11 days to go - ? on Paris itinerary
 

I'm pretty excited that we're this close to our departure for Paris. Back in March, it seemed light years away. The itinerary has changed a tad.

Is there anything we've got scheduled on Thurs or Sat you think we might do on Thursday afternoon/evening following our Versailles visit? Or, might we be too pooped to go anywhere but our apartment?

Thursday
Explore neighborhood and beyond
Invalides, Champs Elysees
Sunset visit to Tour Eiffel

Friday
Versailles

Saturday
Morning visit to Roland Garros
Picnic lunch at Jardin de Luxembourg
St. Chapelle & 2:30 p.m. Notre Dame tour
More wandering/Dinner Montmartre/Sacre Coeur
Seine night cruise

CDG-

Some ideas for Friday:

Go to Tour Montparnasse for a 360 view of a Paris sunset (you cannot have too many sunsets – EVER, right?)
or...
Hike up the stairs at Arc de Triomphe for sunset.
or...
A mellow walk thru the streets of Paris would be called for and dart into a nice café at random.

Sometimes it is best to just see what happens, esp in Paris!

If it were me, I would hit a working class brasserie (I frequent one in the 15th and one in the 20th on my trips to Paris) and knock back a few beers and discuss the local history (re: Versailles) and ask the locals if there was a bit of info I may have missed in my tour or my history book. I have found it is a great ice-breaker when I'm in a less touristy area - any French history will do!

Versailles was never a full day thing for me, in fact, I was able to get a decent self tour of Versailles AND hit Disney Paris for the second half of the day.

~Jay

Hi CDG,

I suggest that you just leave the tme open and see how you feel when you come back from Versailles.

There is no need to plan every moment.

You can always just take a walk along the river.

Enjoy your visit.

((I))

CDG,

I like Ira's idea of just taking a long walk along the river.
Surely you will find food and beverage along the way. :)

If you dont mind..
Im kindly hijacking your thread to ask couples where they consider "our" place is in Paris.
Be it a romantic restaurant, park, bridge, or wherever.

Invalides and the Champs Elysées are not exactly next door to one another - not sure I'd group them on the same day.

And like the others, I'd recommend just a good wander around. I fail to understand the need to plan every moment of a trip to Paris. I do "get" that you want to make the most of your time there, but to me Paris is a place that comes to me, not a place I come to.

Thanks for your replies y'all!

Jay - I can't believe you did both Versailles and Disney the same day. Most Fodorites say the former requires a good protion of, if not all day. I guess we'll see next week! :-)

Jetset - No worries about hijacking. That's an interesting question... ;-)


Ira & St. Cirq - Actually, I think our itinerary is fairly loose. My intent is not to add anything. My question is whether or not you think there's something on Thursday or Saturday that could/should be moved to Friday afternoon/evening...

topping

hi CDG,

from a time perspective, i can see how a fellow traveler did versailles and disney in one day ... we were back in paris from versailles around 2 pm. and that included a leisurely lunch in versailles. however, we were pooped so we had a fairly afternoon after versailles. you can find my trip report by clicking on my name.

i notice that you have versailles on a friday ... are the fountains on? if not, then maybe the exterior/gardens won't take you that long. are you planning to hit the trianons/hameau? it all depends on what you're interested in.

i will echo the other posters' sentiments ... try to leave some room for lounging. i'm a super type-a planner and i had seven days packed to the max. by day 5 (our versailles day), we were exhausted. and because i STILL couldn't get to a bunch of sites/places, we're going back again this fall! there will always be a 'next time'. :)

have a great trip!

lilaki