3 days in Paris
 

We have 3 days in Paris. We don't have the time to fully appreciate the museums like the Louvre, but just want a general overview of the sights. We're thinking of possibly doing a city tour on a bus toget a good overview & then decide what parts we like best. What do you guys recommend in 3 days - what's the best?

We will be in Paris, arriving Sat. morning after int'l flight, & stay through either Tues or Weds. I've heard that Paris is totally dead on Sundays, no stores are open & there's nothing to do but go to museums. Is this true??

The Michelin Green Guide usually has nice outlines for city visits of two to four days, as well as several itineries to choose from.

If you take in 1 major site in the morning and one in the afternoon you should be able to visit most of the major sites in 3 days. Invalides, Eiffel tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur and perhaps one other site.

Keeping it to one in the morning & one in the afternoon will keep you from being exhausted & rushed.

Hi,
Groups in guided tours do in 3 days all the main monuments, 2 museums and Versailles ! Depends on the pace you want to live for these 3 days.
I'd suggest you can have a day wandering from Champs-Elysées-Arc de triomphe to Concorde, Jardin des Tuileries and Le Louvre-Palais Royal. All these places are aligned in the same perspective. In that same day, you walk up to Place Vendôme, Madeleine and Opera, which is very close. Get 1 hour and a half guided tour in Le Louvre, you should be able to integrate a larger group. Don't have regrets afterwards to have missed this.
Then you can spend another day visiting quartier latin, Notre-dame and also St-Louis Island. There are many pittoresque old streets, little restaurants and nice boutiques.
For the third day, I would say Le Marais, which is also one of the oldest neighborhoods, and the Eigffel Tower with Trocadéro. Montmartre can be seeing in one evening.
Enjoy your stay !

We are thinking of doing the Louvre Sunday morning, and the afternoon possibly heading to Versailles - is this possible in one day? Are there any other great sights/castles surrounding Paris that we could see on Sunday? We are trying to find things outside the city (or a museum) since a lot of places are closed on Sun.

bookmarking

Two castles (check for Sunday hours): Vincennes, at the east end of Métro Ligne 1, and Chantilly, a half-hour train ride north to Senlis.

I think Sunday in Paris is great! Go down to the Marais. It's very busy and lots of stores and food places open, especially after 12:00. The small museums should be open; Carnavalet, Victor Hugo. Places des Vosges is a very nice area with musicians under the arcade. Canal St. Martin is a fun boat ride from the Bastille to Parc de Villette. People watching and strolling along the river are also big on sundays in Paris. Picnic in any park, of which there are many. Just soak in the atmosphere and relax. We have done several "small" trips to Paris. Don't try to do too much. Don't try to travel too far. I have been to Versaille and wasn't all that impressed. It can be very crowded. Try the Marais.

Agree with Opaldog . . Don't feel compelled to see Versailles - for sure doing the Louvre and Versailles in one day is not recommended - too much effort getting from point A to B. The sites that Cheribob mentioned are fine - may want to add either Musee D'Orsay and/or Chapel St. Chappel. Be sure to get a museum pass proir to going if you can - will cut down on the lines. And one final note - in most guides are a list of great views of Paris - pick any two - no more, and do one in the day and one at night. I was able to watch the sun set one evening from the top of the Arc - it was probably the highlight of my trip.

I also am a bit skeptical about Versailles - mother-in-law is highly suggesting it. I looked at photos, looks nice, but not really spectacular?? I will look into the other places mentioned.. We want to make the most of our time!

Actually, A and B are only about 40 minutes apart by RER. From the Louvre, walk across the river to the Musée d'Orsay station and take the train to Versailles Rive Gauche.

The palaces are open until 18h30, and the gardens until sundown. Every summer Saturday and Sunday night, there are concerts, fireworks, and fountain displays. <b>Spectacular</b> is the only word that describes it.

I've been to Paris several times, the last time for a week, and I've never been to Versailles. Something about the grandeur and the excess, all supported by starving peasants. But there's lots to do and see in 3 days in Paris. I'd stay in town. Maybe you could add a boat trip on the Seine. We took a walking tour of Marseilles, which was enjoyable.

If you're organizing a &quot;wretched excess&quot; tour, remember to skip the Louvre, Conciergerie, Tuileries, Palais Royal, Grand Palais, Petit Palais, Orangerie, Jeu de Paume, Luxembourg, and about 200 other venues.

If you've never seen a Versailles spectacle, you've missed France altogether.

http://www.chateauversailles-spectac...arit_total.php

We were in Paris for 3 days and saw almost all the sites. Check out Rick Steves book about 3 day itenerary. Go to Versailles on Sunday - its beautiful. Get the museum pass and bypass all the lines. Check out the days the Louvre and D'Orsay are closed ( i think its tuesday or monday ) and arrange your schedule around that.
Try to work in some time to just walk around a bit - Paris is a beautiful city and just walking around, window shopping, sitting in a sidewalk cafe is great.
Enjoy your trip.

Thanks for all the tips! Much appreciated!!

As you can see there is some controversy about the adviseability of Versailles, and that controversy is not limited to this thread. With all due respect to Robespierre, who admittedly knows more than I do about France, the train ride itself is 40 min, then add the time to find the station, wait for the next train, walk from Versailles rive Gauche to the chateau, then reverse the whole process, and now we're talking about a serious bunch of time that will bite a big percentage out of a 3 day itinerary. . And mind you, I like trains. But to me, the trip to Versailles is just one more extravagent place in a city of extravagent places, listed so eloquently above. But if you must go, you'll have a lovely time. . . :)

Cross the Pont Royal and turn right. The RER is 100 meters along. 5 minutes total.

Trains from Mus&eacute;e to Versailles Rive Gauche run every 15 minutes throughout the day.

RER 40 minutes.

Walk from Versailles RG to Ch&acirc;teau: 10 minutes.

Bite out of itinerary: 55 minutes minimum, 70 maximum. If you take your lunch on the train, you won't even notice the time. Besides, a little sitting will be a welcome break from the morning's activities.

Go to the Versailles web site and make your own decision to attend or not. It is an exceptional place, but you only have three days. What is important to you?

i can see to that Versailles is controversial - we will be doing more research this weekend into all the places listed &amp; see what is our priority. Like I said earlier, MIL had suggested it as a &quot;must-see&quot; &amp; to do it on Sunday since most shops, etc. are closed. I've been to the website, it looks very nice - but in my books, nothing specatular. I've been to several castles in Europe that I think are much better.

Go to the link above and click <i>spectacles</i>.

Versailles is where the French Revolution and World War II began¹. Its historical significance for those two events alone places it head and shoulders above any other castle in Europe.

¹ See &quot;Versailles, Treaty of&quot;

bookmarking!

On our last day in Paris we chose to walk to the Gardens of Luxembourg Palace and we were not disappointed. It is beautiful and grand. We took some sandwiches that we had bought at Paul and strolled over to the Palace and the park. I understand on Sundays it is filled with Parisians and children out enjoying the day and if the weather is nice the park is filled with people out having fun. We took lots of pics. Didn't have to take metros or trains. Strolled back to our hotel in the 6th stopping at a cafe or two on the way. Bought some ice cream and crepes to keep us going. Lovely, lovely day...and relaxing.

I've been to Versailles two times and took tours arranged on the spot each time. Although both were of the main palace they were to different areas which were fascinating. The English speaking guide was amazing and our group was only about 20 people. She managed to take us to rooms and places where we were the only people there which made it very easy to hear and ask questions. Very worthwhile in my opinion but if you only have 3 days I'd skip it as there is so much to see in the city itself.

If you use <u>all</u> of the audioguides provided with the <i>Forfait Loisirs</i>, you will spend about 3½ hours touring the premises. I don't have anything to compare them to, but the recordings seem to take you to all the little nooks and crannies, and give you the lowdown dirt on the royals, too.

The entire venture takes a half-day - or 1/6 (16%) of your time on the ground on a 3-day trip.

I would wait to go to Versailles on a future trip to Paris when you have more than 3 days. There is so much to see and do in Paris. I am addicted and try to get back every year.

Btw, our friends went on our last day in Paris and they came back exhausted. But they had been going on a sightseeing frenzy, trying to see EVERYTHING in our six days in the city. They said that the Hall of Mirrors was half open now, if that means anything in your decision. They did like it, but said it was huge grounds to cover. I think they rode a little train around the estate, which helped to see more of the gardens.

Thanks for the info-bookmarking.

We've decided we're definitely going to Versailles - probably get there early on Sunday. The rest of your advice was great. Now we're looking into hotels that are centrally located. Thanks for the tips!

You don't need to limit your hotel search to the central area. The further away from Notre-Dame you get, the better lodging values you find.

You <u>can't</u> be close to everything, so you're going to spend a certain amount of time enroute from place to place no matter where you stay. We much prefer buses for this purpose. There are about 70 routes within the central zone.

When you've settled on someplace to sleep, ask the hotel which bus lines run nearby. You can print out route maps for each bus by substituting the line numbers for the &quot;17&quot; in the following URL:

http://www.ratp.info/orienter/f_plan...&amp;nompdf=17

(N&deg; 17 is the Balabus that runs up and down the Seine on summer Sunday afternoons.)

Robes -
We are hoping to be in close proximity to at least one sight - preferably the Louvre area. Any suggestions on good hotels?

Can't help you there - we shop further out, where the real estate values aren't so outrageous.

Robes, you mean Batobus boats on the Seine, right?

Angela, we just stayed in the 6th on Rue Bonaparte, very centrally located. LOVED it. They arranged pickups from the airport and they speak English. The location is great, about three blocks one way to the river or three blocks the other way to Rue St. Germaine. It is called St. Germaine des Pres and here is the link:

http://www.hotel-paris-saint-germain...h/Location.htm

No, I mean Balabus. Why don't you click the link?

OK, I clicked the link, but it is hard to see. Is Balobus the bus line and Batobus the boat line?

Angela,

More hotel and activity recommendations. In March, I stayed at the Hotel des Duc de Bourgogne, in the 1st. It's a cozy, clean little 3-star place on Rue de Pont Neuf, just a block and a half from the Seine (so L'Ile de La Cite is just over 5 minutes away) then the Hotel de Vile is a 10 minute walk to the east, and the Louvre just a 10 minute walk to the east. I paid 340 Euros for a 3 night weekend package, Also, 10% of their rooms are designated non-smoking, which was a real plus (I think these are all on one floor).

This was a great base for exploring the Marais. I used Degas's Marais walk, breaking it into two half day segments; see:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34747572

I also took an afternoon to see a few rooms in the Louvre - I'd been before but still wanted to see the salon with the large-scale French works (Delacroix, Gericault, etc) and Mona Lisa again, and still had time to check out a few galleries I hadn't seen before (Egyptian - and Near Eastern antiquities,whichh were pretty amazing).

Because of the great hotel location, I also had time to explore the Ile de Saint Louis in more depth than I'd been able to before, visited Notre Dame again, checked out several great public markets (food and horticultural) on the weekend. It was also a short hop over to St. Germain Des Pres for dinner one night, and again for wine tasting the next day.

Sounds like a lot for 3 days (I did even more, not covered here) but it was a breeze with such a well situated base of operations.

The question Central or Peripheral hotel location is like the question Versailles yes or no. There is no wrong answer and it depends on what you feel you want/need. But on this point I personnally feel Robisphere's advice is right on.

We did the Louvre in the AM and Versailles in the PM last Oct. In the Louvre, we studied the map,and just went to see winged victory, venus de Milo, Mona and the Marley Horses. That took a couple hours. Then we took the train to Versailles and just saw one section and no gardens. If you are the type that moves quickly and are happy with the highlights, do it. It was my 4th trip to Paris, so I was fine with this approach. I know I will go back again!

&quot;Louvre in the AM and Versailles in the PM&quot; is a long day, but doable. Just accept the fact you'll be tired. The good news is that restaurants are open until late, and there are many acceptable bistros, good for a bite or some drinks, 3 to four blocks away from the main chateau gates, so you are in no hurry to leave. As you are approaching the chateau from the north, there is a small tourist office to your left. Nice folks. May want to inquire inside about eating spots and how late the trains run back to Paris if you are going to run late.