musings on the first trip to mainland Europe (gay Paris!)

After a few vacations to the UK (Northern Ireland twice and Wales) plus some trips in Ireland it was finally time to trek across the sea (Irish) to mainland Europe. 

Lessons learned from our first trip

1)  ultra cheap fares $15 -30 , a myth

•  This is mostly a myth. Prices are usually reflective of one way. Not on weekends. Not to the airport in town but a satellite airport (think flying to Salem to visit Portland)
• And then there are the fees- $5 per seat to be able to sit with your family , transport from that far away airport $130 from Beauvais airport to Paris ... and of course don't check bags, make sure you web check in (check in at the airport costs), etc...
• But not to be negative, fares are actually still pretty good. 
• We flew the whole family to Paris for $600 , even with above extras still ended up being less than $180 per person.

2) home/apartment rentals are the bomb

• We had a 2 bedroom (3 bed) apartment in the 5th arrondissement in Paris for $120 a night. We were able to walk to the street corner to the local boulangerie and grab fresh baguettes, quiche lorraine, croissants, etc... This made for great breakfast every day and some grab and go snacks to take on our day trips

3) The metro rocks

• The Paris metro is extensive. The trains go everywhere . The wait for the next train always seems to be less than 5 minutes. Last but not least very affordable. $1.70 to cross the city.
• To compare to dublin , trains can be 5 to  30 minutes, fares are $2.60 for similar distance.

4) Expensive food

• The Boulangerie is affordable, less than $1 for a baguette. The restaurants not so much. Most meals $60-70 for the 4 of us. It is not like we were deliberately choosing the high end restaurants. Dublin is expensive for eating out so I was a little surprised that Paris was significantly higher.

5) Walking

• Surprisingly the kids never complained about walking too much. If the sights are interesting enough they actually seem to forget how much they are walking
• 2000 stairs plus traveled 
• also seemed to help them sleep soundly through the night

6) airport parking is cheaper and efficient

• $28 for 4 days in short term parking, it was $18 for long term parking but the short term was similar to economy parking in Portland so we went with the easy walk. 
• Prepay your parking online, then when you get there scanner reads your license plate and opens the gate, same on the way out easy

Rob