I am trying to plan a surprise trip for my wifes birthday. she is the trip planner in our family and always does a wonderful job, but i want to do this for her. we are doing paris/bayeux. we are in our 40's. we love good food and wine. here are the specifics first and then i will list what i would like to see. could you please help in putting this in to some type of itenerary. i will list my dinner choices and please review with comments. i need all the help i can get.
this is so hard.
traveling from boston to paris june 22,2007
arriving cdg on saturday june 23
staying at the royal magda hotel 8e
departing wed. am for bayeux via train on june 27th
sites we would like to see
louvre-mini tour
picnic lunch at luxembourg gardens
evening cruise on vadettes du pont neuf
notre dame/saint chapelle
eiffel tower
arc de triomphe
champs elyssees
marias area
montmarte area
is this doable in 4 days.
dinners planned
day 1 saturday
le petit troquet
day 2 sunday
fish la boissonnerie
day 3 monday
fontaine de mars
day 4 tuesday
le caveau de l'isle
thanks to all in advance, bob

Very loose itinerary....

SATURDAY
arc de triomphe
champs elyssees
(lots of walking and outside air to help with jet lag)
dinner: le petit troquet

SUNDAY
Also: Bastille market in the morning
marias area
montmarte area (*be sure to wander around the 'back streets' between Sacre Coeur and metro Abbesses / Lamarck-Caulaincourt)
dinner: fish la boissonnerie (or something closer to your hotel?..)

MONDAY
louvre-mini tour
picnic lunch at luxembourg gardens
eiffel tower
dinner: fontaine de mars
evening cruise* on vadettes du pont neuf
(but you might *switch to Bateau Parisiens, at the quai off the Eiffel, since your dinner is in this area)

TUESDAY
notre dame/saint chapelle
Ile St Louis
* wander around Latin Qtr area..?
dinner: le caveau de l'isle

Hi J,

Lucky wife.

Don't try to plan a daily itinerary for Paris.

Pick the 4 things that you _must_ do. Do 1 each day.

Everything else will fall into place.

What if you decide to go to the D'Orsay instead of the Louvre? Perhaps you would like to go to the Parc Monceau for your picnic instead of the Luxembourg Gardens? etc, etc, etc

I'm not sure if Fish is open Sunday night. Fontaine de Mars is.

Enjoy your visit.

It sounds like you are going to have a great trip! Your wife is quite fortunate to have such a thoughtful husband!

It looks like you've done some homework, and you will certainly get excellent advice here for food and sites. (I can't think of any to add; your itineray looks pretty complete).

How far in advance will you tell your wife about the trip?

i will tell her the morning of. she is an er nurse and i already have it squared away with her boss. her best friend and our daughters will pack her clothes and buy all essentials for her.

It rains in Paris. You have to be prepared to go to the museum instead of doing a walking tour.

It is better to have a good idea of the layout of Paris with respect to what you want to see than to give yourself marching orders.

Since you've got oodles of time between now and when you leave, how about trying this:

Get a map of Paris. Circle on the map everyplace you want to go. Then after that, prioritize the circles, so that your top choices are in red, your secondary choices are in blue, your least imporatant choices are in black.

Out of that, you might begin to see a pattern of how to spend your time.

But you'd be making a big mistake if you want to Paris and raced around trying to complete your "list" in four days. Just try to do one thing in the morning, one after lunch, have a nice dinner, and stroll around at night or take a boat ride.

Relax and have a good time.

Hi Bob,

Why Bayeux?

You are challenging an expert on her own grounds? Brave.

How do you know she wants to go to Paris?

Trying to rush through Paris is a mistake many people make. The city is full of distractions.

I have been there 4 times and still have attractions on my list that are yet to be crossed off.

The attractions you have left are your list are monumental I might add.
I gather you don't give a rip for art masterpieces.

A Louvre mini tour strikes me personally as one of the great oxymorons!

I didn't realize this is a surprise trip. The biggest surprise might be that your wife wants to do things you haven't planned.

It's a good idea to have worked up a detailed itinerary, in case she really has no idea how she would like to proceed. But be prepared to toss it out completely.

ttt

I was not impressed with Le Cavaeu Delisle. It is a sweet little restaurant with a fairly inexpensive prix fixe (I think we paid 25 euro per person for 3 courses, 2 or 3 choices per course) but the food was mediocre. I know there is much better food on the Isle St Louis although I imagine more expensive, but if you really want to have dinner on the isle, I'd splurge for a better restaurant.

If you want fantastic authentic French cuisine for a great price (3 of us had 3 amazing courses ordered off the menu and a bottle of wine for 90 euro) I recommend Le Hanger, located behind the Pompidou Center. The menu is only in French, the place is tiny, and the food is sublime. Another recommendation for a special lunch is Le Bouquineste (53 Quai Des Grands Augustins.) 3 course prix fixe lunch is 25 euro or order a la carte for exsquisite food from reknowned chef Guy Savoy.

It's a wonderful day to see Notre Dame very early in the morning, climb the tower (line starts to form at 9:30 to get in at 10:00. Then see St Chapele, then walk along the left bank of the river to Le Bookiquineste for lunch. After lunch you may continue your stroll along the river to the Musee D'Orsey. If you buy the museum pass at St Chappelle, you avoid the lines at D'Orsey and it will get you into the Louvre and many other museums as well. We found that although it didn't save us much money, it as worth it just to avoid the lines at the D'Orsey.

Have a great time!

I know a lot of people who love Fontaine de Mars, but it doesn't blow me away. What does is the restaurant just across the tiny courtyard-Les Fables de le Fontaine. It is a Christinan Constant restaurant and focuses on seafood. We spent less there than we did at Fontaine but we liked the food so much better (Fontaine is more classic French, this is more modern, so it is part personal preference). Make a reservation (you can do this in english). They are open Sunday nights. If you want something even nicer Christian Contant's one-starred restaurant Les Violin d'ingres is just a few doors down. You definitely need to reserve ahead for that.
http://www.leviolondingres.com/eng_home.htm

We are all hoping that you are OUR husband, writing from a friend's e-mail address. Great idea; lucky wife. I would include D'Orsay because of extensive collection of impressionists. Also, while on Ile St. L., don't miss ice cream at Berthillon.