Feedback on my 5-day Paris site list.
 

We only have 5 days in Paris (and the first day is arrival day), so I am trying to use the time as efficiently as possible. I have put together the below (somewhat aspirational) site schedule. I would appreciate any comments. Any defects - site is closed on that day, you should really try to see this, etc. Thanks


Thur March 26th - Paris
Ile de la cite - Notre Dame
Vedettes du Pont Neuf (prebook)
Ile St Louis
Les Halles (if time)

Fri March 27, - Paris
Versailles
Musse D'Orsay
St Germain
Luxembourg Gardens
Pantheon (if time)

Sat March 28, - Paris
Rue Cler
Invalids - Napoleon's Tomb
Musee Rodin
Arc de Triomphe
Champes Elysees

Sun March 29, - Paris
Monmartre (walking Tour)
Sacre Coer
Muse D'Orsay
Maris + Place des Voges
Pompidou Center (if time)

Mon March 30, - Paris
Louvre
Musse de lOrangarie
Palis Royal
Eifle Tower (and surrounds)

I wouldn't be able to accomplish most (all?) of these itineraries, but that's me.

I admit I'm a museum junkie, so I'd need/want more time in the Louvre, the d'Orsay (although you have listed it twice), the Rodin museum, etc. The Rodin involves both his house (recently renovated, I believe) and a garden full of sculpture, so you want a day without rain for this.

We spent most of a day at Versailles (including travel to/from), but we had better weather to see the gardens than you might have in late March. I'm not sure how interesting Luxembourg Gardens will be at that time of year.

Whops - good point about listing Musse D'Orsay twice. I only intended it to be listed on the Sunday.

We will be going with teenagers - so - sadly - I doubt they will let us spend much more than an hour or two in each museum.

Yeah - the weather is a real wild-card - hoping for warm-dry.

Looks like a wonderful trip.

Our girls did fine at 14 and 16 exploring and shopping in Paris a couple of days on their own, but they were pretty good with French.

For my own money, I'd buy a Museum Pass so you can swan past the long lines even in March. And then I'd save plenty of time for just being in the streets and cafes.

We spend weeks in Paris with DDs when they were 11 and 14 and 14 and 17 and both times they were very involved in the planning of the trip and at times - esp when they were older - we would divide and conquer - with them spending some time doing teen shopping etc that we didn't want to.

If they are very naive and not used to public transit you may be hesitant to let them trek around alone for long - but I encourage you to try this for some activities if at all possible. And make sure that they have at least the basic polite phrases in French if they aren;t learning it in school.

You'll spend most of a day at Versailles. We did, and didn't see much of the gardens.

Looks like some of your destinations are not grouped geographically. Take another look at a map of Paris. That's particularly relevant as many of your days are more than filled.

While in the Marais, do visit the Carnavalet Museum for history of Paris--much better than Pompidou Center IMO.

It does sound like you'll be very busy but if you don't need to sleep in and are not tired from going from one museum to another, then you might be perfectly fine :)

When you're by the Notre Dame, stop by Café Angelina - the best chocolate in Paris! Even your kids might appreciate ;)

If your teens are not interested in museums, I'd keep them to a bare minimum. In particular, I'd skip the Louvre. In an hour, you'd see very little of it, and the most famous things there are usually obstructed by crowds so you can't see much of them anyway. If you do go there, try to go at a time of day and day of the week when crowds are at a minimum. (I can't help with that).

The Musée d'Orsay is also crowded, but nowhere near as large as the Louvre. I once popped in there for about an hour when I was killing time before my train, and it was worth the ticket. However, a nice long visit is so much more rewarding.

I think the Rodin Museum would be the most likely to appeal to kids who aren't much interested in art. Tell them the story of his student and lover, Camille Claudel. There are exhibits of her works in the museum as well.

By the way, I found that if my kids knew something of the life of an artist, it interested them much more in the works of that artist. I used to focus our museum visits on a few of their favorite artists and not try to see everything.

The Luxembourg Garden is always beautiful, but not a good destination when it's pouring rain. The Jardin des Plantes is also worth a visit, and it has greenhouses where you can duck in to get out of the rain.

I agree that it's worth having a look at the map and the RATP [metro] lines, and trying to group places together, or in easy reach of each other. also you need to be realistic about what you can accomplish, and what your kids might like to do, other than museum hop.

I think I'd aim to do something like this:

Thur March 26th - Paris - arrival day
Ile de la cite - Notre Dame - add nearby St. Chappelle
Vedettes du Pont Neuf (prebook)
Ile St Louis - wander only and don't forget to have an ice-cream from here: http://www.berthillon.fr
[Les Halles - drop - no time] [perhaps on last day for shopping if you can't get out of it]

Fri March 27, - Paris
[Versailles - drop - too early to be doing day trips; though if you want to avoid the weekend you may need to do it today as it closes Mondays]
Musee D'Orsay [think about adding the Orangerie which is on the same ticket - the kids should love the huge Monet water lilies]
St Germain
Luxembourg Gardens
Pantheon (if time)

Sat March 28, - Paris
Rue Cler
Eiffel Tower - prebook
Invalides - Napoleon's Tomb
Musee Rodin
[Arc de Triomphe - probably no time]
[Champes Elysees - ditto]

Sun March 29, - Paris
Monmartre (walking Tour)
Sacre Couer
Marais + Place des Voges [don't miss Victor Hugo's house]
Pompidou Center (if time)

Mon March 30, - Paris
Musee l'Orangarie [make sure you get the joint ticket with the Musee D'orsay]
Palais Royal
the Grands Palais - often some good exhibitions on but you may need to pre-book.
Louvre [if time and energy - you'll probably have had enough by now!]

you will probably end up only doing about a ½ of it, but I'm sure you'll still have a great time.

Perhaps you didn't know it, they tore down Les Halles about 40 years ago. I assume you mean the famous food market. Now that is just a shopping mall, so I can't imagine you want to go there that much. The moved the food market outside of Paris to Rungis, near Orly. http://www.rungismarket.com/en/jaune...ngis/index.asp

One place our teens loved was the Cluny Museum - made several visits while we id other things (we had already seen it a couple of times) so you may wan them to check it out online. Esp the unicorn tapestries are very popular with many.

rholt- We'll be arriving the same day with our two teenagers! If you haven't yet, go online and buy your Eiffel tower tickets. And in case you didn't know, the Orsay museum is open late on Thursday. Everyone may be too tired for it to make a difference, but that might be an option. I love the Cluny museum and the kids might like the catacombs as well. Maybe we'll run into you on the streets, LOL.

Interesting - I didn't know it was recommended to pre-purchase Eiffel Tower tickets.

rholt - there are times when the only way you will get to the top is by pre-booking, so you might as well book if you want to do it. Make it your first activity of the day [i try to do this with all prebooked activities] so that it doesn't interfere with the rest of the day.

I was thinking of suggesting the Cluny Museum, too, but the itinerary already seems very museum heavy for a family with teens who don't like museums. They might like the Cluny Museum, but I would trade it for something else.

The last time we were in Paris, in April 2013, the queues for Ste. Chapelle were interminable. We would have given up, but my husband had never seen it, which I thought was astonishing given that he had been to Paris a number of time.

I was surprised that the queue was so long, because April is not really high season. In the 1980s, we visited in August, and walked right in.

The crowds at Notre Dame were horrendous as well. We had both been there before, so we passed on that.