Paris and France for Two Weeks: Three Questions

Hi Ken -- I agree with you re RER. I do it very rarely. What age is your son, and what area of Paris will you be staying in? With 3 of you, it's probably just as economical taking a taxi-- when you figure the difference between what each of you would have to pay for the AirFrance bus or a shuttle and the maximum 60 euros or so for a taxi . . . .the taxi is good value for money. For a cheap phone and SIM card, try a PhoneHouse. They probably don't have the cheapest, but you probably won't be staying near the little neighborhood places. I've seen ads for Bic phones (yes like the pens) that look like they're supposed to be exactly those simple phones. I think your idea of renting in the Loire (Tours?) is a good one, but haven't rented in a while, so will leave that to others!

Thank you very much, Kim. Great suggestions. I thought of one more question: We have Blue Cross health insurance, but I know that if anything happened abroad I'd have to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed. Is it a good idea to buy separate trip medical coverage? If so, what are some of the best companies? Basically, I want to be covered if one of us gets sick, injured, hit by a bus, becomes incapacited, needs to see a doctor or be hospitalized.

Re the car: This April we rented from Avis a short walk from the St. Cloud metro (near the end of line 9), southwest Paris. That location was covenient to
the freeway to Rouen and later for our return from Amboise/Chartres. Good rates, English-speaking agent.....worked well for us.

Ken, try insuremytrip.com to compare policies. I buy medical coverage through American Express but my own policy doesn't pay overseas. I don't know if they would cover you if you already have medical insurance that will reimburse you. The big thing to consider is repatriation - sending you home via stretcher or whatever, should you be seriously injured. Also, be aware that the travel medical insurance has a certain time period that you may not have any new prescriptions or medical problems or they will not cover existing conditions that you are being treated for. In case of American Express it's six weeks but you don't have to buy it until you need it and can cancel it upon your return. The price is extremely reasonable. Re shuttles, they're about 30 Euro per person from CDG to central Paris. Take a cab.

Most (if not all) travel medical insurance works the same way as your Blue Cross policy - pay up front, get reimbursed later. So, check what your Blue Cross coverage is, and then see if you need or want more coverage. If you do, look at http://www.insuremytrip.com/index.html to compare policies. Yes, it's common for them to exclude pre-existing conditions, unless you buy the policy within 7 or 15 days of making your first trip-related payment. If this applies to you, read the find print carefully. For cheap prepaid phones, in addition to the Phone House, you can go to a Virgin Megastore or a FNAC (multiple locations in Paris).

I would not be able to afford to pay up front if something catastrophic happened in France. I simply do not have thousands of dollars to shell out. So my plan in the U.S, which I believe really sucks b.t.w., would not be useful to me.

Medical costs in France aren't as outrageous as the costs here in the USA. I've had a few friends be charged very little for this. One of my friends had to have her gallbladder taken out (ironically, after eating the best pizza of her life) and only had to pay around 99EUR. We were SHOCKED.

As to rental cars, I generally use either Auto Europe or Kemwel. Both are under the same ownership, but they have separate web sites and different prices, maybe because they use different French car rental companies. Never had any problems with either one.

The ride from CDG to the city is long and I don't want to compete with the rush hour commuters for seats on a very crowded RER train at that hour. I love the Metro and RER in general.

Ken, when we did our trip two years ago we rented from Orly and drove to Loire. If I had to do it over again, I think hubby and I would agree to take the train to Tours and rent there. So your plan is good. Just be sure to check for operating hours of the rental car place for pick up. I've read in other posts on this site that dropping off after hours was not a problem. I'm curious, though, having used the Paris metro only within the city and not to/from the airports, what the issue is? We were planning on taking it from our hotel to the airport and the lady at the front desk said, "Oh no, let me call you a taxi." We sort of shrugged and said okay, but then proceeded to get caught in the never ending Paris traffic for an hour and wished we had taken the RER. I kind of thought we'd take the RER on our next visit to avoid that traffic, but now am wondering.... Any insight? Thanks!

Tara the ride in from CDG on RER usually involves a pain-in-the-rear transfer with bags and all through Chatelet or some other equally inhospitable station, lugging your bags around, up and down staircases, etc etc. I'm a card-carrying metro rider, but I avoid the RER to the airport like the plague. You make an excellent point about avoiding the surface traffic on the RER, but for me it just comes with too many headaches.