Posts Tagged ‘paris’
Dec 12th, 2006
Fixing The Itinerary
I feel like at this point I’ve got the basic skeleton o f the trip locked down apart from one point. I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it to include Lyon in the trip or if that time could be better spent in Provence or the Riviera.
Right now I’m leaning toward yes, it should be included, even if it is a brief stop (which it most likely will be). Originally I planned on us spending two nights in Lyon, but now I’m thinking one night will have to be enough. We can take the morning train from Paris spend the rest of the day and the night, and the take an afternoon train out the next day to Avignon.
This plan is still slightly in flux but here’s how I’ve got it breaking down so far:
7 days in Paris, 1 day in Lyon, 5 days in Provence, and 5 days in the Riviera.
And EasyJet offers very inexpensive flights from Nice to Paris, which means we don’t have to waist precious vacation time circling back to Paris at the end of the trip.
The itinerary has been updated.
P.S. I should make it clear that my hesitation in stopping in Lyon is not because I don’t think it will be a worthwhile stop, because I’m sure it will be, but because our time is limited and we would be going directly from big city (Paris) to big city (Lyon). If anybody has an opinion on this they’d like to share please feel free to leave a comment or email me directly.
Posted in France, Travel Planning | No Comments
Nov 27th, 2006
The Pain Of Booking Awards Travel
Last night I spent about an hour and half on the phone with Alaska Airlines booking tickets for our trip to France next year. And although the customer service woman was very friendly and helpful, it was still far more complicated than I was expecting. Eventually, plans had to change in order for us to get tickets at all.
Originally I wanted us to fly in to Amsterdam and then out of Nice. Not possible. And so after going through every possible iteration of date change and arrival/departure city change we finally settled on flying into and out of Paris (not ideal, but we’ll live with it), pushing departure back a week and taking on an additional day at the end.
The net result of all the changes is that we have decided to skip Amsterdam this time and concentrate exclusively on France. This is not entirely a bad thing, I think. After our last hectic trip (to five countries in 18 days) it will be nice to take things at a (slightly) more relaxed pace. Well, at least as relaxed as any vacation I’m planning can be.
I will update the rest of the site to reflect these changes in our plans. Now that we have our departure firmly settled, I’m really looking forward to diving in to the meat of the planning, including booking an apartment for our week in Paris.
Posted in France, Travel Planning | No Comments
Aug 23rd, 2006
Soundwalk
I can’t remember where I first heard about the Soundwalk audio walking tours (although I suspect it was probably Gridskipper), but I was immediately interested. I loved the idea of a walking tour that I could load onto my iPod and do at my leisure.
So last year when I was in New York to see Spamalot I bought three of their tours to take with me (the Brooklyn Dumbo, Lower East Side, and Meat Packing District walking tours). In the course of my visit I managed to do all three, and thoroughly enjoyed them. I even got to meet the narrator of the Meat Packing tour (at one point she instructs you to ring her bell, and you can go up to her gallery and talk to her). Of the three I liked the Lower East Side tour the least, all though that one was still pretty good and the Dumbo tour the most.
So how do they work? Every tour comes with an audio file and a pdf of the tour route, but really you only need the pdf to find your starting point, and I suppose, if you get hopelessly lost along the way, to reorient yourself. But the directions are usually pretty clear and I mostly always found myself ahead of the narrator, and had to wait on the corner (like they suggest) until they could catch up. One problem I ran into, was with both the Meat Packing tour and the Dumbo tour, the areas are changing so quickly, that some of the mentioned locations were gone, or inaccessible. Although this only happened a few times and didn’t ruin my enjoyment.
For our upcoming trip, I purchased the Wall Street and Little Italy tours. I don’t know if we’ll have time to do both, but I’m sure we can squeeze at least one in.
The company also offers a walking tours of Paris (which we will definitely be using on our trip next year), India and other locals in and around New York.
Overall I think this is a brilliant concept whose time has come. I’ve found a few other companies offering similar things and those links can be found on the resource pages.
Posted in Travel Tools | No Comments
Jul 5th, 2006
Créa
Ooo, I very much want to go here when we’re in Paris. Looks like my kind of store. All sort of art supplies and pens and such. And big, too, apparently.
A map can be found here
Posted in Shopping | No Comments
Jun 30th, 2006
Parisian tips
Here are some great tips for travelers visiting Paris. As well as some restaurant suggestions.
An example:
Talking vs. Shouting
Americans talk LOUDLY. (As do people in several other countries). If you don’t believe it, watch cable television "news" for a few minutes! It’s gotten so that restaurant reviews in the United States now include ‘sound’ ratings to denote the volume in restaurants. Many of us are used to speaking loudly, especially when we get into groups. If you’ve ever tried to have a peaceful dinner next to a table celebrating their annual office party, you know what I’m talking about. In Paris, people will modulate their voices so as not to disturb other diners.
Posted in Travel Planning | No Comments
