Jocelyn_P

Hi,

I'm going to Paris in June with my DH for 7.5 days. I thought that would be plenty of time to see the major sights and leave time for relaxing, but now that I plot out all that I want to do, I see that 7.5 days is still not enough! I have been to Paris before, a quick 4 day trip this Feb, but it's DH's first time. I want this to be a slow paced week with time for sleeping in, cafe sitting, and reading in the park. We'll be eating cheap and won't be putting a lot of research into restaurants. We're going light on museums, heavy on relaxing and enjoying quality time together. We're staying in an apartment in the 16th on Rue de Passy. I plan to get a carnet of metro/bus tickets. I feel relatively comfortable with the metro system but haven't tried the bus yet. Please tell me what you would do to improve this skeletal itinerary:

Sunday: arrive CDG 9:30am. Explore Passy neighborhood, Trocadero, Eiffel Tower, Parc du Champs de Mars

Monday: Ste Chapelle, Notre Dame, Isle St Louis, St Germain, Luxembourg Gardens, St Sulpice, Laduree.

Tuesday: Louvre (English tours at 11, 2, 3:45?), Tuileries, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe

Wednesday: 10:30 Paris Walks’ Montmartre, Giverny in afternoon?

Thursday: Versailles

Friday: 10:30 Paris Walks’ Hemingway’s Paris

Saturday: Degas’ Parc Monceau/Grand Boulevards walk

Sunday: Giverny in am (if not on Wed), Marais/Place des Vosges

Monday: back to the States.

Whenever we feel like it:
Seine cruise at night
Monet museum
Wine museum?
Rodin museum?
D’Orsay?

Jocelyn_P

I forgot to add that I'm not confident about times/days of the Paris Walks tours. RIght now the schedule on their website is for April so I may have to adjust when the June schedule is released.

mamc

If you haven't been to Giverny, you must go. However, I would suggest that you take an early train on a weekday and get there when it opens to avoid some of the crowds.

elle

It does sound like a lot. Not impossible, but there's not much room for error.

Why don't you make two lists? One of "must sees" and another one of things that you'd like to see if it makes sense factoring in timing, location, fatigue etc.

Sunday sounds fine, especially if your plan arrives on time and you're not too tired. Monday and Tuesday sound okay too. The days that seem most problematic to me are the ones where you're trying to squeeze in Giverny and something else, e.g. Marais, Montmartre. You're not giving yourself much allowance for serendipity there.

veronica53

It's a lot, but if you allow yourself to bail out of your plan if it becomes undoable then you'll be all right. I always go to EUROPE with an overambitious itinerary for each city. I also allow my husband to go back to the hotel any time he wants, since he's less compulsive about seeing the sights than I am.

Jocelyn_P

Okay, I just found on the Paris Walks website that they do the Montmartre tour on Sunday all year. So, assuming there is a Hemingway's tour on Friday, I could do this instead:

Sunday: arrive CDG 9:30am. Explore Passy neighborhood, Trocadero, Eiffel Tower, Parc du Champs de Mars

Monday: Ste Chapelle, Notre Dame, Isle St Louis, St Germain, Luxembourg Gardens, St Sulpice, Laduree

Tuesday: Louvre (English tours at 11, 2, 3:45?), Tuileries, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe

Wednesday: Giverny

Thursday: Versailles

Friday: 10:30-12:30 Paris Walks’ Hemingway’s Paris, Marais/Place des Vosges

Saturday: Degas’ Parc Monceau/Grand Boulevards walk (without stopping at all the museums)

Sunday: 10:30-12:30 Montmartre tour with Paris Walks

Monday: back to the States.

Whenever we feel like it:
Seine cruise at night
Monet museum
Wine museum?
Rodin museum?
D’Orsay?

I am planning on the Seine river cruise and the Monet museum, but the other museums are certainly not must-dos.

Dave_in_Paris

But Jocelyn, eating cheap and research aren't mutually exclusive! Especially if you want to eat cheap and well. (I can't believe I'm saying this. Most of the time I think the "heavy planners" should lighten up.)

HowardR

First of all, go with the idea that you probably won't be able to see and do everything on your list. We were there for two weeks and didn't do it all!
While your itinerary is doable, you probably will want to back off a little if you truly want a relaxing vacation, because your itinerary sure ain't relaxing!
Monday and Tuesday, for example, if followed, would be very active, non-relaxing days. To truly enjoy Luxembourg Gardens, for example, you must spent time just sitting and observing the passing scene.
Try to fit Giverny in during the week, when it will be less crowded.

Jocelyn_P

Dave in Paris,

I hear you about the restaurant planning, but in the past I've done lots of restaurant research and it ends up being time wasted, because we never seem to be near a recommended place when we get hungry. We've had relatively good success in the past by using our instincts and our noses.

My poor DH is so conflicted when it comes to vacation. If I plan an active trip he says he doesn't want to do so much walking, let's take it easy this time. So, I slow down the itinerary and he says, so, are we just going to sit around all week??? LOL I've front-loaded this rough itinerary with the important stuff, which we can push back if we need to. If we run out of gas towards the end of the week, well, not that big a deal, we've done the most important stuff. Thanks for the input.

Scarlett

One evening -t ry to go to the 7th for dinner, then you can walk around the Invalides, Rodins Museum/Gardens and the Eiffel Tower (before and after eating)
It all sounds great, you know that if you two get tired, you can rest in the apt or a park..if you miss seeing something, that is what the Next Trip is for

Christina

I think it seems pretty relaxed, actually, I don't see it as so packed, except for Wednesday. I wouldn't plan any major walking tour the same day as a day trip outside of town. YOu don't have anything on the schedule Friday other than the morning walk, so that gives you leeway.

In your Passy exploration, I would add in the "maison de Balzac" museum which I think is free entry, anyway. It's only a block or so from market street rue de l'Annonciation which you may be wanting to explore anyway, and it's near the wine museum.

If you have time and your husband is interested, you might fit in the Marine Museum as long as you are staying in that area (at Trocadero). I really enjoyed it a lot and it's one of those you can see things you want and be in/out in an 1-2 hours. I think they are having some special exhibit about Jules Verne now. I really enjoyed seeing Napoleon's boat and the history of carved figureheads on ships, etc.

I'm not saying this is a must-see given you have your own list of things to do you don't have time for, of course, but as long as you are right there, it's something I enjoyed.

Dave_in_Paris

Jocelyn,

My "impromptu" restaurant repertoire consists of the following: Look for Routard decals on the door or the windows. The French Routard guidebooks point out reasonably priced restaurants with decent to tasty food. And look for places that are nearly full of younger people. They're most likely to be inexpensive or good -- and maybe both.

ira

Hi JP,

>...now that I plot out all that I want to do, I see that 7.5 days is still not enough! <

Of course not. Paris isn't Baltimore, MD.

I also suggest that you make a list of the 7 "must sees" and schedule one of them each day.

Make a list of 7 2nd level wishes and schedule one of them each day.

Make a list of tertiary wishes and schedule one of them each day.

Overplan each day.

Forget your schedule.

My Lady Wife and I have spent many weeks in Paris and keep finding more things that we missed.

For our upcoming visit, I know that we will not see all of what's on our list.

I suggest that you put on your must see list:
Sunday brunch at the Jacquemart-Andre' Museum, a visit to the museum and a walk through the Parc Monceau. If there is time, walk to the Arc, stroll down the Champs and take the Metro home.

Boots

Jocelyn,
Were I doing this, I would buy a Carte Orange Hebdomadaire on Monday morning. It will be good through the following Sunday and will allow you on all métros and buses in zones 1 & 2. Then I would ride the buses. If you get lost, cross the street and ride back. I know crossing the street doesn't always work, but you will be near another bus stop. It is a wonderful way to see Paris.
Enjoy!
Boots

RonZ

Your bus is the 32, and you can look up the route on the RATP web site.

If you want to try the buses, buy a copy of "le Bus," a cheap pocket sized booklet with route maps of all 80 lines.

Jocelyn_P

You all are the best! Question about the bus: does one ticket cover one ride on one bus, or is it like Italy where you can ride on any bus for a specified period of time? Do you need to validate the ticket on the bus? How?

Christina, thanks for the specific info about Passy.

Dave in Paris, what a great tidbit of information! We'll definitely watch for the Routard decals.

Scarlett, I'll make sure we wander around the 7th at some point as I really enjoyed that area. We're not that far away, so it would be a great destination for dinner. Do you have to buy a ticket to the Rodin museum to walk through the garden? Is the garden open/lit up in the evenings?

ira, you always make me smile. I do have the Parc Monceau on my list. I saw that thread by degas and it sounds like a wonderful way to spend a day.

Scarlett

Hi Jocelyn~
We have always gone to the Rodin in the daytime, I do not believe they are open past 5:30-6:00 pm.
You pay seperately to go to just the gardens, not very much I think.
If you arrived in the late afternoon, by the time you have finished with the gardens and other 7th sights, you will be ready for dinner
BTW- we just this morning received a couple of special offers from Walid who owns the Paris Pied a Terres..a beautiful duplex in Passy was available..I will have to share this one with you and the Yankee

ira

Hi JP,

>...does one ticket cover one ride on one bus, ...<

As best I know, your bus ticket is good for only one bus - no transfers as on the metro.

Christina

Ira is right, a single ticket is good for only the ride on that bus, no transfers to another bus. That's why a pass of some kind is useful if you plan to take buses a lot. You must always validate single tickets no matter where you use them (bus or metro), otherwise you could just keep using the same ticket forever. There is a composting machine near the bus driver that you stick your ticket in to mark it used. If you have a Carte Orange pass, you don't do that, just flash it open to the driver, showing the ticket with the date on it. You are supposed to stick a Mobilis ticket pass in those machines also, the Mobilis ticket says so. The reason is that the Carte Orange is automatically limited by time that is on the ticket, whereas the other tickets are not, they are effective once you use them (the Mobilis actually is put in effect the first time you use it, but is not inherently bought for a specific date).

I've used several bus lines over that area -- the 32 goes down rue de Passy (going east) and then over to the Right Bank near the large dept. stores, bd Haussman and the Opera. The 22 is another useful bus that goes near there but takes a slightly different route but goes over to about the same area. The 63 is a useful bus that has a stop near the Passy cemetery and Trocadero and then goes over to St-Germain, the Latin Qtr and finally Gare de Lyon. Depending where you are going, you might find the metro more convenient. The line with the Passy stop is good because it goes north to the Arc/Etoile and also east to the Eiffel tower and then over to Montparnasse.

Donzo

Paris is wonderful: Rhodin Museum is great if you like powerful sculpture and is in a great and central neighborhood. I would get the illustrated version of DaVinci Code. I like the Parisian buses: fewer steps, more city scape, more contact with locals. BTW I am looking for nice family restuarants/eateries in the Porte D'Italie area. I am going cheap - air/3*hotel for two out of New Orleans
for less than $1300