Booked a holiday to Paris ....help.

[lucky number 7]

Well I'm heading out for a weekend with the missus to Paris and I'm wondering save for the usual Eiffel Tower , Louvre style things which I have done before what cool stuff is there to do in the city?

Catacombs are one I want to try

 

[InsaneAsylum]

there's a pretty cool rugby store on the same street at moulin rouge. can't remember the name.

buy a baguette and some jambon, a bottle of bordeax's finest for 3 euro and go and sit in the luxembourg gardens and have lunch. then go on a siene river cruise.

missus will love you!

 

[munstermuffin]

Well I'm heading out for a weekend with the missus to Paris and I'm wondering save for the usual Eiffel Tower , Louvre style things which I have done before what cool stuff is there to do in the city?

Catacombs are one I want to try

Man was there few weeks ago with herself and well there is loads of little things all over you won't be stuck for idea's but have a great time.

 

[InsaneAsylum]

there's a half decent irish pub in rue st denis, if your french is as good as mine

 

[lucky number 7]

Ah my French is reasonably good , My mum is french so I speak decently

However getting to the hotel from the Airport also seems a pain in the sack..CDG has a good train service yes?

 

[InsaneAsylum]

i flew in to Orly and got a cab but that was before I got acquainted to the paris metro. the train system is awesome, I think there's an RER service to CDG

 

[lucky number 7]

Awesome...If not it's a 35 km journey to the hotel....And I'd sooner walk than pay a taxi for that fare.

 

[ZeFrenchy]

visit www.ratp.fr, enter "cdg rer" in the left (that's the "from") and the address of your hotel in the right. I think you can have your results in english.
Once at the airport, follow "Paris by train". They leave every ten minutes or so and take 20min to Gare du Nord.

 

[lucky number 7]

Ah this is taking me a different way now, I was thinking TGV from CDG to Marne A LA Valee outside disney and then the RER A to Torcy..

 

[ZeFrenchy]

Ah this is taking me a different way now, I was thinking TGV from CDG to Marne A LA Valee outside disney and then the RER A to Torcy..

Well, if you're going to Tarcy then maybe it's right. It's a lot shorter, but it has the problem that you need to buy separate tickets, and TGV tickets need to be bought in advance for a specific train (and may run out or be expensive).

Suburb-to-suburb transportation is horrible in Paris, so I couldn't really advice you. The reason why the RATP website didn't consider the TGV is because it's managed by the SCNF, and those two are not well coordinated.

How a "parisien" would do it is to take the RER B to Chatelet and change to RER A. It would take over an hour though.

 

[lucky number 7]

Well, if you're going to Tarcy then maybe it's right. It's a lot shorter, but it has the problem that you need to buy separate tickets, and TGV tickets need to be bought in advance for a specific train (and may run out or be expensive).

Suburb-to-suburb transportation is horrible in Paris, so I couldn't really advice you. The reason why the RATP website didn't consider the TGV is because it's managed by the SCNF, and those two are not well coordinated.

How a "parisien" would do it is to take the RER B to Chatelet and change to RER A. It would take over an hour though.

Ah I see...So I'd need to book the TGV online then would I ?

Well I'm a tourist who is keen to stick to areas frequented by tourists..as its my first holiday without 10 of my mates for a bit of strength in numbers should someone have a go at pickpocketing(something that happened to my father on the metro ) I'm going to be stranded with a 5,0ft halfling.

 

[ZeFrenchy]

Yes, for booking those tickets go to www.tgv-europe.com select Ireland (they don't have a website for christmas islands) and you can have your tickets before going. The pain of it is that if your plane is late and you miss the train you're pretty ****ed. One way it's 17 euros according to the website and they leave quite often. It's a 9 minute ride so it's efinitely faster than going through Paris. They also have a flexible tariff for 20 euros, but I don't know whether that means that you can just hop on the next train if you miss one.
However, all the TGV's I've taken have been longer, more crowded routes, so for this one in particular you may not need to buy in advance...