Need advice on Paris trip

Too stupid for words.

Try again …

[quote] I know this is a weird way to vacation in Paris,

You can say that again. If you're not a troll and merely a Mary about travel, book a hotel near the airport the first night and last night. Thinking you can't stay in Paris proper because of the language barrier is nuts. How old are you?

The area around CDG is beyond depressing, ugly, noisy and polluted. It's a really dreadful way to experience Paris. As one of the most frequented cities in Europe, you will not have problems with language or understanding signage, maps, directions, etc. Especially after all the work done to make the city foreigner-friendly for the Olympics.

At least listen to R2 but you really are a dumb pussy. I'm going in a few weeks and for the fifth time. Your fears are ridiculous at best. And yes as R3 said, the airport area is a shithole.

Wow.

I just asked for a little help, and I get attacked.

Very nice.

You all do you, and I'll do me.

That said, does anyone ELSE have some advice, given what I wrote?

Shouldn't you be discussing this with Emily?

Why not just stay at the CDG-adjacent hotel on your final night? Assuming you have a morning flight, that would be convenient.

Stop feeding the troll. Please.

Regarding your train question, you can get into town on the RER B line, on which all seems to breathe freedom and peace, and to make one forget the world and its sad turmoils.

This is the most pathetic thread I have read in some time.

There is a train line from CDG into the city. I’ve never taken it, but a friend always says to beware of the pickpockets. There YouTube videos on how to take the train.

I’d follow R2’s advice. Live a little. There are lots of small affordable hotels in the city.

I think we’ve seen you here before. Did you ever take your wheelie suitcase out on a bar crawl in Chelsea?

[quote] That said, does anyone ELSE have some advice, given what I wrote?

Yes. Given what you wrote, ditch the airport hotel. The hassle of the airport shuttle and the train to and from the city every day is unthinkable. Half the experience of being in Paris is just being there and you're really going to miss out.

R13, OP wants someone ELSE to give him some advice.

Op is merde. In English 💩

S'il vous plaît, ne venez pas à Paris. Pour commencer, vous écrivez comme un pitoyable incel autiste coincé, donc vous contribuerez à l'image du Ugly American. Ensuite, dépensez cet argent pour entrer en traitement psychiatrique et avoir ne serait-ce qu'une légère chance d'une vie plus normale, aussi improbable que cela puisse paraître.

On a bicycle with a little bell.

Make sure you wear a beret.

Until you renounce your stupid plan to stay near the airport instead of in the middle of things, you cannot be helped, OP.

‘Allo ‘Allo!

OP, why not stay close to your hotel and take in the real Parisian culture of the suburbs?

Asking a simple question here is like jumping into a pit of vipers.

HISSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!

There's a great restaurant at CDG called Une Fois Autour du jardin, you'll love it.

Espèce de sous larve kiffe les zobs xxl de rebeus

Staying by the airport is like staying at an industrial park.

Trying to commute into Paris from the airport on a daily basis is an utter nightmare. Getting from the airport to Paris once on arrival and doing the reverse on departure is almost too much effort.

Whatever money you think you're saving is not worth the time and effort.

This is a bad idea.

Mais OP voudrait choper des tissus d'Afrique du Nord, profiter d'un méchoui d'agneau succulente avec les reup patrons d'un kebab local, et taper un gros oinj chargé de chichon avec un nouveau pote chelou.

How bout a nice little ground floor apartment? I stayed in this same building when I was in Paris except I was in the attic. It's a great central location.

R5, you've been given good advice; however, you really posted for us to compliment your “brilliant” plan, not to take any advice. Enjoy your crappy trip.

Check out this place in the gayborhood. I bet it has a lot of stairs though.

Don’t go at all in this case

[quote] Check out this place in the gayborhood

Is it near near CDG airport?

This might be more your speed, OP.

OP, setting aside your plan to stay at the airport - every question that you’ve posed in your post could be easily answered using Google. But you expect everyone to do the work for you.

If you’re too useless to show some initiative in doing your own research, you really shouldn’t be considering traveling anywhere. Which I doubt you are, you silly man.

[quote] show some initiative in doing your own researc

I agree!

It's too late if you've already booked and paid for such hotel. There are so many charming, funky, grand, or inexpensive places you could have chosen. I've had great luck with AIRBNB. I only stay in properties with a very high rating, and I always read a ton of reviews.

OP if you’re worried about the language barrier, how about flying into London? There are a bunch of hotels at Heathrow (one of London’s airports) and you could get the Heathrow Express into central London each morning, transfer by Tube (the London subway) - scary but many people speak English - to St Pancras station, catch the Eurostar to Paris (great photo opportunities in the tunnel) then when you get to Gare du Nord walk up to random people asking where you should go and how do you get there. If at first, people don’t respond just speak louder - this works very well in Paris.

At the end of the day, reverse the above. Problem solved!

Happy trails, OP.

I’ve heard CDG is a nightmare airport, even if you sleep next door to it you still have to get there 3 hours ahead of time. I’m thankful I flew out of Orly last time. They even have a caged in area for smokers. So thoughtful.

Caged! with DL fave Eleanor Parker.

Just study the train timetables religiously, plan out your trip on google and watch videos of the airport to see what it’s like.

The RER train into the city costs about $20 each way. It leaves from a station under terminal 2 IIRCC.

It's a big airport but I've never had a problem, r36. My general rule is to arrive two hours early and that has worked for CDG.

Op, stop playing a victim you dumb bitch. We've told you to stay in Paris if you're ass is trying to visit Paris. Who the hell intentionally books a vacation hotel at an airport 30-40 min away from said city? Your trip is in November, if it's even real, just cancel and rebook in Paris. Who the hell wants to give up the opportunity to stroll around Paris at night to worry about the train schedule to get to your sad little airport hotel?

Try not to worry OP. I'm afraid of my own shadow, and even I'm comfortable in Paris. See if you can cancel that hotel and find a little apartment on airbnb. You could find a little place in the 7th, which I've found to be a little quieter. If you're there for a week, that place becomes home and you can enjoy the neighborhood. Learn to say please and thank you in French. If you're polite, you will be treated well. Good luck and have fun.

OP have you seen “Mean Girls”? You sound almost too gay to function.

[quote]I know this is a weird way to vacation in Paris,[bold] but I don't like being far away from the airport, especially in a big city that is unfamiliar to me,[/bold] plus the language barrier.

Sweet fucking Jesus, what logic, what a plan: spend €34 on trains a day, plus dicking around on airport shuttles to and from a "near" CDG hotel to get to the train to get to the center.

OP could buy a beret and a pack of Gitanes and a stale baguette and watch YouTube videos of CDG Airport and save a lot of bother.

And to think I lived so many years on Earth unaware that Airport Separation Anxiety is a serious disease.

[quote] Airport Separation Anxiety is a serious disease.

R43 OP is worried about a second Storming of the Bastille and needs to be able to make a fast getaway.

One can’t be too careful.

Stop being a prick, r32 . OP is doing his own research by soliciting personal comments here and probably elsewhere. Personal comments based on personal experience have more value than the generic blather one gets from the generic tourist-help sites to which you're evidently sending him.

Best of luck to you in your travels, OP!

Make sure le train from CDG to Paree is not on “le strike” when you need it.

That’s nice of you to say that, R46. When will you be jumping in with your handy personal tips and comments for OP’s trip?

R5, Given what you as OP wrote, why should anyone take you seriously? It's a silly idea you have. I understand your concern, but really, it's only for the return trip.

Rent a car at the airport (we did that from the US with Renault. They had a Representative call us the evening before our flight to finalize plans, then met us at the airport to drive us to our rental ---actually leased---car.), and then get out of DeGaulle to Paris proper, where you have your PRE-BOOKED FROM THE US hotel room waiting.

For the RETURN TRIP, OKAY, book a room near the airport if you would feel better. I remember my husband and I simply took an airport bus from near the Arc de Triomphe.

When I say I understand, it's because we would more frequently use Frankfurt Airport, and for the return flight we would stay in a small village a short distance from the airport.

But would I ever stay in a hotel near ANY airport? The very thought gives me the willies!

R49 here. If you plan on having no car, then of course you would take some form of public transportation into the city.

There will be no lack of English at the airport!

I suspect that it’s the perceived lack of English that is behind this zany plan.

OP have you found out if there’s a Starbucks at CDG? That will solve breakfast and dinner.

I have always used The Roissybus and it’s super easy.

€33.20 to spend two hours on a bus each day sounds delightful!

R43 You win today's Danny Thomas Spits his Coffee Award with Airport Separation Anxiety🏆😂

When I have personal experience with Paris, r48 . But do you go ahead with your expert first-person experience and tips, [italic]mon savant[/italic].

[quote] Danny Thomas Spits

Given that it’s Danny Thomas, should “h” replace “p”?

I already have, R55, but OP appears not to like my input.

Well done with “mon savant”, by the way. Google Translate is so clever, isn’t it?

Shouldn't it be obvious that OP is an EST designed to bait us into most supercilious pearl-clutching that DL can muster? Even the frauiest flyover would never imagine an airport-area hotel offers a greater level of comfort and communication than a hotel in Paris itself. No one thinks Paris is so invincibly foreign that they'd rather commute for hours every day in order to briefly immerse themselves in the Tuileries, Louvre, and Montmartre—cautiously nibbling on a croque monsieur and sipping a Perrier—before hurrying back to some remote outpost of globalist hospitality. Nobody is that uninformed.

Well. I can understand an anxiety about traveling in a new place, where you don't speak the language. But the logistics of going back and forth from city to airport seems exactly the kind of labor and effort that produce traveling anxieties. One trip into the city would get you to a nice hotel where you get familiar with a neighborhood, and don't waste so much time trying to negotiate the trip to and from CDG.

CDG is a huge and confusing airport. I can totally understand the desire to stay at or near an airport the night before an early morning flight. You've perhaps booked places already, but I highly recommend the hotel INSIDE. A nice level of luxury, looking out the windows at planes landing and taking off. But as was said above. CDG is hard to get around in.... leave the hotel hours before your flight.

Thank you so much for the support, R46 and thank you for the bus link, R52! That's exactly the area where I booked my hotel, so I think that's what I'm going to do.

What you critics don't understand is that I'm not a fussy person. I don't mind staying near the airport, and I don't mind traveling by bus or train into the city and back every day. It's really not that big a deal.

I figure that I will get to look out the window and see the sights.

The other thing is that I'm VERY OCD about missing a flight. It will keep me up at night, even with domestic US travel, just worrying about getting to the airport and missing my flight. I'm just wired differently.

So for me, the peace of mind of being minutes from the airport is worth it to me.

Many of you have been to Paris many times, so it's not a big deal for you.

But I'm from a small city on the West Coast, and this is a far trip for me. Not to mention that I also worry about the language barrier.

I've been to Paris before, and it was a nightmare for me to get around. It's a huge city! Once you're there, it's not so bad. The metro system is easy to navigate.

But getting INTO the city from the airport is a pretty far distance.

We caught a bus from the airport that time, and it dumped us literally in the middle of the city, with out luggage. We then had to catch a cab from where we were, to our hotel, and the driver didn't speak English (or pretended not to).

Needless to say, we were RIPPED OFF. I hated that feeling and I hate traveling on public transportation with luggage and all the other crap.

So I intend to dump my luggage at a hotel near the airport, then shower and change, or even rest a day.

Then the next day I'm going to venture out with just a backpack or whatever, and it won't be such a hassle.

Again, this is the way I like it, and it's not a big deal to me.

So I appreciate the person who linked the Roissy Bus, and also to a couple of people who mentioned the RER B line. Those are great starting points for me to figure out how I want to get to the city and back every day.

I appreciate the help of those with sincere responses.

You’re crazy. I’ve been to Paris 35 times. Travel from CDG is a nightmare. It takes an hour to get to the heart of the city on the express train!

R60, your post is exactly why I think this is an EST. Everything you say makes sense for someone staying near the airport the *last night* of the trip. Nothing makes sense for someone staying there for the whole trip.

You're going to enjoy the sights out the bus window—day after day, twice a day?

You're worried about getting around in Paris, and yet you plan to go there day after day? Despite your previous traumatic experience, it's really no more of a hassle to get your luggage to a Paris hotel than to an airport hotel. Really.

You're thinking of wasting a day sitting in a hotel in the boondocks while you gather up your gumption to backpack into the city?

This is an EST.

[quote] I've been to Paris before, and it was a nightmare for me to get around. It's a huge city! Once you're there, it's not so bad. The metro system is easy to navigate.

So, which is it? A nightmare or easy?

R60 another great starting point for you to figure out how to get to the city of Paris every day would have been to type the words “transport from CDG airport to Paris” into Google, thus avoiding all the snarky responses, including my own.

By the way, expecting your Paris taxi driver on your last trip to speak English is about as realistic as a French tourist flying into JFK or Newark and expecting their taxi driver to speak French. Spare me.

Good luck with your trip.

I just wish we could all get along.

R65 = Rodney Roi

I'm going to need you guys to take over for me, I'm off to bed, need to masturbate.

P. S. If I've been confusing between "airport leased car" and "airport bus back to airport" as opposed to driving that car back, it's because we either returned the car in Paris proper, or I'm referring to different trips; memory fails precisely on this one!

Be prepared for beggars on the train.

R64, You reminded me of a nice memory:

Lost, we decided that we would ask directions from someone who would surely know: a taxi driver. So we flagged one down. I don't recall if he spoke English, but he understood us. Whatever the case, he decided we were hopeless in understanding HIM, because he quickly gave up and just said, "Follow me!"

Life pro tip. Visit Eastern Europe instead. You’ll see actual Europeans there and pretty much only Europeans instead of refugees from third world shitholes, loud obnoxious Americans, and Chinese tourists pushing you out of the way and poking you with selfie sticks.

I have done exactly what you propose and it worked out great for me. I stayed at Citizen M Hotel. It's affordable luxury in a small package. The dining area is located near the bar and the hotel kitchen offers meals throughout the day and all the menu options are superb.

Citizen M is a short walk to the train station that serves all of Paris. And it's not far to the CDG shuttle that connects to all the terminals.

I did stay at a first-rate hotel in the Marais District. It was a nice change of pace, but Citizen M seemed cozier and more convenient.

Another plus to staying at the airport is the short bus ride to the large shopping mall there. It's called Aeroville and offers dozens of stores that cater to travelers.

Thank you, R72!!!!

I'm going to look that up right now, and possibly change my reservation.

All of the naysayers here were making me re-think my idea, but I'm glad you commented.

Now I really want to do this!

R72 is a POS for encouraging and trying to normalize OP’s harebrained scheme. Kudos who to those who did the right thing to help OP by trying to talk him out it.

No one stays in an airport hotel. Crikey.

r72 sounds like such a sanitized experience of Paris. There's nothing like going to the bistros and being sneered at by the ancient old waiters in their aprons. I remember staying in my attic apartment and hearing men down at the bar below singing their football anthem "olay, olay, olay, o-lay" or maybe they were just big moisturizer fans. One morning I was awoken by loud bagpipe like noises, later found out it was President Macron riding through town for VE day.

Is OP also the one who spent half a day in Paris recently?

The Ignore button can be very handy.

For example I’ve just discovered that poor delicate OP who is too timid to venture into central Paris except by bus while staying at an airport hotel can be found on the BRF threads SHOUTING at people and calling them Klan Grannies and CUNTS.

Hi KGT - you do get around. The poster up thread who called this as an EST was right.

[quote]Another plus to staying at the airport is the short bus ride to the large shopping mall there. It's called Aeroville and offers dozens of stores that cater to travelers.

A big shopping mall? near the airport? with shops catering to travelers?

I'm in! Booking my flight to Paris this very moment.

Like hats, gloves, and shoes, even a seasoned traveller can never have too much Rimowa luggage or too many neck pillows for the flights. Anything specifically for the hour commute each way each day? Can I rent a car at the airport to drive to the mall?

I've been to London dozens of times and never left Heathrow. So much to see! And so many terminals. Maybe CDG can be my new Heathrow.

The random CAPITALISATION was a tell.

I'll treat this as a real question and not as an EST. Unless things have changed radically since I was there last, there is an office in the main railway stations of Paris where someone who speaks fluent French will make a hotel reservation for you. The person manning the office will ask you a few questions , make a call or two, and then give you explicit directions to the hotel - the address and the Metro Stop. Or if they have ditched the offices and have gone to a computerized system, you could use the website linked below:

I agree that large cities are overwhelming. Unless you are only going to go to a city once in your lifetime, you can choose to explore a corner of a city and do all the touristy things in that one area. In Paris, the arrondisements near the center will give you quick access to the Louvre, Notre Dame, some parts of the Left Bank, the Jeux de Paume, the Tuilleries, the Eifel Tower, and several other things you might like to explore. On the other hand, Montmartre is quite a distance from the center. Some other desirable destinations are a distance away, but you have to judge how badly you want to see them. The Metro is easy to use, but I'm a fan of walking the streets to see what the people of a city are up to. Get a good guide book, Map out a route. Leave time to step into a shop or a gallery that interests you. Also figure out if there are reasonable restaurants along that route for lunch and dinner stops. But in Paris it's also possible to go into a bakery and buy a baguette, into a cheese shop and buy a hunk of cheese, and grab a bottle of sparkling water to dine on a park bench.

I like saving money, but an airport is too far away. You can choose an arrondisement that is not too fashionable, but not too dangerous for your hotel stay. Some of the areas on the outskirts of Paris are full of migrants and lower income people and wouldn't be safe for you. And within the city, the 18th and 19th arroundisements are considered very dangerous. But there are others that are simply a little shabby and run down, yet perfectly safe, where you could find relatively inexpensive hotels.

Considering how much time OP spends on the BRF threads calling other posters RACIST I’m sure that he will welcome the opportunity to stay in or at least visit the arrondissements popular with migrants.

Isn’t that right KGT?

Watch out for bed bugs, OP!

A town car/sedan from CDG to the Champs Elysees near where I usually stay is about 100 euros. The driver speaks English, handles the luggage and drops you at the front door. Three days on the bus or an hour in the back of an SUV? - same money.

I went to Paris this summer. I flew into De Gaulle and took the RER to the Les Halles stop. I wheeled my suitcase to my hotel, following the map on my phone, which led me without delays or backtracking—about a 15-minute walk on normal, safe, mostly uncrowded streets. The woman at the hotel desk spoke fluent English and offered me various suggestions for things to do, places to eat, etc. At the end of my trip I did it all again in reverse order.

This is not hard.

I don't know anything about the prices of trollbait in Paris these days, OP.

OP, just back from my first trip to Paris. Almost everyone speaks English so there's no language barrier and it's a long commute from the airport to the main station in Paris. Stay in the 5th or 6th arrondissements. You'll be able to walk to everything. Restaurants every where. Safe. Much better option than airport hotel.

OP has vanished - what a surprise!

Stay in Paris proper, OP. You don’t want to spend all that time on the RER or Metros. Parisians stink. The smell of unwashed bodies on public transport is unbelievable.

Is there a Russian sauna in Paris - while we're talking about the city? Somewhere to get a deep massage?

Op, since you tootling about by train, try taking the train to Giverny for a lovely day away! You can visit Monet's home and enjoy his beautiful gardens where he painted many of his masterpieces. I don't speak French, but I lived there for a month and it was very easy to do anything, as the French are nicer than their reputation and most speak tourist English. Have a wonderful time!

Seconding the Giverny recommendation. The small arched bridge, the water lilies, it's all there, right out of the paintings!

Is there any stripper club where the guys are naked?

I will take the bait and answer seriously OP! First, People in hotels across Paris will cough out a few words in English. Second, you can take the RER to Gare du Nord and stay near there if you're nervous. That way all you have to do is get the train back to the airport the day of departure. I personally don't get too fussy about location for a night or two in Paris as it's so easy to get around on metro and on foot. Third, perhaps you're sticker-shocked by Paris prices. Booking.com is your friend. And you can also look for Ibis Hotels. Nothing fancy but they're fine. There's several near Gare du Nord. I just priced one at $170 for one night next week.

booking has a ton of 8+ options from $130 or so this time of year

Op stay home. They don’t want your ass over there

I'm here now. It's not scary - although it did take me almost a half hour to find what track the train to Marseille was leaving from.

What's the best way to order food if you don't speak the language, R97?

In the last week I have encountered about 100 people face to face and couldn't communicate in English with about 5 of them. I relinquished and used Google Translate.

That sounds awful. CDG is nowhere near paris - MUST you be out there?

[quote] I relinquished

Are you sure it was *their* English that was the problem?

My French, R101, is poor at best but I do try. I hear many others who don't even think to bother.

I’m a boy. Tee hee

OP, I’m going to try not to pile on, given all the previous comments. But it’s going to be tough.

In the spirit of not merely repeating others’ points, I’ll raise just two issues.

(1) You never adequately say what motivates you to visit Paris.

After all, you want to stay near the airport, you’re happy to sleep in some industrial suburb, you’re pleased to know there’s a shopping mall nearby. You’re content to know you’ll spend at least two hours a day riding suburban train lines.

In other words, there’s nothing unique to Paris that appears to interest you. Why bother going to Paris at all?

(2) You keep harping on the “language barrier.”

Let me ask you this: If a visitor from Paris arrived in YOUR town and started off speaking to you in French, how would you feel? Would you even respond?

Now put yourself in the shoes of the Parisians.

You paint a picture of someone who expects the world to bend to your needs. But it’s a one/way street.

If you have the resources to fly from the U.S. to France (something millions of Americans cannot afford to do), you have the resources to learn some basic conversational French BEFORE you travel.

Even in the time it takes to fly from your home to Paris, you could cover a semester’s worth of French 101 and arrive in Paris as a considerate traveler rather than someone who contributes to the bad reputation we often have overseas.

Bon voyage!

[quote] You’re content to know you’ll spend at least two hours a day riding suburban train lines.

Is it really an hour each way from the airport to the city, and back via train?

Don't stay near the airport. That will ruin your entire trip. Stay somewhere near downtown.

It will be a very good thing if OP has a terrible time, as a lesson for him as well as others.

Maybe the OP should go to Epcot Center, France zone.

Re: Menu. Are you infantile, OP? No, seriously?

I never realized just how prissy, uptight, and judgmental you Datalounge queens are, until I read this thread.

It's really pathetic and sad.

Op needs advice on how to live.

OP will never go to Paris. This is such a bizarre EST. No-one with the means to get to France could be so stupid.

R109, exactly what would Datalounge be without judgment?

R109 for prissy and uptight, look no further than OP.

As said, just learn please and thank you. I love Paris translation is vous êtes toutes des chattes.

[quote] s'il te plaît

What's the difference between s'il te plaît and s'il vous plaît?

Informal vs. formal.

A trip to Tijuana might be more enjoyable.

OP could barely cope with Paris, Tx.

Total EST - nobody could be that stupid.