Montparnasse Tower

Hi all,

I will be visiting Paris again. I want to do some things that I have put off while on previous visits. Any feedback on the following excursions would be helpful:

1) Montparnasse Tower - I heard the views are more spectacular than views from the Eiffel Tower

2) Fontainebleau - Is getting there too complicated?

3) Cruise on the St. Martin Canal - Worthwile?

Thanks!

neecigirl

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Tour Montparnasse - not nearly as well-known as the Eiffel Tower; a view of Paris from 209 meters height (Eiffel Tower: 276 m, total height 324 m).

I%26#39;ve been there on numerous occasions, but never felt the urge to climb it....

http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/

http://www.tourmontparnasse56.com/

Cruise on Canal Saint-Martin: depending on the season, well worth trying. Much nicer in spring or summer (lots of trees around the canal)

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There is a restaurant on top of Tour Montparnasse. A good way to enjoy the views!

Fontainebleau is great but I think you need a car to go there (at least I drove!).

Canal St Martin is an interesting area of Paris. I prefer to stroll alongside it. Did not care about the cruise.

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There%26#39;s an old joke that the best view in Paris is from Montparnasse Tower -- because it%26#39;s the only place in Paris where you can%26#39;t see Montparnasse Tower.

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Tour M. is fabulous.

Fontainebleau is quite easy - I think it was a %26#39;regular%26#39; train (SNCF) not the RER but I could be remembering wrongly. At the train station in Fontainebleau, go out front and wait for the bus to Chateau - get off right in front of the Chateau. Catch the bus to go back to the train at the same stop. The town is also very nice to stroll for a couple of hours...

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It is SNCF to Fontaine... It is a wonderful tour. We took a row boat tour around the lake!

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Fountainbleau is about 45 minutes from the Gare de Lyon by train. You can take the bus, or rent bikes for the day.

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Not sure if you can get a ticket to Fontainebleau, per say. It is in the town of Avon. It%26#39;s easy enough to get to and quite direct from Paris as said. You can even walk from the rr station to the town and chateau though maybe over a mile. Avon will give you a sense of a typical French town too.

The chateau is beautiful and surrounded by wonderful parks and grounds. I put it up along side Versailles..........Napoleon said farewell to his troops there and the wonderfully furnished rooms from his time give a great sense of history. Tis very beautiful!

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Easy to go to Fontainebleau, i did it several times : from Gare de Lyon to Fontainebleau-Avon it takes about 40 minutes and then in fron of the station you have a bu shuttle to the chateau (15 minutes to 20 minutes to the chateau, 1,40 euros). The chateau is very big, many rooms, very well decorated and furnished.

The Canal St Martin cruise is nice, i don%26#39;t know if they run during the winter, i would recommend it for the spring and summer as it is quite long, about three hours, i felt really impatient after a while, and the music on board during the commentary was a bit loud.

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We loved the St. Martin Canal tour it was one of our favorite things we did during our 3 weeks in Paris. We went in the summer and so it was very pleasant weather wise. The commentary was humorous and friendly. The experience of seeing the neighborhood was nice and the locks were fascinating. We took the morning tour and ended up at the Science and Industry Museum center/park which we went through on a different day. It was also worth the time. I was told that it is nice to walk through the neighborhood after the tour and stop at a cafe or two on the way back but we could not do that we had a proir engagement.

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My opinion may be a minority one, but I have been to the top of the Eiffel Tower and the Tour Montparnasse, and I thought the view from the Eiffel Tower was much more interesting. I think it%26#39;s because the Eiffel Tower is a little nearer to the older neighborhoods along the Seine, and that small difference in location makes for a much better view.