Aware me on France?

[Soundy]

So my sister's wedding is coming up end of July and they've booked a chateau in Tercé, a couple hours outside Paris. I'm flying into Paris the day before they get the place, figuring I'll do some sight-seeing and then hop a train the next day. This is my first time ever traveling outside North America.

First question, how fucked am I having taken only 9th grade French over 30 years ago? Or being the tourist trap that it is, is Paris pretty good for an English speaker?

Second, I guess I'll need a local SIM for my phone (unlocked), any preferences on carriers? Are they easy to find? I expect data will be a bigger concern than voice minutes.

Um, that's all I can think of at the moment...

[Ulic Qel-Droma]

paris smells like piss.

[TOS'd]

You don't need to know French in order to get around Paris. Was just there a couple of weeks ago and we didn't run into any problems. Basic high school french, but I barely remember any of it. Can only recognize some words here and there, like ordering food.

Didn't buy a sim card for my unlocked phone so can't comment on that. Have only been using wifi and google maps with gps on for navigating. But since you are meeting people for the wedding, you probably need the phone more than I do.

[blkgsr]

depending on when you arrive and then finally get to your hotel, half a day isn't shit all time to see anything in Paris. MAYBE one or two things (Arc de Triumph and the Eiffel Tower)

plan some time after the wedding to go see things (Louvre, Versailles, Musee D'Orsay, etc etc etc) so much to see

make friends with the metro maps, really easy way to get around town

[SumAznGuy]

English will suffice.

I believe Orange is the Rogers equivalent in Paris.
I didn't get a sim when I was there last month but my Rogers Note 2 ran on their network.

I used a lot of free wifi hotspots. Places like Starbucks and hotels offer free wifi and all you have to do is sign up with a fake email addy just like Vegas.
Only down side, their wifi is very very very slow.
Download Fongo and set it up. That will give you a Vancouver phone number and if you have wifi, you can use it to call for free.

Expect to wait in line for the Eiffel tower. Kinda silly but they way they do it sucks.
There are 4 legs and each leg has it's own elevator and it's own lineup.
Once you get near the front, you pay to go up to the second floor. They will bag check you when you go up.
From the second floor, you can pay again to go up to the "top".
I think it was like $12 Euro or something to go up to the second floor and I can't remember how much it was to go to the top.
If they close one of the elevators, then the other 3 are going to be busier.

Expect to see a lot of hustler's trying to sell you selfie sticks and fake Eiffel tower souveniers. $1E for 5 or something silly.

Expect to see a lot of China people too.

Watch your bags and belongings. There are a lot of pick pocketing going on there.

We got the unlimited train pass for 3 days.
There is a book of 10 that you can purchase at the airport that is cheaper than paying individually.
The tickets for the train are tiny. Think of the old old bus fare savers but smaller.
You put the ticket into the gate, grab it when it comes out and go through the gate to the trains.

Try downloading the train maps onto your phone as there are many lines. Some stations have multiple exits. We are talking about 2 or 3 block difference if you exit the wrong exit.

I ended up waiting 3 hrs in line to go down to see the catacombs.
Not sure if you are into this stuff though.

All the roads in Paris do not run north south, east west like in Vancouver.
The roads can get very confusing and for good reason too.
Expect it to take an hour by taxi from the airport to Paris during rush hour. It cost us about $60E during rush hour.

[Lomac]

As noted, English will be fine provided you stay in the touristy sections. Off the beaten path you'll find places that wont speak English, though chances are they'll be shops you wont be inclined to visit.

Since it sounds like you'll only be there for a couple days, I highly recommend you try to adjust your body to the time difference before you fly over. That 8 hour time change can be a drag for some people. Also, since you'll only be wandering around the a day, figure out what you most want to see. You'll b visiting in peak tourist season so expect most major landmarks to have huuuuuuuge lineups. Like, multiple hour lineups. Visible landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame can be admired from the outside, without paying the often-expensive admission fee. I would definitely at least wander by those two and take at least a few photos. Other "quick" locations to check out are Champs Elysees, Ile Saint-Louis and the Arc de Triomphe.

If you want to spend some time lining up for places, the two I recommend are The Louvre and The Pantheon. If you're feeling particularly morbid, The Catacombs of Paris are definitely also worth the price of the tickets.

There's a lot of Wifi locations around Paris, so you can get away with just using that if you want. Otherwise there are a lot of options for localized burner phones if you just want something cheap for the time you're there. I brought my phone with me without any overseas plan and after making sure I only used hot spots and deactivated all my push notifications, there was very little in the way of charges.

If you're looking for a place to eat, I recommend two places: Septime and Chez Casimir. They're both relatively affordable ($30-60/person for a full meal) and both offer two differing takes on French cuisine. Septime is a bit more formal, while Chez Casimir is like a bistro.

[SumAznGuy]

A few quick notes about Paris.

Expect to do a lot of walking. Bring very comfy shoes.
Space is a premium so don't be surprised to see small small hotel rooms if you are staying in one overnight.

For me, it was a total culture shock and made me miss Vancouver.

[blkgsr]

i loved paris....the old architecture and the history is AMAZING.

[Hondaracer]

skip Versailles, total waste of time.

Orangerie for the monet's, D'orsay, and Lourve are all worth it, Louvre is kind of a joke in how big and crowded it is so it's good to make sure you know what your're looking for before hand.

Paris pass is well worth it even if you just get the two day one, i'd pay triple the price of the pass to skip the lines like we did.

Everywhere in France u can seemingly get by without french, and in my experiance i had little to no bad experiances in speaking english as long as you introduced yourself, or at the very least said hello in French then spoke in english

if youre with rogers here and have a shared plan you can use "Roam like home" $10 a day to use your plan there as you would here, totally worth it.

download "Ulmon" maps/city guides, offline maps that use the phones GPS instead of Data, extremely usefull and they have all the hot spots as well as restaurants etc, one of the best app's ive ever used for travelling.

If you are buying longer train tickets, IE. south of france etc. buy them through Captaine Train, it's essentially the french rail direct ticketing site. If you can commit to buying well in advance you save big $$$. they release their schedual 3 months in advance so u can buy them exactly 3 months ahead of the day you want. Me and the GF bought our TGV train tickets from CDG to Marsaille 3 months ahead of time for a total of about $260 for both of us. When we arrived i went to go buy them in person for that day to see what the price was like and it was $220 PER PERSON, so amazing savings if u can commit to it.

The Metro is super easy and quick to use, i'd say fuck taking a cab from the airport and just hop on the train, We took a train in the morning just after rush hour from Notre Dame station to CDG and it only took about 30 minutes for around $5 each.

eat as many Banana Nutella Crepes as possible lol

[Lomac]

Really? I loved the Palace of Versailles. The gardens were amazing, and it was really neat seeing Marie Antoinette's little village. There were some amazing rooms inside the Palace as well. That said, I'm a big fan of old European architecture and design, so it was a perfect side trip for me.

However, it's roughly an hour outside of the centre of Paris, so it may be a bit too far for Soundy to visit.

[TOS'd]

I enjoyed it as well. That view from the Palace straight down the Grand Canal way into the distance was very cool, felt like I was looking at a painting.

Check out the app, Triposo, as well. You can download city specific guides that can be accessed offline. It'll give you info on sights, places to eat, etc. You'll be able to read a brief summary of a certain landmark/point-of-interest you are looking at. And the food places are located on an offline map where you can just use your phones gps to navigate.

Another thing I've been doing is starring locations on google maps while signed into my google account. That way on my phone, I can use my gps to take me to all the places I have marked with a star. Makes it easy to plan my day in the morning and I'd screenshot any train/tram/bus stops the map tells me to take.

[Soundy]

Well, it's almost time - I fly out of YVR Monday morning, five hours to YYZ, couple hours' layover, and then another seven or so to CDG for Tuesday morning local time.

Another wedding guest is flying in Wednesday afternoon and hopping straight on a train to Poitiers, so I booked a hotel right at the airport, figured I'll relax for the day to help adjust to the time difference, then we're booked to ride the train out together.

Other friends are already in Paris and will be getting another train that gets into Poitiers shortly after ours, and we'll look at all either booking a shuttle or renting a car to get the rest of the way to Tercé.

They have the chateau until the following Wednesday, but my flight home is Friday, so the plan will be to train it back into Paris and spend a couple days there before heading home.

I'll see what Telus has for roaming deals - we just got on a killer US deal that gives us all our regular minutes and data in the US, no extra cost, for $7/day, and it kicks in automatically anytime we're in the US, on a day-by-day basis. If they have something similar for Europe, I'm set.

[mk1freak]

if you like foie gras, make sure to try out
Le Comptoir de la Gastronomie - Foie Gras Maison - Site Officiel

and order the foie gras ravioli

if you want coffee order espresso as most places only charge 1-2 euro...for an americano style coffee its 5 euro....

they have a cell company there called "Free" so whenever you see a wifi hotspot that says "Free Wifi" don't bother connecting to it.....fucking Parisian trolls there.

Eiffel Tower was a gong show, big lineups and the top was packed. But do make it to an area where you can see the whole tower at night,
starting at 6pm on the hour and everyhour they turn on the flashing light show for 10 mins until midnight, definitely cool.
Versailles was a nice side trip, 45 mins from downtown by metro and the gardens were pretty cool.
Notre Dame i enjoyed visiting it at night better than the tour during the day.
seeing the L'ouvre was cool from the outside, you have to know what you wanna see if you go inside otherwise you'll be in there forever.
I was staying in Luxembourg so we basically walked to most landmarks. stopping at all the little cafes and bakeries was fun.
Cabs are ok, but they will charge for # of luggage that will be included so if you have time take the train back to airport is a better bet.
there's a canadian bar called the Moosehead just up the street from the D'orsay I made it a point to stop in there have a beer and say hi to the other canadians
and eat the national dish of canada "poutine" ...now i know how the dutch feel when people ask them about DeDutch pancakes.
the rest of the time we spent just exploring down different streets and checking out the stores etc.
and having a picnic in the Luxembourg park with wine...alcohol consumption in parks is allowed there

[Hehe]

While on the Euro topic, anyone knows what would be the most effective way to pay stuff in Europe?

Wife is planning on buying a purse while there (about 5000 Euro) and I have both USD and Euro cash to fund it (my income are in USD while I have been buying Euro whenever it drops below 1.10:1 on USD:EUR on anticipation of trip), my question is, what would be the best way to do it?

I thought about CC, but the exchange rate would vary and my card has a 2% foreign charge on top.

Is there any Euro account here in Canada for withdraw cash in Europe with little fee?

[TOS'd]

I searched for a Euro account here in Canada and was unable to find one, was told I had to open up one in Europe. Ended up buying things on CC(So I didn't have to carry lots of cash around for 6 weeks) or else withdrawing from my debit card at ATMs that use the Cirrus network. At two large banks I think I was getting charged $2.00 and $3.00 CAD per withdrawal.

[Mr.HappySilp]

Be prepare of pick pockets and keep an eye on your belongs. They love to use kids as pockpocketers. Sister and her husband went to France in April and from what they said these pick pockets work in groups trying to distract you surround you and one of them will take something.

One time they were at the subway and this kid keeps trying to squeeze his hands to where my sister are holding her purse. They saw the hand slap it a few times and it just keeps coming. Till they actually jerk the kids hand and squeeze it really hard till he start crying then he stop. But just when they are about to get off some guy decided to rush in front of them pretending to get off in rush hoping he can grab something from my sister which fail. So I think the kid and that guy work in groups.

[Soundy]

[Soundy]

Well it's been a pretty amazing week here at the Chateau St. Julien l'Ars... if you're looking to do a group event in a foreign country, I'd highly recommend giving this place a look (I'll add a link to the wedding photo once they're up, too). Probably want to keep it to the warmer seasons though, as apparently it's an extra 150 Euro per day just to heat it in the winter...

Tomorrow, it's the train back to Paris, spend a night there, then back to the airport hotel Thursday night, and fly home Friday.

Would also recommend citizenM hotels when travelling in Europe - my stay at the CDG location was fantastic, and possibly the most comfortable hotel bed I've ever slept in.

[Soundy]

Hmmmm, I dunno about this...

We show all the important matches and major North American Sports events including but not limited to, Football/Soccer (Champions League, English Premier League, etc.), Hockey (NHL), Basketball (NBA), American Football (NFL), Baseball (NCAA, MLB), and more…

No CFL? No lacrosse?? NO CURLING??? Not holding out much hope for mk1freak's "Canadian" pub here... probably make their poutine with McCain Superfries, packaged gravy mix, and mozza chunks.

[Hondaracer]

Wish we had popped into that pub, we were around that area quite a bit

[Soundy]

Well, it wasn't bad! The Montreal Smoked Meat Poutine was pretty tasty - shredded mozza on it as a variation of the "Moose Poutine", but they do have curds for an extra Euro. The buffalo wings were INCREDIBLE. Little emaciated, but the sauce and dip made up for it.

Met the manager, sitting on my side of the bar... chatted about what brought us there... his fiancee dropped by as well... had shots with them both. Pretty cool place, would definitely visit again.

[TOS'd]

We were wandering around one night and popped in to take a look and say hi as well, haha.

[Soundy]

Could spend days just wandering the streets and alleys around here. Just watch out for the scooters, those riders are fucking nuts. They're like Vancouver bicycle couriers, with motors.

[Hondaracer]

Yea hard not to love Paris. Places like that are almost more about the feeling than the destination

[mk1freak]

Did you pick up the match box at the pub for souvenir?