llrpurch

Greetings ya'll!
I'm treating my father to Paris in mid October. He's getting up there in age and not as mobile as he'd like to be. I'm not in the greatest of shape myself but can get around. I'd greatly appreciate any advise on the itinerary I'd put together for our 11 day trip. I'm more focused with taking it slow and easy, utilizing taxis and/or batobuses as much as possible, and simply enjoying the pace of life that seems to be so much less "time focused" than our American life.
BTW...he's from NOLA originally before moving to Bama. Considering what his family has been thru this week (they're now safely in Baton Rouge thank God!), I'm thinking of adding a day trip to Orleans so he can see the namesake of his hometown. Don't know the "day trip" aspect, nor of any tours that can accomplish that for us. Any suggestions for how I might make that aspect of our trip happen for his sake would be greatly appreciated.

So the itinerary...:
Day 1-travel from Atlanta to Paris

Day 2-arrive Paris 6:30 a.m., meet with Michael Osman, get to Paris Perfect apartment, drop luggage and do some basic overview touring of city, neighborhood, and formalize planning for rest of trip.

Day 3-5-spend with Michael touring major Paris sites. Focus is on pre-1900 historical aspects. Modern art/aspects would not be a priority. Also, Pops wants to visit the library to see if he can find some info on our family history, which comes from Alsace region.

Day 4 evening: Moulin Rouge (Pops wants to see a show either here or Follies Bergere at some point. Is the Toulouse Lautrec dinner prix fix worthwhile or should we go a la carte? Anyone have any comments on this?)

Day 6-Paris Visions "Leonardo and Loire Valley" daytrip (anyone done this tour before? Any thoughts to offer?)

Day 7-Paris Visions "Royal day at Versailles" tour (again, anyone have any experiences with this?)

Day 8-10- Leave open to revisit places, visit the Salon du Chocolat festival at Versailles, possibly do day trip to Orleans. Maybe go back to the library to further research family history.

Day 9 evening- La Boheme at Opera Bastille

Day 11-travel home

Does this seem too ambitious for 2 non-hardy types? I don't want to overdo things or be overly ambitious, which would only frustate Pops to no end.

BTW...thank you all for the incredibly good information I've gleamed from this website. Because of ya'll, I've found both ParisPerfect and Michael Osman. Thanks to this Fodor's community, I feel confident that Pops and I, who are both Southern American, will be able to feel both comfortably "at home" and yet still appropriatedly awed by such an incredible city as Paris!

Thank you all in advance for any advise or comments you can offer us.

Lydia

ira

Hi Lydia,

You have done very well.

>Moulin Rouge ...Is the Toulouse Lautrec dinner prix fix worthwhile ...<

Do not have dinner. It is overpriced and not all that good.

See the show and have dinner elsewhere.

A suggestion for traveling with older folks. They generally don't admit that they are overtired.

It is up to you to suggest stopping at a park bench or a cafe for a short rest because YOU are tired.

also, drink lots of water and never pass a chance to go to the toilet.

You will need 0.4E in coin to operate the ones on the street.

Public toilets often close for lunch.

Have a great trip.

Christina

I think it sounds fine in general, and the Parisvisions tours should work. Perhaps Michael Osman is helping you with this, but I am not sure the library research is going to work out. You don't give details on how you planned that or what library you are talking about, but doing genealogical research is not an easy or trivial thing. Also, having been a student in Paris, I did get a library card to the local library in the area near where I lived in the 5th, and at that time, you couldn't just walk in off the street and use the library, you had to be a resident and get a library pass, at least to use anything of much importance or research materials. I don't know where specialized collections on that would be or what exactly you are looking for, but I don't think it will work very well unless you know all about this and have a plan. Everything will be in French, of course, you don't mention that, so perhaps he is fluent in French. In addition to that, genealogical records for the Alsace area would likely be best in Alsace, not in Paris.

Travelnut

Your plan is shaping up nicely... my suggestions would be to put a day or two in between the long day trips, and to schedule very little for the first day (but do get outside and get fresh air and walk, to help with jet lag recovery).

The parks will still be decent in October, although they may start pulling up the flowers... but there is nothing like 'wasting' some time in a chair by the round pond in Jardin de Luxembourg on a nice afternoon.

Did you already secure your reservations for La Boheme? It's my impression that seats for these productions go very fast.

So glad to hear your family is ok.

llrpurch

Thank you all for your advice! I will certainly avail myself of convienient benches to "rest my feet a moment" when I feel he's got a game face on. Will load up on .4 EU coins also.

Perhaps we can have a nice home dinner before the Moulin Rouge...I understand there's an incredible "frozen food" store in our neighborhood? We will both need to work into the after-8 dinner mindthink anyway.

The geneology research will likely go to the back burner once we arrive. Michael has kindly offered advice to us and your "heads up" about the difficulties will be passed on. Our French is limited to basic polite phrases. Research will get overwhelmed by the Louvre, I'm sure.

Yes, I did get the Opera tickets already...looking at them right now and am amazed that I'm going to the Opera in Paris in only 6 weeks! I won't break it to Pops until we get there that it's at the ultra modern Bastille. I will want to make sure he gets a chance to tour the Palais Garnier. He's still got a thing for Phantom of the Opera lore. So do I, actually. (One of those guilty pleasures leftover from the 80's!)

We are taking arrival day very very easy, just riding batobus to get an overview, maybe a busline to immerse into the ambience of the city life, and exploring our new temporary neighborhood for essentials. I want to explore Rue de Cler and local markets that first day. I'm an early riser and will be the one who goes for morning walks for our daily supplies and breakfast. Yum!

I will check into swapping the Versailles days...maybe do Salon du Chocolat that Sunday at a late morning strolling pace. Will play that by ear depending on weather.

Does anyone have knowledge of tours to Orleans? It looks like it could be a day trip but maps are so deceiving. It might be time intensive to get there and back in one day, like Alsace was. That day trip got scuttled early on.

Thank you again for your thoughts and comments!
Lydia