Low budget Paris in Three days

Paris has so much to offer to tourists . We we low on budget and time so had to do a lot of homework and planning .We already had a base to work on and were in fact building on the chronicled experiences of Indian people who had worked at CERN. Swamy is a notable name who had come up with a document, to which a lot of people had added relevent informations as it passed down to us. Arindam's expenditure sheet was also a lot of help. First we booked the train tickets at the SNCF office at St Genis Pouilly, and were lucky to get the lowest fare tickets each costing 22 Euro/ ticket. The hotel had alredy been identified as the Etaph hotel at Porte d'Orleans, that's what i mean by 'hotel' in my subsequent paragraphs. The rates are very competitive and rooms okay ( 55 Euro / Twin bedded room, there was a bunk bed for children). Follwing are the few necessary steps in that sequence for a trip to Paris when you have to cover most within 2-3 days stay.

1. First start by getting your Train / flight tickets to Paris you can get very cheap tickets from SNCF counters if you plan to travel during midweek around wednesdays, and come back on Sunday. Give sufficient time between tickets purchase and your travel date. Tickets are olso available on the SBB site at a cheaper rate ( hyperlink to SBB : http://www.sbb.ch/en/).
2. Once the ticket purchase is in place book the hotel. We boooked at Etaph hotel at Porte de orleans as most of pur indian friends stayed there. Spartan hotel but clean and very cheap. You can get access to a microwave oven to heat up your food ( ask at the reception of the hotel)

http://www.etaphotel.com/:

• At the Gare du lyon Buy the Museum Pass, it is value for money at the Tourist information Counter.

The Following Itinerary tries to cover the following must see sights:

• Louvre
• Chateau De Versailles
• Eiffel Tower
• Hotel Des Invalides.
• Arc De Triomphe
• Cathedral Notre Dam
• The Seine River Cruise
• Concorde

The other sights can be planned as per the time available and the interest of the person visiting Paris.

Itinerary for Day 1
From	To	Metro/RER	Direction	Remarks
Gare de Lyon	La Chatellet	M1	La Defence	4th Stop
La Chatellet	Porte d'Orleans	M4	Porte d'Orleans	Hotel
Porte d’Orleans	La Chatellet	M4	Porte de Clignancourt	To catch M1/M7
La Chatellet	Palais Royal	M1 / M7	Louvre	it was wednesday
Musee d'orsay	Tour Eiffel	RER C	Eiffel Tower/ river Cruise	Take the Night Cruise
Tour Eiffel	Bir Hakiem	-	Walk down	To catch M6
Bir Hakiem	Denfret Rochereau	M2	Nations	catch M4 to Porte d'Orleans

Itinerary for Day 2
From	To	Metro/RER	Direction	Remarks
Porte d’Orleans	St Michel	M4	Porte de Clignancourt	Visit Notre dame
Notre dame	Pantheon	walk	300 metre	Visit Le Pantheon
St Michel	Invalides	RER C	Versailles Rive St Quientin	Visit hotel des invalides
Invalides	Concorde	walk	cross the river	Visit Concorde
Concorde	Charles de Gaulle Etoile	M1	La Defence	Arc De Triomphe
Charles de Gaulle Etoile	Chatelet/ Porte d’Orleans	M1 /M4	Chateau de Vincennes /Porte d’Orleans	To hotel

If you have to catch a train the same day you can drop the luggage at Gare De lyon station luggage locker but it is a bit expensive for a day ( the rates are for 72 hrs).

Itinerary of Day 3
From	To	Metro/Rer no	Direction	Remarks
Porte d’Orleans	Gare Montparnasse/ Invalides	M4/M13	Chatelet/ St Denis- Univ	To catch RER for Versailles
Invalides	Versailles River gauche	RER c5	Versailles River gauche	Reach Versailles
Versailles River gauche	Invalides/Gare Montparnasse	RER c5/ M13	Nations	-
Gare Montparnasse	Porte d’Orleans	M4	Porte d’Orleans	Reach hotel

Entry Fees: Quick Reference tables
Place	Timings	Entry fee in Euro	Remarks
Opera Garnier	10:00 to 17:00	Free	View Structure
Hotel Des Invalides	10.00 to 17:45	8 -18yrs	Musee de Armee and Napoleons tomb
Eiffel Tower	9.30 to 22:00	7.8/ 11.5	View from the top
Musée du Louvre	09:00 to 18:00hrs till 21:45 hrs on Wed/ fri	8.5/6 18yrs	Of of the must see sights of Paris
Notre Dame de Paris	09:30 to 18:00hrs	5.5 / 4.5	See cathedral
Le Panthéon	10:00 to 17:30	7.5/ 4.8	Visit
Arc de Triomphe	9:30 to 2300	8 /5 €	nice View from the top
Château de Versailles	09:00 to 18:00	20 / 25 €	Visit the kings palace.

The Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles is one of the most visited monuments in France . Beginning in 1664, the construction of the chateau lasted virtually until Louis XIV's death in 1715. the Palace of Versailles was never meant to be a home as kings were not homely people. Second only to God and the head of a powerful state, Louis XIV was an institution. His activities were minutely regulated and encased in ceremony, attendance at each ceremony was an honour much sought after by courtiers. Versailles was the headquarters of every arm of the state.

Louis XIV built this chateau to escape the busy life in Paris and to keep the nobility under his control. He set up home here and installed the government. Louis Le Vau was commissioned to renovate and extend an old hunting lodge, Le Notre created the gardens from swamp land, and Mansart masterminded the hydraulic display of the fountains.

The Layout of the Chateau and the gardens :

After the death of Louis XlV, the chateau was abandoned for a few years. Then Louis XV moved in in 1722. It remained the residence of the royal family until the Revolution of 1789, and at this time the furniture was sold and the pictures dispatched to the Louvre. Thereafter it fell into ruin and was nearly demolished by Louis Philippe. And in 1871, during the Paris Commune, it became the seat of the nationalist government, and the French parliament continued to meet in Louis XV's opera building until 1879. The restoration only began between the two world wars.
The many buildings attached to the chateau form a small town. The whole complex is a magnificent monument. The garden facade is 575 meters long with various annexes . The park is several kilometers in both length and breadth. The park shows the skill of Le Notre in making good use of the natural resources on the site.

The Chateau proposes two itineraries either a guided tour or not. Apart from the state apartments of the king and queen and the Galerie des Glaces (the Hall of Mirrors, where the Treaty of Versailles was signed to end World War I), which one can visit on his own, most of the palace can only be viewed in guided groups, and whose times are much more restricted. Long queues are common. Unfortunately, only a small part of the palace can be visited : the State Apartments of the King and Queen, and the Hall of Mirrors.

The worst time to visit the Chateau is on Sunday when the entrance fee is reduced and the queues are equivalently long. A guided tour for an extra twenty-four francs takes you in the King's Private Bedroom, the Royal Opera, and the rooms occupied by Madame du Barry. And, for a little more you can visit the pavilions of the Grand and Petit Trianons. Don't set out to see all the palace in one day - it's not possible. Quite apart from the size, tours of both Mme du Barry's apartments and of the Dauphin and Dauphine's apartments take place at 2 pm. If you just feel like taking a stroll, the park is free (Sunday 20 FF) and the scenery is better the further you go from the palace. There are even informal groups of trees near the lesser outcrops of royal mania : the Italianate Grand Trianon, designed by Hardouin-Mansart in 1687 as a "country retreat" for Louis XIV, and the more modest Greek Petit Trianon, built by Gabriel in the 1760s.More charming and rustic than either of these is Le hameau de Marie-Antoinette, a play-village and farm built in 1783 for Louis XVI's queen to indulge the fashionable Rousseau-inspired fantasy of returning to the natural life.

The park is extremely large which is difficult to manage by foot, a small train shuttles between the terrace in front of the château and the Trianons. More charming and rustic than either of these is Le hameau de Marie-Antoinette, a play-village and farm built in 1783 for Louis XVI's queen to indulge the fashionable Rousseau-inspired fantasy of returning to the natural life. There are also bicycles for rent by the Grand Canal