We had a wonderful 10 day trip to Deauville and Paris from June 9-20. I will try to keep it short and sweet.
Flew Continental direct from Houston to CDG, departure and arrival were uneventful. The ATM at the CDG terminal was not working so we had to wait to get euros. Not a problem at the time because our transportation was already taken care of. It could have been a problem otherwise so advice #1 - bring some euros with you just in case. Taxi back to CDG from the Marais was 42 euro.
The drive to Deauville took about 2 hours and it was a nice scenic drive. We were impressed with the highways, very well marked for exits. We stayed at the Normandy Barrier, which is a very nice hotel with wonderful service. The food however really stunk. The breakfast was outrageously over priced and so were the drinks at the bar, the dinners we awful. My husband was there for business so while he was working I spent time shnooshing around Deauville. It has wonderful shops and restaurants; the people were very friendly and helpful.
I took the bus to Honfluer one day and really enjoyed it. The bus ride was very simple 1 bus there same one back (#21 I think) Honfluer was so nice, really scenic and great little antique shops. Went into the old wood church and was pleasantly surprised. I had a cheese galette for lunch, which was a huge mistake as I was very sick with food poisoning from the cheese that night. The entire next day was spent in bed recovering.
Another unforgettable side trip was to Mont Saint Michel. It was a 2-hour drive on very nice highways, easy to navigate. We spent a couple of hours exploring around the winding streets. We really liked the audio tour of the Abbey, which took about 1 hour. We watched the tide come in around the island and just marveled at the idea of how old the buildings are and how it was built over the ages.
On to Paris. We arrived in the early evening and checked in at the Hotel St. Louis Marais and got the key to our apartment we rented through them. I found the apartment on VRBO. The whole experience was wonderful, the hotel and the apartment owner were very easy to work with and everything went off with out a hitch. The apartment was perfect for 2 of us, more than twice the space then a hotel would have been at 140 euro a night. We were on rue Francs Bourgeois just steps from Place des Vosage. The closest metros were Bastille and St.Paul about equal distance. Shopping and restaurants were excellent.
The night we arrived we went on a Seine tour with some business associates. The tour was ok except we ended up on a boat with a busload of tourists from Japan and also a high school tour. So it was loud and the Japanese tour bus people all stood at the rail so those who stayed sitting could hardly see. I was tired so didn%26#39;t worry much about it. We walked to Champs Elysee and had a snack and drink at a sidewalk cafe. We didn%26#39;t get back to the apartment until 2:30 am because we missed the metro closing time.
Advice #2 - avoid getting behind bus tours, it%26#39;ll be more enjoyable to let them go ahead.
Advice #3- make sure you know what time the metro closes (1:30 am I think) or you will wait FOREVER for a taxi.
We spent the remainder of the days exploring and doing all the usual sites. Some highlights were:
1) Musee d%26#39;Orsay- the audio tour was great and the view from the deck at the restaurant is amazing.
2) Loved Iles St.Louis- would stay there next time. Of course had ice cream at Berthilion (from the window) Chocolate and Strawberry. The strawberry was like eating a big juicy strawberry straight of the vine. Amazing.
3)Hotel Invalides and Napoleons tomb. Again, amazing. We did the audio tour and it was so informative.
Advice #4 -I highly recommend the time and small amount of money to do the audio tours everywhere you can you get so much more out of it.
4) My husband really liked the Pantheon, I did too but he really liked it.
5) Bastille Market on Sunday. We both had so much fun looking at all the different food. Bought some cute ballet flats for only 5 euro each, great deal. Also got a picnic lunch and ate it at Place des Vosage. Wonderful sunny Sunday.
6) Davinci Code tour at the Louvre. Sounds corny but it was really fun if you have seen the movie or read the book. Wanted to go to the Sully wing but it was closed for some reason.
7) Sacre Coure- amazing view. Another tip: The Abbesses metro has a ton of stairs to get to the street level. My husband and another nice man helped this poor girl carry her heavy suitcases all the way up to the street. Avoid it if you can.
7) Arch de Tiomphe- as advised on this forum the view from the top was fantastic. I am really glad to get that advice and follow through on it.
A few personal observations are: clothing and shoes, you see every type, high end, casual and sloppy on locals and tourists from every country in the world- dress how you want to no one pays attention. Don%26#39;t sweat the small stuff; it makes for a good laugh later. Use band aide blister block on your feet every chance you get, it really works well. I found it at Super Target pharmacy dept.
We had a wonderful trip and can%26#39;t wait to return. Thanks for all the advice and questions everyone asked and answered it really helped me plan the perfect trip.
Cheers,
Deb
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Thanks Deb for your report. Two small remarks:
1) You are right, no one emphasises that it is nearly impossible to get a taxi on Saturday night after the métro closes. Thank got, the closing time has now been extended by one hour on Saturday nights and holiday eves: the last trains leave the terminals at about 1h30 / 1h40. The Noctilien network also comes in handy when needed.
2) There are two elevators at Abbesses. Or are they broken again? But every time it%26#39;s the same: even though there are signs in every language that there are so many hundreds steps, the tourists ignore them , take the stairs and end up complaining that%26#39;s it%26#39;s buried deep down, etc!
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Really sorry to hear about that food poisoning, but luckily you recovered after that night, and it apparently didn%26#39;t affect the rest of your trip, which seems to have been wonderful.
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I enjoyed reading your trip report. We loved Deauville and Honfluer and Mont St. Michelle also!
Hotel Invalides and Napoleons tomb the audio tour there was included in the ticket price did they change that?
Thanks for sharing your experience.
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Thanks for posting.
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Thank you for the post it sounds like you had a great holiday, except for the food poisoning...not nice.
Thank you for the reminder of Band Aide Blister Block , I knew I left something off my list of odds and ends.
Cheers,
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Thanks for all of your replies.
Adele: We didn%26#39;t notice the signs at the Abbesses metro about the stairs, one elevator was working but I assumed it would be for handicap or strollers and such. We joked about the steps the whole way up. After Sacre Coure we went on to Arch de Triumphe and Eiffle tower, it was the day of a million stairs. We did not go up the tower because of the lines and were so tired we opted out of walking back up more stairs to the Trocadero metro and took the Ecole Militaire instead even though it was a further away (or so it seemed). Our legs were feeling the burn that day.
Discover: We had the Museum Pass and my husband picked up the audio tour handsets for us so I%26#39;m not sure if it was covered by the pass or not. It might have been. I have to say again it was really good.
Oh one other thing I didn%26#39;t notice and was wondering if anyone knows details: Saint Sulpice is under major, much needed renovation, and was closed the day were tried to go there. I was dissapointed.
We did have an absolutely wonderful trip. Really enoyed being together in Paris.
Cheers,
Deb
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thanks for report, I just love them,, and you made many good points.
The bandaids is a great suggestion,, I know they have pharmcys on every corner in Paris, but I found them expensive.
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