One Night and a Day in Paris
 

I'll be arriving in Paris on a Wednesday around 7:30 pm and leaving the next day at 9:30 pm.

My goal is to see the main sights, the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Montmarte, Notre Dame...

So my question is, what should I make sure I see at night in Paris and what should I save for the day time.

I would like to go up the Eiffel Tower and not sure if I should do it the Wednesday night or go up during the day on Thursday. Also, I know most of the museums are open later on Thursdays so I was going to hit them on the afternoon before I leave. Also not sure if Montmarte would be better at night or during the day?

Any thoughts? Any must sees at night in Paris?

With the short time you have in Paris, I would suggest skipping Montmartre. We usually go if we have a week in Paris. A really nice evening evening "must do" in Paris is a Seine River cruise. We like the Vedettes du Pont Neuf. The cruise lasts about an hour and is nice to take at dusk so you can see the lights come on all over Paris.

Are you going in summer or in winter? If you are going in summer it should be perfectly fine to do a lot of "outside" sightseeing at night. If you are going in winter you will have to consider what time the sun goes down.

Anything that has an early closing time and you want to enter has to be done in daytime.

Do you want to go into Notre Dame or only look at the outside? The lines could be very long. I remember being scared away by the thought of standing for hours in the summer heat when I was there in 2010.

The lines to the Eiffel Tower can also be very long, unless you have prepaid tickets or want to take the stairs.

How much of the Louvre do you want to see? Only the highlights or something more? It's big.

Are you flying into and out of Paris? That steals hours from your planning, unless you have already counted that into things.

Not sure of the actual weekdays you'll be in Paris, but remember that the Louvre is closed on a Tuesday, so plan your time around that if you'll be there on that day.

Try quartier latin (latin neighbourhood) at night for fun atmosphere, you can see place de la concorde, Champs elysee and moulin rouge too, taking photos of these places are great.

Then save Eiffel tower for early morning, then sacré coeur, then early afternoon louvre and notredame before leaving. If you only have few time to visit louvre, i recommend the paintings, go and see mona lisa at least.

Have fun and nice trip