Travel Musings

Versailles. The very name evokes images of royalty and elegance, and its a must do on any trip to Paris.

Versailles is approximately 30 minutes by train from the Eiffel Tower. You can either buy tickets when you get there or ahead of time from many hotels and museum box offices. We didn’t buy our tickets ahead of time, and the line-up for tickets was very short. The line-up to get into the palace was larger, but moved relatively quickly, as did the line-up for the audio guides (highly recommended, see previous post).

The Palace and gardens of Versailles, or the Chateau de Versailles, is truly stunning. Originally King Louis XIII’s hunting lodge, it was transformed and enlarged by his son, Louis IV, who installed his court and government there. According to the tourist map, “it represents the finest and most accomplished achievement of 17th century French art”. And if the orientation map says that, its good enough for me.

What the Palace and gardens definitely are, is large. The Palace includes the King’s and Queen’s State Apartments, the Chapel, the Opera House, History of France Galleries, Dauphine’s Apartments (the heir to the throne), and Mesdame’s Apartments (Louis XV’s daughters). However, the gardens are what truly impress, just by their sheer size and layout. The gardens lead to Marie-Antoinette’s estate, which includes the Grand Trianon, Petite Trianon and the Queen’s Hamlet.

The Palace at Versailles is very splendid indeed. Many of the rooms are furnished as they would have been, despite being ransacked during the revolution. The Palace is currently working on getting many pieces back, and those that were destroyed have been replicated. The famous Hall of Mirrors is also currently being restored to its original splendor. It is in the in the Hall of Mirrors that the First World War officially ended when Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles.

Once you head outside you will see the grandeur of the gardens. Make sure you go for a walk toward the Grand Canal, where you can rent boats if you feel so inclined, and onto Marie-Antoinette’s estate. When we were buying tickets for the Palace we were asked if we wanted to pay an extra 9 Euro for entry into the estate, and we are very glad we did. While the Grand Trianon was not in the greatest shape, and Marie Antoinette’s house, the Petite Trianon, is currently half closed for renovations, the big surprise for us was the Queen’s Hamlet.

This Garden was created by Marie Antoinette in the English-style and it contrasts with the huge, manicured gardens of the Palace. Make sure you go for a walk to explore all of the buildings in the garden.

Its like walking through an English village in the time of The Hobits (a la Lord of the Rings), with lakes, bridges, gardens and a farm. Also, don’t miss the Queen’s Theater, where Marie-Antoinette sometimes performed for guests.When its time to head back to the Palace entrance you can take a tram back if you wish, ’cause your feet might be sore from all the walking. If you took the tram to get to the estate, walk back. Its a wonderful walk through an amazing garden.

After Versailles, we went back to our hotel to freshen up, then headed to the Latin Quarter, which is very close to Notre Dame - just take the C metro line towards Massey and get off at the St. Michel stop. We walked around Notre Dame and then headed to the Latin Quarter. This part of Paris is full of restaurants, bars and lots of young adults. Definitely a location to visit if you’re looking for a night on the town.

Heading back to our hotel, we stopped at the Trocadero for a wonderful nighttime view of the Eiffel Tower. The area was full of tourists and local youth, mingling and socializing with the lights of the Tower glowing beyond. This is a great place for Eiffel Tower pictures, and again, well worth a visit, even if you only go for the views.

Speaking of the Eiffel Tower, it’s open until 11pm at night. The lines can be long, at least an hour wait between the hours of 4 and 7pm. Go early in the morning if you can, or after 9:30 at night. This was the advice from our hotel concierge, and probably good advice to follow.

a la prochaine,
the travel bum

• Read More »

Paris is full of museums, as anyone who’s been there can tell you, and many of them are so large that they can take a whole day (and more) to get through. Before you head out to see some museums though, check to make sure they are open. Some of the museums in Paris are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, as we found out when we got to the Louvre. We actually heard someone mention this on our first day in Paris, but since we didn’t plan to visit any museums that day, we must not have paid much attention. Its not really a big deal if you’ve got a few days and are not staying too far away, but if you had planned to see the Louvre and only had one day, you would be disappointed to find it closed on your one day to visit. For the Louvre you can find their hours of operation at the Louvre website before you go, or just ask at your hotel.

The Musee D’orsay is only a short walk down the river from the Louvre, so we headed over to find that everyone else who had been planning on visiting the Louvre was now visiting D’orsey. Actually, the line moved quite quickly and we were soon at the ticket booth.

While you’re in Paris you may want to consider buying a Musuem Pass. The pass can be bought for 2, 4, or 6 days and costs 30, 45 and 60 Euros respectively. With the pass you can get into over 60 museums and monuments throughout the city. We opted to not get the pass because we had 3 major museums on our list and we were not sure we’d be able to fit any more than that in, so the pass didn’t really make sense for us. But if you were planning on seeing a lot of museums then you might want to consider it.

Two words of advice about museums. PACE YOURSELF. Now, if you’re a seasoned museum going pro, then this advice is not for you. But for those of you who are like me and don’t go to a whole lot of museums, you should plan your visits. If there are exhibits you really want to see, go and see them first. When you enter the museum don’t spend too much time on the first exhibits you see. Many of the Museums in Paris are so big that they can take hours to go through, and if you begin your tour by spending a lot of time on the first items you see, you may find yourself running out of time and energy. So take it slow, enjoy yourself, but give yourself the luxury of moving through the museum in a manner that will let you enjoy your the museum with enough energy (and not too sore feet) to enjoy the items you’ll see at the end.

Another suggestion is to get the audio guide where available. Most of the large museums offer them and they can really enhance your visit with detailed information on many of the larger and more famous exhibits. Also, when visiting a foreign country, much of the information available on signs is in the native language, but the audio guide allows you to hear about the museum in your own language.

The Musee D’Orsay is located in a beautiful, old train station. It has some very interesting sculptures made from several different stones, as well as some very large canvas paintings. Well worth a visit and easily completed in half a day.Well, with a visit to the Louvre (okay, just the outside) and the Musee D’Orsay, we were ready to head back to our hotel. We meandered towards our hotel, enjoying Paris’ narrow streets and inviting sidwalk cafe’s on our way. We also stopped at an internet cafe that I had located while using our hotel’s business center. As with our breakfast, internet at the hotel was very expensive, so I figured we could find somewhere cheaper to check our emails and look up any info we needed.

The closest internet cafe (cyber cafe as they call them in France) was a few blocks away at the Fat Tire Bike Tours office, where a group was just heading off for an evening ride to the Latin Quarter. While we didn’t take a tour, they really are a great way to see the city. The tours usually run for 4 hours, and you have a comfortable bike to get around on. Its a great way to see the city and they have tours that will take you to all the major attractions. Two years ago I took an excellent walking tour of Berlin and highly recommend such tours as a great way to see a city.

During our walk we stumbled upon Pastapapa, an Italian restaurant. The food is good, the prices are very reasonable and the portions are huge, so think about sharing. You can select pastas dishes form the menu, or make your own masterpiece by mixing pasta, sauces and meats. With 7 locations around Paris, there’s probably one not far from where you are. We liked it so much we ended up eating there twice during our stay in Paris.

a la prochaine,

the Travel Bum

• Read More »

Arriving in Paris on Monday morning, we picked up our luggage at the carousal, including one bound together by 20ft of TSA inspection tape. It appears that the TSA, in its zeal to check my wife’s luggage, completely destroyed the zipper. Now, in all fairness, the zipper was not in the best shape, and we had sewn together the end of the zipper so that you wouldn’t pull it open too far and take the zipper off its track. I know, I know, we should have bought a new bag when the zipper first went, but I (me, not my wife) hate to throw away a perfectly good bag just because the zipper is a little wonky. Evidently not being able to open the lid of the suitcase up 100% so that it stays open on its own really frustrated the TSA personnel, so they decided to force it to stay open, thus ripping the zipper off its track.

I was really angry with them destroying our bag, but since it was the TSA in the USA, we couldn’t really complain to the airline. After all, they didn’t do it. Although, as the other passengers from our flight watched me taking our bag held together with tape from the carousal, I did made a point of making it clear that someone, other than us, had packed the bag this way. We are definitely not THAT tacky. And even though the zipper was completely open, it seems that we didn’t lose anything, although we couldn’t be sure of that when we picked up our bag. So kudos to the airline for taking care of our undone bag. In any case, all our bags arrived in one piece, even if my wife’s was broken. And it wasn’t such a big deal anyway - what woman wouldn’t love an excuse to buy a new bag in Paris!

The information booth at Charles de Gaulle Airport is located right when you leave the baggage claim area, so while my wife stood in the ATM line-up I headed to information to find out our best way to get to our hotel. A taxi would be approximately 60 Euro, but we could take the train if we wanted to. There was also the option of taking the Air France bus to their location (I’m not sure if it was offices or a bus drop-off) for about 12 Euro each and then take the train from there. The train all the way from the airport would be about 9 Euro per person. We decided that since it was the AM rush hour and we had all our luggage, perhaps a cab was the best choice.

While standing in the ATM line-up, which was not too long, but was taking quite long (evidently all of us foreigners were having trouble with the French HSBC bank machine), I overheard two ladies in front of us discussing that they would go to the taxi line-up and ask if anyone wanted to share a cab. Ever the helpful traveler, I mentioned that we’d share a cab with them. So after a few attempts to take money out of the ATM (check your daily limit with your bank before traveling and remember the Euro is 1.38 to the US dollar), we headed of to find a cab with our cab mates and make our way to Paris.

Well, rush hour traffic is the same all over the world, and after an hour cab ride we were at our cab mates’ hotel, and shortly after that our hotel. Splitting the cab was a great idea. We didn’t have to take the train with all our luggage, and it cost us not much more than to cab it.

The Paris Hilton is one block west of the Eiffel Tower. I knew our hotel was close to the Tower, but when we got out of the cab our location blew me away. There it was, the symbol of Paris, towering above us.

After 22 hours of travel, we were ready to begin our vacation with a nice breakfast. Wanting convenience, we decided we’d opt for the very nice looking buffet at the hotel. We got to the restaurant, gave the hostess our room number and feasted on eggs, bacon, omelettes, yogurts and pastries. After a long travel day on airplanes you need a good meal. A word of caution though. Before you partake of a buffet at a hotel in Paris, check the price. As it turns out, our buffet was 31 Euros a person. 62 Euros for both of us. Now, at 1.35 Euro to the dollar, that’s an $83 breakfast. It was nice, but not $83 nice. So check the price before you eat. Restaurants in Paris (and France in general) are more expensive than we’re used to in North America.

Well nourished from our expensive breakfast, my wife and I headed out to check out the neighborhood. We walked under the Eiffel Tower, which is much bigger than you expect it to be. And gorgeous. The design is truly breathtaking. We then walked by the Petite Palais, the Louvre, the Musee D’orsay and back to the Eiffel Tower. The great thing about staying next to such a tall landmark is you always know what direction to head in to find your hotel.

With it being light until 9pm at this time of year, its easy to forget the time, and despite a long trip over and a full day of walking around Paris, we found ourselves tooling around until after 9pm. We saw a lot of sights on our first day’s walking tour, and as we walked back to our hotel enjoying the warm Paris evening we looked forward to our coming days in Paris and our opportunity to explore The City of Lights.

a la Prochaine,

the travel bum.

• Read More »

We picked up our rental car in Carlsbad the day before we left for Paris. Although we only live 33 miles from San Diego, we often rent a car to get to and from the airport. With the cost of airport parking running from $7 - $12 a day, the cost of renting is comparable, and often cheaper, than taking our own car. And the benefits are many. Not only is our car kept in its garage and not covered with a week or two’s worth of airport silt when we return, but when we get to the airport we don’t have the hassle of finding parking and catching a shuttle that can sometimes be infrequent, especially on the return leg. We just show up and hand the rental car company the keys. No mess, no fuss. And the rental car shuttles are usually clean, prompt and frequent. We usually use Hertz when we rent. Their rates are often the lowest and they have a neighborhood location just down the road from us. They will pick us up and drop us off when we return, and as a #1 Club member most of my information is stored in their computer, making for an easy pick-up process. At select airports there is also a #1Club express counter, allowing you to skip the regular line-up.

On this trip we were running a little late, but we always give ourselves extra time, and with Hertz being located right next to the airport we were checking in with plenty of time to spare. Our flight was with American Airlines who we hadn’t flown with in quite some time. It happens that for this trip their flight times, both going over and returning, were the ones that worked best for us, and they were also offering the best deals at the time we were booking. And just by chance, we got an extra bonus for our trip. A couple of weeks before leaving, I read about the American Airlines 90-Day Challenge. The 90 Day Challenge is a program where you can fast track to Gold or Platinum status with AAdvantage, American Airlines frequent flyer program. All you have to do is complete a certain number of flights or fly a certain number of miles within 90 days of enrolling in the 90-Day Challenge. You can only enroll by calling AAdvantage Reservations directly at 1.800.882.8880 and asking for Customer Service. You’ll have to choose which level you are going to try for, and if you choose to aim for Platinum and don’t fly enough to qualify for that level you won’t be able to qualify for Gold either. So choose the more realistic level for you upcoming travels to make sure you qualify. You only have to fly half as many miles as normal to qualify for either Gold or Platinum levels, and you can read about the benefits of the different levels of membership in American Airlines AAdvantage at their site.

Not having flow American in quite a while, we were pleased with our flights overall. We originally booked thinking that AA still offered extra legroom for all its passengers, but I found out when I enrolled in the 90-Day Challenge that was no longer the case. For a tall guy like me every inch of legroom counts, so I should have checked www.seatguru.com before booking our flights and choosing seats. This great website ranks seats for all the major airlines and lets you know important information like how close your seat is to the lavatory and if you seat back does not recline. If you have a choice of several airlines offering the same price you may as well go with the one that offers the better seating.

As for the rest of the flight, you know how it is. Flying ain’t as romantic as it used to be!

the Travel Bum

• Read More »

Recently my wife and I enjoyed a two week vacation with some friends in France. This was our second year in a row heading to La Belle France and this time we had different stops on our itinerary. Not being quite as unwired yet as I’d like to be, my travel blog posts about our trip are not done from the road, but rather from the familiar comfort of my office desk here at home. Traveling to Europe continues to change in our modern world, and hopefully some of what we learned will make your next visit to Europe even better than it already promises to be.

Our trip was 2 weeks, Sunday to Sunday, the first 5 days being spent in Paris, the second week in Annecy, with a day in Lyon thrown in between. Our months of planning paid off handsomely, rewarding us with another great vacation. And I say months of planning for 2 reasons. Any trip to Europe has to have a certain degree of forethought. Airfares go up steeply at certain times of the year, and travel overseas requires certain documents.

When we started looking at airfares in February, one could get a flight from LA to Paris for about $330. When we went in May we had to pay about $850. Now, the weather was much better in May and its closer to the peak tourist season, hence the increase in cost. And, one could argue, well worth it. You can get a great idea of the trend in airfares at www.farecompare.com. Enter where you’re going and Farecompare will tell you current airfares and price trends based on historical data. There is also a great tool for seeing where you can go now for cheap, which is great if you’re the type to head off on last minute escapes.

The other thing you’ll want to do before any trip overseas is make sure you have enough time and/or pages in your passport for the country you are going to. Some countries require you to have 3 or 6 months remaining on your passport from the date you will be leaving that country. If you try to enter a country with a 6 month rule and you only have 5 months and 20 days left on your passport you can be denied entry and your trip will be over before it begins. Some countries also require visa, even for short stays. One location that has a list of passport requirements is the US Department of State website. However, don’t take anything you find online as fact. Rules are always changing, so to be sure, call the consulate of the country you are planning to visit verify what you find online. We planned to go to Switzerland during our trip, and while France did not have a 3 month rule, Switzerland did. Also, Switzerland is not part of the EU, so there was a good chance you would have to show passports at the border. I spoke with the Swiss embassy in LA to confirm this. The lady I spoke to was very helpful and said while you don’t always have to show a passport, you may have to. Again, make sure you know the rules of entry to any countries you plan to visit on your trip.

A little leg work (or web work) can go a long way to making your trip as relaxing as it can be. So plan ahead, and have a great trip.

The Travel Bum.

• Read More »

Well, its time to wrap up my trip to England and a little of North Wales.? I rented a Renault Clio 1.5 diesel and was very impressed with it.? It handled well at both high motorway speeds and on the twisty country lanes.? With a range of 600 MILES per tank,? its really is a great little car. Ideal for 2 adults and luggage for a long trip and great for day trips with 4 adults.

The last day of driving was spent on my favourite Yorkshire Moors at the village of Dent,? but not before a stop at the Barbon Inn in Barbon ( a 17th century coaching inn) (BarbonInn@aol.com) for a fine pub lunch.

My 30 days of walking, driving, enjoying fine cask ales, good traditional pubs with good pub grub and many a tasty cream tea at a variety of tea shops was, all in all, an excellent trip out of high season.? Give it a go yourselves.

We hope you have found this trip blog of England to be useful for any future trip planning. In closing, when driving in England - you need to be ‘aggressively defensive’ and aware at all times either on the motorways, ‘A’ roads or ‘white roads’ (which are my favourite roads ). It is nice to rekindle these driving skills though.

The Nomad

Useful links for your UK trip:
Caravaning: www.caravanclub.co.uk
Settle-Carlisle Railway: www.settle-carlisle.co.uk/walks
Ingleton: www.ingleton.co.uk
White Scar Cave: www.whitescarcave.co.uk
Dent Village: www.dentvillageheritagecentre.com
Shacklabank Walking Holidays: www.shacklabank.co.uk
Caravan and Camping: www.highlaning.co.uk
England Tourism: www.enjoyengland.com
Britian Attractions: www.britainsfinest.co.uk

At toptravelsites.com we are introducing an interactive forum for travellers to nominate their favourite ‘TopTraditionalPub’ and ‘TopTeaShop’ in Britain…stay tuned and let us know about your favourite places…The Nomad

• Read More »

Back in the North of England for a day trip to Chester for some history, fine food and ale at The Albion and another day out to Llangollen in North Wales. The scenery is spectacular and its a wonderful place to spend a few days. There is a steam railway, motor museum, canal, abbey, castle ruins, tea shops and much, much more.

Another nice area for a walk is the Loggerheads Park just outside of Mold.

The Nomad.

Useful Uk travel links.

Clwydian Range Mountains: www.ridetheclwyds.com
North Wales Borderlands: www.borderlands.co.uk
Denbighshire’s Countryside: www.denbighshire.gov.uk/countryside
Loggerheads area of Wales: www.loggerheads-wales.co.uk

• Read More »

When travelling to a foreign country, one of the best things you can do to start your trip off on the right foot is to say hello to the locals in their own language. Even if you don’t know any other words or phrases, the fact that you made the effort to say hi to them means a lot and goes a long way towards making your vacation the best it can be.

To help you say hello when you travel, here is a list of phrases in different languages. The first line shows how you spell the phrase and the second line helps with pronouncing it.

• Read More »

Well, it seems that highways and freeways are the same all over the world - slow, slow, quick, quick and slow some more. I was heading south on the M6 to the M5 and finally left this parking lot and got on the A44 to Evesham (the Garden of England) and a nice cuppatea and scones at the CafeCraycombe in Flatbury. It is here that the tables and chairs at which you have tea are all for sale and are made onsite (nice idea). After the superb clotted cream scones we thought about getting heavenly bodies, including a body blitz and a tums and bums at the next door gym - but, fortunately it was closed today.

The A44 is a nice route through beautiful countryside, villages and away from the M-roads. Another nice place to stop and shop is Burford and if you have a flyrod….cast around a little!

The Nomad continued south around Oxford and back into the M25 ring and more heavy traffic, but all in all it was a nice day on the road.

The Nomad

Useful links for your England trip:

Get a haircut in Huddersfield: www.heavenlybodies.co.uk
Devon Fly Fishing School: www.flyfishing-uk.co.uk
Oak Furniture: www.pdrinternational.co.uk

• Read More »

Motorway travel - beware of motorway restaurants for an English Breakfast….the one I visited had this staple of English cuisine at the exorbitant price of around 11 pounds. A better plan is to try a ‘greasy spoon’ in a nearby town - it’ll be around 3 quid and they have bloody good tea!

A good book to plan you trip is 365 days of Pub Walks and Cycle Rides - its available at www.theAA.com/bookshop

Cellphones (mobiles) - I had my non-UK cellphone unlocked and purchased a SIM card for 5 pounds and paid another 5 pounds for 12 p per minute calls. I did it at T-Mobile shop.

Some simple pleasures of the UK:

• Sunday papers before and after a couple o’ pints or sunday lunch at the local pub.
• Tasty bacon and ham
• Pies from Hunters of Helmsley
• Cask ales at country pubs with traditional English fodder
• Ploughman’s
• Sausages / pies / good fish and chips / strong tea and
• Affordable French wine from the local store that does not taste like fruit juice!
• Sticky toffee pudding

And still finding more,

The Nomad

• Read More »