Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [262]
VAUX-LE-VICOMTE
CHANTILLY
INFORMATION & ORIENTATION
EATING
SLEEPING
CHARTRES
INFORMATION
EATING
SLEEPING
GIVERNY
INFORMATION
EATING & SLEEPING
AUVERS-SUR-OISE
INFORMATION
EATING & SLEEPING
DISNEYLAND RESORT PARIS
EATING & SLEEPING
PARC ASTÉRIX
INFORMATION
REIMS
INFORMATION
EATING & SLEEPING
* * *
Strike out into the Île de France (literally ‘Island of France’), the romantically named 12,000-sq-km area around Paris. Framed by five rivers and rich in fairytale chateaux, breathtaking cathedrals and forest rife with game, it was here that the seed of the kingdom of France was sown in 1100.
Some day trips are obvious: Versailles (below), with its palace and equestrian academy, and Fontainebleau, the other fabled chateau, are little more than half an hour away. Those who hate crowds should consider art-rich Chantilly with its heavenly stables, gardens and woodlands, or lesser-known Vaux-le-Vicomte, created by the same architect who designed Versailles.
The other quick-flit heavyweight is Chartres and its cathedral, one of Western architecture’s greatest achievements with its mesmerising medieval stained glass. Art lovers will find Giverny, with the pink-and-green house and flower-filled garden lived in and painted by Monet from 1883 to 1926, equally inspiring. Strangely moving is Auvers-sur-Oise, the place where van Gogh painted like mad for two months before dying in the bedroom of a cheap inn from a self-inflicted bullet wound: both painter shrines take little over an hour to get to. Then there’s Champagne’s gourmet tipple, Reims.
Light relief (from serious art and architecture, not crowds) comes in the frenetic form of Disneyland Resort Paris. The pricey theme park with painfully long queues might not be everyone’s tasse de thé (cup of tea), but the fact that twice as many people visit Disneyland Paris – 14.5 million in 2007 – as visit the Eiffel Tower says something. Nearer Paris, Parc Astérix is a fractionally quieter, home-grown alternative to the American theme park.
Return to beginning of chapter
INFORMATION
In Paris visit a tourist office Click here or the Espace du Tourisme d’Île de France (Map; 01 44 50 19 98; www.pidf.com; Galerie du Carrousel du Louvre; 99 rue de Rivoli, 1er; 10am-6pm; Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre).
Gem up on exactly where you’re going with IGN’s Île de France (1:25,000; €5.20) or its more compact Paris et Ses Environs (1:100,000; €3.90), sold at book and map shops Click here.
Return to beginning of chapter
ORGANISED TOURS
Pressed for time or don’t want to do it alone? Hop on an air-conditioned coach:
Cityrama (Map; 01 44 55 61 00; www.pariscityrama.com; 2 rue des Pyramides, 1er; Tuileries) Half-day trips to Versailles (€45 to €62) or Chartres (€56); day trips combining Reims and Champagne vineyards (€147), Versailles apartments with Chartres (€99) or Fontainebleau (€105), and Giverny with Auvers-sur-Oise (€109).
Paris Vision (Map; 01 42 60 30 01; www.parisvision.com; 214 rue de Rivoli, 1er, Tuileries) Half-/day trips to Versailles or Giverny (€42/102 to €116), or Giverny and Versailles combined (€64/119). Many more including Champagne (€162), Disneyland (€79) and Astérix (€64). Coaches depart from its rue de Rivoli branch.
* * *
DAY TRIP PLANNER
In true French fashion, even the biggest of sights shut one day a week. Note the following when planning your week:
Monday – Château de Versailles (right), Auvers-sur-Oise’s van Gogh sights Click here and Monet’s house in Giverny all shut.
Tuesday – Château de Fontainebleau and Château d’Auvers both shut.
* * *
Return to beginning of chapter
VERSAILLES
Seven hundred rooms, 67 staircases, 352 chimneys, 2153 windows, 6300 paintings, 2100 sculptures and statues, 15,000 engravings, 5000 decorative art objects and furnishings, 4.7 million chateau visitors annually: no wonder visiting France’s most famous, grandest palace can be overwhelming. Six days a week (the chateau is shut Monday) tourist madness consumes the prosperous, leafy and bourgeois suburb of Versailles (population