We walked to Hotel de Ville and took the metro to Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur church. Very impressive. The boys were less impressed and needed to sleep. We took the funicular up and walked through the church. We sat in the pews and prayed that I would not have to carry Jonah and Sam back to the flat. We climbed onto the Montmartre city bus and enjoyed a heart stopping ride through narrow hilly streets at the speed of light.
Public Transportation in Paris
At Orly we purchased five Paris Visite cards. The information about these cards online is confusing. I think the cards work from 5AM for 24 hours and you can buy one, two, three... day cards. We needed a more expensive transit fair to get from Orly to Paris (zone 5). The Zone 5 card allowed us to use the Tram from Orly airport. The RER train, Paris metro and buses unlimited for one day. Very easy to buy this card at the airport information booth. Getting from the airport to Paris with five people and luggage can be expensive. The Paris Visite Pass was 96 euro (zone five, one day for five people) but we used the card for the entire day and took five trips using public transportation. A shared shuttle service would have been about 85 euro, then I would have still needed metro tickets.
For the other four days in Paris we purchased metro tickets in books of ten for the four of us and reduced fair tickets for Jonah. The price is under 2 euro per trip and the tickets work on all metro and bus lines. The Metro system is easy to use, clean and popular. All stations require climbing stairs, but some stations have crazy amount of stairs. Like the Montmarte station! We climbed to the street and it felt like an achievement to finally see day light.
Public Transportation in Paris
At Orly we purchased five Paris Visite cards. The information about these cards online is confusing. I think the cards work from 5AM for 24 hours and you can buy one, two, three... day cards. We needed a more expensive transit fair to get from Orly to Paris (zone 5). The Zone 5 card allowed us to use the Tram from Orly airport. The RER train, Paris metro and buses unlimited for one day. Very easy to buy this card at the airport information booth. Getting from the airport to Paris with five people and luggage can be expensive. The Paris Visite Pass was 96 euro (zone five, one day for five people) but we used the card for the entire day and took five trips using public transportation. A shared shuttle service would have been about 85 euro, then I would have still needed metro tickets.
For the other four days in Paris we purchased metro tickets in books of ten for the four of us and reduced fair tickets for Jonah. The price is under 2 euro per trip and the tickets work on all metro and bus lines. The Metro system is easy to use, clean and popular. All stations require climbing stairs, but some stations have crazy amount of stairs. Like the Montmarte station! We climbed to the street and it felt like an achievement to finally see day light.
After some down time in our apartment we walked another few kilometers around the city. We stopped for takeout in the Jewish quarter for fallafel on pita.... I think we fed five people for 30 euro.
What did we learn today? Paris is a great city for kids and adults. The public transportation system is very easy to use, but there are many stairs. The people are, so far, friendly. Time to rest up, tomorrow we will conquer the Louvre and plan on soufflé for lunch.
Here is the view from our living room window.
No comments:
Post a Comment