Preparation – Poissy
Tuesday, July 05, 2016
Poissy.
Why not?
Hôtel Ibis Poissy is adjacent to the RER at €83.
Apart Hôtel is a mere €46, but might be long-term.
Orgeval sports a B&B but is about Kim from the RER
Saint Germaine-en-Laye sports a Hôtel Campanile just over a Km from the RER.
My trip becomes 3,327 at €83 and 2,624 at €46.
Eight restaurants stretch along the “old town” streets from Le Riad to past La Romantica.
The air fare cannot be changed. Transit is negligible. If any savings are to be made, it is in meals. A cheaper stay this year means Spain for sure next year.
Here is a schematic plan of the RER line “A”. The Poissy spur is at the left. Trains from Cergy, Poissy and Saint Germaine converge at Nanterre and then split out again at Vincennes. Now you see why the RER is important for people in Paris; it provides an unbelievably frequent cross-town service in the heart of the city. It has been written that passengers are used to seeing the next train arrive at the platform while the previous train is exiting the platform at the other end, but even I think this is hyperbole!
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And here is a list of bus routes that centre on or pass through Poissy. A veritable feast of destinations, each with a Boulanger, a café, a restaurant, a park, flowers, trees, people, ...
Wednesday, July 06, 2016
And if Poissy is seen as too built-up, what about Tournan? From Tournan I could drop in to Coulommiers.
Or Mennecy-Corbeil? From Corbeil I could drop in to Melun.
All of which shows me that I haven’t settled on the purpose of my visit. Is the core to be just sitting around in one place all day, most days, drinking coffee and reading? Or am I really more interested in exploring other places? Perhaps my ideal is to stay in one town, same place for breakfast and supper, but spend the day visiting some other nearby town?
Saturday, July 09, 2016
I must relax. I inspected rates for Appart’Hotel Poissy, and will book three nights (arrive 7th depart 10th) which with WiFi comes to €162. If the place works for me I can extend to three weeks. Or I can use day 2 to find a better place in Poissy. Or elsewhere. FOR WHAT IT IS WORTH this brings my anticipated fixed costs down to $3,284.
Poissy has a Tourist Office by the station, so I can drop in there and ask about a B&B or similar, or cheaper option.
Poissy has 30 bus lines which include express buses and buses to sweet MAULE !
Here is a Christopher Greaves dépliant gares routières poissy_16122015_bat.pdf for the bus stations – Nord and Sud. Switching between lines that are served by Nord/Sud could add five minutes to the transfer time.
And here is my summary table for the bus stations – Nord and Sud. Switching between lines that are served by Nord/Sud could add five minutes to the transfer time.
Express “4”
Poissy Gare Nord (AJ) Plairis Gare de Plairis Grignon (N) Montigny-le-Bretonneux Gare Paul Delouvrier (UNC)
The full timetables are labeled with a prefix f(iche)h(oraire)nn where nn is the line number, for example fh04 web cso ete2016 .
The top-right corner says “every 30 minutes in peak hour, 60 minutes off-peak”. The route runs from Poissy to Montigny-le-Bretonneux (in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines).
Mon-Fri runs from Poissy between 05:30 and 21:00. Takes an hour to get to St Quentin en Yvelines. Saturdays 06:00 to 21:05. No service on Sundays.
The strip map shows 25 stops. The route shows stops in clusters – seven in Poissy, then five in Feucherolles, eleven in Plairis and one in St Quentin en Yvelines. In short, the bus IS an express between towns, but has many stops in each town.
RER at both ends; Train in Plairis Grignon; nineteen stops that connect to numerous bus routes.
Line “A2”
Poissy – Achères-Ville 05:38 to 21:15, it has a table for weekdays (“Jours de fonctionnement”?) and Samedi (“Jours de fonctionnement”?) but then adds “Ne circule pas Samedi, Dimanche et Jours fériés”.
Every 15 minutes in peak hour, 30 minutes off-peak. The route runs from Poissy to Montigny-le-Bretonneux (in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines).
This is a little shuttle route between Poissy and the industrial town of Achères, fifteen minutes end-to-end.
Connects to (AL)
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Bonus! I have two Michelin maps, and now because Poissy is so close to Paris, the finer detailed map comes into play. It has been fun this morning plotting the bus routes in fine detail.
Less than two months to go. Studying the bus routes makes me impatient to be there. As usual I AM there, in the café, on the bus, walking through Maule. Only time is holding me back. And the time will go in a flash.
Eight weeks today will be the day before Monday, the day I assemble all my stuff on the bed and check that it fits into my travel bag. Tuesday I sit and mope all day until I can reasonably trot off to the airport.
And before that happens, the checklist – convert cash to Euros, refresh my netbook uploading macro skills, check CATA limitations on baggage contents, Stall Toronto Public Library holds, ...
I shall set a Google Alert for “Poissy”.
Friday, July 15, 2016
A thought strikes me – I should factor in tips. For coffees and meals. I recall that it seems a good idea to leave a tip for chambermaids and the like.
Also I have marked my calendar to re-activate outstanding holds during my last week in the Ilê de France.
Monday, July 18, 2016
Things to look for before/on arrival:-
(1) Libraries
(2) Second-hand bookshops
(3) Markets
This trip will differ from the last; I can shuttle money on a daily basis from my on-line savings account to my travel card; there is no need to take $4,000 in Euros.
Thursday, July 21, 2016
A thought: My flight back is from CDG at 11:00 a.m. That suggests getting to the airport by 9:00 a.m. at the very latest. 8:00 would be better. Might be a bit of a rush.
Is this, perhaps, a reason/excuse to spend the last night, or two, in Paris city, maybe Quatier Bercy?
Saturday, July 30, 2016
In 2014 I travelled each day from Paris to a town, and occasionally took a local bus for a tour of the town. In 2015 I travelled to towns in Ontario and tried to ride every bus route in the town!
In 2016 I will be based in Poissy, and will have enough time to ride most of the 30 bus routes that service Poissy.
In a strange way, my experience in 2015 in towns of Southern Ontario has prepared me for Poissy in 2016.
Monday, August 01, 2016
Another difference on this trip – I will feel more inclined to bring back the odd souvenirs.
Monday, August 08, 2016
I am working my way through my checklist. A small box receives sundry items – my money-belt, passports, maps and so on. The question of taking Euros with me arises.
I have €83.25 in notes and coin. That is sufficient for small expenses at the airport, but I have no need for things at the airport except my Navigo 5-zone one-month card.
My budget estimates €50 per day for meals and incidentals. For 20 days that comes to €1,000. I expect to be able to use my new credit card to w/d cash, but I suppose that that might be a problem. I straddle the fence and decide to take with me €500 in banknotes – I took more than that last time – and see what happens. If all else fails I shall fall back on using my old credit card for payments and pay down that balance on a weekly basis.
On my first day I plan to buy my Navigo Pass, make my way to a FNAC store to buy an adapter, buy myself a decent steak frites or similar that first night. It would be fine to collect local maps in Poissy to study that night in the hotel. There is a FNAC in Chambourcy
On my last trip I set aside the €50 for the day in my pocket, and loaded any balance into an envelope.
Saturday, August 13, 2016
The bill for my three nights in Hotel’Appart came in this week; $237.60. Say $80/night. That is OK, providing that there are no Hidden Charges (but see also Telus!)
Friday, August 19, 2016
I have my first Frisson Of Fear about the trip – will I be ready in time? It’s mainly about the new shoes, I know. The way to deal with this fear is to implement at least one item from my \\AT\T\Greaves\Admin\Domains\Tripping\Europe\Poissy\Checklist.doc each day. Eighteen days to go.
I ordered vegetarian meals yesterday, and today bought €350 which cost me 528.73, roughly $1.50 per €. The Navigo is therefore about $105. I printed out almost 20 maps of buses around Poissy.
Monday, August 29, 2016
A quick check with the bank tells me that it costs $3 to w/d Euros-cash with my debit card in France, but 2.5% and then some to draw cash off my MC.
So the trick is to transfer money into the BMO chequing account a few days ahead of need, then draw cash as needed.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
This time next week I’ll be there! I have rewritten my web-page compilation program code in Open Office; today I’ll take a few photos as I walk to the Yorkville Public Library and then have a full-trial run of creating and uploading a web page.