Well, I found my Air Canada tix, and I found out how to get from Roissy (which is what the locals call Charles Degaulle airport, who knew) to the hotel on rue St Lazare. It’s only an hour, including walking, but it’s 5 fare zones, so we’ll have to get money in the airport to get there or maybe get walking around change in Euros before we leave.
The day approacheth, I am excited.
Paris is my home. (In my head, anyway…) A couple of tips from one who longs to be there myself:
Easiest way to get from CDG to central Paris is the Roissybus, an express bus that goes from CDG straight to the Opera metro station.
http://www.ratp.info/informer/anglais/aeroport_roissybus.php
8.60 Euros per person. It’s also part of the awesome Parisian public transit system. Taking the RER all the way from CDG you’re underground for a chunk of it. Roissybus is all above ground, and is 45min to an hour. It’s fascinating to watch as Paris transforms from suburbs that could be anywhere (yay globalization) to the city that is Paris and none other. From the Opera station you can get anywhere in the city, easy, on the metro.
Get Euros/walking cash before you leave – much easier than trying to deal with that as you schlep luggage around etc in Paris.
Oh, and depending on how long you’re in Paris, buy Metro tickets 10 at a time (Un carnet de dix billets, s’il vous plait). There’s a small savings when you buy them all at once. It usually took Rob and I a day and a half to two days to use up 10 tickets between the two of us.
Sigh. I’m envious. Let me know if you have any questions about restaurants, etc…
Thanks for the tips.
Don’t forget a postcard and a photo in front of a landmark like the moulin rouge.
It’s only been 36 years since I was in the City of Light, but I think nowadays you can purchase their public transit and other rail passes online (get them before you leave).
Bon Voyage!!!!
We’re only gonna be there two days. I’m seriously thinking of calling my gf and telling her I’m hijacking the holiday. I AM going to go to the head orifice of my new company and take a picture – it’s only five k from the hotel. And right across the river from the tour Eiffel, howzabout that?
Anyway, the rest of the time we’ll be in a little hideaway outside of Rouen, where you’re basically fucked if you don’t have a car. We’ll be tossing coins for who gets to drive, I’m sure. I’m a more aggressive driver than Tammy, but that’s because I drove with Paul for a quarter century, which is enough to make somebody pretty much homicidal once they get behind the wheel. Honestly, if I thought I could get away with it I’d completely ditch the notion of having a car, but if I want to make a break for the coast and go see that German cemetary Peter T told me about, I kinda hafta get there in a vehicle.
I guess the stuff I want to see in France has to do with my dreams and my reading; I want to see Notre Dame Cathedral and the Champs Elysée and the winged Victory and visit some of the places I read about in Is Paris Burning? I want to go where the African ancestry kids rioted, and I want to walk between the hotel and the head office because I can… but Tammy likely can’t; she’s developed arthritis and doesn’t move around all that well for long. On the flat, I can go for miles. Give me a hill and I’m a wheezing bag of sponge rubber.
And there will be food, of course.