Hello,

We are going to Paris in about two weeks. We are active adults so we will be walking most of the time. I am trying to organize the daily activities and was hoping to get some help. We will be in Paris for only 3 days so we need to be very organized. Ideally I would like to see the following sights:
Louvre, Arc du Triomphe, Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame, Basilique du Sacre-Coeur, Versailles, boat tour on the Seine. Unfortunatelly, since we have only 3 days (Friday-Sunday) I fear that we won't have enough time to see all of these comfortably with enough time to enjoy the sights and everything else in between. Should we sacrifice Versailles and leave it for the next trip since it may take more than half a day including travel time from Paris? Any suggestions on how to combine these by day along with some food recommendations in each area? I was thinking to combine them as follows:

Day 1 (Friday) We arrive in the morning so by the time we settle we will likely be left with the afternoon. We will be staying near Jardin du Luxembourg
- Notre Dame, Louvre, Jardins de Tuileries, Eglise St-Eustache, Centre Pompidou (Dinner at XXX)
Day 2:
- Tour Eiffel, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, Petit Palais, (Dinner at XXX), boat tour on the Seine
Day 3:
- Versailles (?), Basilique du Sacre-Coeur (not sure if this one could be combine better with Day 2 itinerary) (Dinner at XXX)

no, just no....

If you ask if you should drop Versailles, you should. Someone who was really interested in French history of that time period and Marie Antoinette, Louis, etc would not ask if they should go if it was important to them. Don't go just becuase you've heard of it and many tourists go, you don't have the time.

Day 1 is impossible. You intend to visit several gardens plus two major art museums in an afternoon after you've arrived from a long flight (if you are local, makes a difference, of course, at least no lack of sleep/jet lag). Not sure why you are so interested in St Eustache, it is historic, but I'd move that to a day where you aren't also visiting Notre Dame

Day 2 is actually fine

Day 3 do major art museum (I'd pick Louvre from your list, thinking best not done first day), and you can visit another church you want, etc. Maybe go up to Montmartre in the morning, then see what you feel like for the rest of the day down below.

Move

Ditto -- Day 1 is just about impossible.

Especially if you are flying in long haul. first of all -- your room probably won't be ready in the morning and possibly not til 3 PM or later. Of course you can leave your bags there and head out, returning later in the day to check in. But trying to squeeze in all that - while jet lagged, and without getting a chance to freshen up would be difficult enough. But even if you are not flying in overnight, Notre Dame, the Louvre, Tuileries, Eglise St-Eustache, and the Pompidou in one day let alone one afternoon would be tough.

Day 2 is OK -- but the Champs Élysées is a big meh really. Nice if you were there a week but not on such a short visit. Substitute some of the Day 1 sites (like the Louvre maybe)

I'd skip Versailles

I would skip Versailles for sure, and skip the Champs Elysée unless you're shopping for a car.

Day 1 just isn't going to work. You MIGHT be able to do a couple of those things.

"food recommendations" is far too vague a concept for most people here to assist you. There are more than 40,000 eating establishments in Paris. What kind of food, and what price point(s) (in euros)?

>>> I am trying to organize the daily activities … leave it for the next trip?
You can approach this in two way. Your current approach seems to optimize the current trip only hoping you can do rest on future trips. Another approach is to think about all likely trips you would be doing that includes Paris, whether you like or not, and optimize your current visit as a leverage for all your trips.

Why does it matter? Unless you are retired and can set length and timing of travel at will, venues available to you changes from trip to trip. You can visit some attractions easily on each trip while others require timing happenstance which may not happen often. If you have not thought about this, you will find some venues always out of reach.

It would help to look closely at the value of each attractions to you and opportunity angles instead of looking at them as a list of non-differentiated attractions. This approach comprehends that sometimes your stay would be rained out every day – outdoor attractions are not worthwhile on these trips. Sometimes you need to do an overnight in Paris, in noon, fly out next morning, etc. In which case, only in town attractions open on that afternoon are feasible.

Jardins de Tuileries, Champs Elysees:
You will be passing through these on the way to somewhere else without even trying. Also these are always open, meaning you can trivially visit these places on any of future trip.

Louvre. On Day 1 (Friday)
Friday is one of two nights a week Louvre is open late. Louvre is super crowded on any day. It is “somewhat” less crowded on late evenings. Louvre is exhausting even without jet lag.

Arc de Triomphe
It is one of the attraction open every day and late at night. It makes very valuable attraction to squeeze into your schedule when everything else is closed.

Centre Pompidou
This is one of the few museum open on Monday and late. Making this a valuable attraction if you want to do something on Monday especially if raining forcing you to cross out outdoor attractions. https://en.parisinfo.com/what-to-see...tes-in-Paris#1

Versailles on Day 3 (Sunday)
Versailles takes most of the day if you visit the garden and the Hamlet part. Sundays, the day you happened to place it happens to be a fountain day. Fountains Shows and Musical Gardens | Palace of Versailles Most of the fountains in the garden are dormant off season and off days. On fountain day, all the fountains come to life. Many of my acquaintances who visited Versailles did not to see the fountains in operation. They did not choose to skip it, but rather because they did not realize they had to line up their visit during the correct season, correct day, at correct time of the day. For those with flexible travel opportunities, this is not a big deal, skip Versailles easily and catch up later. It took me many years to visit Versailles again due to schedule mismatches.

Well if going to Arc de Triomphe (sweet for the views right down Champs and straight to Louvre and central Paris!) then the Champs-Elysees is right there - a short walk down it towards Louvre only takes a few minutes but yes though one of the world's most famous streets it is just a busy street - an entertainment center for young folk with cinemas and fast-food places plus iconic car dealers, etc.

>>a short walk down it towards Louvre only takes a few minutes<<

I know its been a while for you Pal and the memory can fail, but the Arc de Triomphe is not a 'few minutes walk' from the Louvre. It is more than 3.5km/2.25 miles from the Arc to the Pyramid.

janis dear read what I wrote - towards (in direction of) not to - a short walk down the Champs Elysees for a few minutes - just to get the flavor of it and being able to say 'we walked down the Champs Elysees'.

I want something authentic French. Don't care about super shiny places just reasonably priced good food. We will try to one nice place to celebrate a birthday but still wouldn't want to spend more than 40 euros per plate.

Don't count on so much for your first day, assuming you are arriving by air and with some jetlag/time change?

Depends if you want to spend time in the museums. We did Luxembourg gardens, the Tuileries, Notre Dame, Louvre, Eiffel tower, Rue Cler, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysee, in only two days. But all were just from the outside, mostly on foot, one stretch on Metro (from Latin Quarter out to Eiffel tower then walking back). We did not go to Versailles or do a boat on the Seine.

In skimming over this, I may have missed it, if your desire is to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower I’d get timed tickets online ASAP, that way you won’t be wasting valuable time in line for tickets, It may be too late to get them online but it’s worth a try. https://www.toureiffel.paris/en/rates-opening-times Same thing with a cruise on the Seine, look at the link below and buy tickets online Seine river cruise in Paris | Bateau Mouche, dusk is a good time to do this IMHO. Enjoy your travels.

I like the Vedettes du Pont Neuf a lot better than the b teaux mouches, and you can pre-purchase a discount ticket online.

cezar9, it's probably best to figure out at least approximately where you'll be around eating times before offering suggestions, again because of the sheer number of possibilities. Or, if food is really important to you, build your itinerary around making stops to eat. Unfortunately, "authentically French" doesn't narrow the field much. France has so many different authentic regional cuisines you can't pin one down as being "authentic," and they are all well represented in Paris, some well, some not so well. Do you want magret de canard? Couscous? Confit? Cassoulet? Daube de boeuf? Blanquette de veau? Crèpes? Soufflés? Pipérade? Steack-frites? Moules? Poulet rôti? If it doesn't matter a whole lot to you, then I'd just look at menus when you get hungry, look at the clientele and what they're eating and if they seem happy, and pick what looks appealing.

St. Cirq: Is it necessary with Vedettes du Pont Neuf to buy tix in advance? We will be there next Thursday and Friday.

No, you can buy them on the spot. The discount is only available online, though.

Saint Cirq, you are no longer qualified to talk about the Champs Elysées. Every single automobile showroom has closed over the past few years except for Renault. Peugeot is gone, Citroën is gone, Toyota is gone, Mercedes-Benz is gone. It's not the same Champs Elysées anymore!

You actually can get a discount on the spot at Vedettes du Pont Neuf by purchasing on your phone. We did that last fall as we weren’t sure what the weather was going to be so didn’t want to buy in advance. I used my cell phone to go to their website and bought the discounted tickets then walked right up to the ticket window, showed them my phone, got the tickets and walked onto the boat. Really easy and saved about 24euro as there were 6 of us.

Oh dear, kerouac, I guess that's evidence of how long it's been since I started avoiding the CE entirely.

St Cirq: Can you suggest a restaurant where you have had a good experience near Vedettes du Pont Neuf and any of the other sites the OP is planning to visit, without regard to price or type?

fff, I don't think we've had a meal near the Vedettes du Pont Neuf for 15+ years, maybe once at Le Christine, which I think was good. But I am no expert on eating in that part of Paris - it's not where we hang out. There are many more foodies here on Fodors who spend time in this part of town who could help you way better than I could. Same goes for all the other places the OP wants to visit - it's not where we go when we go to Paris.

tracilee, thank you for the idea of reserving Vedettes de Paris on your phone. Brilliant! I never thought of that.

I was in Paris a month ago .

Champs Elysees is still boring , but a necessary evil to get that one photo from the road with the Arc behind you !