I originally planned to do several blogs about our trip, but I just ran out of time. So instead I'm just going to post the e-mail I sent a few days back to all the participants, detailing out itinerary. I do want to say that this has been a fun trip to put together. And Janet at Expedia has really made it easy. We did depart a bit from Expedia's normal services, but all of the activities we have planned are based on the activities Expedia sell on their web site. You really can put together a great trip on their web site.
If our flights are all on time, we all arrive in Paris on Wed morning by 8 am. We'll get picked up by the Supershuttle and taken to our hotel. We should get there by 9:30 am. We have 1 room paid for Tue night, so we'll have at least one room to go too early, and hopefully we can check into the others in the morning, but that's not guaranteed.
I'm trying to get 2 massage times confirmed on Wed morning, 10:30 am and 11:30 am (so far no response from the Spa). So we'll have to flip coins to see who gets those. Plus maybe we can book a body scrub or 2. We'll have a credit at the hotel for $1000 each. We can us it to pay for Spa Treatments, hotel meals, tips to staff, Wi-Fi in our rooms, etc. Just remember that the hotel prices are listed in Euro, and our credit is in dollars, so the credit is worth about $750 Euro. (Hmm, I wonder if we can get the hotel to purchase concert tickets for us and charge them too our room? If not, we may need to eat at the hotel a couple of times...or have several massages...lol)
Wednesday night we need to meet our guide on the Left Bank at 6 pm so we should plan to get a couple of taxi's and leave the hotel by 5 pm. We'll have a late dinner once our tour is over at 8 pm and then catch a couple of taxi's to the hotel.
Thursday is a full day at Versailles. We'll get picked up at our hotel about 9:00 am, dropped off at Versailles with a guide for a tour of the inside, and later the garden. We'll have time for a nice lunch there, and then get picked back up at 4:30 pm, so depending on traffic we'll get back to our hotel 5:30 - 6 pm ish. Then we have the evening to explore a bit and go out to dinner.
Friday we have a non-guided tour of Malmaison in the morning. We'll get picked up at our hotel at 9:15 am. Malmaison is open in the morning from 10 am to 12:30 pm, so we'll leave there at 12:30p and have the driver take us back to our hotel. Then we have the afternoon open to do what ever. We'll get picked up at 5:15 pm Friday night to head out for our river cruise and then to dinner at 8 pm.
Saturday is an open day, we can do what ever we feel like. There is a big local market close to our hotel, it's open from 7am to 2:30 pm. I'd like to walk around at least part of it for a while, I like to look at markets. And our hotel is close to the Champs-Elysees which will be fun to walk down and see all the sights. We will also have 2 day tickets for the Red (there also blue & green) hop on/off buses. The full circuit is 2 hours 15 min. It could be fun just to ride around and get an overview of Paris. Or use the tickets and get on or off at different places. There are lots of museum's to see, etc. And we do have 2 day museum passes to use.
Sat night, either concert or Eiffel Tower.
Sunday is Easter. St Joesph's Catholic Church as a 9:30 am mass in English, so we'll need a taxi for those who want to go. We get picked up at 1 pm by a driver & guide and we'll go out to Giverny for the afternoon. I think seeing Monet's gardens this time of year is going to be great. I think we'll get back to Paris about 6 pmish. I don't know what will be open for dinner, we may need to arrange something through the hotel, or just eat there. Room service one night isn't a bad idea either :-)
Monday we'll get picked up at our hotel at 10 am, and take a 2 hour tour of the Montmarte area and get some pictures up at Sacre-Coeur. Our guide will leave us there, so we can have lunch or do what ever as we find our way home. (Eiffel Tower, or go to the concert at Sainte Chapelle, have a nap, book a spa treatment, etc.)
Tuesday we have the Notre Dame & Gothic Paris tour (which includes a daytime walk through Sainte Chapelle). Then we're on our own at 12:30 pm to do what ever. We have a dinner booked at Julien and will need a taxi (or 2), so we should plan to leave our hotel by 6:30p - 7 pm. (Lourve is closed on Tue)
Wednesday morning we head home, the shuttle will pick us up at the hotel at 7:30 am.
The weather in Paris has been good all week. Next week it looks like we could have some rain showers. So bring a rain jacket.
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