Hints & Tips

Here are some random thoughts that come to mind for someone considering a trip to Paris and a drive through France:

Car insurance coverage is already in place if you have a gold credit card - check before you leave to ensure you have coverage.

Vehicle rentals are expensive and not that easy from afar to arrange the vehicle type of choice at the best cost you can find and at a convenient pick up location. Deposits are not required on vehicles until just as you’re leaving, so spend some time to get the best deal you can. Make sure you show up with your passport. Try to get diesel for its economy, and make sure the vehicle can handle the number of people and luggage. Don’t even think of not having GPS - I can’t tell you how much time and anguish it saved us. Try not to gas up on the highways, as you’ll pay its premium. Generally speaking, machine attended only stations will not accept North American credit cards unless they’re the smart card version.

Be prepared for sensory and information overload. There is a vast array of things to choose from, and the monumental scale in Paris and some other cities doesn’t easily enable one to separate the sites that you may have identified or are seeking. Your options range from winging it, and enjoying the moment, to trying to organize what you want to see in a time efficient manner. The latter takes a lot of time, and the suggestion would be to isolate areas in any sortie i.e. the Champs-Élysées and monuments and Eiffel Tower vs the Louvre vs Ile de la Cité and Ile St-Louis vs Sacré Coeur and Montmartre vs le Marais vs the Left Bank.

The most important advice to receive. We found the French to be impeccably polite and helpful. The one thing you must resist doing is launching into a conversation. Whether asking a question or entering a store, the first thing you want to do is exchange greetings. This simple act will civilize your life and make your life so much smoother.

If arriving at CDG, the clear winner is the Roissybus at an individual cost of something like 8.60 € and a 45 minute run, buses running every 15 minutes or so, provided its l’ Opéra Garnier destination by American Express is convenient. Yes, you’ll have to shlepp your baggage, but it’s not a big deal. Its circuit takes it to Terminals 1-3. Terminal 3, incidentally, is very small, but it’s packed at departure, so allow at least ½ hour in line before clearing customs.

One way or the other, think about the essential photos that you want to take. It’s easy to overlook it and is often unrecoverable. For example, in the fatigue that sets in and the busy pace, we do not have portrait pics from the Louvre or Luxembourg Gardens, which would have been both memorable and nice. Be sure that your camera can handle the daily volume of photos i.e. whether memory cards or batteries. We were running at the rate of +/- 350 pics daily.

Consider purchasing the Paris Pass, which for an individual fee of something like 45 € for 4 consecutive days’ use, gets you into many of the sites you may consider visiting, including Versailles. It is described on internet sites.

If you’re in a situation where someone in your party could use wheelchair assistance, wheelchairs seem to be available at every site. They may be in limited supply, so the best strategy is to be among the earlier crowds. It may not be volunteered to you, but an individual in a wheelchair is exempt from paid admission, as is the person pushing them. Technically, you’re supposed to have some disability proof paperwork, but that isn’t the practice. You can rent a wheelchair from most pharmacies for something like 20 € per week with 24-hours’ notice.

If you plan on retaining a record or reporting on your trip, consider getting a pocket notepad and make notes constantly. Otherwise, after a while, all the cathedrals, flowers, and buildings will all start to blend. Same thing goes for people that you meet and are e-mailing pics.

In Paris, in one form or another, obtain a map that combines the subway and RER station names and number lines, each line colour coded, against a street map. Understand that you have to know the line #, the end station in the direction you’re headed, and the common points for transfer to another line. Buy common subway/bus tickets in quantities of 10 for best unit price. You enter your ticket into the reader in each stile and retrieve it - hold on to it, as it may be required to access another line before your trip ends. The RER to outlying suburbs, such as Versailles or St-Germain-en-Laye is very good, gets you there in about 30-45 minutes, and is linked to metro stations, although it’s not that obvious. Generally, the walk to a metro station is not as far as one might think from looking at the map i.e. when considering it as an alternative to otherwise having to transfer 1 or more times. The purchase price of an RER ticket (can get return on same ticket at the same time) includes its use in the metro – again, hold on to your ticket until the final trip is complete.

RATP, which governs the transit system, has a number of on line resources to enable you to get specific directions for metro, bus and/or RER, along with the associated time, including walking allowance, for time of day. Transit in Paris and suburbs is extensive and fast. There’s a separate website that I won’t set out here, which also calculates the cost, including that for RER. Each is very helpful for planning connections, time and cost.

http://www.ratp.info/orienter/cv/cv_en/carteparis.php

Meal tipping isn’t really well understood. On the one hand, 15% is included in meals but not for drinks (so you have to consider a tip for drinks). Apparently, practice for a meal of, say, 4 people is to leave up to 5 €, depending on satisfaction – it was never expressed to me as a percentage.

The Champs is very expensive, but my view is that it’s a unique experience, so suck it up and enjoy.

Cheese - the locals say to buy from the small fromageries. Some are in Ile-St- Louis and the Left Bank, and I was told that Galleries Lafayette (just above l’ Opéra Garnier) is a good place. Otherwise, it can be quite expensive in Paris, I think.

Wine - if you can, buy it at source in the country to eliminate the mark up. We saw same at 6 € in the Loire for ½ its price in Paris.

If you need one, make sure you have a power plug connector that will handle your North American plug for your appliance and match the plugs. We had a universal that supposedly works on everything - only problem is that the side for the wall socket didn’t fit. We bought one in France that works in 150 countries, but its North American end had a rectangular and not a round hole for the ground - go figure. Be sure that you know if your appliance can also work on 220V and, if not, what the power supply is as some are just 220V.

Any type of electrical or computer problem - head to FNAC, which has a number of stores and a huge range of product. It’s located on the Champs, FDR exit, I believe, and on side away from the Seine. Convenience type store - Monoprix, also a chain, also located near the Champs FNAC, each often open till midnight there, and Monoprix prices appeared to be quite relatively reasonable.

Consider mailing a copy of your passport, driver’s license and any other ID or documents that may be needed and might be lost to your hotmail address or some location that can be accessed remotely by internet.