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Normandy, Brittany, Paris, etc. tour September 19, 2014
My husband and I will be talking this tour that begins in Versailles on September 19, 2014, and we wondered who might be traveling with us. We are planning to arrive a day early to see Versailles and stay an extra day in Paris at the end of the trip. This will be our 4th trip with Tauck, but the first one to Europe. We're really looking forward to it.
Nancy and John Goble
Dallas, Texas
Nancy and John Goble
Dallas, Texas
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My husband and I will be on this tour too! This will be our 5th trip with Tauck. Looking forward to meeting you!
Deb and Dick Best
Will you and Dick be arriving a day early? If so, we could maybe meet that evening for dinner or do some sightseeing the next day. I want to get tickets to Versailles (online) that include the royal apartments and see that on the 19th. My email is nancygoble@icloud.com. Please contact me and we can talk more.
Nancy
Hi there! My husband and I just returned from this wonderful Normandy, Brittany++ tour on Sept. 5, 2014. I saw your post about Versailles and wanted to offer suggestions. We purchased a pre-tour day--one day early through Tauck. Tour officially began Sunday, but we arrived Saturday morning from CDG airport, standing in the hotel lobby by 7:00AM.
In our experience, in order to truly enjoy visiting the Versailles Palace (Chateau) and complex, requires the 2-day passport and plenty of energy. We are no slackers in making the best of our travel vacations and seeing as much as we can on free time. But please believe me when I say that in order to truly experience all there is to see at this UNESCO World Heritage site at Versailles Palace, The Grand Trianon, the Canal, the 11 fountains and concerts, extensive Palace maze-like gardens, Marie Antoinette Estate and her village takes the better part of two days. The entire complex grounds cover about 2,000 acres. Plan to be on your feet, standing or walking, at least 5 – 6 hours each day to cover the best parts of the palace, royal gardens and landscapes of the complex, which alone is about 230 acres, I believe we were told. There is a little Disney World type of train-trolly that crosses the Versailles complex (Palace to Canal to Grand Trianon to Antoinette Estate) for 4 Euro per person one way. Definitely not a drive-by…a 2-hour walk-about is only the tip of the iceberg of perhaps just getting inside the Palace chateau. It is a very memorable experience that requires a little time to savor and to take in the over-the-top eye-candy surrounding you. Perhaps wear very comfortable hiking boots!
Though not meaning to sound ungrateful, as seeing any of it is a privilege, however, had we initially understood the Versailles Palace all-access-tickets for Tauck guests, made available at Hotel Concierge were the 2-day Passport, we could have better paced our Versailles complex visit and begin it partially early on Saturday. It’s a main reason we traveled a day early. We walked in through the Queen’s Gate entrance of the Versailles park grounds, however, immediately outside our tour hotel entrance, around 9:30AM Sunday morning and strolled along the beautiful landscaped gardens and grounds toward the Palace Main Gate, where we found a terrifying expanse of a line of tourists waiting for entrance to the actual Palace --on their pre-purchased full access tickets. (We’re told at that point the line was 90 minutes wait to enter) and then asked a very helpful palace information staff member stationed at the Main Palace Gate where to buy the individual add-on private group tour of the King’s apartments, etc. For 7 Euro per person, purchased on the spot, we were on a guided group tour with “whisper” headsets within 20 minutes, inside the Palace private apartments. These small group English-speaking tours might run every 45 minutes as I recall, and we arrived at the private tour counter at 10:40 AM, purchased the add-on tickets, and were on this 90 minutes guided tour at 11:15 with about 20 other people. We were accommodated for the brief wait in a comfortable waiting room with public toilette facilities, across from the Main Palace Gate. Check the Versailles website for more specific prices, times, or special exhibitions on the grounds.
It might be a good idea to ask very specifically of the hotel Concierge, what ticket they will be providing to you from the Concierge desk, (the Reception Desk seemed to know very little) and ask what the ticket covers explicitly. Take your time asking questions, and I wouldn’t assume what you are receiving is what you wanted or expected. Unless you speak fluent French, the communication from hotel staff sometimes seemed scripted, and if you ask questions in English outside of their scripted info, then things can become confusing for both the French hotel staff and for the English speaking guest. Even if you purchase the additional day for Versailles Palace through the hotel Concierge, for a couple of Euros more than at the Palace gate, you may be saving yourself a 90 minute wait in line in front of the Palace.
When we inquired earlier on our arrival day, the hotel staff were not clear on informing us they had the 2-day, rather than one-day ticket for us. We went back to Concierge mid-afternoon on our arrival day, after settling in to the room and freshening up, to pick up our Versailles tickets, which we thought was only to be used on Sunday (tour start date), and only then learned that the tickets the hotel had for us were the 2-day Passport. Fabulous, but too late in the day then on Saturday though, to enjoy getting started on a trek across these very expansive grounds and facilities (being in serious jet lag by 3:00 PM Saturday). I would also note to ask specifically at the hotel for the Tauck guest salon or courtesy refreshment room somewhere in the main hallway inside the hotel, if you arrive early AM on a pre-tour day, which has light breakfast buffet, coffee, refreshments, etc., courtesy of Tauck, especially if you are waiting for your room to be made ready. The hotel staff did not offer up this information to us at the Front Reception or at the Concierge desk at 7:00 AM on Saturday, and we did not know it was available, having never been on a Tauck tour or in this hotel before, and, therefore, we sat awkwardly and uncomfortably in the hotel grand hallway for several hours waiting for our room to be ready, after an 7.5 hour trans-Atlantic red-eye and with no freshen-up opportunity, and with hotel staff at the front desk kindly trying to direct us to their 30 Euro per person breakfast restaurant, instead of the available Tauck courtesy refreshment room. We later learned there was some confusion on Versailles tickets through the hotel upon our pre-day arrival and should only have expected one-day Versailles tickets. C'est la vie!
Nevertheless, it is an outstanding tour overall. Hope you enjoy the tour Sept. 19 as much as we did. Everything else ran like clockwork.
Regards, Ginny