travellover36

Hello all and thank you in advance for your help. Sis and I leaving Sunday arriving Mon and staying through Fri.
We're young, used to crazy walking vacations and like to try and see as much as possible.
Hotel near metro Maubert

Mon
Arrival, check in, errands - Buy passes, metro ticket etc.
Afternoon open... I found a walk of the Rue Cler... do you think it'd be worth it? or a visit to Pere Lachaise cemetery?

Tue
Maubert to Trocadero
Tour Eiffel
Napoleon's Tomb
Rodin Gardens
Musee D'Orsay
Champs Elysses
Arc Du Triomphe

Wed
Maubert to metro Mutualite
St Germain de Pres church
St Sulpice
Jardin de Luxembourg
Pantheon
St Severin
Notre Dame
St Chapelle
Louvre

Thu
Versailles
Sacre Coeur
Wak around Montmartre

Fri
Walk around Isle St Louis
Place de la Bastille
Walk around Marais

I was planning on buying the Museum Pass for 2 days (Tue and Wed)

On Thu was planning the get the Versailles day pass that includes the transportation.

Finally, on my itinerary I only have very few uses of the Metro so unless I am crazy, maybe I'll just go with a carne of tickets...

Input?

Thank you so very much!!

Flyboy

It will be fine. Plans are useless; planning is invaluable. Just give yourself permission to skip things and get caught up in the serendipity of it all. I've visited Paris 20 times now and I still haven't been to Versailles or into the Louvre. I've never had time.

Regarding Rue Cler vs. Pere Lachaise, they are very different experiences. Of the two, I would say that Pere Lachaise is truly unique, while there are aspects of Rue Cler that can be enjoyed on market streets in various parts of Paris to a great degree.

ira

Hi T,

I'm exhausted.

Your plan is doable, but you are not going to enjoy Paris very much.

Skip Versailles this time. Your visit is too short.

Use the time saved to slow down your rush through Paris.

Choose one must do for each AM and one for each afternoon. Spend the rest of your time wandering around.

Stop to pick the roses.

>I found a walk of the Rue Cler... do you think it'd be worth it? or a visit to Pere Lachaise cemetery?

I'd much rather visit Pere Lachaise than count the number of Rick Steves guidebooks at the rue Cler.

>Maubert to metro Mutualite
Isn't that just one metro station, Maubert-Mutualite?

For Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, take the Montmartrobus from Pl Pigalle up to SC and walk back down through M.

Enjoy your visit.

Nikki

There is a street market at Maubert three days a week, so touring Rue Cler would not be a necessity for me.

I assume you mean on Wednesday to take the metro from Maubert-Mutualite to Mabillon.

Amy40

Well, you'll certainly see Paris, but you won't feel it.

I would walk along the river to the Rodin museum on the first afternoon if the weather is nice. It's a great place to overcome jetlag and the restaurant in the garden has very nice food.

Tue

I would start wandering from the east in the 5th toward the Musee D'Orsay. Maybe start at the Pantheon, walk through the edge of the Jardin, then see the two churches in the 6th and try to wander so you enjoy that neighborhood. Get to the Musee and have lunch. Spend a few hours there, hopefully 'til dusk when you can go see the Tour. You can stop by Rue Cler for another snack if you need one and eat watching the sun set behind the Tour, as I did on my first visit to Paris.

From there, head to the Arc (view from the top at night is great) and then down the C.E. back into town. I think the C.E. is best at night, and even then only for an "I've been there" stroll.

Wed

Start at the Bastille or Place des Vosges and wander westward through the Marais, up and back rue Montorgueil, through the Place des Victoires, into the Galleries Vivienne and Colbert for a quick peek. Then through the Palais Royale to the Louvre (if you must!)

Thurs

Start on the Isles. See N.D. Eat a crepe on the place! Go in St. Chapelle if the sun is right. Wander up the left or right bank, enjoy the river and check out all the bridges.

Leave Thursday afternoon and Friday open to return to wherever you feel you missed. I would skip Sacre Coeur, it's prettiest from the roof deck of the Musee D'Orsay, IMO. Do not leave town for the cemetery or Versailles unless you have an obsession about one or the other.

You are right about getting the carnet. Yoy can use them for buses and the routes I suggest above can all be done on foot....which is best. You can use a metro pass to zoom home at the end of the day.

Have fun.

bob_brown

I do not like being critical, really.

BUT, this schedule is impractical.

It sounds to me like you have an incomplete perception of the major attractions you will rush through and of those minor attractions over which you will have time to dawdle.

If you are going to allow so little time for places like the Musee d'Orsay and the Louvre, I really wonder what benefit you will derive.

The Rodin site is worth more than a casual run through if you have any appreciation at all of a his sculptures!

As for the Louvre, all I can say is that you will have very limited time to appreciate what is there and still see the other places on your list. The museum itself is HUGE; one could spend two days there and still leave quite a bit for the next trip. I suppose if one just wants to say, "I was there," and take a Rick Steves quick and dirty gander at the big attractions and then scoot to the nearest exit, an hour might suffice, but to what end?

Friday on the other hand is a lot of time for very little. What you have listed would take me perhaps 4 hours or less. The site of the old Bastille has the outline of where it was plus a monument, but the building itself is long gone.

The other thing I learned about Paris very quickly was that pushing a tight schedule is not the best idea because Paris has hidden treats which reveal themselves only to those who allow the time to enjoy them.

Two cases in point:

1. One Sunday we headed out to the Musee d'Orsay with the intent of arriving about the time the ticket window opened. On the way we walked into a farmers' market set up along Boulevard Raspail near the intersection with rue de Rennes.

We became so interested in the market that we spent an hour there wishing we could buy some of everything.

So we got to the museum after the line had formed. So what? We got in, took about 3 hours to admire the art works, had lunch in the cafe (not the snack bar) and left satisfied.

We had time for a look at one more minor attraction on the list, but something esle got trimmed off. I have no idea what we did not see, but it was immaterial.

2. The day we went to the Rodin Museum, we wandered around the grounds admiring the sculptures, particularly Rodin's huge works like Balzac, The Gates of Hell, The Burghers of Calais and the others.

Toward the back I discovered some works by Rodin I did not know existed: Marble busts. They have to be kept in a glass cabinet to protect the surface from pollution.

One of the busts is of Clemenceau. Rodin made the old tiger look like a Mongolian warrier, complete with top knot. Clemenceau hated it, but Rodin said his intent was to capture the inner man. I must admit that the genius of Rodin shines through on that one!!

After we left the Rodin exhibit near closing time we wandered over to Rue Cler because I had heard so much about it. I concluded it was just another Parisian market street. Lots like it.

Then we walked past Ecole Militaire and along the Champ de Mars in time to witness a minor battle. Some hotshot on a skate board hit a portly woman. No damage; the woman did not lose her balance. She did, however, unleash a furious oral assault on the young man which she climaxed by delivering a relatively mighty kick to his skate board and sent it hurtling down the steps.

I did not understand much of what the woman said, but the meaning was clear as a bell. As we walked away, I remarked to my wife that the young man was lucky that the skate board kick was not delivered with the power of Michelle Akers or Julie Foudy. Had it been, the young man would have gone for a swim in the Seine to retrieve his skate board. I just hope the old gal did not hurt her foot.

Throttle it back and enjoy fully what you do see. You cannot see it all this trip, nor will you ever in all likelihood. So take in the flavor of the city as well as the museums and monuments.

scrb

Orangerie is a nice museum too.

And I'm partial to Modernist Art so Pompidou is great.

What about that new African museum. Isn't that near Trocadero or Champs du Mars?

scrb

Here's a newsgroup post of exhibitions for 2008:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.t...e557ff40655d04

pxtxrdh

I think you might want to take bus #69 to first tour the city (very cheap, I might add for 1.40 euros per ride).

I took Rick Steves' recommendations and to take bus #69 to cheaply tour the city and have an overview of the sights that are worth seeing.

For an hour ride you will tour the heart of Paris including the Eiffel Tower, Ecole Militaire, rue Cler, Les Invalides, Louvre Museum, Ile de la Cite, Ile St. Louis, Hotel de Ville, Pompidou Center, Marais, Bastille, and Pere Lachaise Cemetary.

Let me know if this helps. Good luck and have fun.

bachslunch

Unlike some posters, I think your itinerary is active but very do-able, depending on how much time you want to spend at the D'Orsay (a healthy sized museum, though not nearly as big as the Louvre), and whether you plan to ascend the Eiffel Tower (which could involve a long line) or just see it from the Trocadero. Fortunately, you've planned it so you're hitting the Louvre Wednesdays, when it's open late into the evening, so you can see much more than just a few highlights.

If you want to take advantage of evening hours at the D'Orsay and see more of it, you can do that on Thursday. Montmartre might even be more fun to explore in the evening on Tuesday if you want to do an even-up swap, and Sacre Coeur is open fairly late (till 6 PM for crypt and dome and till 11 PM for the interior according to Frommer's website), though the view from the top of SC is great and arguably the best part of the place.

I will agree with bob_brown and say that you could in fact manage more on Friday if you wanted. This might be a good time to do your Champs Elysses/Arc du Triomphe visit. There's really not much to see at Place de la Bastille -- I'd say skip it. And while I haven't done a Rue Clair walk, I will say that Pere Lachaise cemetery is excellent (get a map that shows where the well-known folks are buried).

And given that you'll likely be walking around a good bit, I'm hard pressed to agree with posters who think you won't be really experiencing or enjoying much of Paris. Walking the streets on such planned strolls and walking between sights strikes me as a perfectly good way to do so. I'm sure you'll be walking with head up soaking it all in, which strikes me as the way to do it.

gladiatrix

Just spent 4.5 days in Paris two weeks ago. I think you are pushing too much itinerary-wise. Select perhaps 2-4 places per day. Also expect the unexpected, on the day we were to go to Versailles, there was a strike and it was closed. So we had a back-up for that day.
The Louve and the Orsay are huge! We spent most of 2 days-a day for each! Depends on your wish to see a lot of great art or just highlights. Go early.

StCirq

Do you do this kind of planning when you visit cities in your home country? To me it's major overkill. Paris to me is a place to relax and take in a few sights and meander around and watch the world go by.

I understand the compulsion to get the most out of a visit, especially when the exchange rate sucks and you may not get back soon, but this is really a forced march, not a vacation.

Take the places you want to visit, get a map, and plot a daily walk that takes you to, or near, those places. Depending on what happens as you make your way through the day, discard some of your ideas and be open to accepting new opportunities that arise. Don't turn this into an organized tour.

About the rue Cler, it's kind of funny that someone has devised "a walk" of it. It's just a street - what kind of "walk" would you do other than up and down it? And I sure wouldn't make a trip over to it just to walk it. It's no more of less interesting than a hundred other streets in Paris.

Relax and enjoy your trip. You'll probably toss that itinerary after a day or two and have a better trip for it.

bachslunch

I don't know what the OP does when they travel to cities in their own country, but I always, always, always plan a whole lot before any trip of this kind I take, whether in my own country or overseas. I always draw up a detailed itinerary like the one the OP posted before going anywhere, including restaurant possibilities.

It's not to say that one has to stick rigidly to the itinerary one sets up -- sometimes things take longer than expected (or less time), or unexpected closures of sights can occur, or an interesting and unexpected alleyway may beckon. But the idea of spending the bulk of my vacation at most places meandering around and watching the world go by is a non-starter, for me at least. I've never felt I've missed out by doing things the way I do -- after all, vacation time is precious, and there's always the chance I may never get back to this destination. Different people have different comfort levels with this kind of thing -- but given that the OP said:

"We're young, used to crazy walking vacations and like to try and see as much as possible."

I'd guess they're like me when I travel.

aGirlfromBrooklyn

Dear Travellover36,

I too am planning a short trip to Paris in three weeks and hope to see a lot of the same sights you listed... in only 3 to 4 days.

I have lived in NYC for most of my life and still have much more to see here at home, so I KNOW there will always be more I'd like to see or do wherever I travel. That said, over the last several years my daughter and I have taken long weekends and explored American cities such as Washington, Boston, Philadelphia and others. We have found that 3 days offers an ample time frame to "taste" the city. We often use the on-off tour busses but tend to walk a lot between stops. The advantage of the bus tours is you get door-to-door transportation between "sights" and the benefit of some background information on the ride (as opposed to relying on self-guided tours). We also tend to leave a lot of time free each day to allow us to explore in depth and dally when we want to.

At home, when we have guests I customize my "tour" of NY to their interests and the time they have to spare -- I can give a highlights from inside the car in an hour or two -- or I can spend a week sending them to different sights and neighborhoods to explore.

As for the museums, there are a few such as the Louvre, that we need to be able to say "we've been there" but I'm only expecting to see a few pieces by favorite artists or that appeal to my personal interests.

Even here at home I have started "skimming" museums to see only the highlights or concentrate on a particular room, artist or exhibition.

And, while I tend to list and plan each day and each itinerary like you did, we always end up doing much more and many different things -- you can't let yourself get upset if you miss something -- be excited instead at the things you DO get to do and see! Unless there's a show or reservation, I ignore the clock.

Now, let's see if I take my own advice later this month!

A Brooklyn girl

clelbong

We just went to Paris last month, and although we didn't cover as much, we hit some of the same spots. Here is a link to my trip report

fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?screen_name=clelbong&fid=2

On Monday, if you're not too tired, I would hit Eiffel. Besides, it's so pretty at night. Then, you have more time on Tuesday. Tuesday seems really packed- also at Napoleon's Tomb, I'm not sure if you're aware, but there is the Military Museum which is very nice, and you may want to spend some extra time there.

Wed also seems like A LOT- I didn't realize how BIG paris was, until I got there. It may look like you can go from one place to another, but it's a lot of walking, and you may need to have a little rest time.

I agree with the others about Friday, in that you can probably do all of Friday in half a day as Ile St. Louis and Marais are right next to each other (not sure where Bastille is). If you see my trip report, make sure you get some ice cream at Berthillon and if you like fallafel, you can't miss the fallafel place in Marais.

bachslunch

The falafel place clelbong likely is referring to is L'as du falafel. I'll concur that's it's excellent and cheap. Note that there are other falafel places in the area but this one was both crowded and really good.

lilaki

bookmarking

seafox

Ok - you got some pretty mixed opinions and all are valuable. I'd say start with your plan and "come what may."....a good mantra for Paris "There is always next time" . If you are like the many who fall in love with the city, you will be back......

kerouac

If you accomplish half of the items on your list, that will be plenty.

Do not bother with rue Cler -- you will see so many other market streets and street markets on the other days, that you would be better off doing one of the biggies on your list the first day -- for example, if it is a clear and sunny day, go to the Eiffel Tower or Sacr&eacute; Coeur for the view. Probably not every day will be clear, and it <b>DOES</b> make a big difference.

janisj

Travelover36 took her trip back in May.

She did change her itinerary and added some time back in Paris after going to Switzerland. Hope we eventually find out how her plans worked out.