6 nights in Paris: 1st trip itinerary help

You would love the Paris Walks tours. We took the Hemingway Walks tour which took us back off the beaten path to a more intimate Paris. It was one of our favorite experiences in Paris. Luxembourg Gardens is amazing! We stayed in the St. Germaine area and thought It was a lovely area to stroll.

hey hey emenright
don't know where you're flying from and if you two will be jet lagged. your time is short so make the best of it. make early reservations for places you plan to go : museums, churches, eiffel tower, etc with their websites.
we will be there end of september also in the 14th near parc montsouris. our third visit so i'll give a few ideas, if interested and suits for fancy.
paris-walks.com check summer walks
pariscityvision.com planning to do fly over paris in virtual reality.
2cvparistour.com
cite floral (in the 13 arr) cute neighborhood looks so peaceful and tranquil and rue cremieux (in the 12th arr) colorful street and pastel colored houses
discoverwalks.com (montemarte and place de tertre)
canauxrama cruises "impressinists and guingettes on the seine" or getaways cruises around paris.
o-chateau.com check out the champagne cruise on the seine
petite ceinture (paris secret railway) you can read up about it solosophie.com
le frenchy burger classic french hamburgers,
frenchie-ftg.com street food with a twist plus home made hotdogs
bus-burger.com check facebook page hope they are still running the bus/restaurant ride while touring around paris
59 rivoli an artists squat renovated to studios
with locals.com, eatwith.com have dinner in a local"s house, lacuisineparis.com (cooking classes and tours), le cuisine de philippe (famous for his savory or sweet souflles), le souffle restaurant, moriyoshida.fr yummy looking pastries, order escargot with garlic butter parsley and baguettes to dip in juice. this year i'm on a mission to bakeries and patisseries where the best tasting eclair is. 2 years ago was french onion soup, do stop and sit at cafe for glass of vino people watch and breathe in this magical parisian adventure. you'll have lots of un with memories to boot.
aloha

likely staying concerns me. Do you have a reservation? September is a high-deman time for rooms because there are a lot of commercial expos then.

Arrival in Paris. If you are flying into CDG, you could take Le-Bus (line 4) to Gare Montparnasse, which may be walking distance to your room, if you don't have a lot of luggage. The bus takes 70-80 minutes and single tickets are €18 each. There is a flat taxi rate, I think it's €55 . . . for me it would be worth the extra €19 for door-to-door service and the time saved.

Getting around Paris. You can buy Navigo passes for about €6 each (and a small photo) and then load them with a weekly pass for unlimited travel on buses and metros (even to Versailles). However, the passes run from Monday morning through Sunday night. If you have at least 5 days of overlap, you'll save money. With 4 days, you'll at least break even. Since you are likely to be using the metro a lot, it will be worth it.

As for some of the things you mentioned, champagne cruises, cabarets, and such are likely to be very touristy. Sunset is at 8.30 on the 1st and 7.30 on the 30th. There's about an hour of twilight before you get the full effect of the city after dark. Just take that into account. Fat Tire bike tours (and their pricey Segway tours) are very good. They have tours to Versailles. If you want to go up the Eiffel Tower, you need to book in advance, maybe right now.

Sept 21-22 are Heritage Days. Lots of places in Paris will be open to the public for the only time during the year. It's a chance to see beautiful palaces for free.

hey! so I lived in Paris for a year and I have a bunch of recommendations. For crepes, go to Lulu La Nantaise. It's far from Montparnasse (it's in the Canal St. Martin area) but it is SO cute and the food is great. Not too touristy, but they still speak English.

Luxembourg Gardens, not far from Montparnasse station at all, is one of the most amazing parks. If you're looking to grab a quick bite around there, try Cojean. It's a French chain that does fantastic sandwiches, you can see how good it is because it's always crowded! You can get food to go (and eat in the park, I recommend!) or sit outside and people-watch.

For Versailles, my friend took this Versailles tour and loved it: http://bit.ly/TourVersailles it arranged all the transportation and everything so it was super simple.

I don't know if it's your thing, but I'd also recommend checking out the cemeteries. They're super cool and beautiful. I love Pere Lachaise, but that's quite far from you and Montparnasse cemetery is lovely too. In terms of other park-like things, I'd recommend the Promenade Plantee (or Coulee Verte... it has a bunch of names) which is a raised park on old train tracks.

Just spent 3 weeks in Paris. My suggestion would be to Google for info on all 'World in Paris" and you will find a plethora of information on each Arrondissement for you to make decisions on where to go to maximise your time.

Download the "TheFork" app - Choose your area and click on 'POP'. Pick a restaurant to look at, scroll down for all the options, they may also have a prix-fixe deal as well. You will be able to book restaurants that have 30/50% off etc. We would choose a restaurant in an area that had things that we wanted to see and would generally have lunch but also booked dinners near our AirBnB. The site is easy to use - no cost to book and you don't have to load any Credit Card details, so very safe. Happy Hours are everywhere as well.

For an awesome view that is free - head to the The Printemps Rooftop Terrace.

Look at "Free Walking Tours Paris" - there are many and they are run by Locals and the only cost is a 'donation' for their time etc. We usually pay around 20 Euro for the 2 hours. Very cost effective and much smaller groups. We also caught the #69 bus, great inexpensive way to see Paris. You can google this and it will tell you what you see and what stops to get off at etc. You can either stay on for the entire journey or get on and off for the one bus ticket within 90 minutes. We also did the #42 - same deal, different route.

Visit the Statue of LIberty - smaller version - that the US gave to the French in 1889 - in Pont de Grenelle - Check out the area as lots to see.
I used this site for different things and found it very good "The Atlas Obscura Guide To Paris - 146 Cool, Hidden, and Unusual Things to Do in Paris".

Have a great trip

Google maps will identify restaurants around a specific address, including a web link if there is one. No guarantee everything is listed (ditto for The Fork, described above) and evaluations depend on user feedback, which should be regarded with more than one grain of salt (also ditto for The Fork, run by Trip Advisor.)

Save time. Be sure to check ahead for closed museums, due to strikes or other reasons such as closed certain days of the week.
The most memorable part of our one-week stay in Paris was a concert at Sainte-Chapelle. Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Wonderful! Book ahead.

Hi, when I was in Paris last Fall, I found the app Citymapper absolutely essential. You put in where you’re going and it will give you the best ways to get there by public transit. Itlll direct you to the metro station or bus stop, tell you which to take and when to get off it.

Also Paris offers a free service called Paris Greeters. I did this and had a 2-3 hour tour around the Bastille area by one of their volunteers! It was wonderful way to get up close and personal about a part of Paris.

Also I started out planning everything about my days. Halfway thru I realized that I was missing so much of Paris. After that I wandered, sat in cafes and went with the flow. That’s when I found 5 or 6 couples dancing to tango music next to the Seine. Exquisite! I would have missed it if I’d planned everything.

Most of all, enjoy it. I can’t wait to go back. I fell in love with the city.

Wonder what happened to the OP - hasn't been back . . .

Holy. COW!!! Thank you so so much, everyone!!! I just finally read through all of these posts (all of the email updates were going to my “promotions” tab so I was missing them in my inbox!) & this is fantastic. I am SO grateful!! Great advice on the apps, as well. Thank you to all!! I hope you know how much your time & effort is appreciated. I am making notes & your advice is totally going to make for a wonderful trip! Thank you again & again.