Paris Planning

Watch the fares through the winter. You have a lot of options from the Southeast.

Hi Tom,

.... You may want to consider the following as a base of operations in the Normandy / Brittany area:

http://www.levieuxchiennoir.com/

The inn has email should you have questions.

... bon voyage ! P.

It can be cheaper to go to another hub (Brussels or Frankfurt or Amsterdam), but think it over carefully.

The real cost of flying to someplace other than where you want to be = cost of your tickets + cost to get to Paris + value of your time getting there. Don't forget the third part of that equation.

Nine time out of ten flying to Paris is your best value. But you can compare prices and decide when you are ready to buy the tickets.

I looked into flying into London for my trip to Paris in October, and I watched both cities for months. For our travel dates, London wasn't cheap enough to do it because you had to take the eurostar into Paris, which ate up any savings. However, what did work for us was flying into Dublin. We are flying Aerlingus the whole way, so it's really a layover in Dublin, but the connecting flight to Paris still put it at a price we could afford, I think $150/person less than "direct" flights. So consider ALL options. Also, I had to do the legwork. On the Aerlingus site, if you search for flights from Los Angeles to Paris, it returns no flights. I had to search for flights from Dublin to Paris, and then I had to call rather than book online so that the two flights would be lumped together as one journey. As someone mentioned, do be mindful of how much it will cost to get to Paris from wherever you arrive. And consider the time and energy you will spend getting to Paris from X. Is it worth it?

Hi again,

I just happened onto this information today. Thought it might help in your planning a trip to Paris... click on this:

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2007/08/10_insanely_del.html

The author, D. Lebovitz, is a resident of Paris.

All the best, P.

One of our best trips to France was when we stayed at a hotel on Mont St Michele. It's beautiful in the day, but stunning at night after all the tourists have gone and the tide has come in. Pack light - there will be lots of stairs and tight passageways, but you will feel like you've gone back centuries.

My husband and I went last October and looked for the same options. We finally just went directly to Paris. My daughter, 17, and I are planning a trip to Paris soon. We looked at going in June, but have changed to April because the airfares are about $400 to $500 cheaper then! I would fly directly to Paris---time is money just get there and have fun. We were there for two weeks and I thought it would be enought time---but it wasn't!!!! We did take two day trips through a local company that had the big tour buses. It was well worth the extra money and the view of the countryside!