Help w/ Paris

[KT27]

We are staying at DLP in June. I went last year while my husband was in Iraq and this year we will be going together along with my 12 year old stepdaughter. I took the City Rama Bus tour last year and would like to do a day trip into Paris using the Metro so we can see the sights. How hard is it to navigate the Metro? Any advice you can give me? We definately want to see the Eiffel Tower and The Louvre. Any guidebooks that you recommend? Cost of The Metro?

Thanks!

 

[the_princess]

It's very easy to use the metro in Paris and very easy to get to and from DLP. I always use Lonely Planet guidebooks when I'm travelling. I don't have the LP Paris cause I have a really bad Danish guidebook, but even with this, I can find my way around the city. Make sure you have a map with the metro on, then it's easy to find out what line to take. I remember that I one year went over to the info disk at a station and asked how to get to the Eiffel tower. The woman gave me a piece of paper which in english told me what lines to take from that station. It was so easy!

 

[Disneyfoo]

As the_princess said, it's very easy to use the metro. The last two times I went to DLRP I used the metro to get to and from Paris, it cost around 8-9 euros to get to the Gare Du Nord. If you wanted to get around Paris I think you would need a zone 1-6 day pass which was around 18 euros, I can't remember the exact prices and they may have gone up but hopefully gives you a rough idea. I never needed find the kids prices but I seem to recall they are about half the full prices.

I found it was useful to plan the journey using the RATP website which is in the useful information sticky, http://www.ratp.info/informer/anglais/index.php#. It's a decent place to start.

 

[A Small World]

We have just spent 2 days in Paris before coming to DLP.The best ticket to get for a day trip to Paris is the mobilis ticket which costs 13 E (approx 6E for children). This will take you to Paris and back and access on the metro for the day.

The easiest and nicest way to see the Eiffel Tower is to get the RER from DLP to Charles de Gaulle Etoile and then change to line 6 to Trocadero. This will give you wonderful views of the Tower and you can then walk down to it passed the fountains.

You can then get another metro to the Louvre - I'll look at my plan later and work out a route for you

We also like to get the batobus - which is the river bus.It costs 12E for a day ticket (about 6E for children) you can hop on and off this and it stops at several places. You can get on it by the Tower, take a trip down the river and perhaps get off to explore other places but it also stops outside the Louvre.

 

[mika911]

One that that has made me question whether I want to go into Pairs is the crowds.

I hear that you have to queue hours to buy tower tickets for example and the more hours to use the lift to go up? Same with buying tickets and entering the louvre, etc.

Any advice to best cope with all those waits? Sounds worst than disneyland.

 

[A Small World]

It is very busy but there is still lots to do without the queues - the queues for the Eiffel Tower are always massive but if you can get there for 9am you will be fine otherwise just wander round the tower without going up it as we usually do, same with Notre Dame and the Louvre. You can buy tickets online for the Louvre I think to save queuing and then use a different entrance

 

[KT27]

Thanks for the advice & tips. I do appreciate it.