Paris and the Loire Valley - on your own. Survival guide.
The terms of our stay in France were calculated from 2 to 11 January 2012. I must say right away that I did not regret the chosen time at all - green grass is everywhere, flowers bloom (and even smell) and most importantly - NO CROWS OF TOURISTS !! ! No, of course they are, but not as many as in summer and autumn. The lyrics are over, now I will tell you the whole sequence of crossings that I received after planning the route and a few links.
http://files. mail. ru/DA1CBO - scanned map of Paris. Which are issued in the hotels of the city
http://files. mail. ru/XYRK0G - Scanned map of Disneyland
http://g. co/maps/p7wxn - Places in Paris to see or drop by
http://g. co/maps/4yqap - Castles of the Loire Valley.
Day 1 - Check-in at the hotel Prince Hotel - Eiffel Tower - Walk around the quarter - Hotel
Day 2 Hotel - Opera - Concorde - Madeleine - Tuileries - Notre Dame - Latin Quarter - Invalides - Hotel - Austrellitzky Vault - Blois
Day 3 Blois-Chambord-Chaverny- Chaumont-sur-Loire - Hotel
Day 4 Hotel - Tours-Amboise
Day 5 Amboise-Hotel-Sacracker-Wax Museum-Lafayette-Hotel
Day 6 Shopping - trip to Val-de-Ville
Day 7 Pompidou Center - Musé e de Orsay, Invalides
Day 8 Disneyland
Day 9 Hotel - Cité - Sainte Chapelle - Champs Elysees - Walk along Lafayette - Hotel
Day 10 Walk around the block around the hotel - airport
Now a little more detail and with comments.
Day 1 Arrival in Paris.
We traveled by train to Minsk and then through Minsk - we arrived at 10.20 in the morning and landed at the ShDG. In fact, we get the whole day in Paris. After landing - customs clearance and immediately after it is the baggage claim. With luggage, we go out into a common long passage and follow the signs Train to Paris - you won’t miss them, they hang on every corner. On the way, a network of fast food restaurants - you can refresh yourself, since you still have to go to Paris and still settle there.
Advice! On the way to the train, we notice a Tourist Information kiosk to the right of us - you can get a Tourist Map of Paris in it - a link to the scan is in the description above (and any other information. Including you can buy metro tickets there (we take Tiket Carne right away - 10 pieces or we issue a travel pass for a week) And most importantly, in the same kiosk we buy a ticket for the RER to Paris. . . Having acquired a map and tickets, we stomp further along the travalator to the railway platforms - we follow the signs strictly.
Passing through the turnstiles is easy - we approach the turnstile, put a ticket into it (which is the second one and it says HDG - Paris) - it crawls out in front - do not forget to take it - we will need it at the exit from the station and then at the entrance to the metro - it one for all of Paris. And we stomp further down the stairs to the platform. Any train suits us - any train goes to Gare du Nord and even further - only on a completely different outskirts of Paris they will go in different directions. We get used to dragging our suitcase up the stairs - this is not Moscow for you - there are almost no escalators anywhere.
We sit on the train and study the metro map - where we need to get to. It is not necessary to get off at the Gare du Nord station - with our ticket we can travel all over Paris by metro and by bus and RER.
You can prepare and learn routes in advance using the route builder:
http://www. transport-idf. com - Paris itinerary builder
http://www. ratp. fr/itineraires/en/ratp/recherche-avancee - Paris itinerary builder
I booked the Hotel Prince - very close to the Eiffel Tower from where I decided to start a tour of Paris. We buy tickets for the tower http://www.eiffel-tower.com/preparing-your-visit/buying-your-tickets.html and proudly walk past all this crazy queue for E-ticket inscriptions - the only relative inconvenience is that the ticket for a certain time interval, but I assure you - standing in line you will lose much more time.
Having examined and learned from the pictures all the sights of Paris, you can go on the first sightseeing walk - for us it was the Seine embankment, the disabled - the hotel - on the way we are looking for a more or less acceptable cafe.
In general, about nutrition - maybe we were unlucky, but for 10 days of eating in completely different cafes and restaurants in France, I never ate deliciously... In the end, the conclusion was this - breakfast in the hotel room, what I bought in the evening in the store, then coffee with a croissant at Starbags. During the day, the best option is numerous Vietnamese / Korean restaurants - cafes like our Mu-Mu. Sufficiently large portions and quite satisfying and most importantly everything is fried normally!! ! Unlike restaurants, where minced meat will be brought to you as a cutlet. Just Stuffing... As a result, the choice, unfortunately, often stopped at McDonald's. You can not be afraid of the language barrier - there are self-service kiosks almost everywhere - we select what we need on the screen, pay with a card and with a ticket we are already approaching to receive an order.
Second day.
We rent a hotel room, leave the suitcase at the reception - in the evening we will return for it. And straight to the acquaintance with the city. Our itinerary for this day was as follows - We reach the Opera station. We admire the monumental building (in general, there are a lot of monumental buildings in Paris). Then we turn our backs to the Opera and stomp to the Vendô me Column. Having examined the Ritz Hotel and the surrounding buildings, we go to the Madeleine Church - from the inside the spectacle is much more impressive than from the outside. In the church itself we take programs - concerts are regularly held there for a nominal fee. Then we move to Concorde Square and do not miss the Ferris wheel at the entrance to the Tuileries Garden. Looking at the city from another viewpoint, you can relax and eat a pancake bought immediately after leaving the Ferris wheel in the garden near one of the fountains. We didn’t try pancakes (Crape) there - after St. Petersburg pancakes, they don’t even look at these! We pass through the Tuileries Garden, past the Louvre building, go out onto the Seine embankment from it to the Pont Neuf - and here we are at the Cité . Here we can begin to join the culture - first, let's look at the church of Sainte-Chapelle, and from it it is already a stone's throw to Notre Dame. After examining it from all sides and admiring it from the inside, you can move on. By the way, if you go around Notre Dame from behind, then in the garden we will find a free toilet. From here you can already go to the Latin Quarter and eat something to eat along the way.
Already the time is coming to 3 o'clock - it's time to think about what to do next. For us, after two days of cursory acquaintance with Paris, acquaintance with its environs began. Then we walked on foot to the building of the Invalids and from it it is already a stone's throw to our hotel - we pick up things and in the subway - to the Austerlitz station. We purchase tickets to the city of Blois and forward.
Advice! Regarding the purchase of tickets. There are vending machines everywhere - both for purchasing tickets in the subway and for train tickets. In order to figure out how to use it, just play with the machine for 2-3 minutes and everything will work out (fortunately there is a choice of language in English), or buy a ticket at the box office.
Our cashier even knew a few words of Russian and seemed overly happy to be able to give out all his Russian vocabulary to us. Judging by the reviews on the forum, tickets can also be bought on the French railway website, but I decided not to bother with it. Moreover - before traveling to Europe, get a chip card - fortunately, many banks issue it as a salary, and if there is none, then you can get one for 200 rubles a year.
Advice! A few useful links:
http://www.infolignes.com/index. php - France train timetable
http://www.sncf.com/en_EN/flash/ - the same - France train schedule
On one of the train journeys, we met the inspectors. It turned out that the purchased ticket must be validated before entering the train - for this, there are such yellow boxes at all stations - you need to put your ticket in them (I thought that they were needed to check the validity of the ticket - like in the Moscow metro)
So, a little more than an hour passed (the train was moving at an average speed of 160 km per hour, occasionally accelerating to 200 (Hello Sapsan) and our train arrived in the city of Blois. I chose the hotel not by chance - as close as possible to the car rental station. In the city there are at least 2 of them - Hertz and some local one. It is not necessary to say that the choice fell in favor of the first - and the price turned out to be lower.
The hotel itself is located in a very old building, although the rooms in general have everything you need (and even rotten wi-fi) and for 40 euros per day it is quite satisfactory. Note that at 9 pm hot water turned off - as a result, in the morning the owner was very apologetic and dropped 50% of the price. Thus, the night for two of us came out to 20 euros.
Morning starts with breakfast!
Advice! It’s not worth taking breakfast at the hotel - we go outside, turn right - and after 50 meters we run into the main street - turn left and walk 50 meters - we see at least 2-3 cafes where you can buy coffee for 1 euro, croissants and yogurt.
After breakfast and a short walk of 15 minutes, we are at the car rental station (Link) - another 5 minutes and the car keys are in my pocket. Our rally through the lands of France begins. Today we have to visit 4 castles - Blois, Chambord, Chaverny and Chamod on the Loire.
Advice! Stock up on a navigator in advance - without experience and knowledge of the roads of France, it will be difficult.
The route we traveled on the first day is here http://g. co/maps/n9fdb
The first transfer - from the rental station to the hotel - pick up the suitcase, from the hotel (Link) to the parking lot of the castle of Blois (Link). Parking is paid - just like in our supermarkets - at the entrance I took a ticket. At the exit, I stuffed the ticket into the machine - it showed how much money to throw into it. (I don’t remember if it’s possible or not to pay with a card - I threw coins - usually parking cost 2-3 euros) We examine the castle of Blois. I’ll say it again - we were in January, so there were no people at all - in one of the castles we were ALONE (I don’t count the attendant) Next, moving to Chambord Castle (from Blois to the castle there are many signs to the castle - it’s hard to miss it) - one of the largest - in this castle, its appearance and the view from the observation deck at the very top are impressive. The next point is Chambord Castle - similarly, there are many signs along the way from Chambord to Chaverny. Shaverny is interesting because from the outside it looks like an ordinary mansion, but inside you can see how they really lived in those days - a very beautiful interior. There you can also look at the sheepfold. The next transfer is the castle Loire / Chaumont-sur-Loire. It is really worth seeing it - firstly, in the summer there is a garden festival, and secondly - gorgeous views for photographing. The power of the castle is amazing. And here's the thing for the evening. For us, it was already a long journey to spend the night at Châ teau d'Artigny. In fact, I’m not sure about the correctness of the decision - having already traveled this path, I’ll recommend the following route: From Chamod Castle on the Loire, we move to spend the night in the city of Amboise, where we settle down for the night. We stayed at the hotel (Link). In the morning we visit the Amboise Castles - there are 2 of them Amboise himself (we didn’t go to it, we just took pictures against it) and the second Clos-Lucy - the house where Leonardo da Vinci lived. From Amboise we move to the castle of Chenonceau. Then, how will the mood be - either we include some other castle in the program (I originally planned to visit the Châ teau de Azay-le-Rideau castle, or we go to the city of Tours, where we successfully rent our car (Link), check into a hotel, explore the city and In the morning of the next day we go back to Paris.
Advice! If you think that renting a car is already something out of a fantasy series, then there is a special tourist bus that will take you from the Blois railway station to the Blois castle, then to Chambord, Shaverny and return back. BUT!!! ! The bus operates only in summer!! ! From April to September. Be careful because we met two of our compatriots who did not know this and with whom we shared the next journey by car.
Our itinerary was slightly different from the proposed one - after visiting Chaumont-sur-Loire, we went to the castle where we spent the night. In the morning, the weather did not please us, so we decided not to see the castles yet and immediately went to Tours, where we handed over the car, briefly examined the city and went to the city of Amboise - there we checked into a hotel, examined the castles in Amboise and the next morning went to Paris .
Next, I will briefly describe what routes we had in Paris itself.
Day 5. As I wrote earlier, we spent the night in one of the castles of the Loire Valley - because it's cheaper than a hotel in Paris and in the morning we came back to the Austerlitz station on the RER. The hotel for the remaining days we had Pointe Rivoly - its only plus is that it is located in the very center of the Marais quarter - about 20 steps to the Saint paul metro station and there are a lot of eateries around where you can eat.
The route - we get on the metro and get to the Anvers stop - we go up to the Sacreker Basilica, relax in it and begin a leisurely descent down - looking at the audience and different shops, along the way we find a cafe where Amelie worked - we are disappointed that everything in life is not like in the movie , and going down the streets we manage to visit the Grevin wax museum. After it - the time is still early, you can look into the Lafayette Gallery, be horrified by their prices and go to rest with a clear conscience.
Day 6 We devoted to shopping. To do this, there is a place in the suburbs of Paris called Val de Europe - line trains - as a rule, it is most convenient to depart from the Nation station (The stop is one stop short of Disneyland - when you exit the station - to the right 100 and a large shopping center opens in front of us, where you can really find interesting clothes + the so-called village of boutiques - about 50 houses in each of which there is a store of a separate brand. Prices, like for all brands, are exorbitant....)
Advice! On Sunday, almost all major stores in Paris are closed, and even their vaunted Galeries Lafayette - keep this in mind when planning your shopping.
Day 7. Dedicated to cultural values - the Musé e de Orsay and the Invalides with its museum of military art and the tomb of Napoleon.
Day 8. Disneyland. It is necessary to arrive at the opening, and maybe earlier, and it is natural to buy a ticket in advance via the Internet. If you take a ticket to both parks, then do not forget to bring your documents with you - you will need to show your passport to enter the studio.
We were at Disneyland on Monday, in January - so there were no queues. In general (well, for one we stood for 40 minutes). For all others, a maximum of 15 minutes. Recommended itinerary for attractions:
1. We go to the rattling mountain. (From the entrance we pick up to the left) If the queue is small, then we get into it, otherwise we take a fast pass and . .
2. We go to the house of ghosts
3. Indiana Jones
4. Pirates of the Caribbean are waiting for us next
5. In the course of the journey, we pass children's such as Robinson Crusoe's Tree and Mad Hatter's Mugs
6. Now we go to another part of the park - space shooters - I was very impressed with Space Travel, Star Wars, and the third -....We decided not to go to the autodrome - somehow the type of cars and the queue there did not impress us.
7. There is also a local McDonald's - they work very slowly, but the rest of the feeding is even more expensive.
8. Now we run to the Disney studio. There are 4 attractions worthy of attention - Finding Nemo, the tower, rock and roll racing and a car show. If everything goes well, then just after it you can catch the evening parade in the Disney park and ride a train around the entire park - by the way, it’s also very good and not scary at all.
The last day in Paris is worth devoting to a walk - we walked from the Cité through the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe - slowly looking at the windows and people.
I hope someone will find the review useful - write - I will be happy to answer questions and help you figure out what and how!