Answers to Your Queries

Myra asked if she should consider purchasing a 4 day pass to the Louvre to avoid potentially long lineups.

While this is definitely a good idea, I would say that it is probably not necessary (unless you want to spend that much time exploring the galleries! I know I will!).

I have been to the gallery many times (and, in fact, I have a one year pass myself) but I have never noticed lines that were too terrible. They have plenty of self serve kiosks in the building so if you have a credit card you can use those (as a side note, you can't just swipe and sign in France. In most cases you must have a PIN set on your credit card in order to use it in a shop or at an ATM so you might want to set that up with your bank if you haven't got that feature already.)

If you are worried, I would suggest that you should just buy a single ticket online in advance. It takes a bit of advanced planning (I'm not sure if they mail you your ticket or if you just print it out) but you could save yourself some cash.

You can find the information here: http://www.louvre.fr/llv/pratique/billetterie.jsp


Karin (the debit queen) asked for advice about how to handle the money situation while in Europe as she is concerned about not being able to use a debit card and having to carry around large sums of money.

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS JUST AN OPINION BASED ON PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. PLEASE TALK TO YOUR FINANCIAL INSTITUTION TO GET THE REAL SCOOP.

Your debit card WILL work in Europe as long as your card has a "Cross" trademark symbol on the back of the card somewhere. 95% of cards will have this. The only issue with debit is that there are relatively heavy surcharges for using ATMs that require a currency exchange (around 10 euros per transaction in Paris I believe).

My advice would be to bring enough cash to do you for at least half the trip. Keep as much cash as you think you will need for the day in your wallet and all of your extras in a traveler's money pouch that you wear under your clothes (you can get them at most luggage stores-I find soft canvas ones that go around your waist to be the most convenient and comfortable but there are lots of fancy types). This will stop any pickpocketing issues but keep your cash handy.

You can then hit an ATM part way through the trip if you need to. I don't know what the banking situation will be like in the country, but it is obviously not going to be a problem in the city. If you have a bank card you will not be stuck for cash (unless you don't have any money in your account!).

I personally wouldn't deal with traveler's cheques. Nobody in a small French village is going to want to take them off your hands. You will have to cash them in a bank and not in stores. Its up to you, of course, but I wouldn't bother.