If anyone reading this message has ever been to Paris, please respond with an attraction you would recommend not to be missed (i.e. the Eiffel Tower, Le Louvre etc..) <BR>Merci Beaucoup! <BR>Vicky

This is an open ended question! <BR>By the time you get through reading the list, you might as well buy a good guide and start on page 1.

So much to see, where can we even start? It depends on what you would like to do--could you be a little more precise? If you don't know, I would suggest that you visit the Paris Tourist office website at www.paris-touristoffice.com: you will have all the basic info on museums, sites, shopping, food, nightlife etc.

Any guidebook gives a least of the most-recommended sites in any major city. They do not vary much. If you don't want to buy a guidebook, which I would not recommend, you can go to www.paris.org and they have a section on must-sees. Aside from the most well-known definitive sites, others are subjective and I think completely depend on a person's interests. For example, I do not think the Louvre is a must-see site (except the outside of the building), at least on a short trip, for someone who rarely visits art museums and does not like older art periods. You could NOT miss seeing the Eiffel Tower if you were in Paris, it would be impossible (ditto Notre Dame); but I myself have never once been up in it and don't care, and I've visited Paris quite a lot over the last 20 years.

Vicky: I don't mean to sound critical of your inquiry, but I think will agree that people are not jumping all over it. I thought you would get a list of places, but so far response is minimal. <BR> <BR>I think there are several reasons for this situation. First, many people who contribute to this board have been to Paris many, many times and know the city very, very well. The reason you are getting limited responses is because your question is broad and vague. As earlier poster said, they don't know where to start and don't want to start a book. Forum contributors like Elvira could write several hundred pages on Paris, virtually for a warm up! (Let me put it this way. I think I know a good deal about Paris. But when Elvira writes, I read because I usually learn something I did not know.) <BR> <BR>Second, let me suggest that you read through a good Paris guide book or two. There is no one guide book that is the best, but a big book store like Borders is going to have a fair selection. I bought 5 guide books and studied them all before my first trip. I also got a very comprehensive map and studied in particular the diagrams of the Metro lines. Then I started asking questions here at Fodors and got a lot of help. <BR> <BR>I think that you will get a much better response if you formulate specific questions about a well defined aspect of Paris. For example, you might ask people to comment on the top 5 churches to visit in Paris, other than Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur. Or, you might ask people to comment on which of the smaller art museums would be good to visit. (I think the Louvre and Musee d'Orsay are the top two, but after that there are many attractive smaller museums.) Or pick some thing specific like the Institut de Monde Arabe and ask if it is worthwhile. <BR> <BR>In conclusion, specific questions about Paris that sound like you have done your homework will get a response on this forum! I do not recall one that did not, except for a couple of my off beat questions about obscure places.

I'm with Bob - buy five guide books and read them all for your first trip. If you at unsure enough to ask what you should see, a guide book is a good place to start. Not everyone is as fortunate as Christine to have spent so much time in Paris. Your first trip can be intimidating. Study the books, get familiar with the metro, and figure out what sounds interesting to you. Are you buying a package or making arrangements on your own? For our first trip, we bought a package that included airfare, hotel, museum pass, metro pass and a 1/2 day city tour. The tour was a great orientation for us, but I would not recommend on doing it your first day there. We actually fell asleep on the bus! I say definitely go to the top of the Eiffel Tower on your first trip. Yes - there are other places that have great views, but it's the Eiffel Tower! I, personally, prefer standing under it than being on top, but that's just a quirk of mine. The Louvre is something to see, and I felt it was a must see, but I have enjoyed other museums in Paris much more just because they weren't so exhausting. My number one piece of advice for planning a trip to Paris is don't over plan. On our first trip, we micro-managed our time and wound up frustrated and exhausted. Our subsequent trips (which we have done independently) have been much more relaxed and enjoyable. We plan one or two things, tops, a day and leave the rest of the day free to wander and discover something that we otherwise would not have. Again - I have to agree with Bob - do some research on your own then come back to the forum with specific questions.

Vicky <BR>take the above advice and invest in a good general guidebook, you'll want to take one with you anyway. Fodor's, <BR>or one of the others. Doing some reading will give you the basics on the popular sights, and will help pique your own interests. <BR>I have a large file on Paris; if you'd like me to send it to you, email me. <BR>It is hard to help you set priorities without knowing how much time you will have, what your interests are, what your budget is, what your age/stamina is, etc.