On May 5th our cruise will be at port in Le Havre. We will take the train to Paris and spend 6 hours there on our own. We have never been to Paris so my plan was this. First I wanted to visit the Eiffel Tower, then maybe walk or take a train/bus to the Arc de Triomphe and walk Champs-Elysees and stop there for lunch. See the Musee Du Louvre for an hour or two. Any help and suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you.

By "visit the Eiffel Tower" do you mean actullay going up the tower? You can see the Eiffel Tower from everywhere - but the queues for going up it are VERY long during the day. And you also often have to wait to take the elevator back down. So w/ just a few hours you might spend more than a 1/3 of it just waiting to go up and down the Eiffel Tower.

Also - the Champs Elysees may be an "icon" of Paris - but there are much more charming areas to walk/have lunch. It is really just a very wide very busy street.

If it were me - I'd go to the Louvre first. Get it out of the way at the beginning. If you use one of the side entrances there are seldon long lines. (actually w/ just 6 hours I probably wouldn't go to the Louvre except to see it from the outside. It is so massive and any really short visit will be pretty unsatisfying)

Then I'd walk from there to Ile de la Cite and visit Notre Dame/Ste Chapelle and find a cafe near there. There are MANY w/i a short walk on both sides of the river and on the island.

Then if you still have time - jump on one of the boats at Pont Neuf. The boat trip will take about 45 minutes and will take you down to the Eiffel Tower and back.

I've been two Paris 7 times for two weeks each. This is what I'd do. Skip the louvre and skip going up the Eiffel tower. Skip the Arc and the Champs. Ask a cab driver to drive you to see the things you want to see - I'd drive past louvre, arc, whatever. Then DEFINEtely visit the Notre Dame Cathedral - go in to the main sanctuary but not on tour.

Maybe just take the metro straight to the ND and then eat lunch and then take the cab drive and then stop at a cafre by La tour eiffel (eiffel tower - and do some strolling. I'd visit a flower shop for sure - you'll never see one like that here.

And drink champagne. Someone here can [probably tell you where to eat and where to drink.

And definitely take the bateau mouches up the seine.

Someone here can help you figure out how to link up those things. You'll definitely want to go back.

Enjoy chere madame.

You need to find out which station your train will arrive at--probably Gare du Nord. From there you could taxi to the Madeleine I mention at the end and get the sightseeing bus (hop on hop off--you buy tickets on the bus.)
Look at the Eiffel Tower from afar and enjoy the sweep of Paris.
Get on one of the sightseeing buses that do the major sites of central Paris. You will get to look up the Champs and that will be enough. Go to Notre Dame and take a look.
Walk out on one of the bridges and see the Seine.
Don't bother with the Louvre--it will be frustrating and time consuming. You will enjoy seeing the pyramid from the outside, then walk across the street to the petite carrousel and look up through the Tuilleries to the Arc de Triomphe.
Go to the Madeleine church and walk up the street to the square that includes Fauchon, Cafe de la Paix, Maille mustard shop, Hediard, Petrosian. The sightseeing bus (hop on hop off) stops there.

I think your plan is actually pretty good, I don't see anything wrong with it. I think anyone who hasn't been to Paris should see the Arc de Triomphe/CHamps Elysees and that makes sense to walk down it to the Louvre.

I think your plan is fine. YOu might want to do the hopon/off bus, and it will go around to these places. I think you can get it at Gare du Nord (one of them, anyway), if that's where you arrive. Here is the website, check out the circuit
http://www.paris-opentour.com/

Also, the metro (underground) goes directly from the Eiffel Tower over the the Arc de Triomphe, so that would be easy.

I agree the middle islands and Notre Dame would be something to see, also, and you'd have to decide if you can fit it in or if you prefer that to the Louvre or whatever. Everybody has their own preferences on what is most important to them. It's not that far from the Louvre.

I would agree to skip walking the Champs Elysess and just have a quick look at the Eiffel Tower. Do some things that are really Parisian. If that's the Louvre for you fine - do a couple of galleries. but I would never miss Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle and the Cluny Museum - things you won;t see anywhere else. And you can grab a quick lunch on the Ile de la Cite.

For a quick "drive-by" overview, try my self-conducted bus tour: http://tinyurl.com/c2tgo

Use the "Day trip from London" transport arrangements.

Oh my! Thank you for your suggestions. I guess I still have a lot of homework to do, but I appreciate everyone's input.

I understand that going up the Eiffel Tower is very time consuming, but this is something we all would love to do. Let's say it will take 2 hours to do. As suggested above I can then take the train to Arc de Triomphe and walk down Champs-Elysees for lunch. After reading your suggestions I agree that it might only be possible to see the Musee Du Louvre from the outside this time. If time is still available I would like to the Notre Dame from the outside and may be a boat ride before returning to Le Havre. Oh, and I won't forget to drink Champagne.

I know this will be a very superficial visit to Paris and as you all know is impossible to see it all in 6 hours so I don't intend to do that. Two or Three major sites will do for now, but I promise to return with more time to get lost in this beautiful city.

Thank you all again!

It takes over an hour to walk from the Arc de Triomphe to the Louvre. Are you sure that's how you want to use ~20% of your time in the City of Light?

And speaking of walking, I don't recommend taking the Métro from the ET to the AdT - by the time you walk to the station at Bir-Hakeim, you could be halfway to Étoile on the N° 82 bus (change to the 30 or 32 at Boissière). The bus stop is a few feet from the West Pillar.

I'd take the half day bus tour and spend 2 hours having a nice lunch, something that should not be missed. Simple but effective if you only have 6 hours.

I recommend you look on this website for a "hop on & off" bus tour of Paris, which we did last week when we were there. It offers 4 loops that takes you to all the sights with recorded information that you can listen to. Each loop takes one hour, and the bus runs every 15 minutes.

http://www.paris-opentour.com/index_eng.htm

One thing I enjoy the most everytime I go to Paris is a cruise on the Seine. It also takes one hour.

Enjoy your 6 hours in Paris!

You will arrive at the Gare St Lazare.

From there I would take a taxi to the Eiffel Tower, perhaps asking the driver to pass by the Arc de Triomphe.

At the Eiffel Tower I would board the Batobus and ride it down to the Notre Dame stop.

http://www.batobus.com/english/boat-...ris-seine.html

After exploring this area, probably visiting Notre Dame and Saint Chapelle,
I'd make my way over to the Louvre by way of the Pont des Arts.

From the Louvre I'd take the 95 city bus back to the gare.

Thank you, Great Suggestions!

The Batobus is active now and is a great way to see most of the sights from the river. It's public transporation and there is no commentary, but you surely will recognize what you see without that. It's 11 Euros for a day pass. You can get on and off at any of the stops.

Sorry for missing the previous post with the same info and my misspelling...am at work and trying to be quick; didn't proof. And jet lagged from having return from Paris on Monday and back at work - ugh.

I just got back a few weeks ago and had about the same time in Paris. We first saw Notre Dame(took Metro)( did not take too long to go through it) and then we went to Ste Chappelle. It was hard to find because it is inside what is now a judicial compound. Don't miss this one. The stained glass windows upstairs are so wonderful it took my breath away!!!
We then walked to the Louvre and only saw the Mona Lisa(okay but not that great!)Winged Victory and a few other things. We then took the metro to the Arc and climbed the 280 steps to the top and saw a big protest. We then did the Eiffel Tower. Only go to the second level, but there were some lines there. That thing is huge! Don't take any time to shop just keep on going! People told me I could not do it and I did!

The batobus is in my plan for these wonderful 6 hours, and I think that Getoutthere's strategy my work for me. Thank you so much, everyone!!!