# Just back from 2 weeks @ Royal Regency - Paris



## Rene McDaniel (Jul 5, 2014)

My husband and I just returned from a 16-day trip to Paris, staying 2 back-to-back weeks in a 1-bedroom at the Royal Regency (Vincennes) on an RCI exchange.  It was booked online back in 2012, when there was a large bulk spacebanking, and we could see multiple back-to-back weeks.  

This was our 2nd trip to the Royal Regency, having stayed there 10 years earlier on an I.I. exchange with our 2 girls.  We felt there were a lot of good improvements to Royal Regency since it became a Diamond Resort, with English speaking staff at the front desk, who were always kind and extremely helpful with anything you needed.  The resort is not plush, but the units are spacious and you have everything you need.  The Carrefour grocery store has an excellent selection and only a 5 minute walk.  Weekly metro Navigo metro passes can be purchased for 20 euros/week and give you unlimited bus/metro service in Paris.  We used our kitchen quite a bit for breakfast in the morning, then dinner later in the evening.  We usually had our lunch somewhere interesting in the city.

It is exchanges like this one that really make us happy to be timesharers.  Paris is such a wonderful city, and to be able to enjoy it for 2 full weeks was a joy!  Even though we seem to go every 10 years, there are always so many new and wonderful things to experience.  Even with two full weeks, we did not get to everything we wanted to see.

We love art, so we took advantage of the Paris Museum pass for 12 days. Each 6 day pass cost 69 Euros & includes admission to 60 Paris museums, monuments, Versailles, etc. and avoids most lines.  One of our new favorites was the Musee Marmottan Monet which has the world's largest collection of Monet paintings (donated by his son/sole surviving heir Michel Monet).  They also had a special exhibit of 100 impressionist paintings gathered from private collectors throughout the world. It was outstanding.  It was also great to see the Orangerie Museum, which houses Monet's giant waterlilies paintings for the first time. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/16/arts/design/16oran.html?_r=0  There was also an special VanGogh exhibit at the Musee Orsay, where they had brought in 50+ VanGoghs from around the world!  So much great art everywhere - the Orsay, the Louvre, the Pompidou, the Rodin, phew.  

Some of the other wonderful memories had nothing to do with art.  A spectacular vocalist for an evening Mass at the Notre Dame cathedral, the beautiful stained glass at St. Chappelle, beautiful sunset views from an evening at the top of Montmatre, walking along the Seine at sunset, watching the Roland Garros tennis matches sitting in a park at the Eiffel Tower on a jumbo-tron TV (with a giant green tennis ball hanging from the Eiffel tower all week!).  Something new and interesting on practically every corner, every day. Enjoying and being a part of a city with so much passion and joy of life was a truly wonderful experience.  My feet were so sore by the end of 2 weeks, but what great memories we brought back from this trip.  Paris is like a little bit of heaven on earth!

-- Rene McDaniel


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## Ann in CA (Jul 5, 2014)

We love Paris also. Enjoyed your post, and hope to stay longer than a week the next time!


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