Fodor's Travel Talk Forums

My husband, daughter, and 11 month old son, brother in law, and I had a wonderful visit to Paris. We were in Germany and drove to the France/Germany border, parked, and took the train into Paris. I had spent a lot of time worrying about where we were going to stay, vacilating like crazy over the last two months. We ended up staying very close to the Republique Metro Station. I was happy with the price, satisfied with the hotel, and pretty sure I had worried too much about choosing a hotel because, from what I could tell, almost anywhere in Paris in the areas we went to would have been OK. We went to the Louvre on Wednesday evening after arriving Wedneday afternoon. On Thursday, we went to Notre Dame Cathedral, the church St. Chappelle,the place where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned, and then to the department store PrintTemps Haussman for a late lunch under the stained glass dome. Later, after looking around the area at the Christmas lights, etc., we went to the rooftop cafe that has an open terrace for a beautiful view of Paris. We then went to the Musee de Orsay that evening. On Friday, we went to the Science & Tech museum which has an amazing children's area (elaborate, interactive exhibits, restricted adult access, lots of fun for children) but otherwise would probably not have made my list of things to do. We then went to Rodin Museum and then to the Eiffel Tower, and then a night boat cruise. Saturday morning we spent too much time at the flea market - my husband somehow ended up buying a bongo - and we cancelled our plan to go to Versailles - instead heading to the Arch de Triumph, and ended our trip with a trip to Sacre Coeur, and dinner in that area. We took the Metro everywhere - I thanked my husband for backpacking our son the whole time because a stroller would have made it difficult to keep up the pace. It seemed as though the Museum Pass saved us money - although I didn't count up the total savings - I liked the convenience of just showing the pass instead of having to take out money at each place. We really had a good trip - in retrospect, I would have studied the Metro map a little more before we arrived in Paris - even though there are plenty of maps and it is an easy system - things go much more smoothly when you know fairly clearly how you are getting from Point A to Point B. It has helped me a lot in planning a trip to read messages of others - I wanted to share a little of our experience in the hopes it may help others to plan.