One of several train stations serving the town of Versailles. Coming from Paris, I took the L line…read morefrom Gare Saint Lazare (leaves about once every 20 min, make sure it's the specific L line that ends at Versailles Rive Droite and not some other destination) and this is the last stop.* The station itself isn't that large, just a simple couple rooms and an outdoor train platform. There is a bus stop directly outside the station. Take bus #s 1, 3 or 4 to bring you closer to the palace area of Versailles, or you can take a ~17 min leisurely walk to see a bit of the town before hitting up the main attractions. *Total time takes about 40 minutes and you need to purchase a one-way or round trip zone 1-5 ticket, OR do an unlimited Mobilis one-day ticket for zones 1-5. If you do the train tickets only, and want to take the bus once you get to Versailles, then you need to purchase bus tickets for within 1 zone separately. Would suggest to buy all these in advance at your train station of origin to avoid having to figure it out later.

This review is for the air show...what a chaos. Every time I come to Paris air show and miss…read moreFarnborough or Singapore air show. French invented inconvenience and chaos. The joy of RER ride and only two people working at station to collect 2 euros....huge bottleneck. Parking is very easy and some area are shaded. W Security is a joke (one x-ray machine working per gate!?)...everyone has to go through groping, I hear a lot of Europeans complain about the TSA in America but I guess if everyone gets groped they are okay!? Ticket scanning is easy and ladies working there are oh so professionally dressed (but not all of them are nice...) The display...it's not as cool as used to be, where are the Russians and Chinese!? I wanna see our foes displaying their latest and baddest. Gift shops are everywhere at the show, but each has different stock and if you see what you want just grab quickly. Also what's up with low quality junk that they sell for so much of money!? Despite all the negatives I mentioned, show will go on, it's about French pride and tradition continues...

Paris Air Show! Okay, this is one of the most historic and traditionally important shows in the…read moreworld. Here the top companies in the aerospace and defense industry exhibit to show their stuff. I have been coming here since 1086 and my main question is why do they have to make our lives so hard? a. Entry 1 star - We are here for weeks and have all the right passes for car and personnel. Every day they change the roads in, the rules and who can go where. It is organization at it's most oddest way. b. Traffic Police - 1 star - Being a huge show, and tons of traffic, the police are out in force and guess what, they do not actually help the flow, but hinder it. I am not sure what they are doing here, but I think it has the opposite affect. c. The show - 2 star - Normally a great show, but will the budget cuts, the air display this year was very poor. d. The people - Over the years, in my book the parisians have gone from the most difficult to one of the most accommodating people to work and to encounter. Very odd indeed. e. The noise - This is an air display show. However, the noise is TREMENDOUS. Cannot even speak when a fighter jet is roaring 150 feet above you. Great show, traditional and great stuff to see. GK says always come to the Paris Air Show, but be careful of so many things.

This train station in Paris, France is one of the seven large mainline railway station terminals…read more Several railway lines have been immortalized in various works of art notably paintings by Monet at the Musee d'Orsay. It is the second busiest train station in Paris after Gare du Nord, handling 100 million passengers a year. The station is quite large so it took me a while to walk from one end to the other to catch my train. This train station makes it easy to get to Giverny to visit the Monet house and garden. It took about 40 minutes. I'm so impressed by the mass transit in France and Europe.

On my last trip out to Paris for the Olympic summer games, I came through this train station…read moreseveral times. In addition to catching the RER E train, there were multi-levels of shops and stores of various types. The McDonald's here tends to be very busy, I would go to the smaller one just across Rue Saint-Lazare. If I needed any snacks or drinks, I went to the Carrefour City which has very decent prices.

So, this part of the city felt rather dodgy, but then again it does happen to be around the Gare du…read moreNord, and that part of the city certainly seems to be sketchy. However, it is Paris, and I suspect it has more to do with all of the tourists that land up around here, especially since it is just down the hill from Montmarte. Yeah, it turned out to be rather okay.

Average metro station. If you take the OrlyBus, you end here when coming from Orly Airport.read more

Okay, once again this is another unique Parisian station, this one having a bunch of signatures on…read morethe ceiling, which certainly makes it stand out. Honestly, I do wish a lot more places would add nice decorations like this on their stations, but then again they do, and it ends up costing so much more.

Not a review for/on France's metro system…read more This is a station in progress. The signage is in calligraphy style verses traditional subway mosaic. There is mosaic of "flowers/leafs" in progress. Plus mosaic signatures, of who, I don't know. It's a station that I should look into if I had more time in Paris. The signage is good. Love that the 1st and 2nd train etas are posted...common practice in metro stations. The announcements can be tricky for a non-French speaker like me but here's a tip.....just nod and react as the locals do. If they get off the train you should follow.