This year, Rach organised a restaurant on the Champs Elysees for about 40 forumites to meet up at on the Saturday evening, and a pub (the Live Bar) after the race on the Sunday evening, also near the Champs Elysees.
So, if you want to know about suitable venues, I suggest you leave it to her to arrange something, as she lives and works in central Paris.
www.paris-hotels.com is quite a handy little site.
You'll want the 8th, 16th or 17th arrondissements to be close to the start/finish. Otherwise La Defénse has some reasonable hotels and is only 5 minutes away on metro line 1.
hey, you don't wanna go stay in the La Defense arrondissement - even the local taxi drivers couldn't find our hotel in that futuristic location - like something out of that Fritz Lang film, 'Metropolis'.
Hhhmm, George Cinq may be a bit pricey (£20 for a club sandwich when I was last there a couple of years ago.)
It's not going to be any less expensive than the George V!
You were practically in Nanterre though Snoop. I meant the river side of La Défense just at the top of Avenue Charles de Gaulle. There's an Ibis and another big chain hotel right there. I'll have a look when I'm shopping tomorrow and report back.
There's a Novotel and an Ibis at the top of Avenue Charles de Gaulle where La Defense starts. Not the livliest of areas but likely to be inexpensive for those travelling on a budget and only 5 mins to the Champs.
How much is everyone paying to get over to Paris. I ended up paying £89 to fly from Birmingham, which I thought was expensive particularly compared to flights across the atlantic, but then apparently more than half the cost is taxes and charges. Fly out 6.30am on the 9th, back 8.30pm on the 10th after the marathon. Could have got a cheaper flight from Heathrow, but that would have almost meant driving half way to Paris to pick up the flight. BMI Baby out of East Midlands looks as if it will be cheaper, around £60, but they have not opened their summer flights yet, and I couldn't be bothered to wait.
I'm looking at £125 with tax out of Bristol on BA for similar times to you. About £48 of that is tax and charges. So £89 out of Brum sounds pretty good!
Does this mean that its not too crowded? I've read several reports saying there are bottle necks. From what you are saying, this isn't the case. Which is good news.
the only crowding problem is before it starts, when 35,000 people are crowded into the Champs E, and it takes up to 20 mins to get over the line. Once you're over it, you can immediately go at race pace as the boulevard is so wide.
And even the start - if you're in one of the forward pens, it's a very smooth start, especially considering that unlike other similar-sized races, everyone starts together. I was in the 3 - 3:15 start and I took under a minute to cross the line and was up to race speed soon after.
Still not quite sure whether I'm doing this or Boston.
Alas - I won't be in the 3 - 3:15 start! But this all sounds good. Although I really enjoyed the FLM in 2003, it was frustrating to not be able to go at my own pace for the first few miles because of the crowds.
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Hi guys - I'm interested in running Paris 2005. I just did NY and struggled a bit on the hills. Wanted to run it sub 4.00 but was a bit off. Reason for doing next marathon is to do it sub 4. Is Paris the one or not? I would be much obliged if someone could give me an honest description of the course - re: hills, difficulty and chance of running a PB - THANKS
What's all this about "bibs" on the website. Are runners actually issued with something akin to a baby's bib or something that goes over the head? Or is it just a pin-on race number like everywhere else?
Turning to "times", I find it bemusing that anyone could cross a marathon finish line and be disappointed. To my mind, as a "virgin" 26.2 mile runner, anyone that completes a full marathon is a hero.
Trevor There's no comparison with New York - Paris is nearly flat. There's a gentle rise before half way in the Bois de Vincennes, a couple of v short steep rises out of the road tunnels, but the only hill of note is a gentle rise up to the Bois de Boulogne at 32K which hurt at the time but is the kind of thing you wouldn't even notice on a normal training run.
There are no "bibs" (amusing though it would be to cook up a story about them). They're just race numbers.
(I disagree about being disappointed about times. It's healthy to ask yourself such questions - marathoning is a competitive sport where the aim is to do the course as quickly as possible, even first time).
Adding my name to the list (marathon virgin, btw)...
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Did New York the weekend before last and have been over-indulging the past few days. I can only imagine that today's hangover has given me a mental block as to what running 26.2 miles felt like because I've just signed up for Paris.
alf Doug Mayers Kiwi flashspread no.32229 Guy W Jeckmac Jonnyjsk Kiwichick MJT - number 24949 OB Plum Pseudo Sad Runner Seaweed Shiva Snapstinget Snoop Dogg Spamhead Tiger Tim is Lightening Toomuchapplepie BenjaminJP
Comments
So, if you want to know about suitable venues, I suggest you leave it to her to arrange something, as she lives and works in central Paris.
You'll want the 8th, 16th or 17th arrondissements to be close to the start/finish. Otherwise La Defénse has some reasonable hotels and is only 5 minutes away on metro line 1.
Hhhmm, George Cinq may be a bit pricey (£20 for a club sandwich when I was last there a couple of years ago.)
I'll go along with Princes de Galles, Rach.
You were practically in Nanterre though Snoop. I meant the river side of La Défense just at the top of Avenue Charles de Gaulle. There's an Ibis and another big chain hotel right there. I'll have a look when I'm shopping tomorrow and report back.
We'd best leave the choice of eating out establishments to you then, with the benefit of your local knowledge.
May choose a weekend package as they're usually only about £175 'all in' for a three nighter in a 3* together with Eurostar.
Fly out 6.30am on the 9th, back 8.30pm on the 10th after the marathon.
Could have got a cheaper flight from Heathrow, but that would have almost meant driving half way to Paris to pick up the flight.
BMI Baby out of East Midlands looks as if it will be cheaper, around £60, but they have not opened their summer flights yet, and I couldn't be bothered to wait.
Just the simle task of persuading Mrs Bern
the only crowding problem is before it starts, when 35,000 people are crowded into the Champs E, and it takes up to 20 mins to get over the line. Once you're over it, you can immediately go at race pace as the boulevard is so wide.
I was in the 3 - 3:15 start and I took under a minute to cross the line and was up to race speed soon after.
Still not quite sure whether I'm doing this or Boston.
Signed up today, so adding my name to the list...
Calf
Doug Mayers Kiwi
Guy W
Jeckmac
Jonnyjsk
Kiwichick
MJT - number 24949
OB
Plum
Pseudo
Sad Runner
Seaweed
Shiva
Snapstinget
Snoop Dogg
Spamhead
Tiger
Tim is Lightening
Toomuchapplepie
happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you....
Congratulations madame.
What's all this about "bibs" on the website. Are runners actually issued with something akin to a baby's bib or something that goes over the head? Or is it just a pin-on race number like everywhere else?
Turning to "times", I find it bemusing that anyone could cross a marathon finish line and be disappointed. To my mind, as a "virgin" 26.2 mile runner, anyone that completes a full marathon is a hero.
There's no comparison with New York - Paris is nearly flat.
There's a gentle rise before half way in the Bois de Vincennes, a couple of v short steep rises out of the road tunnels, but the only hill of note is a gentle rise up to the Bois de Boulogne at 32K which hurt at the time but is the kind of thing you wouldn't even notice on a normal training run.
There are no "bibs" (amusing though it would be to cook up a story about them). They're just race numbers.
(I disagree about being disappointed about times. It's healthy to ask yourself such questions - marathoning is a competitive sport where the aim is to do the course as quickly as possible, even first time).
Calf
Doug Mayers Kiwi
flashspread no.32229
Guy W
Jeckmac
Jonnyjsk
Kiwichick
MJT - number 24949
OB
Plum
Pseudo
Sad Runner
Seaweed
Shiva
Snapstinget
Snoop Dogg
Spamhead
Tiger
Tim is Lightening
Toomuchapplepie
alf
Doug Mayers Kiwi
flashspread no.32229
Guy W
Jeckmac
Jonnyjsk
Kiwichick
MJT - number 24949
OB
Plum
Pseudo
Sad Runner
Seaweed
Shiva
Snapstinget
Snoop Dogg
Spamhead
Tiger
Tim is Lightening
Toomuchapplepie
BenjaminJP