I sublet an apartment in the 15th on Rue de Suffren for 11 days in July. Can anyone advise with cafe eating or food shopping in the area? Any good patisseries? Where to have an affordable dinner? What is the travel time to the louvre and other attractions? Can we walk or do we always need to take the metro?
also any advice on getting to the loire valley to see chateaux without a car.
Thanks
rj
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%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;also any advice on getting to the loire valley to see chateaux without a car.%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;
I%26#39;m a big advocate of %26#39;..do-it-on-your-own%26#39;....it ain%26#39;t %26#39;..brain surgery..%26#39;. . But more than likely your best bet for getting out to more than one of the famous Loire chateaux for a day-trip is going to be with one of the escorted tour packagers. There are train connections out to the general areas but then making connections between the stations and the chateau and back again become complicated by regional bus schedules or finding taxis. Several tour operators offer both lagre-group tour bus and small group, mini-van tours. Most of these tours include both CHENONCEAU and CHAMBORD and usually one other. Three chateaux are more than enough for a single day--so many chateaux; so little furniture. For examples of what%26#39;s on offer---
PARIS VISION--
http://www.parisvision.com/fr/index.cfm
CITYRAMA--
http://www.graylineparis.com/
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%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;Can anyone advise with cafe eating or food shopping in the area? Any good patisseries? Where to have an affordable dinner? What is the travel time to the louvre and other attractions? Can we walk or do we always need to take the metro?%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;
I%26#39;ve got a trick for you. I%26#39;m a big fan of the STREETWISE maps for general touring and planning purposes. I%26#39;ve got a bunch of other, more detailed and specific map-books---but it%26#39;s hard to beat STREETWISE PARIS for ease-of-use -- especially when you%26#39;re in a hurry and on the go.
For Paris, I use the PLACE de la CONCORDE as my %26#39;ground zero%26#39;. I set the %26#39;legs%26#39; of a compass on the mileage scale and set them. Then I put the point on Place de la Concorde and begin drawing (or rather embossing) equidistant, concentric circles/rings on the map outward around this center point in 1/2 mile increments. I know, from my personal walking pace (and allowing for %26#39;stuff%26#39;) that I can walk across one %26#39;ring%26#39; in approx. 15 minutes (or less). Using this frame of reference, I can usually %26#39;guage%26#39; the relative time %26amp; distance to or from most places in central Paris on foot. It may not be much of a system--but it works well for me.
The STREETWISE PARIS map does NOT cover 100% of the City of Paris---but it does cover the 80-85% of Paris that most visitors need. In addition to this STREETWISE shows just about EVERY street within its coverage areas and more importantly identifies EVERY one. There is also an easy-to-use and complete Street Finder Index and a basic Metro diagram. Most of the compact folding maps do not do this.
STREETWISE MAPS--
http://www.streetwisemaps.com/index.html
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Food shopping : go to %26quot;La Grande Epicerie%26quot; du Bon Marche, metro sevres Babylone, not far from your place. I am not sure but I think Sevres Babylone station is closed, but I think you can walk to La Grande Epicerie or take a bus. It is a great food shop, as beautiful as Harrods Food department in London (in my opinion).
Bon appetit
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rj,
I wouldn%26#39;t rule out renting a car. A 3-day rental from AutoEurope can be had for as low as $150 USD (a guaranteed price no matter the exchange rate):
http://www.autoeurope.com/car.cfm
You can call them if you don%26#39;t see what you want on their site. They are the most reliable rental car agency I have ever dealt with--many, many times, including again this summer for 30 days.)
If you are travelling with someone or, even more so, if you have children with you, 2x or 3-4x a rail/bus ticket will exceed a single car charge in a hurry. Renting a diesel will make your fuel expenses minimal (this can be guaranteed on the ground in Paris if you make sure the company you will pick up the car from is going to be EuropCar and go to them ahead of time and pay 10 Euros--you can check with AE by phone to know, the Gares du Nord %26amp; Montparnasse are usually w/ EuropCar). At any rate buy gas/diesel at the supermarket chains (Champion, Super-U, etc.) outside of Paris and not at Autoroute stations or other branded dealers (Shell, Total, et al.) for best price.
If you don%26#39;t want to overnight in the Loire, you could use the car to make several forays out from Paris. My recommendation for chateaux would be (in order of preference) Chenonceaux, Blois, and Azay-le-Rideau (A-l-R is the furtherest from Paris, but a gem)--Chambord, while impressive in its setting is to a large degree a big barn on the inside. In addition, I would suggest you might do well to consider Fontainebleau and Malmaison as delightful day-trips with as great a sense of history and grandeur as the Loire (they can both be reached rather inexpensively on the RER even if you don%26#39;t get a car).
Laird
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A footnote: If you have children and go to Blois (or if you just love magic yourself), check out the Maison de la Magie located directly across the square from the Chateau.
http://www.ville-blois.fr/magie/detect.html
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For grocery shopping - there is a Monoprix grocery store on the corner of Boulevard de Grenelle and Ave de la Motte Picquet. Boulevard de Grenelle (not the same as the Rue de Grenelle in the 7me) runs somewhat parallel to Ave Suffren.
See my metro comments in your other post.
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Hi
I just returned from Paris, staying at Hotel Ares by rue de suffren. Food Advise, many bakeries offer sandwich/soda/desert specials. In fact one on Suffren by Eiffel offered special for 6.80 for the three and it was filling and tasty. I wouldnt recommend the Museum pass. The Louvre can be a whole day if not more of viewing, you just might not have the time to see others. Visit the churches too (not just Notre Dame). They are beautiful. The metro pass might be worth your while, we took it an average of ten times per day on a 5 day pass period. I would recommend a cityrama tour to versaille. Reason, you will beat qeueue and it turned out to be an enjoyable tour. (AAA members get 10 % discount). You know, you could take the cityrama buses to the important spots too and they are reliable. The night tour on the Siene was excellent too. Enjoy!!
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I second the recommentdations about the car rental (3-days for $150 is exactly what I got in early May, and I got an diesel though I didn%26#39;t even know to pre-reserve one. We did Chenonceaux and Cheverny in a day starting from a B%26amp;B a little north of Chartres. Also spent midday wandering around the town of Amboise and then walked around Chambord after clsing at about 7 pm. We had the entire place to ourselves and it was spectacular. Driving from Paris itself, I wouldn%26#39;t plan on doing more than two chateau in a day. Having a car does give you a lot of freedom to just wander and explore. It%26#39;s a beautiful area with lots of little %26quot;non-guidebook worthy%26quot; pleasures.
KDKSail is also right on with the Streetwise map suggestion. It%26#39;s a great map -- the onyl thing we took with us every day form the hotel. I used a piece of a %26quot;Post-It%26quot; note with the map scale copied onto it in half-Km increments. To guesstimate the walking time between any two points, I just counted half-km segments %26quot;as the crow flies%26quot; and multipled by 10 minutes. Seemed to come out pretty well if not a little overestimated (which is good).
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Jarne,
What was your experience like at the Hotel Ares?? We%26#39;ll be there in about a week.
Thanks.
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