A week in France

[Tracie]

I've been back for a couple of weeks now and thought that I'd finally post about my trip. I'm going to do it in a few posts instead of one big long one.

Day 1
Had to be at YVR really early in the morning. Flew to SFO and had a few hours to waste (I have become a pro at getting ready for security check since my boyfriend smokes and every time he wanted a cigarette we had to go outside and go back through security again). Then a 10 hour flight to Paris CDG (not the greatest flight...let's just say that the bad airline food didn't stay in my stomach).

Day2
I would have to say that CDG is far from any top 10 airport lists. We arrived after 10am and eventually found our way into the city center and dropped our bags at the hostel. I'd been to Paris once before and knew that the metro was easy to navigate so it didn't take us long. We stayed in Montmatre, and since we had some time to waste before we could properly check in, we ate at a cafe at the bottom of the steps leading to Sacree Coeur. We then bought Carte Orange week long transit passes (such a great investment as it covered the whole time we were there) and went to the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. We returned to the hostel, Le Village (which I enjoyed and I will write up a hosel review soon). We were a little jet lagged so my boyfriend went to bed and I went to a local tourist office. They didn't have what I needed so returned to the Champs Elysees and walked a bit. I found the Disney store that I was looking for and bought us 2 passes for Disneyland Paris. Luckily the shop was having a special and I ended up saving 10 Euros each per pass. I also went to Gare du Nord and made some TGV reservations for later in our trip (we had 4 day French Saverpasses so I only had to pay the 3 Euro supplement each). I was pretty tired out at this point so I went back to the hostel.

Day 3
Disneyland!!!
I know for some it might seem weird to go all the way to Paris for this, but I love Disneyland and Jason had never been before. It's not as big as the one in Anaheim, but it's still a good time. That pretty much took up the whole day. I think it took over half an hour to get there from Paris by RER. With a full day of sightseeing planned for the next day it was another early night for us. I forgot to mention that we had our own double (which included our own bathroom w/shower) so we didn't have to worry about dorm mates coming in late and all that fun stuff.

I'll finish this update soon.
Let me know if there are any questions

[Tracie]

Day 4
Purchased a 1 Day Museum Pass at the metro station (18E each) and hit the following sights:
Notre Dame
Crypte Archaeologique
Deportation Monument
Ste Chapelle (wow!!)
Invalides including Musee de l'Armee and Napoleon's Tomb
Rue Cler (for picnic supplies...be careful which cheeses you pick. One of them tasted so bad the pigeons wouldn't eat it)
Eiffel Tower
Pantheon
(nap time)
short trip to the Louvre
Top of the Arc de Triomphe at night

The Museum Passes paid for themselves after only a couple of monuments. We also could have visited some great museums but we had such a short time in Paris we decided to save them for another trip (plus I had focused on them the last time I had been there).

Although we'd been having a great time, Day 5 topped them all...(to be continued)

[Nicstar]

so when is this going to be finished! ;D

[Tracie]

I'm such a horrible procrastinator (but it's good to know that someone is reading).

Day 5
6am train to Rennes, then train to Avranches (really cool little town with cobbled streets...we had lunch in a tiny smoky cafe with lots of locals) then a bus to Genets. The bus driver dropped us right in front of the YHI which was locked out. Not knowing where to store our gear (which wasn't much) we realized that literally in the field next to us was the office of Chemins de la Baie a local walking tour that we had had reservations with for the afternoon. They let us store our stuff until the end of the day and we walked the 1km to the beach to wait for our 2:30 tour. Chemins de la baie does some great walks. We had booked the traditional walk which takes you from Genets' Bec Andaine (local shore) across the bay to Mont St Michel (almost 6km one way/over 2hours). If you've ever watched Lonely Planet/Pilot Guide's Normandy/Brittany episode then you've seen Justine Shapiro do the same walk. (http://www.cheminsdelabaie.com)
What an experience. Unfortunately we didn't know when we booked that we would be joined by a school group of 150 kids. It didn't really ruin it though. To save money we didn't take a commentated tour...Jason doesn't speak French and my translating wouldn't have helped. It's amazing how many different textures of sand that can squish between your toes on one strip of land. We even got to walk through a tidal river that swallowed my legs up to mid thigh. Anyway, we had one hour to explore Mont St Michel upon our arrival and then we walked back. This time it was the two of us and our guide, that's it. He took us to the quicksand areas and Jason got stuck and had to be pulled out. Our guide Luc was nice enough to drive us from the beach to the hostel where our bags had been dropped off for us. They even knew we were coming (people in small towns are so great!). We were pretty worn out and crashed early. Wow factor for the day was pretty high and I would recommend this to anyone who is willing to make the effort to make it to Genets.

Day 6
Had to get up early as there are only 2 buses that run through town per day. Arrived in Granville where we had planned to continue on to the D-Day beaches but instead decided to return to Paris and take it easy. We had a nice late dinner near our hostel in Montmartre.

Day 7
Just about missed our train to Dijon...had to run and the whistle went off just after we got on (only to find out that we were on the wrong TGV, but it was attached to our proper train and was going to Dijon as well so we just grabbed some empty seats). From Dijon we transferred to Beaune and arrived just in time for their market day. What a great market. We wandered around tasting local foods and spent lots of money. Later we went to the Marche aux Vins (http://www.marcheauxvins.com/) for some wine tasting. This place was great. For 9euro they let you wander around this underground cave and taste 16 wines. They give you a score card so that you can rate each wine as you go. You end up in this old chappel for the last 6 where there are sommeliers on hand so that you can ask questions and they don't expect you to buy any wine when you are thru (like some of the other cellars in town). You even get to keep the little metal wine taster thing as a souvenir (I know there is a name for these things but I can't remember it). It was really great and exactly what we were looking for.
We had planned on renting bikes and going out to the local vineyards, but we were a little tipsy after the wine so we cheated and took the 'Visiotrain' www.visiotrain2000.com/ which gave us a quick tour of Beaune and its environs. We returned to Paris after another great day. I spent the late evening doing some souvenir shopping.

The next morning we went back to CDG. I don't think either of us wanted to return home and had both thought of ways to try and postpone our homecoming but oh well!! I posted a little bit of our long trip home on another thread. It included 3 separate flights, one being business class to D.C. and so on. It was a great time and all that pre-planning paid off. Other than over planning I am also guilty of keeping everything including train ticket, pamphlets and postcards so I have a bag full of scrapbook material to go along with all the photos.

[Nicstar]

wow sounds great! Am still unsure if time I'd planned to spend with a friend elsewhere in Europe can actually happen, and after reading this won't be too stressed if it doesn't, cos I'll just spend more time in France and explore past Paris!

[Tracie]

Just to let you know...hostel prices in Genets were less than 10 euros per night ea. which is great as far as I'm concerned. There's so much more to explore even beyond that I'm not even sure where to begin.