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WTF I’m in Paris
Wow, thank you for mentioning the tickets. I've been to the Eiffel Tower once many years ago during a long layover at the airport on my way to Germany. I literally just took the train, stood in line for tickets for like 5 minutes and went up to the top. So I was not expecting this to be like the Statue of Liberty, but sure enough most of the tickets are already sold out for our 3 days. We'll be buying tickets tonight once we figure out which day we're going.Michael Barnes wrote: - The Eiffel Tower is MUCH bigger than you think. The line to go up was way too long and advance tickets sell out like 3 months...
Michael Barnes wrote: - Les Catacombes are incredible, well worth the 2+ hour wait to get in.
This has been on my wife's short list to see, so good to hear it's really good, but bad to hear that the line was horrendous. We'll have to take that into account I guess.
Michael Barnes wrote: - The Palais Garnier is the opera house where Phantom of the Opera is set. It is pretty amazing, but as much as I like Marc Chagall, I feel like his ceiling painting there is incongruous. It's an opulent building, and they still have shows in it.
Hadn't come across this one yet, will definitely need to check it out.
Michael Barnes wrote: - By far the greatest thing we did was on the last day. We took a 90 minute train ride out of Paris to this little town called Provins.
Wow, that sounds crazy, but we only have 3 days in Paris, so not sure I can swing that.
Michael Barnes wrote: In the final ranking, it turns out the US tourists weren't the most boorish, rude, and aggressively impolite. That honor goes to the Russians.
I was in Jamaica a few years back and asked one of the workers at the beach activity his favorite and least favorite nationalities of tourists. He said Americans were the best, because of all the money they brought to Jamaica. He said that the Russians were the worst, as they were very rude and aggressive. So stereotypes are holding true...
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- Cranberries
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- Disgustipater
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cdennett wrote:
Michael Barnes wrote: - Les Catacombes are incredible, well worth the 2+ hour wait to get in.
This has been on my wife's short list to see, so good to hear it's really good, but bad to hear that the line was horrendous. We'll have to take that into account I guess
We got our tickets through a third party that had some kind of “front of the line” privileges and only waited maybe 20 minutes or so. I think we did the same thing with the Eiffel Tower. The tickets are a bit more expensive but for the cost increase it was totally worth it.
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- Michael Barnes
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With only 3 days, I would say skip Versailles- it's an all day thing, and frankly other than the "I was there" no-prize, it's not really worth it. You can see more impressive stuff in town, really. I would do Louvre one day, Eiffel Tower and maybe one other thing near it one day, and then churches/Catacombs one day if I had just three to work with. The Pompidou is open late every day if you like modern art (and I mean - the building itself is amazing and worth seeing. Notre Dame and Sacre Couer are also open late-ish, I think. We didn't go to Saint-Chappelle, but it is close to Notre Dame if you want to double up.
We had a 4 day Paris Museum Pass but we sort of blew it and didn't get the most out of it because we wound up just wandering and getting distracted by other stuff. You WILL get distracted from anything you plan. The passes are _good_ if you actually use them because it pays admission and you get the "skip the line" privilege...which is kind of not true, because you skip ONE line- the ticket buying line. Everyone waits in security. But it covers a lot of the major attractions- not the Catacombs or Eiffel Tower though. Beware that there are other passes (like Paris Passlib) available, some of which add a bunch of stuff you may or may not want- like a boat ride and the Metro pass. We wouldn't have used it because we walked/Ubered most of the time. Uber is CRAZY there. It's like never more than a 2 minute wait and it's usually pretty cheap.
You can buy scheduled time tickets for most things- Louvre, Versailles, etc. but you have a 30 minute window before and after to get there, which may be tricky. And you may decide to do something else on that day. So I sort of don't advise that. The Catacombs have this, but in order to do it you have to pay for the full audio guide, and it winds up being like 29 Euro or something- twice the regular admission. The Eiffel Tower has a couple of ways to get in, really- one is to get a dining reservation at either Jules Verne or 58 Eiffel- you got right on in and pass the line...but good luck with that, they book up months in advance too. If you get the Passlib, there is a $20-$25 add on to skip the line, but it is subject to availability. You can also go to either the observation deck or the summit, there are different tickets for each. And if you are a madman, you can take the steps, which has about 1/4 the line as the lifts. You will not want to take the steps.
The Catacombs are a special case too because only 200 people can be going in at a time, so they let folks go down in stages. The line won't move at all, then 200 people go down. It's pretty slow moving, but it is absolutely worth it. The only thing is that it is sort of out of the way of the other things to see, so it's not like how you can "bundle" other attractions that are close to each other. It's in a weird place, kind of in a little park in the middle of a couple of intersections. It's basically just this little doorway, you go in, pay this dude, and then walk down like 300 spiral steps and you are WAY down below the Metro and everything. Then you walk like 1/2 a mile in these tunnels before you actually get to the Ossuary. It is just amazing once you are there. And of course, it does exit to the gift shop.
It's kind of weird that we didn't go to the Orsay. But I'm not a big fan of Impressionism, so there's that. Maybe next time. I'd also want to go to Palais de Tokio on an return visit.
You know, all of the hardcore tourists and travelguides scoff, but we really like the hop on/hop off tour buses. We only did it for one day, but it was a really great way to see the full scope of the city and get a feel for where things are...and if you see something cool, you hop off and walk around for a while and then get back on. In Paris, they play Charles Aznavour, Joe Dassin, Edith Piaf, and Daft Punk when the guide isn't talking. It was well worth $100 or so, and with kids it's almost essential so they don't burn out on walking early on.
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If this was just my wife and I, we'd never step foot in Paris. We've done two trips to Italy over the past 3 years, both for about two weeks each, and we spent exactly 1.5 days in a major city (Florence). But with kids, the big city is a better option for activities that will interest them.Black Barney wrote: France is just so much better than Paris that it's a tragedy people mostly only know it for the city. Half of my family is from Brittany and it's an awesome region, best part of France in my opinion. The entire west coast is just so special and perfect. The south of France is awful (in terms of people) and Paris is fairly obnoxious (but beautiful obviously). I dunno, i think it's great to experience the country itself, so get out into the weeds and live in small towns with the people. It's fantastic (and way cheaper too).
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