Giving credit where credit is due
Before I go about chronicling this last trip to Paris, I feel I must give credit where credit is due. I wouldn’t have had a productive trip were it not for the research I did which helped me to make the most of this visit to Paris.
Following are helpful links which future visitors to Paris and the other parts of France that I visited will do well to check out. While guidebooks are a source of immense information, I am of the perosnal belief that they tend to give you infomation overload. Besides, with so much free information easily accessible for free on the web, I fint it impractical to spend on something I can do on my own. The important thing is to know what to look for. If you do not know anything about Paris, then a guidebook would be helpful. If you’re pretty good with doing online research, then it might do you well to just spend the time researching online.
Fodors.com - The website of the best travel guide book publisher in my opinion.
How the site helped me: provided me with a recommended “Best of 3 Days” tour (which really helped me definie my first visit there in February 2005 because I was there only for 3 days) and has a “Best of 5 days” tour as well. It also has a “Da Vinci Code Tour” section and gives you necessary information on tourist survival here.
Pro: Detailed; Website designed like a travel guide because it IS one
Con: Tends to give a lot of information which are helpful, but visit the site and read up WAY AHEAD of time, otherwise, you would end up forgetting the tips.
Paris Metro Page (RATP Website)
How it helped me: Like New York’s Metrocard, Paris offers several discounted options. Seeing the choices helped me tailorfit my visit and my transportation packe to each other. (more on this later)
Paris Museum Pass - A visit to this webpage is a must if you intend to visit more than one museum, but you might decide against purchasing it if you want to enjoy your museum hopping at leisure. Who doesn’t want a bargain more so when you plan to do some museum hopping?
Pro: Will save you money if you plan on doing AT LEAST FOUR MUSEUMS in two days.
Con: You have to do the minimum 4 museums to actually feel the benefit, but that means you spend very limited time in each and cannot see the museums at a leisurely pace. It also means devoting successive days to museums because the passes are time sensitive.
Louvre, Musee d’Orsay, Musee Rodin, Chateau Versailles - Websites give you a general idea about location, admission fees and hours and what to expect
How it helped me: Knowing the history of the building or the place helped me to appreciate the visit better. I was able to cull recommendations on packages (i.e., The ONE DAY PASS TO VERSAILLES as sold by SCNF . (More on this later) It included entrance to the Chateau plus round trip train tickets and return metro. A page was devoted to this which saves you the trouble of falling in line for your tickets. It also pays to know when some museums are open free, such as the Musee D Orsay which does not charge for admission every first Sunday of the month. Knowing where the museums are and which ones are near each other will also help you plan your day.
Chartres Tourism Office - As it is an hour away from Paris and being one of the lesser known attractions in France, I had to google the place to learn more about it.
How it helped me: You can actually request for information about the town from this tourist bureau and they will mail it either to your home or your hotel in Paris which they did for me. (The only downside, the materials were in French.) The Tourism office is also quick to answer inquiries via e-mail. I had chosen to travel to Chartres because I studied with the Sisters of St. Paul des Chartres in Manila and a fellow Paulinian had suggested I visit the place. I had inquired about the convent and got a response the same day, giving me the address, and informing me as well that it is unfortunate that the convent was not open to the public. Also helpful were the About.com site by James Martin and The One Heart Resource Center from a frequent Chartres visitor.
VirtualTourist.com - I stumbled inot this website when I googled Versailles and came upon mini-blog entries from people who have visited different places and who give tips and information on what to look for. I also found entries on Chartres here. It is a repository of travelogues worth lookin into. Special mention goes to bpacker, a young lady from Singapore whose travelogue on Versailles was both enlightening and amusing.
How this helped me: Reading through the entries helped me to zero in on the attractions/aspects of the destination I should seek out.
Pros: The entries are not only arranged by destination but are also divided into sub-topics or categories within the destination. You can view entries or travelogues by writer or else by destination and topic.
Cons: The entries sometimes repeat themselves so if you print out “Things to do in Versailles” for example, and then “Getting to Versailles”, some entries might repeat.
The Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal - With the hundreds of Churches around Paris, you have to plan the specific churches or cathedrals you will visit beyond the Notre Dame and the Sacre Ceour. I already did both plus the Da Vinci Code’s Eglise de St. Sulpice in 2005, and I didn’t even know about the Chapel of our Lady of the Miraculous medal until after that visit.
How it helped me: The sight gives you general information and helped me to find the chapel. As one of the lesser known but sought after stops by Catholics, you won’t find this in the usual tour guides/recommendations. It is actually a nondescript building that doesn’t look like a Church from the outside. The website also gives you the history of the apparations of Our Lday to St. Catherine Laboure whose remains did not decompose and are at the altar on one side.
Batobus - Tour the Seine on a boat.
How it helped me: Rates and routes helped us to work this boat ride into our plan for the day.
More links and information will be provided in the individual entries to my Paris 2006 Travelogue. The links above were the ones I checked before I left for Paris. Hope they help you, too.
