Paris Itinerary Check
 

Hi All-
Thank you for the help with my previous itineraries and again I appreciate your input on this one. It's a short trip, hopefully will be a memorable and amazing first time in Paris!
Here is our Paris itinerary:

Friday, May 10
Arrive at 1440 from Pisa on easyjet flight.
Check into Hotel Hopefully between 1700-1800
*Champs- Elysees & Arc de Triomphe (1000-2300) 8€ Tickets: Buy in Paris

Saturday, May 11
*Sacre Coeur Basillica (9am, climb to top via entrance on left side) 6€?
Walk around Montemarte Neighborhood (18th)
Lunch
?Palais Garnier Opera House (1000-1700;1300 when matinee)9€
*Moulin Rouge- walk by for fun (9th)
*Canal St. Martin/neighborhood (10th) Stop and eat here

-time permitting in am- Place des Fêtes for flea market, satuday mornings check it out.

Sunday, May 12
Day trip to Versailles (Garden 0800, Palace 0900,1200 Trianon Palaces/Marie Antoinette’s Estate) 18€+6€for kings private apts.
Leave: 0700 Return: 1830 at close or when finished
(I really want to go here, I read many books about Marie Antoinette when I was young)

Monday, May 13
The Lourve (0900-1800;2145wf;closed tues)10€Tickets: Paris Museum Pass
Jardin des Tuileries & Lunch
Musée de l’Orangerie – Monet Water Lillies (0900-1800 closed Tuesdays)7.50€
Eiffel Tower- Picnic Dinner/snack on Mall after (0930-2300)8.50€2nd floor; 14€ for top

Tuesday, May 14
*Notre Dame (0745-1845;1000 for towers,entrance on Left side) 8€TowerTickets: Paris Museum Pass
*St. Chapelle Church (0930-1800)8.50€
Walk around Île Saint Louis, eat lunch
Marais Neighborhood (5th)

Wednesday, May 15
0930: *Musee d’Orsay (0930-1800 closed Mondays;Enter on rue de lille side 8€
Lunch
NOTE: There is a FREE notre dame tour in English at 2pm this day.
Explore Latin Quarter in the afternoon:
*St. Sulpice Church (0730-1930)
*Luxemburg Gardens- Medici Fountain
*Pantheon (1000-1830) 8.5€ Tickets: Paris Museum Pass
Sorbonne Neighborhood
Rue Mouffetard

May 13 - picnic on the Champs de Mars. Are you going to be carrying food with you all day and up the Eiffel Tower so you can sit on the grass and eat? Why not be comfortable and sit in a cafe for lunch.

May 14 - you could add the Deportation Memorial, behind Notre Dame (walk through the garden away from the church and cross the street; look for the stairs to go down to the memorial). I believe it closes between noon and 2:00.

May 15 - walk to the southern end of the Luxembourg Gardens to see the Statue of Liberty and the 9/11 plaque.

St-Etienne-du-Mont church is just behind the Pantheon and worth a stop.

What do you mean by the Sorbonne neighborhood?

Thank you Adrienne!

I do not plan on carrying food with me all day, that sounds horrible. ha-ha things always appear logical in my head, that's why I come here. Same goes with the Sorbonne neighborhood. I don't know what I mean by that and now I feel dumb. I don't remember why I had that in there. I have been working on these itineraries off and on since July, and in the beginning, I wasn't very good at it!

Thank you for the other suggestions to add, much appreciated. I didn't know there was a 9/11 tribute. Much appreciated as always.

If you go to Versailles on a sunday in May the fee will be 25 euros I believe. In summer months they do the "musical fountain shows" on weekends and some tuesdays. You can access the grounds from below the formal gardens of the palace to visit the Trianons and Marie Antionettes Hamlet without paying the extra 8 euros, but you will have to walk around the outside of the wall and enter through the public access roads ( the grounds of Versailles minus the formal gardens are public parks)
The musical fountain shows are ok, but they only run some of the fountains at once, and only for 30 minutes and only every few hours they give you a show schedule. The "music" is canned and tinny. I personally would choose not to go on a sunday in May, the crowds will be pretty intense inside the palace( the grounds are huge so crowds are never an issue outside)

sounds great! Might just copy a few of the things!

You could visit The Louvre on Friday night (open late), which would allow you to move Arc de Triomphe to Monday morning, potentially freeing up time for other activities (and possibly avoiding Museum Fatigue - aka Stendhal syndrome)

Just a couple of thoughts/questions.

It is good to let us know how much you want to go to Versailles because otherwise we would tell you that you don't really have enough time. But if it is what you want to do, you will find the time!

You need to be flexible on some of your days in case of weather issues. I would write them down on index cards or in your iPad as "Day 1" "Day 2" etc instead of an actual day of the week, with the exception of Sunday to see Versailles. Then shift them around as you can to deal with the weather.

You are going to get a fantastic view of Paris from Sacre Couer. Do you need to spend money to get a rooftop view from the Eiffel Tower? The ET is also in one of the rare parts of Paris where there is not a shop more or less on every corner where you can buy picnic supplies or sandwiches. I agree about having a modest bite to eat in a cafe.

The Canal St Martin is sort of on the other side of Paris from Montmartre. You might think about touring it the same day you do the Marais since they sort of touch near Bastille.

There is indded a Sorbonne neighborhood, and it includes the Boulevard St Michel and the Pantheon and the Musee Cluny and touches on other parts of the Left Bank/Latin Quarter. The rue Mouffetard is popular on here because it isn't mentioned by Rick Steves, but it isn't anything special, either. If you go, go early, but don't feel bad if you have to cut it out.

You will have a wonderful time if you do only about fifty percent of this.

We didn't make it out to Sacre Couer, but visited Eiffel Tower and then enjoyed the great views from the rooftop of the Tour Montparnasse:

http://www.tourmontparnasse56.com/index_EN.php

<< now I feel dumb >>

Don't feel dumb! The Sorbonne chapel has a lovely facade but most of the university buildings are concrete blocks and nothing to look at.

The 9/11 plaque is a square, bronze plaque lying low on the ground and is easy to miss but if you're in the gardens it's interesting to see.

Here's what it looks like:

http://modigliani.shutterfly.com/cze...rankfurtpa/546

Thanks Adrienne!

Your itinerary reads like you are planning to use the Museum Pass for 3 days and only for certain museums. You can get the pass for 2, 4 or 6 days and it also good for Versailles.

That's the plan, I bought the 4 day pass. :)