Kwoo

I've received tons of helpful information about our upcoming trip to France this summer. I would appreciate it if people would critique my itinerary. We are spending 7 nights in Paris, & I plan on buying the 4-day Paris Museum Pass for myself and my husband. After the week in Paris, we will meet my daughter (C), and her French boyfriend (R). R will have his car, & we will drive to the Loire Valley where we will spend 3 nights, & then drive to his parents' vacation home on the Atlantic coast for another 3 nights. Because R will be with us the 2nd week, I'm not worried about that week. For our week in Paris, I like to have an itinerary planned out for guidance, but we don't have to be rigid. Some of our choices will be dictated by weather, & we may decide to spend more time in one museum/monument & less time in another when we are actually there. I have also built in 2 days for relaxing, cafe sitting, whatever meets our fancy.

July 28 – Saturday - Leave Boston for Paris on Air France flight
July 29 – Sunday - Arrive Paris CDG @ 11:30AM
Assuming we arrive on time, I assume we will reach the Hotel Bonaparte no earlier than 1:30pm, & most likely later.
After we check into our hotel, walk around Latin Quarter & Saint Germain neighborhood & get a feel for the area. Have lunch & dinner. Possibly go to Louvre or Orsay or Rodin Museums near closing time to purchase Paris Museum Pass that we will activate on Monday (July 30).

July 30 – Monday
Notre Dame – climb to the top of the tower & visit the inside of the cathedral
Conciegerie
St. Chapelle

July 31 – Tuesday
Musee d’Orsay
Rodin Museum
Hotel des Invalides – if we have time for only one site here, see Napoleon’s Tomb
Tour Eiffel – not sure if we will go to the top, depends on crowds (even though Tour Eiffel is not covered by the Museum Pass, logistically it makes sense to go there on the day we are at Orsay & Rodin Museums). Might go at night when there will hopefully be fewer crowds.

August 1 – Wednesday
Louvre
Jardin des Tuileries
Musee de l’Orangerie – opens at 12:30PM
Possibly return to Louvre at night; it is open until 9:45PM

August 2 – Thursday
Day trip to Versailles
Perhaps go to Arc de Triomphe in the evening. Need to go to Arc de Triomphe any evening Monday through Thursday because of 4-day Museum Pass.

August 3 – Friday
Do the things we haven’t done yet, such as Luxembourg Gardens.
Wander around the neighborhoods
Relax at cafes, people watch
Seine River Cruise, unless we have time to do this earlier in the week.

August 4 – Saturday
Tour of Opera House Garnier (Phantom of the Opera fame) @ 11:30 or 2:30
Whatever else we want to do, shopping. Etc. maybe go to Montmartre
Seine River cruise, unless we have done this by Saturday.

August 5 – Sunday
Check out of Hotel Bonaparte.
Meet up with C & R and drive to Blois.
Overnight at All Seasons Blois Centre Gare hotel in Blois.
Possible chateaus to visit while in Loire Valley: Chambord, Chenonceau

August 6 – Monday
Overnight in Blois
Tour chateaus
Maybe stop at a winery

August 7 – Tuesday
Overnight in Chinon – Hotel Le Plantagenet
Maybe tour Sleeping Beauty’s Castle in Usse.
Would like to visit Saumur & possibly Sache.
Villandry Gardens either Monday or Tuesday.

August 8 – August 11 – stay with Richard’s parents on Ile d’Oleron
August 11
Take TGV train from La Rochelle to Paris; leave La Rochelle @ 11:40AM & arrive at Montparnasse @ 2:46PM. Then RER or Taxi to CDG for AF flight that departs at 7PM.

I would appreciate any recommendations/changes, etc. Are my sighseeing ideas for each day realistic?
Thank you so much for all of your help!

adrienne

July 29 - you can buy the museum pass at the Cluny museum. Since it's not on your list to visit it would be nice to see the building and the medieval garden. There's a sundial on the wall next to the entrance. It's built over Roman baths and you can see fragments on the outside. Well worth a visit - one of my favorites.

Also walk around the Luxembourg Gardens; all that greenery will be a respite from the heat.

July 30 - just behind Notre Dame is a lovely garden with benches. If you continue through the garden and cross the street you'll see the Deportation Memorial. Well worth a 10 minute detour.

Stop and see the flower market on the way to Ste-Chapelle - it's by the metro stop Cite.

Kwoo

Thanks Adrienne. That's a good suggestion about the Cluny Museum. Unfortunately, we just don't have the time to see everything so that's why it's not on my list. But we may change our mind once we get there.

What are the typical temps in July/August?

iowamom

Be aware that the line to climb the tower at Notre Dame will likely be long - we were there two weeks ago and we waited about 45 minutes to get in and go up.

Also, you can get advance tickets on-line for the Eiffel Tower - locks you in to a time but bypasses some time you would otherwise wait in line.

Leely2

I spend a long time in museums. To me your Tuesday and Wednesday would not work, so go to your must-see museum first and then take the rest of the day as it comes. Monday looks light. Do not miss the Deportation Memorial.

Enjoy your trip!

ggreen

Overall your itinerary looks good - and I'm glad you've planned in time to "do nothing"!

Sunday - I agree that this would be a good day to wander the Luxembourg Gardens. Basically, as long as you plan to wander somewhat aimlessly, wherever you go will be good! Get those legs moving and air in your lungs after all the time on the plane, without trying to focus too much and rather just take it all in. You could wander from your hotel via the Luxembourg Gardens all the way down to the Observatoire, maybe even stop for a bit at one of the (now overpriced) cafes made famous in the 20's such as the Dome or Rotunde, then return via Blvd. St. Michel, either on foot or public transit. Cluny is indeed pretty if just to pop in for your museum pass. It's located right next to La Sorbonne, also good for a quick peek at the gardens and walkways of one of the oldest universities on earth. IMO, you don't want to eat in the Latin Quarter, but there's plenty of other options in the area.

[Side note: if you haven't found them already, do check out the posts by Fodorite denisea. She stays in that area and always has great trip reports filled with restaurant reviews. Her latest post is: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...what-a-gem.cfm ]

Monday - feels a little light, especially since it's your first full day and you'll be raring to go! Have you looked into the concerts they hold at St. Chapelle? Wonderful at night, though of course those <i>vitrines</i> are gorgeous on a sunny day. Adrienne mentioned going into the gardens behind Notre Dame. If you continue past the deportation monument, you'll cross a bridge onto Ile St. Louis, a quiet residential area known for the famed Bertillon <i>glaces</i>. I eat them any time of year - see denisea's old post of enjoying ice cream in December! - but in July/August, totally necessary! Tiny scoops with the most intensely amazing flavors...

Tuesday/Wednesday - I agree with Leely2. Even if you're not big museum-goers, there is too much going on in too short a time! (Take "museum fatigue" into account.) The Louvre is vast - makes NYC's Met feel intimate by comparison! Pick something you'd really like to see and try not to get sucked into a whole day there. Likewise, there's a lot going on at the Musee d'Orsay. I love the Orangerie and the Rodin; the latter has pretty gardens strewn with sculptures and a cafe and, being in an old house, has a very manageable feel to it. I always end up spending more time there than I anticipate.

In addition, it always feels like a looong distance to me between Orsay and the Tour Eiffel! I know you're trying to make the most of your museum pass, but maybe try and rearrange some for Friday? (Hit the biggest cost ones with the pass, and pay out of pocket for some others...) Oh, and you'll be in Paris on the first Sunday of the month, when the city-run museums are free! Keep it in mind, even if you've got your other logistics going on that day.

It is of course a matter of personal taste, but IMO if you want to ascend above Paris for a view, the Tour Eiffel is preferable to the Arc de Triomphe for its more central location. However, it's certainly easy enough to visit the Arc if you still have energy on your Versailles day. If you are up for it, take the RER C back from Versailles and descend at Pont L'Alma, then cross the river at Trocadero and walk through the quiet streets of the 16th up to the Arc. You can then descend the Champs Elysees (again not really a destination in and of itself IMO), maybe even stop at Laduree for some well-deserved <i>macarons</i> before heading into the Metro... (If you don't want to walk through the 16th, simply switch from the RER C to the Metro instead.)

And just one quick note about the Loire Valley: if you can, try and go to a "sound and light" (<i>son et lumiere</i presentation at one of the castles. I believe Blois has a regularly scheduled one. These are evening performances with actors in costume, and very French.

ggreen

Google Maps will help a lot in judging distances: use the Directions feature and choose the pedestrian icon; you can drag-and-drop the route line to see different options.

Also, I find Weather Underground (wunderground.com) very helpful for its archive of historical weather trends. To get a sense of what the weather will be like when you go, try it out for Paris and the Loire for the time of year of your trip!

TDudette

Kwoo, it looks good to me. Am with you in spirit!

ggreen

Also, this is a bit of a random side note, but Kwoo have you seen the invitation for the Boston GTG? I've been in past years and it was a lot of fun. It will be in October - plenty of time to recuperate from your trip!

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...2-168996-2.cfm

Kwoo

ggreen, I can't believe it! We are going to a wedding on October 6 in Vermont, so it will be impossible for us to attend the GTG. Darn! I would love to meet everyone. I've been using this board for quite a few years now. Does someone plan the GTG every year?

The reason I didn't put a lot of sightseeing down for MOnday, July 30, is because I've been assuming there would be long lines at Notre DAme. If going to the top of the towers doesn't take as long as I think it will, then we will have time to do something else. I like the idea of the gardens, the deportation memorial, visiting ILe St.Louis for ice cream/glaces.

And if the Tour Eiffel doesn't work out for Tuesday, we can go there on Friday or Saturday.

Thanks to everyone for all your replies. I love planning my own trips, but it can be daunting at times when you've never been somewhere.

ggreen

Kwoo, what a shame! And there I was thinking that October is sooo far away.

I discovered the Boston GTG via the Asia board, where the organizer is most active. (He does make posts on each of the main boards - but you know how fast they can sink amid everything else!) I believe they have them every year in the fall. I admit I then forgot about them - in recent years I've been so sporadic about being on here - but saw this one and remembered how cool it was to spend time IRL with Fodorites.

In that thread I provided, he gives an email address to be added to the list. It's my understanding he keeps the list year over year, so you'd be on it for next year.

Also, for this year he says there will be events from Friday evening through Sunday. So if you're not heading up to VT for the whole weekend, you could maybe make it to one... A lot in one weekend, I know!


* * *
As for Paris(!). I haven't been up the towers in ND in probably 20 years, so I can't really speak to that. But I do remember that once you're up, you'd probably only hang out there for 20 minutes or so. (The view is not panoramic, like the Tour Eiffel, so there's only so much to see. Climbing up the narrow winding stairs is very cool though IMO.)

I hear you about trying to gauge a place that you've never been! To that end, I'll venture out on a limb here. In some ways, the scale of Paris is a lot like Boston. There are parts that feel very close together and walkable. Others look close on a map but feel farther apart. For the most part, the Seine is less wide than the Charles, and it feels easier to hop back and forth across to, say, the Tuileries than it does from Boston to Cambridge. I believe, like Boston, it has a lot to do with what's around: traversing the Tuileries feels a lot faster than the same distance on the quai which has less to look at (like walking on the Harvard side of the Charles vs. the opposite one).

I'd also put it out there that the M1 is a lot like the Green Line (only underground) in that it's a main subway artery, and the stations are a fairly similar distance apart through the 1st arrondisement as the Green Line along Boylston or Huntington.

Thus, depending on how your day goes and what the museum hours are, it could be perfectly conceivable after your ice cream to hop on the M7 at Pont Marie, descend at Palais Royal - or the M1 at St. Paul, descend at Tuileries or Concorde - and visit the Orangerie. Or (something not on your itinerary), from Ile St. Louis go into the Marais and walk through Place des Vosges before hopping the train at St. Paul...

For <i>les glaces Berthillon</i>, I always get a combination of flavors, one chocolate or maybe coconut and one fruit.

P.S. Not to add unnecessarily to your itinerary(!), but I wanted to mention that the Grand Palais - a fabulous structure in its own right - always shows temporary exhibitions. It's worthwhile to check what will be showing there when you're in town!

Gretchen

I would do the Seine cruise on the day you arrive--in the early evening. Take some wine with you. Have a dinner at a cafe and go to bed.
You haven't put in the Marmottan or the Carnavalet or the Cluny in your museum going. The carnavalet is free, and Marmottan not included in the pass.
For your Louvre visit, get the Michelin Green Guide and map out what you are going to do--and make sure what you want in that wing is open the day you go.
For me, I would leave the possibility of Versailles "loose". You may decide you have too much IN Paris to do.
We've never had the push to go up in "everything". The Invalides is a plus minus--as you've sort of indicated.
Consider a picnic lunch on the Champ de Mars with the Tower to view.
I don't see any market going. I wouldn't miss that!!

annhig

i agree that your monday is quite light; Mondays are a problem in Paris. we filled ours by getting to Notre Dame quite early, and then walking around the Marais [many shops not open but the architecture is the same, whatever the day] and then doing a canal trip up the canal st. martin.

http://www.canauxrama.com/e_index.html

the boats start/leave from Bastiile metro, so it's very convenient from the Marais.

Gretchen

We prefer the Pont Neuf Seine boat trip to the longer (and I've heard, sort of boring) Canal St. Martin. There's a discount coupon you can print.

annhig

We prefer the Pont Neuf Seine boat trip to the longer (and I've heard, sort of boring) Canal St. Martin. There's a discount coupon you can print.>>

well, gretchen, as you've not done it, you're hardly in a position to say if it's boring or not, are you? why would you think that I would recommend something boring to the OP? BTW, there are discount vouchers for the canal St, Martin trip in the brochures about teh trip on the seine - it's the same company.

we thought that the trip was very interesting - the commentary [in french and english] was very well done and included some fascinating details.

Gretchen

Everyone is entitled to your opinion!! LOL
I "think" this is a first trip--I could be wrong there also. A week seems like SO long--in Paris it isn't.
I was offering an opinion about the Seine trip--and at first I wondered about your BAstille "entry" so was tempted into the fray to clarify yours vs. the usual one hour Seine trip. ;o)
You are exactly correct--in about 12 or more trips to Paris we have not taken the time to do this. 'o)

Kwoo

Gretchen, would I buy the Michelin Green Guide at the Louvre or can I buy it at Barnes & Noble in the U.S.?

We love markets, BTW. Where are some of them located? I will add Place des Vosges to my list. My guidebooks says it's a great place for lunch.

ggreen

I love the idea of a picnic lunch on the Champ de Mars! A baguette, cheese and a few tartlettes... Mmm

You can buy Michelin Green Guide at B&N and elsewhere in the States, in English - whereas you might get stuck with it primarily available <i>en francais</i> once you're there.

Gretchen

Oh, definitely buy it here. There will be a list of markets in it also, I'm sure. YOu will really want to read it and plan before your trip.
I also love the DK Eyewitness Guide to Paris because it organizes "things" by areas--so if you are at Notre Dame, you'll also see many other things around there that you could peek at.
There is a street market somewhere every day, except maybe Monday. Our favorites are Richard Lenoir on Thursdays and pl. Monge on Sunday--only in the mornings. But there are many others.
And then there are the permanent market streets like rue Cler, and others for shop upon shop of goodies. Please don't be driven away from rue Cler by the usual naysayers that it is all American tourists. Believe it or not, Parisian housewives DO shop daily for THEIR meals!! LOL
IF you do your picnic on the Champs, go to rue Cler and get your sandwiches--don't forget the wine!!

Cathinjoetown

Unless you were planning a dinner cruise, you might consider using the bateau bus to get around on your Musee D'orsay day. It would combine being on the river with getting you from point to point. www.bateaubus.com

Very near your hotel is a casual, reasonable restaurant we like a lot, La Boussole. Turn left out of hotel, left into Place St Sulpice, left on rue des cannettes, the first street on right is rue guisarde, restaurant is #12 www.la-boussole.com

Not about Paris but I would check with your daughter on size of her friend's car to ensure it will hold your luggage!

Have a great time!