Advice would be grateful!

[johnnyb00m]

Hello everyone, I am John and I am new here, nice to meet you all...

Next January (2007) I am going on an exchange to France. I will be living in Rouen from January to mid-May. I am extremely excitied about this. I have been to Europe 3 times, only to Italy though because both of my parents were born there, and I love it.

Even though I will be in school 5 days a week, I will have plenty of oppurtunity to do a lot of travelling over the weekends and during the 2, week breaks I have.

I am there for a while, and I want to see as much as I can. I don't mind skipping a monday or a friday of school, or leaving on a friday night right after school or coming home on a sunday morning. I plan on getting a Eurail Youth Pass, seeing that rail is a very convienent and easy way to travel europe.

I need all of your advice in terms of how I should go about planning my travelling. Should I visit some places at certain times of the year. I was also looking into cheap flights, have any of you gone on them, and are they worth it? Where should I stay? What should I see? Where should I party? so on....

I have talked to people before who have done this through my school and they have visited 16 countries. They missed a lot of school of course, but apparently school is a lot easier in France than it is here in Canada.

This is major oppurtunity for me and I want to do this right, and after seeing a lot of your posts on these boards, it seems you guys know what your talking about.

Any advice would be helpful! Thanks and looking forward to talking with you all more...

[Eagle]

johnnyb00m, the best qualified person to answer the questions you raised would be CuriousToronto (hopefully she'll see this post?). She studied in Paris and I'm sure is quite well versed in the best ways to take side trips while attending school.

I'm assuming you're reasonably fluent in French, but I'm curious to know whether you also speak Italian? I've been working on that for a while, and hopefully will be somewhat proficient by the time I take my next trip.

I'm sure someone here will be able to answer your questions.

Ciao!

[me]

johnnyb00m said:

I plan on getting a Eurail Youth Pass, seeing that rail is a very convienent and easy way to travel europe.

probably not a good idea. these passes are of very limited duration. and, as a student in France, you may well be entitled to significant discounts off rail fares. [as an Uni-student in Germany for a year, i could obtain a ½ off discount card to buy tix from DB, the German rail system]

i suggest a skeptical look at the cost/benefit of a Eurail Youth pass before getting one. i remember another American in Freiburg who had a Eurail pass which her parents had sent to her. it was a terrible waste!

[johnnyb00m]

Actually I am not fluent in french at all! All my courses are taught in English, so I lucked out on that. I am reasonably fluent in Italian, good enough to hold a conversation with someone and get around in Italy.

David, how and where would I go about getting information this 1/2 discount? I would use the Eurail pass not only in France though, but throughout all the countries that I am allowed, I believe it works in 17 countries.

[me]

as i don't know anything about France's rail system, i can't advise you. back in the 80's, i just went to th train station, paid 100 DM (about US$45 back then), showed my student visa, & got a card that entitled me to buy ½ priced train tickets for 12 months. i could buy a round trip to anywhere. . . the return date was open.

a eurail pass has a limited duration. even with flexipass, it must be used within 2 months of validation or it's worthless. if you're taking classes, there'd be too much time during the week that it couldn't be used. if you buy the 10 days in 2 month pass, you'd need to be free to use it 10 days in 2 months, and *average* at least US$46.50 per day in traveling costs. would you have time for that much travel?

plug it all into www.railsaver.com to hear what they suggest.

- d

johnnyb00m said:

David, how and where would I go about getting information this 1/2 discount? I would use the Eurail pass not only in France though, but throughout all the countries that I am allowed, I believe it works in 17 countries.

[me]

in France, there seems to be a "Carte 12-25," for 12 - 25 year olds, which gives discounts of up to 50% on off-peak train travel.

i found this on www.aup.fr/main/student_life/cultural/traveltips.htm

but, the price for the card is listed as 270 FF. FF! that means the site hasn't been updated since € cash came out in 2002!

[CuriousToronto]

John:

I just replied to your email - I'm glad you were able to get in touch with me as I may not have seen this post for quite a while!

CT