Paris Itinerary Review
 

Hello. My wife and I will be in Paris Thursday the 12th through Thursday the 19th. Our itinerary is available on my website at:

http://itoph.com/html/ParisItinerary.htm

Please look it over and provide feedback. We'll take what we hear with a grain of salt because I know everyone has a different idea about what you should do in Paris.

A couple of burning qusetions for us: rent a car to so Loirre or take a tour? Any reasonable bistro suggestions? We don't want to spend a lot (probably $20 for lunch and $30 for dinner would be plenty, though we can splurge if needed).

I might updated the itinerary with the suggestions I hear. So over the course of the thread you might see someone reference something that is no longer like that on my itinerary. That is because I changed it.

Thanks - Fire away,
Chris.

I suggest you do that Montmarte walk (includes Sacre Coeur) to May 16th. I think you can see the Centre Pompidou as an attachment to the Latin Qtr. sights on the 18th. In my opinion La Defense isn't worth seeing.

As for restaurants you should do some of your own research by typing 'Paris restaurants' in the Search box above. There should be lots of suggestions.

"We'll take what we hear with a grain of salt..."
Then, why should be bother wasting our time making any suggestions?

Howard, I think maybe that's why no one else replied before?

I caught that too, Howard, but withheld comment for another reason. I'm guessing tofferr will be less than two days into this trip before the itinerary is scrapped. It might not even take him that long to realize that 7 days in Paris is not long enough, let alone including daytrips to the Loire, Versailles, and EuroDisney or Normandy.

beachbum
thanks for providing the details because I wasn't going to go to another website to review an itinerary, especially when suggestions
are already being discounted and changes won't appear here either.

My suggestion is that if this is a first trip to Paris, 3 daytrips is at least one too many.

Tofferr,

Several suggestions and I hope you don't take them with a grain of salt. They come after 10 trips to Paris, a great love of the city and our share of trial and error.

You have too many day trips and all but Versailles are really too long for an enjoyable day trip. That said, if you must choose, visit Normandy instead of EuroDisney; visit Versailles and save the Loire for next time! With a day saved, visit des Invalides, the Rodin Museum and Garden and the Luxembourg Gardens.

It would probably be a good idea to save the Bateaus Mouches for a day later in your itinerary as you will be tired and jet lagged by the end of your first day.

You have an impossibly busy day on the 18th and a leisurely day on the 16th, especially if you cancel the visit to La Defense, and you should. Instead, move Notre Dame and Ste. Chapelle to the 16th as they are convenient to the Pompidieu.

Some days, grab a picnic lunch and eat in the park, saving a little more for dinner. A very reasonable and good bistro is the Bistro du 7eme, near des Invalides. A splurge might be Bouquinistes, a favorite in the 6eme.

You are right, everyone has a different idea of Paris but you will get a lot of experience on this site. Have a fabulous time!

francophile and mamc,

Thank you for some constructive comments.

I agree we might be too tired to do the Bateau Mouche the first night.

We weren't planning on staying at La Defense long. Maybe just 20 minutes in front of the new big Arc - then back onto the Metro.

mamc, I did rearrange the 16th and 18th as you describe.

I said the grain of salt line because I wanted everyone to be able to feel free to express their opinion without worrying that we'd overreact and rearrange our vacation on one person's say so.

Beachbum... 7 days is all I have - so, it will have to do.

On our recent trip to Italy we had 4 days in Rome, and decided to use the forth on Pompeii - and we felt we'd seen enough of Rome. We had 2 days is Florence, 2 in Venice, and 1 in Milan. While we felt like we wanted to stay in Florence longer, the other ones were a good compromise between what we wanted to see and the time we had available. It is exactly this difference of opinion that prompted me to offer that I'd be ready for a variety of thoughts.

elaine, If opening a URL expressed as plain text is stretching your limits, you might using Mozilla or Firefox with the Extension: Plain Text Links. I use it and love it. Here is another URL to download it:

https://do-not-add.mozilla.org/exten...=78&vid=85

Umm, scratch EuroDisney, you can go to the real thing another time. I see that you are going to visit Versailles on a Sunday. Try and tour the gardens in the afternoon, as the fountains will be activated then. Although I'm not sure if that day being a holiday will make a difference. Luxemberg Gardens was nice but not overly impressive. Try and do the Bateau Mouche as the sun is setting - gorgeous!

Thanks Isujuju.