TheSP wrote:
The wife and I certainly don't speak French but we thoroughly enjoyed getting out and about. She did A LOT of internet research in advance and had a list of things she wanted to do and see. We were there with a larger group for which pre-planned tours were available, we only did the first and only because it was part of the bus ride from the train station.
Different strokes for different folks, we simply don't enjoy being herded around like a bunch of animals. In fact while in London we jumped on the tube while the group awaited the bus for a London Tower tour. We were leaving the London Tower as their bus finally arrived and were on to our next thing while they waited on their tour guide. If the OP has a full week in Paris then he'll have an opportunity to do both if he chooses!
I hear you SP. I used to think the same way until I actually tried one of those bus tours. My experiences are not as you are describing. You can use the buses to get to the places you'd have to take a cab anyhow, but it's much cheaper. If you hop off the bus, you are on your own. You are not following a tour guide or group. There is nothing pre-planned aside from the bus route. It's just a method of conveyance with the added perk of a local guide explaining the attractions as you drive by. But the guide stays on the bus and you can get off at any stop and go explore on your own. That's what I like about those specific hop on/off bus tours.
I actually minored in French and have been to Paris several times for work. Even with that experience, I still would find it difficult to effectively plan out everything I'd want to do on my own if I go again. There's so much to do...where do you start? The bus tours allowed me to avoid the "Clark Griswold" planning and just hop off when I saw something that interested me.
Not to drag this on and on, but both Paris and London have awesome underground systems which make it a piece of cake to move around! Never once did we have an issue getting where we wanted, even in France and not speaking the language. Honestly though, it'd be tough not to have a good time in either place!
We are just waiting for our bags in Paris so I'll add my 2 cents.
A few yeas ago when we visited San Francisco we spent an entire day walking all over the place. We had a great time but both agreed we would have been better off if we had gotten the bus tour. We would have gotten to more stuff still saw a lot of things and would have walked around. We would have walked less and therefore couldn't have eaten as much! Lol. We know for sure we walked at least 13 miles but we are pretty sure it was more like 15. That's why I figured I could finish the half Marathon I signed up for this year. If I could survive all that in a day with no training I could do a half marathon with at least some training.
I caught up on some movies on the flight including finally seeing Moneyball. Good stuff.
Q12543 wrote:Glad you got to Paris OK Monster! The rest of us will hold down the economy here as you gallivant about Paris.
Now tell me, you didn't plan this around the Wolves schedule, did you? Because it's absolutely perfect timing for you to go be a tourist for a week!
Q we didn't plan much the tickets we so cheap we just sorta picked a time although so wanted to be able to use Presidents' Day as part of the trip for vacation purposes. Lol In fact I am missing a local basketball tournament at the college I graduated from that I would have loved to attend. The reason why is one of my best friends from college and his wife and kids were going to be there because he was coaching the team of the HS I graduated from. I did watch part of a couple of the games via the streaming options so that was cool. The outcome...well not so much. It did look like he must have done some Thibs close out drill because they were doing that really well. You don't see too many of the teams in this tourney do stuff like that.
Also I have no idea of what is happening in the sports world. I have watched a Wolves game since the Cavs game which i don't know what happened there yet either. I'm not sure when or if so will try and catch up. I think I did see Mickaël Gelabale yesterday though. He was just hanging around not doing much. Lol jk
