Let's go to Provence!
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Getting There
One of the big advantages of signing up for a trip is all the time and energy you save from having to do all that planning yourself. Although I've taken care of the details once you get there, you still will need to make decisions about which airline to choose, whether you want to fly directly to Paris or through another European city, adding an extension to your trip, and where to overnight the night before you fly home. It's all pretty simple, and here is some information to help you.
Most flights to Europe arrive in the early morning hours of the following day. Returning to the States, flights usually depart Europe in the late morning or early afternoon and arrive back in the US close to the same time of the same day. If you are not adding extra days onto this trip, you will need to depart the US for Europe on Wednesday, then plan to fly back home on Sunday, staying near the airport of departure the night before your flight home.
Airfares to Europe usually go up on June 1st and again on June 15th. If we can coordinate at least one leg of the journey to fall before either of these two dates, it will save you quite a bit. Even so, airfares will probably run around $1200 from Alaska and $800 from the West Coast, so if you're on a budget, this may be a good time to cash in those air miles you've been saving.
If your priority is missing as little work as possible, this trip only takes you away from your desk for eight workdays. However, midweek air travel is usually cheaper than weekends, so extending your trip by a couple days afterwards may work out to cost the same as flying home on a more expensive day.
I recommend that you fly via Paris or another European city directly into the Aix-Marseilles Airport (MRS), then return via the high-speed train (TGV) from Avignon back to Paris. That way you get the convenience of flying all the way down when you are tired, but get to try a different way of travel going back. There is a small airport in Avignon also, so you can fly back to Paris from there if you prefer. There are flights to Paris from every major city in Europe, so you can fly with any airline from the States that you wish, perhaps stopping-over in the city that you land in on the way. British Airways and Easyjet have flights from Gatwick or Paris into the Aix-Marseilles Airport (Marignane, MRS), and Air France and bmi just from Paris (CDG). I usually fly Northwest/KLM from Seattle to Amsterdam, then KLM (which you book through Northwest) on to the Aix-Marseilles Airport.
| Paris has two airports: Charles de
Gaule (CDG) and Orly(ORL). If you are flying into Paris, choosing the
CDG airport is a great idea since there is a TGV (high-speed train)
station located adjacent to the airport. There are also good hotels right
near the
CDG airport with
different price ranges, restaurants, and a free shuttle. I'm happy to help you decide which method of getting there would be the best for you. I'm also familiar with places to stay near the Charles de Gaulle (CDG) Airport in Paris, the Gatwick (LDG) Airport in London, and the Marignane (MRS) Airport near Aix and Marseilles. Helpful phone numbers: Northwest Airlines 1-800/225-2525 (has a nice non-stop from Seattle to Amsterdam, connecting to a NW/KLM flight to Paris; also has nonstops to London) British Airways 1-800/247-9297 (great if you want to stopover in England) Air France 1-800/237-2747 |
Dolls at a Market |
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