# Royal Regency Paris



## beejaybeeohio (Sep 6, 2019)

Surprised to have gotten a match today via RCI within a little over a week after modifying an ongoing search for the Canadian Rockies for May 2020 to an assortment of resorts in France, one in northern Spain and one in County Clare Ireland for September 2020!

We will be in a one-bedroom. We've been to Paris 3x and are excited that the week we got includes our 55th Wedding Anniversary (yes, I was a child bride)!

Any tips, insights from Tuggers who've exchanged into the Royal Regency would be much appreciated! Thanks!


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## klpca (Sep 6, 2019)

Congrats on your anniversary and the match! We are going there in Oct, so we're getting pretty excited.  I'll also be interested to see what others have to say.


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## clifffaith (Sep 6, 2019)

We love the RR! 20 minute walk to the Metro, 20 more minutes into the heart of Paris. And Vincennes itself has easily half a dozen bakeries near the RR, a terrific Farmer's Market twice a week (with bunnies with fur and fowl with feathers hanging up for sale). Huge park and a chateau also. We've been five times, I think. Last "real" visit was in 2011, and we had an unexpected stay for two nights in 2014 when the only reason we were going to be in Paris was for a plane home after a Viking River Cruise. We had ten days in Germany after the cruise, but there was a train strike. The German strikes are weird on again off again affairs, decided on a daily basis whether they are running or not. We did not want to get stuck in Cologne when we were supposed to take the train directly from Germany to the CDG airport, so flew from Berlin to Paris. Royal Regency had exactly one last minute room for the two nights we needed. Spent that time sick in bed, but not so sick we couldn't stagger out to a bakery each morning.

Here's where I tell my "small world" story again. Arrived at the RR in October 2014, sick and just wanting to get to our room, go out quickly for juice and pastry, and go to bed. New manager starts chatting us up. Where are you from? Los Angeles. What part of Los Angeles? Like this French guy is really going to know what I mean when I say San Pedro, but I don't feel well and I am not going to give him a geography lesson, so I keep it short hoping he'll let us alone and simply reply with "San Pedro". He comes back at me with, "Is the Busy Bee Market still open, I love their sandwiches?" After we picked our jaws up off the ground we found out he went to school up the street from us at Marymount as an exchange student, lived 20 years in LA, and had just moved back to France with his wife who is a lawyer. I'll tell you how sick we were -- the bottle of wine he later delivered to our door got left on the counter unopened!


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## b2bailey (Sep 6, 2019)

I like the way you can order baguettes and croissants at the front desk the night before. When my granddaughter and I were checking out, the front desk person saw the $ amount we owed for bakery goods and said she would double check the number. We just laughed and said we were sure it was okay.


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## amycurl (Sep 7, 2019)

That’s fantastic. When we stayed at the Marriott in Marbella in Spain, we realized we could just walk up every morning and get fresh, hot bread and pastries from the marketplace. Why we can’t have nice things like this in the US, I will never understand. It is just one of the things that makes European detox so hard. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## geist1223 (Sep 7, 2019)

We loved our stay there a couple years ago. The Staff was very friendly and helpful. We had been at Normandy the week before. We arrived before Check-in and had food that needed to be in a Frig. Our Room had not been cleaned but they let us in to put our suitcases in the Room and our food away. We then drove to CDG to turn in our rental car and used the train and Metro back to RR. I would go out early each morning, walk around, and pick up our Baguttes, etc. Thank goodness we got to see the Cathedral at Notre Dame. We used the Metro to travel all over Paris.


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## Conan (Sep 7, 2019)

You can buy a subway pass on arrival at Charles de Gaulle.
The basic zone 1-3 includes Vincennes, so it's a good choice if you're planning to taxi in from the airport.
https://www.ratp.fr/en/titres-et-tarifs/paris-visite-travel-pass


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## klpca (Sep 7, 2019)

geist1223 said:


> We loved our stay there a couple years ago. The Staff was very friendly and helpful. We had been at Normandy the week before. We arrived before Check-in and had food that needed to be in a Frig. Our Room had not been cleaned but they let us in to put our suitcases in the Room and our food away. We then drove to CDG to turn in our rental car and used the train and Metro back to RR. I would go out early each morning, walk around, and pick up our Baguttes, etc. Thank goodness we got to see the Cathedral at Notre Dame. We used the Metro to travel all over Paris.


We're doing Normandy/RR too, and in that order. No one, except other timesharers understands why, lolol.


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## beejaybeeohio (Sep 8, 2019)

klpca said:


> Congrats on your anniversary and the match! We are going there in Oct, so we're getting pretty excited.  I'll also be interested to see what others have to say.



Have a wonderful time! Can't wait to hear about your experiences....We will be in Gemeund-Schleiden Germany in late October for a timeshare trade there, then onwards to Metz, Zellenberg near Colmar, Lucerne, a week-long Danube cruise on Avalon, and finish our trip from Budapest via train to Munich. 

And thanks to all who've responded to my questions- so helpful!


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## bamasteve (Sep 23, 2019)

We've stayed at the Royal Regency.  Love the neighborhood.  Not many tourists so it is fun to live like a local for a week.  While my wife was getting ready for the day, I would go to the bakery and also get a coffee and do some fun people watching.  Got to practice my bad French a lot in this neighborhood.  I would say that coming home late at night we felt a little uncomfortable at the nearby metro while waiting the Uber to pick us up to take us to the resort.  Later in the week we preferred to just take a taxi from Gare de Lyon.  Overall a great resort.  Some really great and reasonable restaurants nearby as well - where the locals love to eat.  Say Bonjour to everyone - and you will be treated well.


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## klpca (Sep 23, 2019)

bamasteve said:


> We've stayed at the Royal Regency.  Love the neighborhood.  Not many tourists so it is fun to live like a local for a week.  While my wife was getting ready for the day, I would go to the bakery and also get a coffee and do some fun people watching.  Got to practice my bad French a lot in this neighborhood.  I would say that coming home late at night we felt a little uncomfortable at the nearby metro while waiting the Uber to pick us up to take us to the resort.  Later in the week we preferred to just take a taxi from Gare de Lyon.  Overall a great resort.  Some really great and reasonable restaurants nearby as well - where the locals love to eat.  Say Bonjour to everyone - and you will be treated well.


Which restaurants did you enjoy? And do you recall what the fare was from Gare de Lyon to RR?


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## clifffaith (Sep 23, 2019)

bamasteve said:


> We've stayed at the Royal Regency.  Love the neighborhood.  Not many tourists so it is fun to live like a local for a week.  While my wife was getting ready for the day, I would go to the bakery and also get a coffee and do some fun people watching.  Got to practice my bad French a lot in this neighborhood.  I would say that coming home late at night we felt a little uncomfortable at the nearby metro while waiting the Uber to pick us up to take us to the resort.  Later in the week we preferred to just take a taxi from Gare de Lyon.  Overall a great resort.  Some really great and reasonable restaurants nearby as well - where the locals love to eat.  Say Bonjour to everyone - and you will be treated well.



Our last stay was in 2011. We never felt uncomfortable walking at night, and always walked from the metro back to the resort. We were with friends that trip (after being there several times on our own since 2005) and I was ready to head back to the resort one evening from the center of Paris while everyone else wanted to see the Eiffel Tower lit up. I am not the least bit adventurous (and speak no French), but thought nothing of doing that trip and walk alone. I was standing waiting for the metro to take me back alone to Vincennes when Cliff showed up next to me at the  insistence of our friends. Now that I have back issues that manifest themselves as severe leg pain and walk with a cane some days, if we make it to Vincennes again I'd definitely Uber, Taxi or bus from metro to resort to avoid over taxing my leg. But the sad thing is I am loathe to sign up for "walking city" trips because I never know where I'll be in the pain cycle.

Re: bus from metro. Someone mentioned this on Facebook two weeks ago and I asked for clarification. The bus makes a right turn, I believe right about the cemetery in Vincennes. It turns there because the road in front of the resort is one way starting here at this turn. If we took the bus (the walk from the metro is only 20-25 minutes so most often we just walk through town) we'd get off at the cemetery turn and walk 10 minutes to the resort. Gal on Facebook said stay on bus, it will soon make a left turn and you will see a fire station (I believe on the right and fairly quickly after the left turn). Get off at the fire station, then walk down the small intersecting street and you end up at the RR. This made sense to us since we've stayed there half a dozen times or so. We tried to "get closer" using the bus in 2011, but four of us ended up not knowing where we were so I appreciated the fire station trick. And as she reminded me, the bus route is a circle so you can't get lost (famous last words!).


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## bamasteve (Sep 23, 2019)

Good report.  To follow up on what made us feel uncomfortable at the metro in Vincennes on the Avenue Aubert side was our very late arrival at the station - I think it was around 11pm or later. The station was very dark, there were no attendants on duty and the area outside the station wasn't well lit.  Some pretty rough characters were exiting the station with us and were really giving us a look over.  It was just two months after the Charlie Hebdo attacks of 2015 - so we were super sensitive to safety.    Perhaps we were just being overly cautious.


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## bamasteve (Sep 30, 2019)

klpca said:


> Which restaurants did you enjoy? And do you recall what the fare was from Gare de Lyon to RR?



I had to go back to my trip advisor reviews.  We loved:
*Les Clanchistes*
 99 rue Dalayrac, 94120 Fontenay-sous-Bois, France

It is a short walk or taxi ride from Royal Regency.  No tourists - locals - good food - good service.


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## bamasteve (Sep 30, 2019)

klpca said:


> Which restaurants did you enjoy? And do you recall what the fare was from Gare de Lyon to RR?


I posted Les Clanchistes address below.  The Bakery Bénédicte et Ludovic Petit is steps away along the cross street Rue de la bienfaisance,  great pastries.  I also got an espresso from the bar at the restaurant across the street after the bakery.  Don't remember the name.  There is also a TABAC - Café where you can get a coffee near 17 Rue Clement Vienot.  A few steps beyond the TABAC is a full grocery store, Carrefour at 1 Place Jean Spire Le Maitre with French wine, cheese and produce with excellent prices.  We often got food here for meals in the unit.  The cheese isle is amazing.  You also must try the yogurt in the glass jars - which make great wine glasses for a picnic after you finish them.   There is also a grocery, Franprix, three blocks to the west on Rue de Fontenay.  Monoprix (like a Target or Walmart in America) is close at 27 Rue d'Eglise.  We needed a Doctor and a pharmacy when we stayed.  The hotel got us the doctor and I found a pharmacy to the west along rue de Fontenay.  Hope that helps.


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## bamasteve (Sep 30, 2019)

P.S.  The Uber fare from a side street near Gare de Lyon is today (I checked the app) 8 Euros for ride share, 12 Euros for UberX and 22 Euros for Berline.  You could also just take a Taxi from the Taxi stand at the station - may be a similar fare.  We felt safer this way.  If you return before dark, I'd just get off at the station by Vinceenes.


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## Chrisky (Sep 30, 2019)

Regarding transportation passes, it is generally not recommended to purchase a Paris Visit pass. It is too expensive for what you get.  Getting a Navigo Decouverte pass which is used from a Monday to a Sunday, is a better option.  
https://parisbytrain.com/paris-train-metro-week-pass-navigo-decouverte/
Paris Navigo Decouverte is a multi-use transit card covering all of the Metro Paris area, good for the Paris Metro (subway/underground), RER trains (including the CDG Airport train, Disneyland Paris, and Versailles), buses (including Orly airport buses), trams & surburban Transilien trains.


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## klpca (Sep 30, 2019)

bamasteve said:


> I had to go back to my trip advisor reviews.  We loved:
> *Les Clanchistes*
> 99 rue Dalayrac, 94120 Fontenay-sous-Bois, France
> 
> It is a short walk or taxi ride from Royal Regency.  No tourists - locals - good food - good service.


Thank you so much for all of the information. Very helpful!


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## beejaybeeohio (Oct 4, 2019)

Under construction....
RCI sent an email this morning warning that there will be construction at Royal Regency from September 7 2020 until the end of the year. Our week starts 9/12, but I am not too concerned since we will be out and about during the day. 
For others who don't mind noisy days, that time frame might yield more exchange opportunities than usual!


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## chemteach (Oct 5, 2019)

I'm so happy to see this post!  I own Diamond resorts, and have often thought about someday staying at the Royal Regency.  Glad to hear so many people like it there.


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## Carol C (Nov 16, 2019)

clifffaith said:


> Our last stay was in 2011. We never felt uncomfortable walking at night, and always walked from the metro back to the resort. We were with friends that trip (after being there several times on our own since 2005) and I was ready to head back to the resort one evening from the center of Paris while everyone else wanted to see the Eiffel Tower lit up. I am not the least bit adventurous (and speak no French), but thought nothing of doing that trip and walk alone. I was standing waiting for the metro to take me back alone to Vincennes when Cliff showed up next to me at the  insistence of our friends. Now that I have back issues that manifest themselves as severe leg pain and walk with a cane some days, if we make it to Vincennes again I'd definitely Uber, Taxi or bus from metro to resort to avoid over taxing my leg. But the sad thing is I am loathe to sign up for "walking city" trips because I never know where I'll be in the pain cycle.
> 
> Re: bus from metro. Someone mentioned this on Facebook two weeks ago and I asked for clarification. The bus makes a right turn, I believe right about the cemetery in Vincennes. It turns there because the road in front of the resort is one way starting here at this turn. If we took the bus (the walk from the metro is only 20-25 minutes so most often we just walk through town) we'd get off at the cemetery turn and walk 10 minutes to the resort. Gal on Facebook said stay on bus, it will soon make a left turn and you will see a fire station (I believe on the right and fairly quickly after the left turn). Get off at the fire station, then walk down the small intersecting street and you end up at the RR. This made sense to us since we've stayed there half a dozen times or so. We tried to "get closer" using the bus in 2011, but four of us ended up not knowing where we were so I appreciated the fire station trick. And as she reminded me, the bus route is a circle so you can't get lost (famous last words!).





clifffaith said:


> Our last stay was in 2011. We never felt uncomfortable walking at night, and always walked from the metro back to the resort. We were with friends that trip (after being there several times on our own since 2005) and I was ready to head back to the resort one evening from the center of Paris while everyone else wanted to see the Eiffel Tower lit up. I am not the least bit adventurous (and speak no French), but thought nothing of doing that trip and walk alone. I was standing waiting for the metro to take me back alone to Vincennes when Cliff showed up next to me at the  insistence of our friends. Now that I have back issues that manifest themselves as severe leg pain and walk with a cane some days, if we make it to Vincennes again I'd definitely Uber, Taxi or bus from metro to resort to avoid over taxing my leg. But the sad thing is I am loathe to sign up for "walking city" trips because I never know where I'll be in the pain cycle.
> 
> Re: bus from metro. Someone mentioned this on Facebook two weeks ago and I asked for clarification. The bus makes a right turn, I believe right about the cemetery in Vincennes. It turns there because the road in front of the resort is one way starting here at this turn. If we took the bus (the walk from the metro is only 20-25 minutes so most often we just walk through town) we'd get off at the cemetery turn and walk 10 minutes to the resort. Gal on Facebook said stay on bus, it will soon make a left turn and you will see a fire station (I believe on the right and fairly quickly after the left turn). Get off at the fire station, then walk down the small intersecting street and you end up at the RR. This made sense to us since we've stayed there half a dozen times or so. We tried to "get closer" using the bus in 2011, but four of us ended up not knowing where we were so I appreciated the fire station trick. And as she reminded me, the bus route is a circle so you can't get lost (famous last words!).


The bus stop just as the bus turns off to the right is called "Liberacion" and a perfectly convenient place to disembarck.


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