Getting to Paris

I came to Paris from Florence by a slightly round-about path. The Florence airport is very small and there are no direct flights from FLR to either of the Paris airports. Instead, I had to get a little creative.

I finally found a cheap flight from Pisa (PSA) to Paris Orly (ORY) on EasyJet. The flight left at 9:00 am, however, which left me with the problem of getting from Florence to the Pisa airport early in the morning. I probably could have done it by train, but instead I opted for the Terravision bus. Terravision provides cheap and reliable airport shuttle service to and from a variety of major European airports and is a handy service that budget travelers should know about. Tickets can be booked online and printed in advance, so all you have to worry about is being at the pick-up location on time. My bus picked me up at Florence's main train station, Stazione Santa Maria Novella, at 5:50 am on the dot and took me directly to the Pisa airport, where I arrived shortly after 7:00 am, in plenty of time to catch my flight.

Getting into the city from the airport was easy, too. I took the Orlybus, which leaves the airport roughly every 20 minutes, to Place Denfert-Rochereau, a major landmark in the south of the city. Tickets for the Orlybus are 6.40 euros and can be bought on the platform.

Finally, I found my Paris accommodations - a comfortable loft on the charming Rue Daguerre - on Airbnb, a website I found out about through an article on the travel site I used to write for, Students In Europe. Airbnb is extremely easy to use and the apartment I ended up renting is far more comfortable and far cheaper than getting a hotel (it's not much more expensive than a hostel would be, either). I'm sitting on my couch right now, enjoying the quiet and a glass of Cote du Rhone and agreeing with Airbnb's assessment of itself: "Travel like a human" is the company's motto.

Yep.

Copyright 2010 Sara Harding