Please review itinerary! :)
 

Please take a look and let me know if this itinerary is do-able! Thanks! Also, if anyone has any restuarant (cheap!) suggestions in any of the locations, please let me know!

TUES
Morning: Arrive/rest
AFTERNOON:Walk along Ile de la Cité, Notre-Dame, Latin Quarter /Blvd St Germain Market –
: Enjoy the Luxembourg Garden/picnic lunch,.
Evening: Cruise Seine River.

WED
Morning: Tour the Louvre (arrive 20 min before opening—9am).
Afternoon: Walk from Arc de Triomphe down the grand Champs-Elysées boulevard to Tuileries Garden.
Evening: Walk Monmantre , see Sacré-Coeur.

THURS
Morning: Tour Orsay Museum (arrive 15 min before opening).
Afternoon: Visit Napoleon's Tomb, then take the Rue Cler Walk and relax at the Café du Marché.
Evening:SUGGESTIONS?

FRI

Morning: Walk Marais.
Afternoon: Tour the Pompidou Center
Evening: Twilight ride up the Eiffel Tower.

SAT

Morning: VERSAILLES

Evening:a concert at Sainte-Chapelle.

SUN
Depart to Italy

I haven't been to your locations before, but you will definitely want to top your message in the morning as many more regular posters are online then.

sounds refreshingly low-key and doable

On Wednesday when you finish at the Louvre, you're already at the Tuileries Gardens. You can start your walk on the Champs from there, up to the Arc. One good place to stop on the Champs for lunch is Laduree--leave room for dessert. It's one of the rare good places on the Champs.

Is Sacre Coeur open in the evening? I'd never thought about for the evening.

My only suggestion would be to visit Versailles mid-week as it is a popular weekend destination for locals.

I think it is a good plan. I would, however, like to make a couple of comments that I hope will prove helpful.

As a first suggestion, add in somehow the Rodin Museum, even if you have to cut something out other than Ste. Chapelle and the d'Orsay.

Before going to the Louvre, decide as best you can specifically what you want to see and how long you want to spend inside the building. Then get those statues and/or paintings out of the way on a priority basis.

I say that because I over did it. Even though I had been there before, I still underestimated the size, the grandeu, and the complexity of the collections.

At the Louvre, and other huge museums, I find that if I am not really prepared, I get off track. Then, I start wandering, lose sight of my main objectives, and soon get a case of the "museum staggers." That is where I just begin drifting along and all paintings start to look alike!

The suggestion about Versailles is a good one. The closest station to the palace is Versailles Rive Gauche on the RER line.

We tried arriving at Versailles before the doors opened, but it did us no good. The tour bus mobs caught us at the king's bedchamber. By the time we got to the Hall of Mirrors, the mob was so thick, it was hard to walk much less see.

I suggest you try what Rick Steves once recommended: tour the gardens first and then after lunch go for the inside of the palace. Hopefully by then the tour bus crowds will have gone on to Giverny, or where ever the hit and split mob goes.

I don't think you will be bowled over with Rue Cler. I certainly was not. Paris is full of similar streets. By the time we got there, I had seen so much that was similar, including the Sunday market on Boulevard Raspail, that it was a ho hummer.

One place I think (hope) you will enjoy is Ste. Chapelle. To me, those stained glass walls are a masterpiece of art, engineering, and construction. I liked it so much I had to go back for a second view. Depending on the light intensity the walls change appearance dramatically.

There is so much to see and do in Paris that you have saved a full dance card for a return visit.

If you get hooked on the place like many of us you will go back. One place I really admired outside of Paris is Vaux-le-Vicomte. The designers and architects are the same men who planned Versailles: Charles le Brun (artist), Louis le Vau (engineer), and Andre le Notre (landscape architect).

We combined it with a tour of Fontainebleau as well. The first time we took a bus tour; the second time we free lanced it.

For Vaux, I think the bus tour was the better choice because the chateau is hard to reach. By contrast, the palace at Fontainebleau is easy. There is a city bus from the Fontainebleau Avon train station down the main street to the building itself. And the train leaves from Gare de Lyon.

Here is hoping you enjoy the whole thing.

jp:

Where are you staying?

I think you could switch the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre. You can walk from the Arc de Triomphe to the Palais Chaillot (finally done with the renovation) and then over to la Tour Eiffel.

Thursday evening you could simply wander around the Saint-Germain area and Latin Quarter. I agree about rue Cler, it's nothing to get excited about. The markets on rue Monge (Latin Quarter) and rue Montorgueil (near Les Halles) are far more interesting.

Get a museum pass and you won't have to worry about lines at the museums.

Thanks for all of your help!
-We are staying at the Claude Bernard
-As for Versailles, I heard that the fountins only go on on Saturdays--do you know if this is true? Otherwise, it IS prob. best to go during the week.
-Is it best to take a tour bus to versailles or go on our own? Is Giverny worth seeing?

JP---Just a few thoughts:

TUES: Looks good, but I wouldn't plan the evening cruise on my day of arrival. You'll be groggy by then and it's more enjoyable after you've learned your way around a little.

WED: With only 5 days in Paris, I wouldn't take the time for the Champs Elysee walk. It's long...and boring. My least fave of the famous Paris "sights".
It would be convenient to spend this afternoon in the Marais.

THURS: I agree with previous assessments of Rue Cler. Add the Rodin to this afternoon...perhaps at lunchtime. They have an excellent cafe.

As for seeing the Arc, you can metro over there any day. Ideally, plan your visit to allow for walking back by way of Pont Alexander III at sunset...a glorious site when the lights start coming on. Lastly, you haven't mentioned the Latin Qtr. Don't make the mistake of assuming you'll "see" it just because your hotel is there.

Have you considered a Batobus pass? It's the hop-on hop-off boat that travels the Seine from the Tour Eiffel to the Jardins des Plantes.

Just a few things to consider. Have a wonderful trip!

Try to see Ste. Chapelle during the day. It is a wonderful place to attend a concert but you may not have sufficient light in the evening to get the full effect of the fabulous windows. I like your itinerary and I think you have gotten some very good suggestions. Enjoy Paris!

Here's a wacky and crazy idea that will surely be ridiculed here. I take a backseat to no one in advocating finding the real Europe when traveling, but I had a blast at EuroDisney. I would not trade the day I spent there with friends for any walk in the Latin Quarter or dinner at any Paris restaurant.

Being a science geek I also enjoyed the Museum of Natural History (most of its dinosaurs were found by Cuvier, one of the very first dinosaur diggers), the Picasso Museum, Jim Morrison's grave (more for the hippies congregated there than anything else), and the somber Holocaust Memorial near Notre Dame.

Thursday evening:

Take the Metro to the Vavin station and head to Le Cameleon for dinner. Spend some time before or after dinner checking out the Montparnasse area:

Le Cameleon
6 Rue de Chevreuse
Paris 6, France
43-20-63-43

My absolute favorite. Dinner for 2 w/ apertif, 3 courses, wine, coffee and tip well under 100E.

Patricia Wells also rates it as her favortite small restaurant in the world.

Be aware that they don't answer the phone between 2:00pm-7:00pm as they are not there during those hours.

Thanks! Is the batobus suggestion in lieu of the Seine cruise? Would we get the same ambiance?

No. Batobus is kind of like water taxis with a set route. Their boats ply the Seine and stop at 8 or 9 fixed stops throughout the day. If you buy a day (or multi day) pass you can just hop on and hop off whenever you like. For instance, you could catch a boat at the Eiffel Tower and get off at Notre Dame.

There have been several threads about it. Put Batobus in the search box and you should find them. Some say they're not a good deal because they only serve stops on the river. That may work for first time visitors because so many of the main attractions are on the Seine.
Here's the website.
http://www.batobus.com/

This is not the same as the sunset cruise boats.