Hi

We are going for a week in Paris followed by a week in Tours later this month. The Paris week is holiday and the Tours I will be on my own because the wife is at a work thing.

For Paris I have tickets for the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Montparnasse tower and the Louvre and I think we both agreed that is sufficient although we will also go to Sacre Coeur and general sightseeing at a slow pace. The only time I've been in Paris was on a school trip in 1972 - are there any 'must see' things other than the above?

I think I have the logistics sorted out - we're staying in an apartment on the 12th arr, I plan to buy us each a Navigo Easy with 10 tickets on in Gare du Nord (we're arriving on Eurostar). I am trying to cram French phrases in my head but they don't stick, and I am rather deaf so it's going to be interesting! (the wife can't eat cheese either which will make it even more interesting!)

I've read up on safety and to not look like a tourist and we have those front-rucksack things anyway (although that probably negates the don't look like tourists bit...)

What is there to see and do in Tours? Ideas of places to eat would be useful for day and evening (we're not big on dressing up and posh restaurants and stuff!)

Thanks

If it were my trip and time permitted, my top list would include: Sainte-Chapelle, the Tuileries and Luxembourg gardens, the Musee de l'Orangerie, the Rodin museum and the Musee d'Orsay. I have not been to Tours.

I like the recommendations from KTtravel above. Along the Tuileries, do stop at Angelina for their wondrous Chocolate l"africain. Also wandering through St. Germain is ALWAYS on my list. If the weather is not great, you can walk the Passages that connect fhrough 2d-9th arrondissements, and perhaps the Musee Carnavalet, with the history of Paris, itt's behind the Palais Royal area on right bank. In the 12th arr, you will be near the elevated Promenade de Plantees, above the Viaduct d'Artisans, which we FINALLY are seeing this Fall. On our last trip was not impressed with MOntparnasse nor the tower, much prefer to see that from Champs du Mars (1st or 16 arr). Montmartre much more interesting IMHO.

Thanks for the info both, I'll plot accordingly. I just looked Angelina up, I reckon I could spend a whole day just there!

Hi jmh59,

Sorry, I have no experience with Tours! But I follow a blogger called France with Vero, and she moved to Tours about a year ago. She posts often about Tours, with photos and descriptions of the buildings, churches, and monuments. She makes it look VERY appealing!!

She is also a tour guide, and she does Tours for Rick Steves. She also does private tours in Tours. I'm not saying they are good or worthwhile... just that she is knowledgeable. And you may get some ideas by perusing her pages.

I follow her on FB.

Have fun as you plan!

s

If I had a week in Tours, I'd rent a car and visit some chateaux, Fontevraud Abbey, a vinyard or 2. In Paris, take the time to walk around Ile St Louise and Ile de la Cite. The Latin Quarter is always a good place to stroll.

I probably can't help you since I would not go to the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, or Tour Montparnasse in the first place. I find it interesting that two of your top four are for the views, and they are not the best ones.

My highlights include a walking tour of the Marais (any good guidebook should have one), walking up the stairs to the rooftop of Sacre Coeur (if you are able) - this way you get to see the Eiffel Tower at a distance plus the Baroque architecture right in front of you, the surrounding neighborhood of Montmartre in general (though do not eat there!), and Marché Vernaison at les Puces de St Ouen, the sprawling historic flea market that is best on Saturdays or not-too-late on Sundays. I actually prefer the Arc de Tromphe du Louvre, which is in the 'courtyard' of the Louvre. When you go to the Louvre, there is a balcony at the Café Mollien on level one from which you can get a magnificent view of the Pyramid, the Arc, and the Carrousel du Louvre.

Also, please note that even with tickets the Louvre can have a long line. At peak times, they open the Porte des Lions entrance, which nobody seems to know about and you can waltz right in. If you don't have tickets in hand, check to see if you can pick them up at this entrance.

I've been to Tours on work and on holiday, itself is a dull little town but the Loire is lovely. You can hire a car, hire bikes or just on your own take the train along the river

There is so much info out there on what to do in Paris, it's just your call as to what you like. I presume you like going up tall buildings and looking at the city from high up so that's why you booked that twice. I've never been up the Eiffel Tower because I have no interest in that, but did go up Montparnasse once as it was easy to do and I stay in that neighborhood a lot. There weren't any lines when I went, but the ET is this whole big outing thing. The view from it is fine, I think, but both those edifices aren't too far apart so the view isn't going to be that different, I would imagine.
Anyway, all of that is your call to do what you want.
There isn't any reason you have to eat cheese, you have to specifically order it anyway, if you want some. YOu can avoid dishes with it in it pretty easily.


As for Tours, it's not the most exciting city in parts, but can be a nice day outing to tour the city center. It has a great tram to get around in parts, check that out. One thing there I really liked a lot was the Musee des Campononannge (trades museum). this is fairly unique so if any interest, you don't find that kind of thing in other places much in France.

If you want to do day trips elsewhere than chateaux, you can take the TER to Saumur in about an hour (actually I think I visited Tours once as a day trip by train when staying in Saumur). You can also get a TER to/from Angers to the west, that trip is just a bit longer. I really liked Angers a lot.

https://www.museecompagnonnage.fr/

Tours also has a nice small Beaux Arts museum but that's not as special if you visit such in Paris or have no interest much.

You can get to several chateaux fairly easy by train or bus from Tours if you want to do that. I'm sure there are day trip companies with info at the tourism office or something, also. I know it is fairly easy to get to Amboise, Blois, Chenonceau (Azay-le-Rideau isn't too difficult to get to but when I went, the train schedule wasn't very good so I didn't have hardly any time there, I mean not many returns).

Thanks for all the ideas. Towers - because they are there, no other reason. I arranged them all on one day basically to get them out of the way (I bet it will rain all day!)

Well it all went fine - my only question is: are the queues for Eurostar and the general disorganisation both ends always that bad?

no, before Covid it was a breeze. I used to use it for business and it just flowed.

The Tour Montparnasse is ugly and uninteresting EXCEPT that the viewing level at the top provides the only panoramic view of Paris that does not include the Tour Montparnasse. It is a great view at sunset when the light changes and the great buildings of Paris are being illuminated. Then the Eifel Tower glitters.

Yeah I see exactly what you mean! We got two-visit tickets for that and we caught the Eiffel tower sparkles at 11pm, well worth the visit. Then someone turned the hifi up full which actually hurt. Given this is my first Paris trip since 50 years the panorama is all quite bright and shiny, even the business-y buildings off in the distance, then there's this 2001-esque black slab!

Eurostar queues were the lowlight of the trip - bothways. St Pancras going out queued right across the station and nearly out the doors. Gare du Nord coming back was just disorganised, but half the time of and way shorter than the outbound queues. I hope they sort that but given the state of airports I'd still choose Eurostar.

The only thing that caught me out was getting the Navigo Easy passes as the ticket office at Gare du Nord was closed and apparently you can only get them from there - not from machines. But a lady told us there was an open office the other side of the station and so that all worked out.

Going to Tours, you definitely want to stay in the area, broadly defined as between Place Plumereau and Tours Centre, the train station. Other areas of Tours will hold little interest to tourists.

Across the street from Tours Centre is the Office de Tourisme from where a number of minibus tours depart. These tours cover all the important châteaux, there are a lot of summer options. Spend some time on the Office de Tourisme website as the list of things to do is extensive:

https://www.tours-tourisme.fr/

It's fun to see the old joke about the Montparnasse skyscraper revived: Once up there, you don't have to look at it. There are plenty better ways to spend your time, especially if already reaching for the clouds at the Eiffel and Arc de Triomphe. The Carnavelet museum, reopened after a lengthy refurbishment, gets good reviews for explaining Paris history. The d'Orsay, installed in a former train station, is ground zero for the Impressionists. Going down instead of up, the sewer museum displays ingenious early engineering (not smelly, either).

Regarding not being able to speak French - I was unable to learn more than the basics prior to our trip as well and did just fine. Greeting people with a Bonjour and then asking parle vous anglais? and getting confirmation before speaking English worked perfectly. Most people we interacted with spoke at least decent English and we didn't get any negativity from people for not speaking French.

For safety - from what I can tell, pickpocketing is really the biggest risk. We just made sure that nothing valuable was easily accessible. We didn't carry any special bags. I carried a small handbag worn crossbody and my husband had a messenger bag. Both zip up completely and have a flap that covers the zipper and snaps closed, so not easy to get into. I don't know if we looked like tourists or not. When we were at tourist attractions, of course we looked like tourists because those are pretty much the only people there other than the school groups. When we were out just generally wandering around, who knows? As soon as we spoke to anyone, of course people knew we were not locals - lol.

The Orsay Musueum is just incredible, maybe you should also take a walk on the Island of Saint Louis or in the Marais