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Post by btrflyrfree on Jul 5, 2009 7:24:45 GMT -5
Gitte, I'm thinking of doing this day trip instead of visiting museum. My first trip to Paris in Sept. staying in the 8th not far from St Lazare station, but only one train leaves at 7:10 for Vernon. did I understand your post correctly, I can take the metro?  Thanks shoesy for the wonderful pixs. |
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Post by GitteK on Jul 5, 2009 8:12:22 GMT -5
What's wrong with 7:10 ? (or 7:20 as it says on the SNCF website).
It means you will get there early and have the place to yourself. Then you can have lunch in the village (I suppose they serve other things than hotdogs !) - and you will be back in Paris before pre-apéritif-apéritif time !!
(I can't understand the train arrivals they write in the shuttlebus schedule ? If you check SNCF the only morning trains going to Vernon from Gare St.Lazare are at 6:11, 7:20 and 11:10).
No, I think you are way out of metro reach here. The train ride from Gare St.L. is 1 hour - so that is perhaps 70-80 kilometers from Paris.
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Post by Jody on Jul 5, 2009 9:22:56 GMT -5
You can take the metro to the Gare St Lazare station, then use the exit SNCF= Grandes Lignes exit to get to the train station
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Post by PariS on Jul 5, 2009 9:29:38 GMT -5
Another truly lovely post, Shoesy! Giverny has been on my list, but it just moved up a few notches  |
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Post by btrflyrfree on Jul 5, 2009 11:34:48 GMT -5
Thanks Gitte & Jody,:
I get it now, take the Metro to Gare St Lazare, train to Vernon and no 7:20 is not too early.
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Post by jazzcat on Jul 5, 2009 13:43:58 GMT -5
Shoesy, What a nice report on Monet's garden and your pictures are beautiful. The doggy and kitty are very cute even with their heads turned. It is impossible to take a bad photo there. In my opinion everyone should see these gardens at least once. You do disappoint me with the GPS. Half the fun of traveling by car anywhere is reading a road map and inevitably getting lost a few times. You never know what lies around the corner. A GPS will never put you on the road less traveled  |
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Post by Shoesy on Jul 5, 2009 14:27:44 GMT -5
Jazzcat - Our GPS didn't always work for us (Shlomo's fault  ) so there were times that we also had to follow maps.  |
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Post by PariS on Jul 5, 2009 14:39:53 GMT -5
Jazzcat, did you read my post about GPS? If we didn't have it, divorce court would have been around our corner! In all fairness tho, you can set the GPS to exclude routes on the major highways. |
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Post by Jody on Jul 5, 2009 15:07:40 GMT -5
You do disappoint me with the GPS. Half the fun of traveling by car anywhere is reading a road map and inevitably getting lost a few times. You never know what lies around the corner. I have to agree here. I love getting lost. I do have a rather good sense of direction so am a darn good navigator. I just keep heading toward a town I know is on the way. We had a GPS in the last car we rented but couldn't figure out how to change the language. |
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Post by Shoesy on Jul 5, 2009 15:44:43 GMT -5
We didn't get lost, but we did have another problem while we were driving from Bayeux to our chateau. We needed to fill up on gas so we kept our eyes open for a sign that indicated that there was a gas station off the highway. No big deal, right? Wrong !!! We drove and drove and drove, but still no sign.  Then, Shlomo, who was starting to feel rather stressed by the situation, decided it best to exit off the highway, enter the next town we came to and then drive around 'till he found a gas station. It wasn't easy to find one so he had to ask someone for assistance, and that man explained where to go. Imagine Shlomo's relief when he finally found a station....... but it turned out to be self-service, and it wouldn't take our credit card !  More stress. Then we went to a small hotel, where someone finally directed us to a station that had full service, and our problem was solved.  Lesson learned: never let your gas tank get too low. |
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Post by sunshine817 on Jul 5, 2009 16:17:42 GMT -5
Ladies, if you think a GPS means you'll never get lost, you are giving the entire concept of GPS wayyyy too much credit!
A GPS can get you lost, just as well as reading a map. A recent trip to visit friends near Cergy resulted in literally driving in circles in a housing estate, as the GPS didn't believe that the roads had been barricaded with huge flower pots. We ended up having to phone our friends to come and lead us back to their house.
Between cities, we look at the route the GPS selects, then WE decide if that's the route we want to take - with an old-fashioned paper map. Sometimes the GPS is the route we want, once in a while it's not -- you can program in a waypoint or a "via" point, to make it take you the way you want.
On big intersections, where two or more motorways come together, it's fantastic -- it will say something like "in 800 metres, exit right, then keep left" -- so it tells you which lane to get in -- fantastic for those difficult interchanges where things are going all directions.
IN cities, you can have my GPS when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers -- it leaves your attention on the road where it belongs, so you can drive safely, and the GPS will take you to your destination 97% of the time (hey, I'm the navigator on the paper system, and 97% is success!)
Obviously, it's up to you to pay attention to the road, traffic, and conditions, and change your mind if need be, but the GPS is a valuable aid to navigation...not a failsafe alternative.
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Post by jazzcat on Jul 6, 2009 18:32:39 GMT -5
Shoesy, How right you are about the gas stations. The self serve stations will not take American Credit Cards and it is hard to find one with an attendant. The best thing to do is ask like you did and some of them have attendants only at certain times during the day
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Post by GitteK on Jul 7, 2009 3:51:15 GMT -5
You do disappoint me with the GPS. Half the fun of traveling by car anywhere is reading a road map and inevitably getting lost a few times. You never know what lies around the corner. A GPS will never put you on the road less traveled Jazzcat, an exalt comes to you for this (and for that exquisite feline avatar) !! I am also an old-fashioned map-girl. Cm'on, choo choo you are just too much of a convenience tourist ! GPS is like having your steak-frites mashed and fed to you up the nose through a plastic tube........ metaphorically spoken.  |
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Post by sunshine817 on Jul 7, 2009 5:58:03 GMT -5
Gitte, I wouldn't choose to travel the way you do -- and that's okay, because it's the way YOU like to travel.
Might it be possible to allow others to travel the way WE like to travel, without opining that we're miserable detritus because it's not the way you choose?
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Post by GitteK on Jul 7, 2009 6:18:03 GMT -5
Sunshine, I certainly never intended to imply anything about you ? Sorry, if that's what you thought. I was just teasing my friend Shoesy.
And I was simply expressing my personal opinion about GPS -which I do intend to maintain. I have of course removed the nationality reference - as this might be misunderstood and taken too seriously. This is not a question of where people come from, but of a general tendency in our modern lives; i.e. that we get used to having things "minced and chewed" for us and any obstacle removed from our path. I don't think that is one bit wholesome.
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Post by jazzcat on Jul 7, 2009 6:20:04 GMT -5
Gitte, Thanks for the exault. The "exquisite feline avatar" is my late cat Jasper better known as the Jazz Cat |
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Post by sunshine817 on Jul 7, 2009 6:37:13 GMT -5
As I said -- it's okay that you travel the way you like to -- you also tend to travel on foot in Paris, without travel companions.
We venture around Paris on foot, too -- but we also navigate lots of other places all across Europe.
My holidays (indeed my LIFE) is not made better by having arguments because the map says one thing, but the detour ahead of me says something completely different (happened)....or the sign pointing out a new roundabout that has been built since the map I just bought yesterday was printed (yes, that's happened, too)
As I mentioned in my post above, we use both paper maps AND our GPS...dpending on what we are doing that day. Relying on a GPS 100% is not advisable, for scores of reasons.
It would just be awfully nice to be able to make choices for me and my family on our vacation without having someone deride those choices as being too soft, too forcefed, too American (because that's been mentioned several times, even if it disappears later) -- it's why you'll never see a trip report from me -- there would be entirely too much negative reflection on things that WE chose to do as a family, because it was what WE wanted to do.
Thank you, though, for softening your response.
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Post by GitteK on Jul 7, 2009 6:41:55 GMT -5
Wanna hear a secret ? I gave my babyboy a Garmin GPS for his 22 years birthday, so that he won't get lost from his mommy out there in the wild, bushy, Danish outback. ;D It works like a dream...... STILL ..........as a principle, I am a through-and-through map-girl. |
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Post by Shoesy on Jul 7, 2009 7:10:38 GMT -5
Just thought I'd share something with you regarding our GPS. When Shlomo first got it, he had to select either a male or female voice. After making his selection, he asked me which one I thought he'd chosen. When I told him that I had no idea  , he replied: "Male, of course. Do you really think I'd take orders from a woman?" Let me tell you.....that did not score him any points that day. ;D  |
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Post by Megan on Jul 7, 2009 7:45:33 GMT -5
That is so funny Shoesy - I thought I was the only one. When I got mine it was quite a posh Englishman telling me what to do and it drove me mad so I changed it to a woman which i had no problem with, I then had a friend change it to an Australian Male and I used to get so angry with it - I actually had to stop on the motorway because I could not handle being told what to do by an Australian male ( forgetting that it was a machine). I noe have it on Irishman Tom and I think i have developed a crush on him - his voice and accent is so lovely . ha ha ha - I am going mad ;D
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Thanks shoesy for the wonderful pixs.
) so there were times that we also had to follow maps. 
Then, Shlomo, who was starting to feel rather stressed by the situation, decided it best to exit off the highway, enter the next town we came to and then drive around 'till he found a gas station. It wasn't easy to find one so he had to ask someone for assistance, and that man explained where to go. Imagine Shlomo's relief when he finally found a station....... but it turned out to be self-service, and it wouldn't take our credit card ! 
More stress. Then we went to a small hotel, where someone finally directed us to a station that had full service, and our problem was solved. 
Lesson learned: never let your gas tank get too low. 
, he replied: "Male, of course. Do you really think I'd take orders from a woman?" Let me tell you.....that did not score him any points that day. 
hahahha