I left NJ tues. night arrived wednesday morning. getting thru the airport was a breeze very easy. We stayed at Hotel Ares Eiffel. What a beautiful hotel, great location close to the metro, shopping, and a nice neighborhood. with the dollar being what it is (not much in france) the 15 euro per person breakfast at our hotel was actually a good deal. unlimited coffee, cocoa, tea, fresh juice, toast, crosaints, cereal, fruit yogurt. we loved the room bathroom, it was all modern and chic, and we would definitely stay there again.
the weather was warm but would rain off and on.
the day we arrived we toured notre dame, walked thru isle st louis, to the marais district, but victor hugos house and holocaust memorial were closing (5:30) very disappointed because the Rick Steve%26#39;s guide said they would be open until 9 pm. we had dinner in a cafe nearby.
day 2 thursday arc de triomphe, walk down champs eylsees, to petit palais and grande palais, to place de le concorde, back to hotel to get ready for dinner at eiffel tower, followed by seine cruise, and moulin rouge. This was a great tour i booked in advance before i left thru expedia. the food was good, the cruise was nice (although it doesnt get dark until 11 pm) and the moulin rouge feerie was very good we really enjoyed it) and ive been to vegas shows and broadway shows.
friday museum day, but we only fit in orsay and the louvre. Dinner at a great restaurant Le esplande.
Saturday bike tour to versaille thru fat tire. although riding the bikes thru town was fun, i would not recommend this tour. it rained most of the day, which was ok with our ponchos but we couldn%26#39;t picnic. and only had 1 1/2 hour in the chateau. this was an expensive tour but they didn%26#39;t include marie attoinettes domaine nor the fountains. i would definitely do the paris pass for 30 euro which includes admission, train back and forth, and access to everything. they didn%26#39;t tell us there was a discount if you have a museum pass so we didnt bring it. i was upset about this because i would have been refunded 27 euro if i would have been told. I also thought we would have access to things people who did not have bikes wouldn%26#39;t be able to get to, but that was false. i would definitely not book/recommend this tour. dinner at a friend%26#39;s house very %26quot;french%26quot; and the perfect end to a great vacation.
i loved paris, and will definitely be back again. there is so much more to see and do. everyone was friendly, most people spoke english, and it was easy to get accostumed to their lifestyle. i purchased a 2 day museum pass, a carnay of metro tickets, we took the metro everywhere, and i took rick steve%26#39;s guide book with me everywhere. it was helpful because it contained maps, metro maps, french phrases, restaurant recommendations, walking tours, and museum guides.
i love paris!
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Thanks for the excellent post.
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Glad you enjoyed it. It%26#39;s a great city.
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Glad you had a good visit and that you enjoyed Moulin Rouge since so many on TA suggested you not go.
Two things I would do-go to Rick Steves website and put the correct hours of those places in the Guidebook corrections. And I would write Fat Tire and mention that no where on their website does it mention that if you have a museum pass there is a discount(I looked)
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Your trip sounds like it was wonderful. Glad you had a good time. Thanks for sharing.
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thanks to all of you here on TA for all the great advice, suggestions, recommendations, and help. TA is such a valuable travel tool. Thank you all!
bmanley i did talk to someone when we got back from the fat tire bike tour, and their response was we don%26#39;t advertise that. the fact is i think the guide was short admission tickets and asked if anyone had a museum pass, when someone did have it, he said oh great i%26#39;ll give your tix to the 2 i%26#39;m short, you use your pass, and we%26#39;ll reimburse you when we get back.
they%26#39;re all young kids working there but as i said it wasn%26#39;t the rain and i loved biking thru the streets of paris, but i didn%26#39;t like having to lug my bike up and down train steps, and then being told we can%26#39;t go into marie attoinettes bedroom because that was 11 euro more, or we can%26#39;t see the fountains (we specifically booked the $100 pp tour for sat to see the fountains) because it was 11 euro more, we purchased our own food for lunch, and we%26#39;re left to our own audioguide tour in the chateau instead of a real person tour guide. I just would not recommend this to anyone as there was no value and was not able to see what i wanted even though i paid a hefty price.
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Removed on: 6:18 pm, July 09, 2008|||
oh no, what%26#39;d i miss?
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while i didn%26#39;t get a chance to read the inappropriate post, i%26#39;m guessing someone from fat tire bike tours posted something. I%26#39;m not saying the bike tour wasn%26#39;t fun, or the company isn%26#39;t good, i%26#39;m saying that specifically the bike tour to versailles was not worth it. i cannot speak for their other tours they operate. I was not disappointed because of weather either as of course they cannot control that. but i felt for the price we paid they should have included lunch, or the fountains, or marie antoinettes domaine, and minimally a live guided tour thru the chateau. we actually had to wait 20 min. to get an audioguide. leaving us only 1 hour and 10 mninutes to rush thru the chateau. - it%26#39;s a pretty big chateau.
i guess this is more a %26quot;bike tour%26quot; than a versaille tour.
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Where do you get the Paris Pass for Versailles for 30 euros? And does anyone know if this is the same/better/worse than going to the SNCF and getting the Forfeit Loisirs Chateaux de Versailles pass that supposedly lets you bypass the lines??
Also, can you get the museum pass at any of the museums?
Thanks! We leave in 2 weeks, and I%26#39;m still not through some of my guidebook....still making plans...
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I read the post that was removed, it wasn%26#39;t from Fat Tire, it was someone referring to another website. While there was nothing %26quot;inappropriate%26quot; about it, it didn%26#39;t have anything to do with the trip report.
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