You have all been a great help in assisting in planning our latest trip to Italy and France. Your input on other trips has always been “right on” so I am confident that your advice will serve us well this time too.

Our story:

We are visiting Italy and France with friends in June 2009. Italy is figured out (thanks all!) but we are now planning Paris. We only have 2 full days (3 nights) in Paris before heading to Lyon for 3 days. I know, I know, not enough time, but it’s the best we could do. We fly into Beauvais Airport from Pisa on Tuesday, June 30th 6:30pm (so will probably arrive at our hotel around 9 or 9:30pm) We have explored other options trying to arrive in Paris earlier in the day but this appears to be the best choice. We will take the train to Lyon on Friday, July 3rd. Perhaps we could squeeze one thing in that morning.

We currently have reservations for Hotel Muguet in the 7th. If we are able to get into Hotel Champ de Mars we will do that, because of the dollar savings. We have come up with a list of things we want to do/see during our time in Paris. Now we are trying to figure out the order and how to group our sightseeing. For those of you who have helped me plan Italy, you will remember that I have arthritis so I really need to plan my day, sights and how we get there. So, with that being said, here is our list. I appreciate any help on how to go about this. Go easy on me, this is our 1st trip to Paris, so am feeling pretty in the dark. Also, worked into all of this is finding the best pastry, macaroon, sitting at sidewalk cafes and watching the world go by and a picnic lunch with wonderful French bread and cheese. We had also thought of signing up for a Paris Greeter. We had one in New York City and thought it was great !

Eiffel Tower : view from Trocadero Square, maybe go to 2nd level
The Louvre look at the outside (we don’t have enough time, so are giving it up for the D’Orsay and L’Orangerie)
St. Sulpice
Arc de Triumph/Champ d’Ellyse
Notre Dame (outside tour?)
St. Chappelle
D'Osay Museum (someone mentioned lunch with a great view there also)
Twilight boat ride down the Seine
Musee de l'Orangerie

Merci !

Try to go to one of the late afternoon/early evening concerts at Ste Chapelle. The windows are beautiful as the sun is setting and the music (we heard Pachelbel and Vivaldi) is magical. The concert is short enough that it will leave you most of the evening to do something else. You can buy tickets at a FNAC store, but we bought ours right at the SC door and had our pick of seats. Then you can go on your boat ride. It doesn't really have to be at twilight -- the nighttime ride is lovely.

I'm jealous! Can I come? [-o<

Here's an idea for getting around between sights: http://preview.tinyurl.com/2zsw8z

The Ste. Chappelle concert sounds wonderful, thannks. It looks like it would make sense to see that at the same time we see Notre Dame. I have heard there are free English tous on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. Sure, you can come goddesstogo...you know where to find us !

The bus seems like the way to go for transportation, so thanks for the info Robespierre.

We want to go to the d'orsay one day and ;'orangerie the next. They seem to be in the same area. What sights (that I have listed) would you combine on each day in the morning and/or afternoon? It is hard not having been there to look at a map and know which are the best combinations for the best use of our short time in Paris.

Thanks again.

For marking your map use post it flag and point to each sight you want to see. You'll quickly have an idea which sights are close to one another.

You can walk from the Arch of Triumph to the Louvre, passing the Place de la Concorde and Orangerie Museum. After the Orangerie walk through the Tuilerie gardens to the Louvre. The Orangerie is small and shouldn't take more than 1 to 1.5 hours. The Tuileries is filled with sculpture and flowers. You can sit and rest here.

If you feel you want to do both museums in one day, cross the river and turn right to the Orsay.

You can buy tickets to both museums on line. The Orsay tickets are good for a year; not sure about the Orangerie tickets but you can check on their web site.

Notre Dame tours are Wed & Thurs at 2:00 and Saturday at 2:30. They do sometimes change the times as the tours used to be at noon. I highly recommend these tours (did the tour twice). After (or before the tour if there is time) go behind ND where there is a small garden. If you continue toward the river you'll be near the Deportation Memorial dedicated to the French who were transported to the camps. This Memorial will take about 10 minutes and is worth seeing.

Ste-Chappelle is near ND so you can do this after the ND tour (I think afternoon light is better).

From St-Sulpice turn right on rue Bonaparte. There is a lovely bakery on the left side (Pierre Herve, I think). Lots of goodies here. Don't buy too much since there's more to come.

Continue walking down rue Bonaparte. At the intersection of Blvd St-Germain (on the left) is the Deux Maggot cafe - very famous. After fortifying yourselves here walk across rue Bonaparte to see St-Germain-des-Pres church. It's painted as Gothic churches originally were.

After S-G-d-P church turn right on rue Bonaparte and in a short block or two you'll see La Duree pastery shop. This is the home of the famous macaroon (although you can find them equally delicious and less expensive elsewhere). Buy a few to take out.

You can find someplace in the area to eat dinner and take the Seine cruise with Vedettes de Pont Neuf (print coupon from their web site). They are located off the Pont Neuf (go down the stairs). I think the 10:30 boat will bring you to the Eiffel Tower at 11:00 and you'll be very close to the tower to see it glitter on the hour. If it's a cool day bring a sweater as the top deck is open.

Forgot about the Eiffel Tower. Do it on day 1 and go around 6:00 if you want to go up. The tours buses have departed by then and people are returning to their hotels to get ready for dinner. I wouldn't spend the money or time to go to the third level since you can see very little - all the buildings are very compressed from that height.

You can walk from the Orsay or take the metro. The Champs de Mars stop is on the same line as the Orsay (RER C). Follow the signs in the metro for direction Versailles R.G.

adrienne---Thanks for the tip on the internet savings coupon for Vedettes du Pont Neuf. It's our favorite boat tour in Paris and we plan to do a night cruise this time.

tpayt - your're very welcome. I've done both day and night rides and really like the night one with all the lights.

The coupon is only 2 euro per person but all savings help. Here's the link:

http://www.vedettesdupontneuf.com/billet_en.php

We stayed at the Muguet last summer and loved it. Very clean and well kept, and we had the most amazing view of the Eiffel Tower from one of our rooms. The other room had a great view of Invalides. Location was good too, IMO.

As for the Vedettes ride, there is the coupon but you can also just purchase tour tickets online which saves yet another 2 euro, so it is 4 euro off of the full price. We printed out our tickets and took those with us. There is no set day or time, so you can use them whenever you want. We went just before sunset, and were glad to have the printed tickets as we bypassed the ticket line and went straight to the boat and chose our seats.

With such limited time I would cross the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysées off my list. If you're going up the Eiffel Tower you can see them from up there, and really, that's sufficient, especially for the Champs Elysées, which is nothing more than a broad avenue lined with American stores.

If you have a decent map of Paris, which you should have, it's not hard to mark the places you want to see that are close to each other and plan a route. Add a métro and bus map and it's a breeze to organize your days for the maximum effect.

Thsnks so much for the great information. I have read that Streetwise Paris is a good map, would you agree? We had Streetwise Venice and I liked that it is laminated. Of course, we still got lost, but can anyone be in Venice and NOT get lost?

Again, thank you.

yes, I think Streetwise is a very good map -- the only thing I dislike about it is that it cuts off the map at an area that is too close to the center for my taste (it isn't all of Paris). They assume tourists who buy that map have no reason to go to those parts. I prefer a Paris map that actually lists all of Paris. However, for a first-time tourist, it probably is sufficient.

I wouldn't miss the Champs-Elysees myself, there is nothing like that in any other city in the world IMO, and it is very important historically and culturally, and in terms of city planning and layout. Viewing it from way afar from the Eiffel Tower won't be anything similar at all to the vista you get actually on it. I can't imagine going to Paris for the first time and not seeing that. You don't have to spend tons of time there, but if you go to the Louvre, for example, it's not far, at least it is close to walk from the Place de la COncorde and Tuileries to the beginning of it and see the vista (which I prefer looking up).

It is an avenue with stores, sure, so there is no need to spend time on it, per se (but most of the stores are not American that I can recall, they are French or other countries, like Zara is a SPanish company). Some car dealers, as I recall (but I don't remember any American ones). I can't recall a single American store except the Gap, although there probably are others. I actually like to go over there a day whenever I'm in Paris, I like to browse in Virgin and FNAC and a few other places, they have a few good movie theatres and somehow I end up there at one time or another. It can be awfully crowded, of course, but in a way, seeing the masses of humanity and tourists on the Champs-Elysees (from all countries) is an interesting exercise in itself.

I would definitely put seeing the Champs-Elysees above seeing St Sulpice, that's for sure--at least from the bottom (there is a small park down there, and actually you can't miss it if you go to the Grand or Petit Palais -- the latter is wonderful since reopening), and then you can see the Pont Alexandre bridge. I really would not miss it.

Why are you so interested in St Sulpice? There are many interesting and beautiful churches in Paris, that's just not one I've ever been that fond of or one I repeatedly go back to. It's been under a lot of construction the last few years, also, if I recall correctly -- tons of scaffolding around it, doesn't look like much.

If you are going to see stained glass windows, do it on a reliably sunny day, tour or no tour, music or no music.

Also, be sure to take time to rest your feet in the great gardens of Paris and enjoy them. (The Champs des Mars is the least interesting.) In fact, if the weather is fine, I would put seeing gardens in June over seeing paintings in museums. The paintings can be taken off the walls and shown in other museums near you. The gardens are among Paris's greatest artworks, and they don't travel.

Whew..so much to see. Here's my shot.

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Get a good night sleep.

Day 1:
See the Eiffel tower and the Champs du Mars first thing in the morning.

Go to the Musee d"Orsay for afternoon.

Ask hotel concierge for neighborhood restaurant. Freshen up and go out to dinner and take a cruise on the Seine (to see all the other sights you won't have time for)

Day 2: Head to the Lourve and the Tuileries Jardin.

Have another dinner in Paris and see a concert at Sainte Chapelle.

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