hello, im planning a trip to europe on february. We are going to be 5 days in Paris. Do you think this is too much? And we want to go also to Pere Lachaise Cementery...Where can we put it?

Day 1
start at 8 and go to Notre Dame. After that walk around ile de la cite and ile saint louis. (we want to see, pont neuf, concergerie, st chapelle, flowers market, and centre pompidou-from oustide, we wont go in)
after that have lunch.
in the afternoon we wanted to follow a walking tour i found in one of my spanish guides through the marais. it says it takes 4 hours plus stops. we would like to see here, place de la bastille, july column, place des vosges, victor hugo´s house, hotel de rohan and the musee du carnavalet ( i dont know if this last thing fits in)

DAY 2
start at 9 with the louvre, maybe spend there 5 hours and in the afternoon the 8th arrondissement.
there we want to see arc of thriomph, champs elysee, la madeleine and pont alexandre.



DAY 3
start at 8 and go to the montmartre cementery. after that follow a 5 hours waling tour of montmartre and in teh afternoon go to the 7th arrondissement. there we would like to see les invalides, maybe a bit of orsay musseum, borbon palace and finish our day with the tour eiffel

DAY 4
start at the montparnasse cementery taking advantage that it opens at 8. then head to the latin quartier (we have another walking tour that lasts 3 hours plus stops). we will be stoping ant the cluny museum.

so thats it. what do you think? is it too much running around? we would also like to see pere lachaise cementery but we cant fit it in. what can we do?

thank you all!

ah, the 5th day is versailles that ive heard takes all day .
the order of the days is not this one, that we will do according to climate and according to some other things, but we just arranged things for one day or other day according to the number of touristy things each arrondissement has.

It's not too bad except for a couple things that I would never do, but I don't like to cram my vacation days like that, I'm just a more relaxed traveler.

You are obviously very interested in cemeteries for some reason, I find them semi-interesting but wouldn't plan on seeing three in a short trip to any city, unless I had some real reason to see some particular grave. But I guess you really like them.

I think Day 1 is okay (yes, the Carnavalet is in the same general area, so it fits in in that sense), and day 2. Day 3 is way too much for me. This seems crazy to me, but if you thing you can walk hours and hours all around town and visit two major museums in the same day (Invalides and Orsay) as well as monuments, go for it. That's the only day that just seems insane to me.

Busy days...

Day 1 - You may find conciergerie a bit disappointing and might be something I would remove. I would consider lunch one Ile St Louis, I liked Brasserie de L'Ile st Louis which is just over bridge from Ile de la Cite. Geographically, st Chappele should be your first stop, then Conc., flower market, ND, Ile St Louis.

I did two Marais walking tours from Pariswalks and they covered roughly same area, except for Bastille. Their tours were ~2-2.5 hrs long.

Day 2 If you have an evening, you could also arrange to visit Louvre on Wed/Fri till 10PM.

When around Louvre, you could add-in Palais Royal, Tuileries Gardens, I'd pick Opera Garnier over Madeleine, Place Vendome. I'm not a big Champs Elysee fan, it's a longish walk from Place de la Concorde to the Arc.

Day 3...very long day. As stated by others, seems like a lot of cemetaries. I know Pere Lachaise is the most famous, I see you going to Montmartre cemetary twice.

Day 4...another cemetary, so I assume you are a buff of these. Cluny museum is good, assume you'll see Luxemboyurg gardens, walk along St Germain, St Sulpice,etc...

Day 5..assume you are going on your own to Versailles and not as a tour group. If you are going to see all of the Gardens and outlying buildings, it could take a day.


I like to recommend a nighttime Seine river cruise.

jaja...yes, lots of cementeries, but thats because we are three people and for some reason theres famous people in everyone so we want to see them..i dont know, oscar wilde for example in pere lachaise, sartre in montmartre and cortazar in montparnasse (to name a few) but we could just go to one...but we thought about this because they open at 8 (all of them) so we just look for the graves we´dlike to see...for an hour or so and then start the rest of the day. but i guess we should choose one...
and yes, these are busy days, but it took us realy long to save the money cuz we are from argentina and argentinian peso is really devalued..so we dont know when we will be comming back...
and about st sulpice, tulieries and all taht, they are included in the walking tours, thats why i didnt write that.
so you think its too much? what should we cut? i know we should "cram" the days like that, as christina said, but as i said before we have to use the few days we have because im sure we will be comming back again, but it will take a at least 4 or 5 years to save the money again. we dont mind walking and we know we are comming back to argentina tired as hell...but its europe!
still if you have any recommendations about what to cut, let me know...

Cristina's remarques are very reasonable, the cemeteries Paris is a city full of life with much to do and see. Even sitting in a cafe and people watch seems better idea to me. I think you might regret to spend so much time walking in cemeteries. Do not be so itinerary conscious leave a little to improvisation and to your instincts on a given moment ...at least this what I do and wonderful things have come along...not always but pretty often..good luck.

Busy, but I understand the reasoning. You will be tired, but I think that you can do all you want if you stay on the go.

Pompidou is not on ile de la cite. You may plan on seeing it on the way to the Marais, but I would eat dinner one night near by and walk past it then. It looks just as interesting at night as during the day.

Try Day 1 as planned. Then over breakfast the next morning discuss with your traveling companions if that was too much, too little, or just right. Adjust accordingly to your own tastes.

I would not do 10% of what you list, but that doesn't mean a thing.

I posted on your other thread as did Ira.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35098355

Why not consider taking one of the Hop on Hop off Bus tours? It will take you around the city and you can see what you want.

i posted twice??? sorry... i didnt know i did that...
thanks for letting me know
thank you all for your answers, we will try to cut a few things, maybe choose two museums instead of four, and one cementery instead of three... and as someone in the other post said we will make a priority list so that if we cant see everthing, at least we see what we really want to see...
thank you all
ill let you know how it went when we come back..

I totally understand about visiting the cemetaries; it's one of my favorite things to do in Paris. However, with only five days, I'd stick to just Pere LaChaise. It's the most atmospheric and lots of dead famous people. By the way, Sartre is buried in Montparnasse, not Montmartre. You can find locations for graves on www.findagrave.com.

It seems that you're missing the entire Latin Quarter and St Germain des Pres~definitely my favorite parts of Paris. You can easily visit these neighborhoods with an evening walk~if you can still stand up!

And personally, with only five days, I wouldn't waste one on Versailles, but that's me.

thanks, we will do that, and no, we are not mssing the latin quarter, its on our forth day, since the hotel is in that area. it will be our last day so we can pick up our bags and head to the train station

Suze:
Just wondering why you wouldn't do 10% of the things on OP list.

ND,Pere Lachaise; St Chapelle; Marais; Arc di Triumphe; Orsay; Place des Vosges & the ET sound pretty good to me.
We're going in May and those places are high on my list of things to see/do. What would you do instead?

I thought that Day 1 looked pretty good until I got to the "after that have lunch" note and realized you were planning to do everything before that in one morning. I agree with the others who think you are trying to do too much in too short a time
If as suggested you set your priorities and are flexible enough to adjust to seeing less I think you will enjoy your time much more.

Very busy days in store for you,but I understand. We've been to Paris 5 times and will go back again.

In my opinion skip Invaldies--big, gray, and boring. Don't miss the Carnalvalat--charming. Best museum, the D'Orsay. The Louvre is wonderful, but huge and overwhelming. The Orangerie not worth it for your first trip.

The Arch de Triumph is beautiful, but the Champs Elysee a big disapointment.

The Eiffel tower is amazing day or night.

Ile St. Louis is the best. Check St. Chapelle before you go-- we were there in Sept. and the main windows were out for renovation.

Have a great trip!!