not been revamped for a while, I think.

You can find a room for 250 to 350€ / day, sometimes more depending on your options (and the season). www.booking.com will give you an idea.


Best,

Yves

 

There's a few Paris visit threads in this section with other ideas

You could visit Disneyland Paris

Go to the seaside for a couple of days Le Touquet or similar like in Un Homme et Une Femme

Two slightly unusual museums in Paris are Musee du Moyen Age, Thermes de Cluny and
Jacquemart-André Museum

Whilst Paris has excellent public transport it is basically very small so walking is the best way to see it

Don't forget with all recommendations do your own research before you go as your taste may not be the same as that of the person recommending !

 

I stayed at Hotel Marignan Champs Elysées. Nice, clean, quiet, but not fancy. Walking distance to most of the sights.

 

Ryan,

As cute spots to see, you can go to "Shakespeare and Co." very close to Notre Dame. It is a small English books shop with a very nice atmosphere. It's not French at all but still interesting to visit this kind of small places - not a lot of Paris inhabitants know it actually.

Also, very close to this shop, there is a small by lovely restaurant called "La Fourmi Ailée", where you can savour French meals for lunch time and dinner time at very acceptable prices - the course of the day is only 9€ and it's excellent! They also serve great teas during the afternoon, and they speak English.

In addition, 15min walking from these places, you can find the "Café le Luxembourg" where you can have lunch, dinner or a tea as well. It's more expensive than the previous place I recommanded you, the atmosphere is totally different but still great! Then you can have a walk in the Jardin du Luxembourg - the huge park in front of the Café.

I'm sorry that I can't help you about the hotels, my stays in Paris are due to friends invited me to their places. But at least you now have two different restaurants to go that are a bit unusual compared to the touristic restaurants

 

Take a look at tripadvisor.com
It is a VERY helpful website.

 

These are indeed 2 great museums; good idea. If you liked Jacquemart-André Museum, you could also appreciate Nissim de Camondo Museum. It is basically the same concept: the 19th century "hotel particulier" of a rich banker that has been kept intact through the years.

Except that IIRC Jacquemart-André's taste was more to the Renaissance and 18th century, whereas Camondo's was more to the 19th century

Yves

 

Wow, great responses so far, thanks!

As far as pricing of hotels, we are unfortunately on the lower end of the spectrum. I am just coming up on 4 years out of college (2 for my girlfriend), the practice that I work for is now six months post acquisition by a teaching hospital, so I am now able to take off two weeks to visit Europe as sort of a "celebrate the mid-twenties/nice trip before getting my masters/before I buy a house" kind of deal.

Here is what I have roughly planned so far, although I still need to look at travel logistics, but the general idea is to visit some great areas as well as some smaller towns:

Arrive in London Saturday Morning: 2 Nights
Train to Paris for 3 nights
Train to Marseille for 1 Night
Train to somwhere in the Burgundy Region 2 nights ---Any suggestions on where to stay/what to do?
Train to Annecy (trying to figure out the best way to get there) for 2 nights
Train to the Champagne Region for 1 night
Finish off with another 3 nights in Paris

We would like to visit the Burgundy/Champage Region, but am unsure as to where. Any easliy train accessible towns? We are spending a good amount of time in Paris, this is intentional so we are able to relax some, and enjoy the city on a slow pace.

I wanted to visit Lemans, but was unsure how it would work logistically, once again, any suggestions would be helpful!

Here is an option for the Burgundy Region:
http://www.burgundytoday.com/accommodation/auberge/auberge-beursaudiere.htm

 

In Burgundy you should taste wine obviously - if you are not by car it might be easier to stay in Beaune - rent bicycles to go a few km outside to visit vineyards & producers - same applies to Reims for champagne

As for Le Mans the train goes very quickly from Paris

Anyone know what's in Annecy ?

You've not given a hint to your hotel budget : fifty bucks or five hundred a night ?

Also travelling takes time (even by TGV) so you might be better off with fewer places and longer at each

 

True, the schedule that I outlined is really just putting some thoughts together, I am sure that it will change!

Hotel budget is roughly $200-300 a night. Some of the bed & breakfast type inns that I have found so far around around $100 a night, so that obviously leaves some flex for other places. We are young, and are not planning on spending too much time in the hotel, so I would place a preference on location over quality.

Visiting Vineyards by bike sounds right up our alley, thanks for that suggestion!

 

We're thinking of taking the TGV from Paris to Milan; about 10 hours overnight. Anyone here ever done that?

 

Please allow me to pile on
My wife and I will be in Paris the last week in May driving in from Munich after a night in Alsace to see the Schlumpf collection.
Are there any auto specific sights or events that we should consider while in town?
Thanks,
David

 

you can stay a complete day in the Schlumpf collection ! it's really incredible. Even you will disappointed concerning "maintain" of some car.

 

Thanks.
We expect to spend the better part of a day there.
Too bad about the condition issues. As a national collection I don't imagine that there is any chance of some of the many duplicate cars being sold, even if it would fund proper maintenance for the remainder.

 

awesome museum, well worth a visit... i took my dad there last time we were in France.

 

Literally stunning to behold.
Many one of a kind cars and a number of dupes.
Definitely worth a detour.

If the brothers had been poor they would have been called hoarders.