My husband and 15 year old daughter will be going to Paris next week. My daughter has come up with an itinerary of all the places she%26#39;d like to see and any feedback or input would be sincerly appreciated.
** we will have a car for the duration of the trip and will be purchasing a paris museum pass to be used on day 2 and 3 **
Day 1: Arrive in Nantes, France at noon. Pick up a car in Nantes and drive to Paris (roughly 4 hours). The estimated time of arrival is around 4:30pm, where we plan to check into the hotel.
- grab a quick supper (5:15pm)
- Les Invalides to see Napoleon Tomb and WWII exhibit (6-8pm)
- Eiffel Tower (8:30-9:15pm)
Day 2:
- Louvre (8:45 - 11am) we will only be seeing the major attractions
- Notre Dame and Crypte archéologique de Notre-Dame (11:15am-12:20pm)
- LUNCH (12:30-1:15pm)
- Musee Rodin (1:30-2:30pm)
- Pantheon (2:45-3:30pm)
- Walk through Jardin Luxembourg (3:50-4:45pm)
- Dinner in the Latin Quarters (5-6pm)
- Don%26#39;t have anything planned for after dinner. Suggestions would be great!
Day 3:
- Versaille (9:30am-2pm)
- Musee D%26#39;orsay (2:30-4pm)
- again don%26#39;t have anything planned after the museum. Suggestions please.
- Dinner (6pm)
- walk along the Champ D%26#39;elysee (7:30-8:30pm)
- Arc de Triomphe (8:30-9:45pm)
Day 4:
SHOPPING! We hope to visit the grand department stores like Printemps and Gallarie Lafayette. Any recommendations for some form of a shopping mall would be great. My 15 year old daughter loves fashion especially brand names, but does not have the budget for all the designer labels. Any ideas about places where she can find some designer labels without the prices?
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May I ask why you have a car for the duration of the trip? Having a car in Paris is not convenient and parking is expensive. There is good train service from Nantes to Paris. Please think about ditching the car.
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I don%26#39;t know if you left enough time to really see d%26#39;Orsay; for a suggestion afterward, walk across the bridge to the Right Bank and go to l%26#39;Orangerie (check hours, though, think they close at 6), this museum (Monet%26#39;s waterlilies, etc.) is in the west end of Tuileries. Also do your very specific time slots include waiting in lines, or just once you%26#39;re inside the attraction? You may have to loosen up a bit %26quot;go with the flow.%26quot; Also shopping is fine for last day, Galeries Lafayette is most fun, you could have lunch there, too. They have fashion shows on Fridays at 3:00 p.m., not sure about August, though, but they are geared toward the teen group, she%26#39;d love it. She may want more than an hour on Champs Elysees. A store she%26#39;d like (it%26#39;s not French, though) is Zara, a chain, very cute, affordable fashion.
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The Gallarie Lafayette fashion show doesn%26#39;t run in August. I emailed already and this was the response I received.
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Here are a few thoughts:
Erase all the times you have for activities. Keep the activities, erase the times. Somethings may take longer than you anticipate and some may take shorter and having all those times in there will make it feel like a race rather than a vacation. Just start out with activitiy #1 and continue from thing to thing at a pace which allows you to enjoy yourself.
You have dinner planned for very early according to Paris tradition. People usually start eating dinner around 8pm when they eat at restaurants. However, the cafes and bistros do allow for eating earlier dinners if you desire. (I must confess it is very difficult for me to have dinner so late at night because by then I am starving and exhausted for my 10-mile walk during the day.)
Day 3: I think it is too ambitious to do Versailles and D%26#39;Orsay all before dinner. You do a lot of walking at both. The two biggest, most time-consuming museums are the Louvre and the D%26#39;Orsay and it just doesn%26#39;t make sense to do either one of those on the same day as Versailles. You might want to visit a small museum after Versailles--like L%26#39;Orangerie at the west end of the Tuilleries. Versailles needs most of a day to do it justice.
1 hour for Notre Dame and the Crypt is not enough time if there is a long line at Notre Dame. The Crypt has a separate entrance than Notre Dame does (although it is on the same grounds).
If your daughter likes %26quot;high fashion%26quot; it may take you more than 1 hour to walk the champs-Elysees. In fact that might be true without the fashion statement. You might want to stop at Laduree for a lucious dessert treat.
Personally I don%26#39;t understand spending an entire day shopping in Paris when you only have 4 days. I can understand using a morning or afternoon that way but the whole day?? Shopping is shopping. You can do it in Toronto. Getting an outfit or a souvenir is nice but--they only have 4 days in Paris. Is your daughter going because she wants to see Paris or to shop? If it is to shop, you could save a lot of money by letting her shop to her hearts content in Toronto. Each of the activities is given so little time and shopping is given such a large proportion of the time--I%26#39;m just saying that to someone like me who loves what Paris has to offer, I don%26#39;t understand racing through things so you can spend 1/4 of the time shopping. I do understand being a 15 year old girl. The itinerary just leads me to believe that she isn%26#39;t that excited about Paris. I could be wrong.
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Can%26#39;t help up agree with the other answers, ditch the strict timetable, it will only give you a headache if you try to stick to it. I appreciate you want to see as much as possible, but you won%26#39;t enjoy it half as much if you%26#39;re clock-watching.
You need to take time out - or in your case - factor it in, to simply enjoy the city, time to stop and look at things, wander up streets that aren%26#39;t on your %26quot;route%26quot; and relax at a cafe/bar that looks inviting.
You could have lunch in the garden of the Rodin Museum - so you can lump those two time slots together!
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Versailles needs more than a day. Save that for your next trip to Paris if you don%26#39;t have time to do it this time.
Ditch the car - it%26#39;s an expense that you won%26#39;t need.
Shopping - Galeries Lafayette is brilliant and has a good range of clothing. You can go and look at the expensive designer stuff and then look for similar items in the lower end ranges.
If you want a surprise present then go to Louis Vuitton on Champs Elysees and pick up one of their cheaper purses. If your daughter wants to go into all the great clothing stores then it will take more than an hour to do Champs Elysee.
Although some of the brand names may be the same, I think that ranges are slightly different for the American/European markets.
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I wanted to thank everyone at Trip Advisor who helped my daughter and husband plan their wonderful trip to France. All your suggestions were extremely valuable. Just wanted to warn other travellers that they%26#39;ve got to get the Museum Pass at a local Paris store, rather than at the Museum attractions themselves. My daughter tells me that they waited at the Museum Pass kiosk on the grounds of the Louvre for over an hour to get their passes.
Thanks, again, everyone.
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Make sure that they see the Eiffel Tower when it lights up, every hour for 10 minutes. In July, it started at 10pm, not sure what time it starts now. They can plan a picnic to watch it-it was one of the highlights of our trip!
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Was in Paris in September. The Eiffel tower light show started at 9pm.
I think your daughter will really enjoy Versailles - especially the Petit Trianon (where Marie Antoinette spent most of her time). You might want to consider spending a few more hours there.
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I%26#39;m going to go against the grain, here, because I think it helps to block time so you know that your plan is realistic. The important thing is to remember to remain flexible - if you want to spend an extra half hour over lunch, or you decide you%26#39;ve had enough of museums and monuments and you just want to sit in a cafe and watch the passing parade, then do so.
By the way, some of your daughter%26#39;s proposed itinerary is pretty tight, especially if they%26#39;re planning to drive from place to place (which I can%26#39;t even imagine trying to do). As others have pointed out, the traffic will be heavy and parking hard to find, as well as being expensive. Walking and public transport is the only way to see Paris.
A couple of other things:
I think the Musée de l’Armée - Tombeau de Napoléon closes at 18:00 and the Louvre doesn%26#39;t open till 9:00. (The self-guided %26quot;Masterpieces of the Louvre%26quot; tour should be do-able in the time you have available.
By the way, you haven%26#39;t mentioned the days they%26#39;ll be there: be aware that a lot of the major museums/monuments have an wekly %26quot;closing day.%26quot; See www.parismueumpass.com for %26quot;practical information.%26quot;
I%26#39;d suggest Le Pre Verre in the 5th for dinner on Day 2 – but it won%26#39;t be open till 19:30. Maybe something like the Cafe Soufflot (www.soufflotcafe.com), which is near the Jadrin Luxembog and is open continuously from 7am to 2am.
If they%26#39;re going all the way to Versailles (which I woudn%26#39;t do with just 4 days in Paris), I think they should take it a little more slowly. Maybe have a picnic lunch in the gardens, and head back to Paris in time to give the Musee d%26#39;Orday a couple of hours. It closes at 18:00 (with a late opening till 21:45 on Thursdays).
As ILWP pointed out, a full day spent shopping is excessive. Maybe spend the morning exploring the streets of Montmartre and Sacre Couer, then head down to Boulevard Haussman, do a bit of shopping, head round the corner and see the Opera Garnier, then back for more shopping. The Marais area also has a lot of funky boutiques that a 15 year old should enjoy.
Hope they have a fun trip.
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