6 dreamy days in Paris !

Our first port of landing was Paris. It doesn’t take much to fall in love with this city. In fact, it is usually love at first sight. For me, this happened in 1999 when we first visited Paris. It is indeed one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Whether it's a riverside vista that takes in the Seine, the countless bridges, the Notre-Dame Cathedral, and the Eiffel Tower, or the view of elegant buildings and mansard roofs from your room window, one cannot be but smitten.

It is my endeavour my readers to have a seamless holiday and hence I have tried to give all the information in this blog while trying to keep it interesting to read as well. So here goes…

Arrival into Paris & Day 1:

CDG Airport to Paris: (This section is very useful & a recommended read once you finalize your trip or else you can go to the next section i.e. Rest of Day 1)

We landed at the crack of dawn at the Terminal 2C, Charles De Gaulle (CDG) Airport. Immigration was a breeze and took us just a few minutes. CDG airport is in Roissy, about 28 kms from Paris city.

The CDG airport is one of the busiest airports in Europe and if you are not going through an organized tour it will be useful for your onward commute to your hotel in Paris. CDG has 3 terminals; Terminal 2 consists of seven sub-terminals: 2A to 2G. This can sound intimidating but no worries; all you need to do is follow directions at the airport and tips in this blog.

If you know the airline that you are travelling, you can click on the below link to find out which terminal you will be landing.

http://www.easycdg.com/1/airport-guide/which-terminal/which-terminal-information-paris-cdg-airport-charlesdegaulle/.

 There are several ways to reach the charming city of Paris from the airport.



Ways to reach Paris city from CDG Airport



 

For more information you may click on

http://www.easycdg.com/1/ground-transportation/ground-transportation-access-paris-cdg-airport/

The quickest and most convenient way is to take the RER train and we did exactly that. However if you have too much luggage and are arriving during peak rush hours you may want to consider an alternative form of transport.

Follow the signs "Gare SNCF"/"Railway Station" to make your way to the train station.

 

Commuting between terminals (T1, T2 & T3) is also well marked and either on foot or CDVAL the inter-terminal airport train.

If your arrival is in one of the sub-terminals of Terminal 2. The below will be useful to you.

 

Charles de Gaulle railway station is underneath terminal 2, between terminals 2C/2E and 2D/2F, it consists of a 5-storey building.

Buying tickets:

There are 2 ways in which you can buy a RER ticket:-

Ticket-vending machines: Credit cards with an embedded microchip and PIN will work in these. Mine luckily had one so we ended up using the machine.

Ticket counter: Where you can pay with cash or a credit card. However these may be shut down late nights and early morning.

This ticket is good enough for you to reach your destination using both RER and Metro lines, keep inserting it in the turnstiles. I bought 2 Carnets (kar-nay) of tickets. Each Carnet has 10 tickets and can be used in the Metro.

Typically you would be getting down in one of the first 3 stations mentioned below, depending on where you have chosen your hotel/apartment and then take the connecting Metro Line to reach your hotel. We did just that….

 

 

 

 

 

The connecting Metro Lines are mentioned alongside the station for example: From ‘Gare Du Nord’ you could take the Metro Line 2, 4 or 5 OR you could also connect to RER D & E. The Metro is super convenient and again cost effective. We got down at the ‘Chatelet Les Halles’ station and took the Connecting Metro Line 1 to finally alight at Franklin D Roosevelt Metro station on Champs Elysee. Our rental apartment was a 4 minute walk from this metro station.

While using the transportation just remember “Correspondence" in French means roughly "transfer point" to connect with a different Metro Line & "Sortie" means "exit”.

I strongly recommend going through the enclosed link before using the metro. You will enjoy using the metro once you familiarize yourself with it.

http://parisbytrain.com/tag/paris-metro/

Rest of Day 1: I had taken printouts of directions using google maps to go from the Roosevelt Metro station to the apartment at Rue Du Colisée. The directions, distance and time taken are precise so please do use google maps.

The apartment was located on Level 2 of the building and after an overnight flight it was quite tiring heaving the bags up but we managed to do that, had coffee with some brioche and slept for a few hours. The weather in Paris was just fabulous, the sun playing hide and seek with the clouds and an occasional light drizzle. We were famished by the time (2 pm) we were ready to hit the streets of Paris.

We got down and just outside the apartment building was a restaurant ‘Mezzo Di Pasta ‘serving pastas and salads, just the right things for us. With hungry rumbling tummy’s we polished the pastas and some salad with ‘still aqua’. The restaurant was functional and served the office goers and not a fine dining venue. We were a happy trio with the stomach’s becoming content. We then set of to visit the Notre Dame. We used the Metro and got there very comfortably. 

Whether you opt to explore the historic, fashion-conscious, bourgeois, or bohemian and arty sides of Paris, one thing is certain, the City of Light will always enthrall.

Notre Dame

 

So au revoir until my next...