France (Paris, Loire Valley, Bordeaux, Lyon, Avignon, Nimes) Trip Review

Paris + Versailles
Duration: 2.5 Days, 3 Nights
Hotel: Maison Albar - Le Celine

We found $450 roundtrip flights to Paris on Scott's Cheap Flights, so we figured that it would be stupid not to go. Very convenient route of Little Rock > Dallas (3hr layover) > Paris, though we did get delayed on our flight in, which caused us to miss part of our first day in Paris. We figured we could find cheap flights to Paris pretty easily in the future, so we opted to break our Paris "Things to Do" list into multiple different trips and check out a few other destinations instead.

After breezing through customs and grabbing the RER Blue line to take us to our hotel from the airport, we finally checked in around 2:00PM. We threw our bags in the room, slammed a couple of espressos, and split a vyvanse before hopping in a cab to Place de la Concorde to see where everyone in the Revolution got guillotined. They also have a cool obelisk.



We walked up Champs-Elysees from Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe, which turned out to be about 1.5 miles of walking. Catches you by surprise a little bit after sitting down in a plane for 10 hours. True to the rumors, Champs-Elysees is an overly crowded shitshow, so our walk took quite a bit longer than expected. We visited on Friday, so I wasn't able to loot and riot with the Yellow Vest protesters.



Upon reaching the Arc de Triomphe, we walked through a tunnel under that deathtrap of a roundabout that surrounds the monument and used our Museum Pass to skip the line into the Arc. You can walk up about 300 stairs to a viewing platform at the top to see great views of the city, including the Eiffel Tower.



After climbing the Arc de Triomphe, we posted up at a bar for a view hours to rest up a bit before dinner, which was at Pain Vin Fromage, which wasn't really my cup of tea. Drank a lot of good wine, though.

Day 2 started off cold, wet, and windy, so we bundled up and made the short walk to Saint-Chapelle and its massive collection of stained glass windows. Following Saint-Chapelle, we walked (almost) right next door to the Conciergerie to tour the former palace turned prison. Really cool architecture in the Hall of Guards. Both were included in our Museum Pass, so we were able to skip through the lines.



Unfortunately Notre Dame had burned just a few weeks prior and much of Ile de la Cite was shut down to the public due to concerns about lead poisoning from the roof of the cathedral. We were able to cross over to Ile Saint-Louis to grab a quick lunch to recharge before checking out Musee d'Orsay in the afternoon.






We encountered one of our first lines of the trip at Musee d'Orsay, but it was only for about 20 minutes or so. We didn't really take any pics, but there are a ton of cool statues and paintings by Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, yada yada yada.

After Orsay, we wondered around a bit and stumbled across a taxidermy shop called Deyrolle, where I was tempted to buy a stuffed red panda for around $4,000. Unfortunately common sense prevailed. We also stopped by some chocolate shops and fattened up a bit before grabbing pre-dinner drinks. Dinner that night was at La Jacobine and I would highly recommend it, especially after the previous night's disappointment.

The following morning, our driver picked us up for a private tour of Versailles. Versailles is breathtaking, but it reminded me a lot of the Sistine Chapel in that it was so overly crowded that it was hard to appreciate it the way it should be.






Following Versailles, we made a stop by the Musee de l'Armee, which is the burial site of Napoleon. It also has a bunch of cool medieval armor and weaponry, along with a museum dedicated to the World Wars. Real cool stuff and definitely worth a stop.

Our last stop of the Paris trip was the Eiffel Tower, which is one of the only places where I saw migrants hawking their cheap selfie sticks and glowing Eiffel Tower figurines. We had tickets to the summit, which was a lot higher up than I thought, at almost 900'. I added the only picture I took that doesn't have me in it. Super crowded as was to be expected and security confiscated all the wine I tried to sneak to the top. Bastards.

For dinner, we stopped by a place called L'Alsacien since the place I had in mind was closed on Sundays. They serve a pizza-like dish called Flammekueche from the Alsace region. Uses creme fraiche as a base instead of marinara. The food was really good, but the one we ordered smelled awful, which made the taste a really pleasant surprise.



Misc.

Before heading to Paris, I had read and heard a lot of horror stories that led me to believe that I was going to get both swarmed by migrants and Allahu Akbar'd, but we didn't really have any issues. We did stay mostly around the 1st and in Saint-Germain area, which could have helped.

Our hotel had really cool toilets. Heated seats and bidets with air jets and multiple water settings. Cleanest my butt has ever been.

The wine is really cheap...and really good.

I had wanted to visit Musee de la Chasse and Musee Rodin, but flight delays and opting to drink instead made us mark those down for next trip.

Bordeaux + Saint-Emilion
Duration: 1.5 Days, 2 Nights
Hotel: YNDOHOTEL

After grabbing some espresso and a quick bite to eat, we met our guide for our wine tour. We used a company called Bordeaux a la Carte that is run by a guy named Stephan. Fun guy and he really knows his wine.




Our first stop was to Chateau du Tailhas in the Pomerol area. Our guide taught us a way to taste it that is kind of a mix of slurping/gargling the wine. I called it Le Mouth Tornado. Wife was not impressed with my French. Ended up buying a case here and it should arrive in the next week or so.





Our next stop was to Chateau Corbin, where the tour was actually carried out by the owner of the vineyard. We were going to buy a case here, but our guide let us know that they exported to a couple of different states and we could get it cheaper per bottle and without the insane shipping costs if we just bought through a US based liquor store, so we ordered from some place in NJ when we got home.




After our first two wine tours, we ventured into the village of Saint-Emilion and grabbed lunch at L'Envers du Decor, which is located a quick walk from the monolithic church that we would be visiting later. Great food, but a little pricey.

Unfortunately they didn't let us take pictures during the tour of the monolithic church, but it was a really neat tour of the underground areas. I stole a couple pictures from Google.





Our final stop was to Chateau Beau-Sejour Becot. This was my favorite tour because we got to go underground to explore their wine caves, where they store all their different vintages. Had to be careful because I couldn't afford to knock over their giant stacked pyramids of wine.



After getting thoroughly drunk, we headed back into town to a wine bar called Bar a Vin. It apparently run by the Bordeaux Tourism Department, so they don't mark up their wine prices much at all. Can get a really good glass for $3.

After continuing to drink way too much, we decided to go check out a couple of sights. The only picture I took is above. It's of a statue/fountain called Monument aux Girondins. It's in this big public square, which looked like it was being set up for a carnival. Wonder if the French do fried Oreos? Immediately after walking by the statue, it started pouring down raining, so we ran past the Water Mirror and Place de la Bourse without stopping and straight to dinner.

The next day was pouring down rain and a holiday, VE Day, so we just called it a day and drank off our hangovers at a cafe until it was time to fly out.

Misc.

If you are drunk and tired of French food, there is a pizza place called Osteria Pizzeria near Place de la Bourse that we enjoyed. The owner decided to post up at our table and decided that we were going to drink a whole bottle of Limoncello together. That taste gets old pretty quick, but it was the thought that counts.

We flew out on EasyJet, which is located in the Billi terminal of the Bordeaux Airport. Has an awful reputation, so I was prepared for the worst. Wasn't bad at all, but I can see where it could be awful if it were super hot and crowded.

I would have liked to have seen more sights in Bordeaux, but we were on a tight schedule and the rain and holiday killed those plans. Guess I'll have to go back.

Avignon + Nimes
Duration: Day trip






We woke up bright and early on our final day and grabbed a quick one hour train to Avignon. We grabbed a quick espresso and were able to make it into Palais des Papes right at opening. It's an absolutely gigantic gothic fortress. We had the place almost completely to ourselves, so it was extra awesome walking around the gigantic rooms. After checking out the palace, we made our way to the gardens to the north. It was really cool and had great views, but the wind was howling at a steady 20+mph with gusts of up to 50mph, so we didn't last too long there before walking the fortresses walls down to Pont d'Avignon. This abandoned bridge used to cross the Rhone before it got destroyed one too many times and abandoned. I did spot a tiny draw bridge though. The wind almost picked me up and deposited me in the river a couple of times. We are a very casual lunch and had a couple of drinks before boarding our half hour train to Nimes.









Nimes blew me away. Immediately upon leaving the train station, there is a beautiful avenue that leads you to a park and the arena. We were able to get inside and explore a bit, but the main areas were unreachable because they were setting up for an Elton John concert. I can only imagine how cool of an experience it would be to go to a show there. I wasn't able to get a ton of pictures in Nimes without our faces in it, so I stole 2 or 3 from the Google machine. We continued walking up the street until we reached Maison Carree, which is a restored Roman temple that was built in the year 2AD.

After that, we walked down a small canal to the ruins of the Temple of Diana and the Jardins de la Fontaine, which is a beautiful park that is filled with statues. We walked up a massive hill in the park to Tour Magne, which was built in 15BC. The tower was mostly destroyed when some idiot read a Nostradamus prediction and gutted the tower in search of treasure during the late 16th century.

Nimes was probably the biggest surprise of our entire trip. I knew to expect the Roman ruins, but the condition of the arena and Maison Carree, as well as how well maintained the parks and everything in the city seemed to be, really had me wanting to spend more time here. Maybe I just took all the right turns when exploring. I would definitely be willing to make a return trip.

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Was able to get flights for $450 roundtrip

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For our benefit if you don't mind, where did you fly out of and you are talking early May?

Looking forward to your review your Portugal one was top notch.

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TheWiz

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Avignon and Nimes definitely did not disappoint. Though not close on the map, it was only an hour train ride from Lyon to Avignon, which made it very accessible for a day trip.

I need to create a third thread that can go up underneath the first two with in the sticky. I have maxed out my character counts for both. Hang tight and I will get this posted up into the sticky as soon as possible. Excellent work so far!

Loire Valley update posted.

i just got back from 10 days in Europe and Paris was easily the highlight.

not dirty, the people aren't rude like you hear if you even try to speak a little french, and there aren't tons of arabs/africans like the news would have you believe.

until you've been to Paris everything else is just window dressing IMO.

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the people aren't rude like you hear if you even try to speak a little french

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I think a lot of it is in the summer time also. Its hot and they get tired of the throngs of tourists.

I've seen it. I loved Paris and definitely had a great experience and I always use the local greetings and what not. But I've seen the locals in Paris be as rude or worse than anywhere else in Europe. I think some of it is the big city mentality too.

Outside of Paris, the French have been fantastic and not a single bad experience.

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Waiting to hear about Lyon. Headed there (mostly) in a month.

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Updated with Lyon. We focused more on food rather than sights. Would highly recommend the restaurants I listed above.