Tips for Paris for Rwc games

What would be peoples top touristy things to do in a day in Paris.

Will have one day to do tourist stuff on the QF weekend.

Are the river cruises good

Were flying over friday morning but arent going to over schedule ourselves, booked a night time boat trip on the seine with champagne and hitting musee d'orsay(not bothered with the louvre) on the saturday morning

They aren't showing the earlier games.

The matches they show are listed here

https://www.rugbyworldcup.com/2023/rugby-villages/saint-denis

Yep. I indeed misread the post. Thanks.

You could get wine in the fan zones as well.

What was the other place?

What’s the best thing to do if we are arriving at the Stade de France around 5 or 6pm? Looking to have a few beers, maybe grab a burger and meet with friends. Wouldn’t mind watching the England Samoa game too.

Will we be able to do this outside the stadium?

We just went in to the stadium. Pints are €8 inside and food wasn't a complete rip off.

The matches are shown on the big screen and even tho our seats were dotted over the stadium we sat together until about 30 minutes before kickoff.

Nice to watch the game, watch the teams warm up and get to see the atmosphere build.

Thanks 50HX. I’m looking to only go on Saturday and come back Sunday so the stopovers make it all a bit tight on time. I was over at the SA match and there was plenty of delays in the airports so I’d hate to risk it for the sake of €100.

Might just have to suck it up!

For a 9pm kick off that's plenty I would say. The bus to the city took exactly 1 hour 15 mins when we got it the weekend of SA game.

I would recommend having your ticket bought online beforehand so you can go straight to the queue to get on the bus.

I'm arriving in Beauvais at 16:55 the day of QF2 which is tight but should still get to the stadium in time barring any major flight delays.

No it's right across from the terminal exit, you'll see signs for buses.

There's no trains as far as I know, bus is the only option.

Beauvais airport is tiny, like a cattle shed 😀

Yeah we're cutting it fine but think we'll be fine. Just no room for error

If you arrive on the Metro, after exiting go the opposite way from the stadium for a few mins. There is a local bar or 2 in that area. It's fine.

I remember flying out early from CDG in 2007 after the Argentina game - there was Irish lads on every bench, having done exactly what you're planning. A solid strategy. Reduces the bed bug exposure risk too :-)

Not sure I still qualify as young - the result will influence feelings and of course Scotland have to be taken care of before this scenario even occurs!!

Make it an extended stay. I'm doing 5 day trip for 175 per person on flights, spend the rest on red wine and on herself. Saved a fortune not flying Saturday back monday

I've no doubt I'll spend it, but we've sights and food and wine in Paris, dinner on a boat on the Seine, Disneyland all to look forward to. Better than giving it to Ryanair for a flight.

Vueling airlines by the way if anyone wants to look, not sure if they're any dearer now or not.

Anyone on this thread on the Liverpool flight to Beauvais arriving at 16:55 tomorrow evening?

There's a bunch of bars right beside the stadium you will be fine at but be prepared to pay through the nose for a drink

I’d be of the same opinion.

Before the SA match the atmosphere at the bars opposite the stadium was unbelievable for a few hours before the match. The streets were full, Irish and South Africans together, music blaring and there was singing and dancing and all sorts going on. I think it would be a pity to be sitting in a quiet local bar for the sake of the few extra euro you’d spend on the 2 or 3 pints you’re going to have in that timeframe and miss out on it all.

Just don’t leave it too late to go into the stadium, the bag searches take a bit of time and there could be no queue there then all of a sudden a few people head for the gates and everyone follows and you’re stuck in a queue for half an hour worrying if you’ll miss the start of the match! I’d be aiming to be in the stadium minimum 45 mins before the match starts. There’ll be no queue at that stage whereas wait ten more mins and you could be queuing for half an hour.

Anyone know if there is anywhere to get a (half) decent bite to eat near the stadium before the game?

So after the weekend that was, I said I'll put down a few notes based on our experience for anyone lucky enough to be going back next weekend (and hopefully beyond). Travelling were myself, my OH and our 8yo son.

Friday.

Ryanair flight from Dublin to Beauvais 6pm. Flight was delayed for about 2 hours (we ended up going on a different plane operated by Buzz (Still a Ryanair plane but the crew were wearing Buzz uniforms). We sat at the back of the plane so were in the first group to disembark, meaning we were towards the top end of the queue going through passport control and also in the queue for the bus. I pre bought our tickets for the bus, which seemed a good call as by the time we were at the top of the queue to get on a bus, the bus queue was already quite big, and so was the queue to just buy a ticket for said bus... The bus arrived in Porte Maiillot at around midnight, and once we jumped off I just booked an Uber which arrived about 3-4 minutes later. I did see a lot of 'taxi's' there but they weren't the official taxi's or G7 taxi's, so I wasn't going near them (based on the Les Frenchies video which said to avoid these unregulated taxi's). 15 minutes later we were at the hotel (Novotel Suites at Paris Expo Porte the Versailles). Hotel was a little bit outside town, but I selected it because there is a Metro stop (Line 13, Porte de Vanves) literally outside the front door.

Saturday (Game Day). Weather was fantastic all day, about 26 degrees and not a cloud in the sky)

Went into the Metro station next to the hotel and bought 16 single metro tickets to do us for the whole weekend... there was a bit of confusion from the lady in the booth as she didn't really understand what I wanted, thinking I wanted a discounted 10 pack of tickets which they don't sell anymore... so I just explained clearly that I wanted 16 single tickets to be able to use over Saturday and Sunday... and we got there in the end.

The only plan we had made was to visit the Eiffel Tower and luckily enough I was able to pre purchase the tickets to go to the top just a few days beforehand (see my post above), which proved to be a master stroke as by the time we arrived there (around 10:45am), they were not allowing 'walk ins' to buy tickets to the top... also having the tickets in hand meant we could join the security queue for ticket holders as opposed to the non ticket holder security queue which was hundreds of people long.... We were in and past security in about 5 minutes. Our booked time for the trip to the top was 11:30, and they wouldn't let us go early. You need to line up in a queue thats marked by your allotted ascent time, which was all fairly well managed, and we didn't have to wait too long before getting into the 1st lift straight to the 2nd floor... and another small queue to get in a lift to the top. We were finished with it all by around 12:30, so still had plenty of time to do some other stuff so decided to hop on a metro to the Arc de Triomphe.. had no intention of going in or up as the queue for it was massive, but we just wanted to see it and spend a bit of time there... We then hopped on a metro down to Place de Clichy (where the Irish bars/Moulin Rouge are), and the craic was properly kicking off when we arrived (rugby balls being kicked around aiming for balconies etc... lads jumping on the back of vans etc...) wheelbarrows being wheeled about selling beer etc... We grabbed a bite to eat in a Cafe on the corner, and when we came back out it seemed the crowd had increased 5 fold, and so had the craic/banter (all in exceptionally good spirits I might add), so we hung around for about 20 minutes or so before grabbing a metro back to the hotel (must have been around 4:30pm by this stage).

Chilled out in the hotel for a little bit before leaving for the game (only myself and my son) at about 6:15pm, and jumped on a 13 metro which brought us all the way to State de France. My hotel metro stop was only about 3 stops from the end of the 13 line, but it was already busy enough when we got on, and it only increased more and more as we got to the city centre, and at the Place de Clichy stop, it was just crazy...and the train was absolutely jam packed (and a sweat box). I didn't feel too much danger for my son, but being a lot shorter than the adults, he was struggling for space, and apart from the 2 Scottish lads right next to us, no one else even knew he was there... it was tight and uncomfortable, but it wasn't dangerous, though it was a relief to finally get off the train.

The walk to the stadium was handy enough, and although it was already quite busy in the approaches to the stadium, the initial security queues were mild enough and we were through in no time (this would have been at around 7:15-7:25 local time). We then walked around to our gate (X) and got through the turnstiles (no queue at all), and passed the 2nd security check just after the turnstiles in no time at all.. (guy ahead of us had a largish enough battery bank which the guy wouldn't let him bring in as it was too heavy, so be wary of that... (I had an older much smaller battery bank which was fine). Made it to our seats by about 7:42pm.

We stuck around for about 10 minutes after full time and then left for the metro as they started playing 'Dirty old Town', by this stage it was fairly busy heading back towards the metro, but was moving along nicely. and upon entering the metro station, it was very well marshalled by stewards and police. They would stop everyone at the entrance to the concourse and allow those already on the concourse to go down and get on a train before allowing the next batch of people in to buy tickets and access the platforms (Someone mentioned previously about not needing a ticket to get back on the metro, but this was not the case on Saturday night as the barriers were in place and being used, and there were about 10 staff there selling tickets using some sort of handheld device, so without a ticket you'd be jumping over the barrier). There was a marshal at each door letting people onto the trains, but not allowing too many people on (so it wasn't nearly as busy as the train to the stadium) which was much better than earlier, though it was still very full. We got on the train at about 11:15pm, made it back to the hotel by around midnight.

Sunday.

Left the hotel at around 11:30am and took a metro to Porte Maillot for the bus back to Beauvais (its about a 4-5 minute walk from the metro to the bus station), and got on the next bus leaving for the airport thinking we had plenty of time, but when we arrived at the airport at about 1pm (for a 2:55pm flight) the airport was an absolute clusterfcuk off a sh1tshow... There must have been about 3,000 people in the tiny terminal queuing up for passport control (when we arrived only 2 of the 4 booths were open).. The queues started back at he Paul cate opposite the passport check, and went all the way down to the end of the building and back up, and was all very disorganised.. I was heading towards the 'wrong' end of the terminal at the back of the queue, and just turned around and merged into the overall big queue skipping probably a thousand people (sorry but not sorry), and very shortly after that they opened up the additional 2 passport booths and opened a new line for Ryanair flights to Dublin (there was also a 2:25pm departure to Dublin), so that got us to the passport check even quicker but we were still in queues for about 30-45 minutes.... by the time we got through we had enough time for a very quick stop in Duty Free and to buy a bottle of water before boarding commenced.. but when people stopped getting on board, the plane was only about half full, and very slowly filled up over the next 30 minutes or so.. Flight eventually left and we got back to Dublin all fine though my voice is still gone from singing Zombie. All in all an amazing weekend.

My top tips;

• Pre book anything you plan on doing if you can, as it will save you loads of time, Beauvais bus, Eiffel Tower, and metro tickets (buy enough for the whole weekend the first time you use the metro, so you only have to deal with buying them once).
• Keep your used metro tickets until they are no longer valid - they are valid for 90 minutes after you first use them. When we left Place de Clichy on Saturday afternoon to go back to the hotel, the tickets we used were able to be used again for going to Stade de France because we entered the station at the hotel again less than 90 minutes from when we used the tickets at Place de Clichy
• If flying from Beauvais, give yourself plenty of time to get to the airport and get through (especially after an Ireland 'home' game) - we were on the bus just over 3.5 hours before our flight departure, and 'just' about made it on time, and only because of my dirty queue skipping escapades.
• Download the 'Bonjour RATP' app, its an excellent app for using the metro (as well as RER & Bus), and you just put in where you want to go and it will give you all the options.... Great app.
• Try to avoid Beauvais airport if you can. (when my brother went to the SA game, he flew to Amsterdam Friday night and got the train to Paris on Saturday morning, and the guy who sat opposite me on the flight home yesterday, he flew to Bordeaux and got the train to Paris for the SA game), so if I go back again, that's my plan...

Also, Paris is like an ashtray, and people smoke everywhere.. You can be standing in a spot with no one else around you and still smell cigarette smoke!! Same in the Stade de France, smoking everywhere and it was bloody disgusting (the only rest bite I had from cigarette smoke in the stadium was the few times during the game someone around us was smoking weed, and that was actually nice compared to the cigarette smoke...

Hope this can help anyone going over, but me, I'm now off to sell my soul for some QF tickets, and hopefully I can do it all again...

Edit: just bagged 3 tickets for the QF. Booked flights to CDG via Amsterdam...happy days!!