A couple of thoughts. You have the tuileries and Palais Royal gardens for a couple of hours on one day, and then the Orangerie on a different day. The Orangerie is in the Tuileries. Combine them. You will be able to walk the entire Palais Royal Gardens, at an incredibly slow pace in less than 30 minutes. The tuileries is 5 minutes walk from there.

I would NOT skip Versailles. It is a 30 minute train ride from St. Michel-Notre Dame. It is an 18 minute train from St. Michel to Montmartre. Versailles is as good as in Paris, IMO, and is more interesting from both an art/architecture and history perspective than say the Arc d'Triomphe or some of the museums you plan to attend.


My recommendation would be to select a main priority site for the morning and one for the afternoon/evening. You'll do well to actually see those sites by themselves. If things are moving quickly, or you get to a site and find it boring, you can easily walk to a secondary site in the area.

I also believe you have underestimated the length of the lines during your timeframe. It will take longer than you think to do everything you've identified.

In any event, good luck and enjoy!

Hi,

I am not a Paris expert but I planned a trip about 4 years ago. I had rainy day lists, hot day lists, must - eat lists - you get the idea. I would say give yourself a lot of wiggle room. Paris is for walking, lingering and absorbing. On the flip side, I admire your detail and I think I will borrow your schedule for next trip. Have a great time!

menachem - I have lived in Paris for 10 years, and have never found anything particularly spectacular to eat. Stick with pastries, chocolates, cheese and bread and you'll be fine.

I eat at home, where the food is exceptional.

fuzzbucket, I agree that it's easy to do better at cooking at home than in any restaurant. My experience is: stay away from french cuisine and concentrate on the former colonies and it'll be ok.

Paris is hardly the food mecca that many people think it is. There is far better food to be found, for example, in Bruxelles and in the provinces. But people continue to think oooh, ahhh, Paris, food! and spend loads of money dining there. I say let them enjoy it.

Natty - If you can stand more advice, write up a less detailed list of things you want to do noting museum opening times and days, but wait until you're there to set off on any given day's activities until you know the weather. Years ago I had a detailed itinerary something like yours that started wwith a trip to the Louvre and other museums. We arrived to brilliant blue sky and sunshine and we threw out the itinerary immediately. Instead, we headed for the boat ride on the river and to the Eiffel Tower. It was perfect! Save the museums for rainy days.

Oh, and the only time I recall a sunset in Paris was on a different trip when we reserved tickets at the Eiffel Tower for a time coinciding with sunset. That was very nice.

Yes but food in Bxl is so expensive.

I've been to a some restaurants in Paris now and start to have a few good ones I can recommend or return too.
I now completely avoid brasseries and anything that has too much on its menu.

Ah, they replaced the Quick with a Burger King in front of Gare du Nord, the hamburger of the day was very good... Had one today.
;-)

Whathello - the 5 Guys hamburger joint on the Champs-Elysees is really good, too.

menachem - you mean you would have people restrict themselves to felafel and Asian food in Paris?

There are now ticket machines to the left of Notre Dame cathedral as you face it, which make it easier to get in.
You put in the number in your party, get a printed ticket, and can come back if the wait is too long. Don't be late, though.

Here's the handy app for the technologically inclined:
"JeFile"

I'll try the 5 guys. Last I had a hamburger on les champs was on 9/11. I wanted something as US as possible. I went into the planet Hollywood that was there at the time.

menachem - you mean you would have people restrict themselves to felafel and Asian food in Paris?

there's more than falafel. and Asian food can mean many things. Vietnamese cuisine is almost always wonderful. So is food from Algeria, also in its jewish iterations. There's only one good falafel and hummus place in Paris and l'As du Falafel isn't it :)

menachem - I realize that there is more to Asian food than meets the eye. You're preaching to the choir.

going to a japanese tonight. If it is good, you'll have a thread about it !

fuzzbucket, just to state the bloody obvious about Paris. That people still go to l'As du Falafel is just incomprehensible to me, but oh well. Lousy hummus as well, but I say that having a favorite place in Tel Aviv.

I don't understand the herd mentality that drives these people to stand in line for greasy felafel. Most of which is tossed into the nearest garbage bin.

Thanks for all of your help everyone! Our trip was absolutely fabulous! Didn't get to everything on the list, but we never had to wait in any lines either! We must've gotten lucky. We even walked right in to Saint Chapelle. Also, I found the food to be absolutely fabulous. So there! I caught the flu on our last day and that was terrible, but otherwise a great success and your advice really helped!

I am so glad to read at the end of this thread that you had a great trip and even managed to find food you liked in Paris. Imagine that! After reading all the earlier comments I was afraid that Paris would turn out to be a food desert.

I have never seen so many negative comments about Paris restaurants in one place before. This amazes me because I love going to restaurants in Paris. Like the OP, I always find the food to be wonderful when I have selected places (as opposed to wandering in at random wherever I happen to be, but even then, sometimes it’s wonderful.)

I understand why Paris residents want a break from French food and like to go out for Asian food. But I can get excellent Asian food in the US, so it is not what I’m looking for, at least for most meals, if I’m in Paris. I can not usually get excellent French food at home, so having it in a small bistro in Paris is heavenly.

In a city with some 40,000 restaurants, it's pretty safe to assume that some will be bad, some will be average and some will be wonderful. To say that Paris does not have good food is preposterous.

It's so great that you came back to tell us that your trip was a success!

I hate negativity.