A Semester (OR year) in Paris

[CuriousToronto]

Hi everyone! I'm new to this board and this is my first post............

Okay, so I finish Uni this year and I've decided to take next year off before going to law school. So........I'm packing up and heading to Paris. I'll be studying French at the Sorbonne from Sept. - Dec and dependin gon how it goes I'll be back for Feb - May.

Now I think I'd REALLY like to do some travelling while I'm there. I'll have the weekends (don't know if I have Fri. class). I thought about travelling when I first get there but I think I'll be by myself and I rather not go at it alone. And if I only stay half the year then I have to leave in time to get back home for Christmas. Ayyyyaaaaaa!!!!!

I think I'm asking for suggestions on short trips and advice on longer trips in Aug. by myself?

Also, I'd love to hear from anyone who has done the same thing. I read a post where someone had written that they had studied in Paris as well.

My boyfriend might be working at CERN in Geneva this Summer.........if that's the case then he can travel with me in August.

Oh and one last thing -- my schedule won't be totally firm when I leave Canada. Can I purchase special discount tickets when I'm already in France?

Thanks in advance!

[Kim]

Hi .. and welcome!

One of our posters, Pammerz studied in France, maybe she can offer some advice on that.

As far as weekend trips from Paris-well, luckily for you you are sort of centrally located! One you HAVE to do is Bruges, Belgium! It's only 2.5 hours away by train and if you come back and say you missed it, you'll be in big trouble! ;D

Amsterdam is also a good one-it's 4 hours away by train.

Of course, if you can get a good deal on a ticket somewhere-I would definately fly.

From the looks of it, you can fly from Paris to Nice for 10 Euros plus tax using Easyjet,
10-17 Euros to London. (I put in Sept. for the dates)

Now, do you have a photo of yourself for our photo gallery? If so, please send it to [e-mail] or [e-mail]. It's nice to put a name to a face!

Kim

[CuriousToronto]

10 Euros? What is that all about? You can't possibly be serious.

And if you are does a flight that cheap mean I am signing my life away? That's crazy!!!

Have you taken any of those cheap air voyages?

As for my picture...................I will look for one. Although, I'm not entirely sure I am comortable putting it up. I was cursed with a stalker as a result of something like that once upon a time...................

[LHR02]

She is absolutely telling you the truth.....airfare is very cheap inside Europe nowadays.....almost always cheaper than train.

Check out:
RyanAir.com
Easyjet.com
applefares.com

I just flew London to Cork Ireland this past December for 5 pounds!

For a quick day trip from Paris I suggest the Brittany coast and Tours to see some chateauxs.

ging

[CuriousToronto]

So is it just that those of us in North America have been getting ripped off for airfare?

I guess I'm basically asking if they are safe regardless of their low cost.

They sound totally amazing.........I was just looking and saw I could fly to London for like 10 Euros. Forget the Chunnel!! That's fantastic.

[LHR02]

They are as safe as any other....they have to comform to any and all requirements that the 'big boys' do. But they are strictly 'budget', no frills flights. I believe they are all 'e-ticket' only, no paper tickets, no seat reservations, nothing to eat or drink enroute, or if there is you pay for it. You have to arrive 2 hours early, or more, and get in line to check in....be there early or you will find yourself at the end of a very long line! And....you need to book/purchase a bit in advance to get the really low prices. If you try and 'go on a whim' you will find prices to nearly equal the big boys. You get what you pay for.....a seat with a reall cheap price and nothing else. But hey....all you are looking for is getting from a to b and they do that with minimal hassles.

ging

[LHR02]

>>>>>>>They sound totally amazing.........I was just looking and saw I could fly to London for like 10 Euros. Forget the Chunnel!! That's fantastic.<<<<<

Exactly! As Nit has said, for travel between the bigger cities, this will be the travel of choice before long.....much cheaper than the trains or sometimes even buses. Forgot to meniton though.....one thing to consider is that they nearly all use smaller, out of the way airports and you have to figure in travel costs to get to the plane. For example, my flight to cork was 5 pounds. BUT...it leaves from Stansted in London (north) and it cost me 13 pounds each way to take the train to get out there! In essence, it cost me 31 pounds...still a bargain of course, but it is a consideration in the greater picture.

ging

[nitsansh]

Dustoffmom... you seem to forget the taxes, that sometimes cost more than the flight... and these are one-way fares, aren't they?

Unfortunately, at this moment Paris isn't such a good place for budget flights... since Air Lib has bankrupt a month or two ago, no airline uses Paris as hub... but I believe the vacancy won't be left for long... most budget flights that do fly from Paris are from CDG airport... IIRC only Ryanair flies from Beauvais airport...
There are 3 budget airlines that compete on the popular Paris-London route, and chances are you'll still find low fares 2-3 weeks in advance... I don't recall any cheap flights to Italy, Spain, or Amsterdam out of Paris, and just a few to Germany...
In France, you get a significant reduction if you buy rail tickets in advance... the cheapest fare (about 40% off) requires 30-days advance purchase, and a smaller discount requires just 8 days in advance...
If you are under-26, a youth rail card can get you as much as 50% discount on rail journeys... also you get a discount if you travel return (2-way), or if there are 2 or more travellers...
Again, if you are under-26, for international journeys your best deal is BIJ (Bilette Internacional de Jeunesse), a discount youth ticket. This ticket type allows you to break the journey to multiple stops, and travel as long as 2 months!
Though you can't buy Eurail or Select passes in Europe, you can buy single-country passes for other countries... if you travel, for example, as far as Berlin and Munich (both trips can be done overnight), it might be worth to buy a German rail pass (4-days flexi pass is 140$ IIRC)... You can, however, buy a railpass before you go... you can start using it as many as 6 months after you buy it, and it's valid for 2 months... so if you travel every second weekend, you can make 5 return journeys in that time... for long international journeys (to Italy, Germany or Spain, for example), it will be well worth it...
If you use night trains, you can get as far as Rome and Vienna in a weekend (you travel out Friday night and back Sunday night, which give you 2 full days to explore the city). You can make weekend trips to Amsterdam, Zurich, Venezia, Firenze, Barcelona, Madrid... and to all points in France, of course...

[CuriousToronto]

Wow! So much information........................feeling slightly overloaded right now.

I read a previous thread where someone posted a link to www.railsaver.com
I noticed on this website they ask you for your age. Does that mean that if I am under 26 they calculate it using the BIJ?

Also, is it better to purchase this stuff online or go down to my local TravelCuts?

And about airplane tickets about how far in advance do tickets go up in price?

The reason I ask is that in truth my schedule won't be very fixed until I get to Paris and start classes. I was thinking of maybe just going ahead and booking the trip and if it's so cheap maybe it won't matter so much if I don't make it. The #1 place I'd like to go by plane would be London. That's 'cause I think the Eurostar is a bit expensive and I'd really like to go take a jaunt around jolly old England.
Also, if in England I decide to visit Edinburugh am I best off taking the train? I read someowhere someone said if you're just going to Scotland the train is better.

Thanks in advance! You guys are fantastic.....really

[nitsansh]

The fares quoted in Railsaver.com include youth discount, even for domestic travel... but you can't get youth discount for trips inside one country, unless you have a rail card (and not all countries have them!), or it's part of international ticket. BIJ is a P2P ticket, so it's only valid for a prescribed route.
These tickets are available only in rail stations and selected travel agencies in Europe.
Outside Europe you can only buy rail passes, or P2P tickets at inflated rates. No youth tickets are available in America other than Eurostar (75$ one-way).

It's very difficult to predict how much air fares will be in the future. Prices may be changed without notice. Airlines up the price of flights that are more demanded, so if a given flight has more bookings, it's likely to go up, while flights with many vacant seats will remain low.
Unfortunately for you, more people travel on weekends, and therefor Friday and Sunday are usually the most expensive days...
If you don't know how many weekend trips you will do, and when, I advise not to buy a rail pass or book flights before you go... or buy a pass for only the amount of travel days you think there's 90% chance you'll make... remember that rail passes only have pre-determined # of travel days and the countries in which they are valid. The minimum is 3 countries (except for France+Italy and France+Spain) and 5 travel days (except those 2-countries passes that have minimum of 4).
Is it safe to assume that you'll make 3 overnight trips (IE 6 travel days) inside 2 months? Which 2 countries, other than France, you're most keen to see? (excluding UK, because Selectpass isn't valid there)
Passes are more cost-effective if they have more travel days. The cost per day of 10-days pass is significantly lower than 5-days pass. Therefor, if you don't think you'll travel often, don't take a pass. You still have the possibility to buy rail passes while you're in Europe, if someone you trust back home will recieve it and mail to you in France. I guess Kim has used this method when she travelled for 7 months...
There are many ways to get discounts in Europe, most of them require either travel return (which should be no trouble for you), advanced purchase, travel in a party (even 2 is company), travel in off peak time, or having some sort of rail card. Conditions vary widely between countries.
Usually, student travel agencies in Europe are the best place to get good deals... if you study at the Sorbonne you'll surely find at least one near you... the Latin quarter (in case you don't know, the name comes from the language which students in past centuries used to study) is the Mecca for young people in Paris...

In case you go to Scotland, take a direct flight rather than travel via London. Not sure there are flights Paris-Edinburgh, but Ryanair surely fly to Glasgow. It would be a waste IMO to travel for only a weekend in Scotland. The same goes for Ireland.

[LHR02]

>>>>>>It would be a waste IMO to travel for only a weekend in Scotland. <<<<<

Could not agree more!

>>>>>>The same goes for Ireland. <<<<<

While here, my very personal opinion says a weekend is two days too long!

ging - who can't seem to make 'bold' the words 'very personal opinion' ;D

[CuriousToronto at school]

I guess I'll just wait until closer to the date to see what I do with plane/rail tickets. All this information is fabulous though!

I guess if I had to pick the 3 countries I most want to visit it would be France, Italy, and Switzerland. And if it was only two I would buy the France-Italy pass.

I think I'd like to visit the following places, in no particular order:

St. Malo - Mont Saint Michel
Giverny
Fontainbleu
Provence - don't know how feesible 'cause I want to pull "A YEAR IN PROVENCE" type of thing
Vimy Ridge (on the 11th of November)
Dordogne
Loire Valley
Cinque Terre
Monaco
Florence
Rome
Siena
Zermatt - Matterhorn
Mont Blanc - Chamonix
Bernese Oberland Region

and if possible I would like to visit (in order of priority):

Barcelona
Brugges
A concentration camp

and if the UK is possible:

London
Bath
York
and one of the Uni towns (Cambridge or Oxford)

As you can see my list is very Italy-France centric. I guess I'll wait until I get closer. Although I probably will buy a pass. There will probably be one lump of traveling BEFORE school starts, one AFTER, and some smaller trips in between.

I obviously don't know how it's going to work in terms of itinerary. All that will have to wait.............

Oh and I can always get my parents (they're trustworthy people ) to ship the passes over for me.

BTW, IF you were not going to fly over to London are the $131 open vouchers really the best deal?


(Oh and I would register to post this but I'm at school and for some reason everytime I load a new page it changes my status from logged in to guest -- I think it has to do with the cookies)

[nitsansh]

Guest-CuriousToronto said:

BTW, IF you were not going to fly over to London are the $131 open vouchers really the best deal?

Youth open voucher is 75$ (o/w) as far as I know, and it's about the same if you buy it in France. You may get a cheaper return ticket in Europe.

[CuriousToronto]

nitsansh said:

Youth open voucher is 75$ (o/w) as far as I know, and it's about the same if you buy it in France. You may get a cheaper return ticket in Europe.

The only reason I said $131 is that I had noticed that a lot of people here are Canadian. So I just assumed everyone would know that I was talking about Canadian dollars. Maybe I should have specified that.

75$ USD or 131$ CND

Thanks for answering the question though.

[me]

we are a pretty international group. the list owner is Canadian, but i don't think Canadians are in the majority. or, are they KC?

CuriousToronto said:

The only reason I said $131 is that I had noticed that a lot of people here are Canadian. So I just assumed everyone would know that I was talking about Canadian dollars. Maybe I should have specified that.

75$ USD or 131$ CND

Thanks for answering the question though.