Отдых в Париже Vacation in Paris

I gathered with a friend for the May holidays in Paris. Before that, I had never been there, but I had long dreamed of being in this fabulous city.
Before that, we traveled to Prague together with the Neva travel agency, which left a good impression on the organization of the tour. They decided to go to France again from the Neva. But for the May holidays, vouchers began to be bought up at the speed of light, and when we were ready to bring our documents and money to the company, it turned out that the desired vouchers were no longer available. Shock! I wanted to buy a weekly ticket no more than 1000 euros at all costs, and those that remained were much more expensive.

I started calling all the travel agencies offering holidays in May in Paris. Along the way, I read reviews about firms on the Internet. And now I stumble upon the network of the travel agency "Vertical World" (it deals mainly with ski tours). And the price suits, and the program is good.

There are zero reviews of the company on the Internet, and this is annoying. But we make up our minds and the next day we go there to buy tickets. We took Paris + the castles of Fontainebleau and Versailles (one-week tour, 3-star hotel, breakfast, transfer from and to the airport, flight with Air France, five excursions, the price of the tour is about 37.000 rubles). We arrive home and begin to study the reviews of tourists about France and, in particular, about Paris. And here again a slight shock: there are almost no reviews (and those that are are scarce). When we were going to Prague, then, having re-read the reviews of tourists, we arrived in the Czech Republic prepared and savvy: we knew where, what and how much. Where to eat, where to go, etc. And then - a complete bummer!

We started looking for reviews of the hotel (it has a very unusual name "3 poussins" - "Three Chickens") - there are no reviews, there is only a description of the hotel. Tickets bought, money spent, no way back...
And then came the long-awaited April 29th. At 19.30, an Airbus took off from Sheremetyevo-2, carrying my friend and me on board.
Oddly enough, the flight attendants speak only French and English (although they regularly fly to Moscow). We speak very badly (or rather ugly) both in French and in English. Therefore, we took with us a phrase book and a detailed map of Paris.

Meals on board are so-so, although the flight time is 3.5 hours. Upon arrival, we were met by a representative of the transfer company and along the way gave valuable instructions: where to go and where not to. Our hotel is located in the 9th arrondissement of Paris near the Grand Opera (an area in good standing). The hotel is small, located on a quiet Clausel street, a 3-minute walk from the metro station "St. George". Very cozy hotel. The room was a double and struck quite a free space. After reading a lot of reviews about Parisian hotels, the idea that all the rooms are cramped has firmly settled in us. But no! There was enough space in the room. In the bathroom: shower, toilet and sink.
There was even a small kitchenette: a refrigerator, a sink and a small stove. Everywhere is clean and tidy. Towels were changed and cleaned in the room every day. One drawback: the TV does not have a single Russian channel.


Claims to the travel agency "Vertical World" - not a single one! On the contrary, respect! But the host (for us it was the Lot & Visit company) did not work very well. The program issued in Moscow was inaccurate and the host company had to send us the exact tour program to the hotel. Not sent. They called them from a mobile, only after that our program was sent. But she also had inaccuracies. In short, we called the manager Zoya, as our "best friend" more than once, and that's all - from a Moscow mobile.
Other than that, we enjoyed our holiday. I immediately fell in love with Paris. The Eiffel Tower and Montmartre have become my favorite places. No doubt I will go there again.

I would like to dwell separately on visiting the Eiffel Tower.
It is open for visitors from 9.00 to 24.00. If you come late in the evening, you will get into a huge queue and stand (like us) at the ticket office for tickets for about 2 hours. The best time to visit is in the morning, when most tourists are just waking up. In the evening, from about 21 o'clock (as it gets a little dark), the tower begins to shimmer with lights, it does this for the first ten minutes of every hour. The spectacle is magnificent, be sure to see it.

Now about how to get around in Paris. The easiest way is the subway. The Paris metro in practice is not as terrible as it looks on the map. Everything is quite simple there, although it is much more inconvenient than in Moscow, but it is possible to survive it. If you plan to spend no more than a week in the French capital, then buy an unlimited travel card. It's called Carte Orange. It definitely needs your photo. There is a travel pass for a week - 16 euros (for reference: one trip by metro will cost you 1 euro 20 cents).
But keep in mind: there are zones in the Paris metro and the metro is combined with the so-called RER-high-speed metro. The pass is valid in zones 1 and 2. If you plan to travel to another zone, you will need to buy a ticket for those zones. By the way, the same pass is also valid on buses, but we did not use them. For hiking, you will definitely need a detailed map of Paris showing the streets. In Paris, you simply cannot do without such a map - get lost. The map can be bought in Moscow bookstores.

We had big problems with food in Paris. Rare restaurants provide menus in Russian, so it's good if you know either French or English. The average bill in a restaurant for one person is about 20 euros.


And one more thing: on holidays, most shops, oddly enough, do not work. The same problem is with restaurants.
In addition, you are unlikely to find a restaurant or cafe with a working kitchen after 11 pm. Better to have dinner early.
We hope our review helps you. Have a good trip and enjoy your holiday!