Talk to me about paris

[adr2.8i]

Been trawling through previous paris threads but being welsh, im still not 100% clear on a few things.

From what I can gather, we can catch a train from disneyland straight into Paris in around 45mjns? Now being the oldest family member and being the alpha male, it is up to me to look after everyone and to make sure we don't get lost, hurt, kidnapped, wet, cold, run over, arrested or mugged. My kids are 3 and 7 so slightly anxious that they might be too small for a big city like gay paris? Will we need to use the metro at all? And how many of the signs and maps etc will be in english? We only plan to see the Eiffel Tower, and maybe have a walk around and then take a river cruise. No major sightseeing a such. I want it to be as relaxing as poss.the kids won't be interested in a lot of it but this being our 3rd trip to disney and as yet we have never ventured outside of disney, but being the old romantic i am, I thought it would be nice to treat the wife to a day in Paris. I hear french men are quite dishy so maybe she would meet a rich Frenchman and bring him home with us.
Also Do they do river cruises in march? A few sights ive been on only list days from may-sept?

If anyone can be bothered then do please reply with your tips on how i can get my wife to leave me and any Paris tips as well if you want.

Thanks in advance. X

 

[ILOVEDLP]

Looks like we are there at the same time , we are thinking of having a day in Paris also.ive never been since I was a child.
No help at all sorry but will be watching this thread for tips.
I think if your wife reads this she may feel like leaving you lol!!
I'm guessing she has a good sense of Humour.
City's are always hard on little legs.

 

[micksn]

Hi we just got back last week and visited Paris for the first time from Disney. We bought a mobilis 1 day travel card for just under 15 euros per adult. We got the RER train to Charles de Gaulle Etoiles which was very easy, I bought my ticket from the counter and she gave me a really useful transport map. Then we followed the signs for the blue line to get the metro to Trocadero. As you come out you can see the Eifel Tower just over the bridge. We walked down and over the bridge, then we got tickets to climb the stairs of the Eifel Tower. The queue for the lift was huge, but the stairs was just 5 mins.We climbed up to the second floor (tiring but manageable). We then took a boat trip using Vadettes de Paris which was just next to the bridge you could see the signs clearly. We used Tesco vouchers for this, but it would have been 13 euros. It was a sightseeing tour which lasted an hour. We saw all the bridges, the Louvre and Notre Damme. The commentry was in French, English and Spanish. We then got a lovely crepe from Trocadero and got the metro back to Charles de gaulle Etoiles. We exited there to see L'Arc de Triomph and walked down the Champs Elysee. We got a metro from Concorde to Chatelet and the RER train back to Disney from there. The only slightly tricky bit was locating the metro station at Concord as it was off the main road and round a corner (I asked for help in a newsagent vendor) The transport was quite straightforward. We left Disney at 9.30 and would have been back at 5. (We had a slight train problem on the way back) We had a really nice day and I'm glad we took the time to do it.

 

[adr2.8i]

Hi we just got back last week and visited Paris for the first time from Disney. We bought a mobilis 1 day travel card for just under 15 euros per adult. We got the RER train to Charles de Gaulle Etoiles which was very easy, I bought my ticket from the counter and she gave me a really useful transport map. Then we followed the signs for the blue line to get the metro to Trocadero. As you come out you can see the Eifel Tower just over the bridge. We walked down and over the bridge, then we got tickets to climb the stairs of the Eifel Tower. The queue for the lift was huge, but the stairs was just 5 mins.We climbed up to the second floor (tiring but manageable). We then took a boat trip using Vadettes de Paris which was just next to the bridge you could see the signs clearly. We used Tesco vouchers for this, but it would have been 13 euros. It was a sightseeing tour which lasted an hour. We saw all the bridges, the Louvre and Notre Damme. The commentry was in French, English and Spanish. We then got a lovely crepe from Trocadero and got the metro back to Charles de gaulle Etoiles. We exited there to see L'Arc de Triomph and walked down the Champs Elysee. We got a metro from Concorde to Chatelet and the RER train back to Disney from there. The only slightly tricky bit was locating the metro station at Concord as it was off the main road and round a corner (I asked for help in a newsagent vendor) The transport was quite straightforward. We left Disney at 9.30 and would have been back at 5. (We had a slight train problem on the way back) We had a really nice day and I'm glad we took the time to do it.

That's. fantastic reply! Thanks very much! That mobilis day card u purchased, does that include metro travel as well?

 

[A Small World]

That's. fantastic reply! Thanks very much! That mobilis day card u purchased, does that include metro travel as well?

Yes the mobilis ticket gives you return trip from DLP to Paris and back and unlimited use of the metro for that day

 

[Florida2012]

We went into Paris last year, and have to agree with the advice above! The people at the Marne-la-Vallée couldn't have been anymore helpful when telling us about what fare to get, etc. plus we found the Metro fairly easy to navigate, and I get lost on the London Underground!

Though we didn't go on a tour, we managed to fit in the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe/Champs-Élysées, Notre-Dame and the Louvre. Plus managed to have a picnic in the Jardin des Tuileries, just outside the Louvre (well a couple of cheese rolls acquired from the breakfast buffet and some snacks! Lol)

The only two issues we had was the amount of busking on the train into Paris, and the state of the stations in Paris (we were not used to seeing vagrants sleeping on the platforms!), but we will certainly look to go back, probably next year!

 

[jillrobinson]

We took a day out to visit Paris was going to be two but after the worse day of our lives decided against it. You leave Marne La Vallee in a modern clean train from a modern clean platform, get into Paris and it all changes, I was gobsmacked at just how nasty, dirty and intimidating the stations were and they don't show you all the homeless people living along the Seine on the TV, doesn't quite make for the romantic walk up the river, no wonder they recommend the boat trips.
If you have little one please be aware that the RER train doors open and close automatically and there is no stopping them, my son got on before the rest of us at Chatelet les Halles mum melt down moment, he's 19 a student so used to public transport and he said it was the scariest moment of his life. We met up again at Notre Dame, thank god for mobile phones. At Notre Dame the doors closed and there was a terrible scream and I thought a child had got trapped in the doors, but no it was a young English boy who'd got on and left his parents on the platform. The emergency cord was pulled and we spent half hour in the tunnel while people calmed him down and contacted his parents.
We chose a particularly bad weekend to visit - Bastille weekend and the heatwave, queued for 2 and a half hours outside at the Catacombes only to be told that the queue was at least another two hours long and it might be closed before we got in, so we gave that up as a bad job. Got to Notre Dame, no chance whatsoever of getting anywhere near that but did manage to find a toilet queued for 40 minutes for a pee. Next stop Eiffel Tower, should be a doddle prebooked our tickets to the top, got up to the 2nd floor bang on time, joined queue for top, 3/4 hour layer got moved into another queue, queued there for about 1/2 hour without moving and decided to call it a day. It was during the summer heatwave, we'd run out of water, we'd stood in queues most of the day and to be honest we'd had a bloody 'nuff.
The reason we extended our trip to 7 days and the only reason my husband and eldest agreed to the trip was for the Paris excursions, neither of them wanted to go back in a second day, thank god. I wouldn't go back to Paris if you paid me. I know I'm in a minority but actually when I've said this to other friends and family, almost everyone has known someone who's said the same thing so I don't feel quite so bad about being so negative.
In comparison their buses are fantastic, we took a trip to the Parc des Felins, cost half the price for bus tickets, super easy, bus drivers and passengers were really friendly and helpful and we had a fantastic day.

Forget to add, buskers on train I thought the accordian player was quite sweet until his companion thrust her collecting plate under my nose, the very large mad guy that boarded one of the trains and was marching up and down shouting - that was scary and the fact that they have security guards with large dogs and guns and security cameras on platforms informing people they are being watched all helped to add to the feeling that you're in a really dodgy area. Honest opinion made the London Underground seem positively welcoming.

 

[Ms Poppins]

After reading that Jill, I'm glad we took the cityrama tour from dlp!

I honestly don't fancy making our own way into Paris, for a lot of the reasons you've mentioned, but would happily do the organised tour again.

But, I know many others who go into Paris themselves without a problem..

 

[adr2.8i]

We took a day out to visit Paris was going to be two but after the worse day of our lives decided against it. You leave Marne La Vallee in a modern clean train from a modern clean platform, get into Paris and it all changes, I was gobsmacked at just how nasty, dirty and intimidating the stations were and they don't show you all the homeless people living along the Seine on the TV, doesn't quite make for the romantic walk up the river, no wonder they recommend the boat trips.
If you have little one please be aware that the RER train doors open and close automatically and there is no stopping them, my son got on before the rest of us at Chatelet les Halles mum melt down moment, he's 19 a student so used to public transport and he said it was the scariest moment of his life. We met up again at Notre Dame, thank god for mobile phones. At Notre Dame the doors closed and there was a terrible scream and I thought a child had got trapped in the doors, but no it was a young English boy who'd got on and left his parents on the platform. The emergency cord was pulled and we spent half hour in the tunnel while people calmed him down and contacted his parents.
We chose a particularly bad weekend to visit - Bastille weekend and the heatwave, queued for 2 and a half hours outside at the Catacombes only to be told that the queue was at least another two hours long and it might be closed before we got in, so we gave that up as a bad job. Got to Notre Dame, no chance whatsoever of getting anywhere near that but did manage to find a toilet queued for 40 minutes for a pee. Next stop Eiffel Tower, should be a doddle prebooked our tickets to the top, got up to the 2nd floor bang on time, joined queue for top, 3/4 hour layer got moved into another queue, queued there for about 1/2 hour without moving and decided to call it a day. It was during the summer heatwave, we'd run out of water, we'd stood in queues most of the day and to be honest we'd had a bloody 'nuff.
The reason we extended our trip to 7 days and the only reason my husband and eldest agreed to the trip was for the Paris excursions, neither of them wanted to go back in a second day, thank god. I wouldn't go back to Paris if you paid me. I know I'm in a minority but actually when I've said this to other friends and family, almost everyone has known someone who's said the same thing so I don't feel quite so bad about being so negative.
In comparison their buses are fantastic, we took a trip to the Parc des Felins, cost half the price for bus tickets, super easy, bus drivers and passengers were really friendly and helpful and we had a fantastic day.

Forget to add, buskers on train I thought the accordian player was quite sweet until his companion thrust her collecting plate under my nose, the very large mad guy that boarded one of the trains and was marching up and down shouting - that was scary and the fact that they have security guards with large dogs and guns and security cameras on platforms informing people they are being watched all helped to add to the feeling that you're in a really dodgy area. Honest opinion made the London Underground seem positively welcoming.

oh jill jill jill jill jill, why did you have to reply?

now im scared and frightened and anxious and nervous and having second thoughts

 

[Lollipops]

Hi, I am also going in March with DH and 2 children 3 & 6 and considering a trip to see Paris. We are not experienced travellers and getting on a train locally I find a bit of a trauma ! will not even be attempting the London underground on our stay in London the day before Eurostar!
So we are considering an organised Disney coach trip, which from the 1st of Jan to 2nd of April kids go free!

The Magical day tour of Paris including entry to the 2nd floor of the Eiffel tower & river cruise Would be £128 for 2 Adults and 2 children

OR Paris Essentials £80

However we are talking March here! so I would be looking to add this at last min when I have seen a weather forecast! and do I really want to take a day out of our 4nt stay? not sure, Oh and I have to talk DH into it lol

 

[belle24]

Where can I find info about organised tours from disney to paris etc??

 

[Lollipops]

Have a look at the online brochure on the Disneyland official site then its under adding magic to your stay

Ms Poppins I have just re read your fantastic trip report with the cityrama tour thanks

 

[jillrobinson]

oh jill jill jill jill jill, why did you have to reply?

now im scared and frightened and anxious and nervous and having second thoughts

I think we were definitely victims of a series of unfortunate events and I'm sure you will be fine, but I will say I told you so if it all goes *its up

 

[adr2.8i]

lol if it does go *its up, then i shall be driving to Abergavenny to hunt you down. There cant be many Jill robinson's in abergavenny!

 

[donna307]

I can't say I've had any 'bad experiences' so to speak but did feel quite anxious about taking the train to Paris. I thought it was just me though as I live way up North of Scotland in the Shetland Islands and we don't have such things as trains I thought it was scary but it went smoothly the times I've done it.

I can also recommend the organised tours from Paris. It was quite tiring but very well organised and you get the tower and a boat trip too! My parents did the night time tour and LOVED it. I've done the day time one