About the Area for SilverDoor Serviced Apartments in Paris - Opera Grand Boulevards

Charles de Gaulle Airport is situated 14 miles north-east of Paris where the three terminals are connected via free shuttle buses. The quickest and cheapest way to get from the airport to Paris city centre is via the TGV. This takes 45 minutes and is signposted from the airport terminal. It is just a short walk to the station. Even if you have never used the French rail system before this is certainly the way to go as a Taxi would be very expensive.

The easiest way to get around Paris is on the Metro. There are Metro stations close to every public attraction and they serve the surrounding suburbs too. The best way to use the Metro is to buy a "carnet" - this is a set of 10 tickets which have virtually no expiry date and each ticket is valid for as many changes as you like on the Metro so long as you don’t exit and go above ground. For example you need two tickets for the outgoing and return journeys.

The main business sector of Paris is surrounding "La Grande Arch de La Defence" otherwise known as La Defence. This is the large grey arch visible over the road from the Arc de Triomphe. There is also an extensive shopping area here.

The most reasonable area in which to eat in central Paris is called the Latin Quarter and is close to Notre Dame. This is not as "touristy" as other areas and therefore has more reasonably priced menus. The most economic way to eat in restaurants is to buy a "menu a XX Euros", these will normally be a starter or dessert and main course off a set menu for a discounted price.

Les Grands Boulevards were created by Baron Haussman in his slum clearance and town redesign programme and they soon became a fashionable place to be seen.

The Western end (Boulevard Haussmann and the area around the Opera) is now a fashionable area with expensive streets and restaurants and famous department stores.

Boulevard Haussmann runs from the 8th to the 9th arrondisement and is 2.5km long. It is one of the wide tree-lined boulevards driven through Paris during the Second French Empire by Baron Haussmann, who retained the complete confidence of Napoleon III.

The department stores ("grands magasins") Galeries Lafayette and Le Printemps are sited on the Boulevard Haussmann, which is mostly lined with apartment blocks, whose regulated height gives a sense of regularity to the Boulevard.

At No.102 lived the great French novelist Marcel Proust (1871 –1922) who spent much of his life writing through the night hours in the famous cork-lined bedroom of his ornate townhouse.