Feedback on Schedule for 4-Day visit?

Tuesday looks like too much to me. Wednesday you have a Rue Cler walk which will take about 15 minutes so I would do the Army Museum this morning. I am not particularly in to military history but I wound up spending about 5 hours in this museum which shocked me. Their WWI and WWII rooms are really good. I don't think you will be able to see the Cluny, the Picasso, the Carnavalet in the same afternoon. Perhaps the Picasso and the Carnavalet as they are near each other.

No boat ride ?? That's one of my favorites! But you can fit it in on any day with good weather.

Looks like you have put a lot of thought into this plan. The only part that seems overfilled is Wednesday afternoon. You will not be able to see all of those museums in a day. We generally only see one museum in a day. After a point, it becomes too many museums, so don't kick yourself is you miss one or two (or three). It is not the museums that make the memories. Take your plan with you and be willing to discard something if it doesn't work or you don't feel like doing it. Maybe something else will pop up, even just shopping or "licking windows" as they say in French.

Since the Louvre is closed on Tuesday, the Orsay will be more crowded that day. I would switch to Wednesday. Why visit the Arc de Triomphe twice? You could take the stroll up the Champs from the Orangerie to arrive as the sun is setting. By the time you climb up to the top, the lights of the city will come on and the view, especially on the hour when the Eiffel Tower lights up, is beautiful! I personally would visit Monmartre and Sacre Coeur in the morning. I've taken a nighttime boat cruise on the Seine and thoroughly enjoyed it. But please don't take a dinner cruise when there are so many fantastic restaurants at which to dine

I don't know how the food is at the Rodin, but you could easily walk from the Rodin to Les Invalides and then to Rue Cler where you could cobble together a picnic to eat on the Champs de Mars...or have a bite at the Cafe du Marche on Rue Cler.

I think trying to cram all the museums into your visit will make you feel rushed and you might want to save some of them for your next visit when you see Versailles. I've been to Paris for various lengths of time on seven trips. I know I'll return, see some sights I have visited in the past and discover some new experiences. Take your time, stop and smell the fromage!

Thank you all for the feedback! I certainly don't want to over-commit to museums. Based on your suggestions, I have made a few changes.

Updated Schedule (changes highlighted)

Questions:

• If Monday evening we are at the Arc de Triomphe for sunset, could we fit in Place du Trocadero and Eiffel Tower with the rest of the evening? Or do our current Sunday/Monday evenings look full enough?
• My girlfriend gets seasick. How calm are the river cruises?
• Do you recommend a river cruise at the beginning or end of the trip?

Assuming you mean the sightseeing boats on the Seine, I'd be extremely surprised if there's a problem. I'm quite prone to motion sickness (have to be careful about bus trips through the mountains), and I've taken the Seine trip and others along city rivers. Never even a slight issue. I've never heard or read that it's a problem for others, either.

The Seine boat cruises are on calm water so mal de mer shouldn't be a problem. Very easy and quick to get from the Arc to Trocadero. At Charles de Gaulle - Etoile you can either take the #30 bus or the #6 Metro. Should be about fifteen minutes either way. If you have a smart phone, ratp has great free apps for public transportation in Paris. Check out their website.

It looks like we might try a sightseeing cruise on the Seine. Do we need to reserve tickets? How do I go about looking for a cruise?

For the river cruises, we prefer the smaller boats offered by Vedettes du Pont Neuf. I think it's more centrally located. We have always taken the night-time cruise. I specifically set our schedule for our kids' first visit to Paris so that their first view of the Eiffel Tower was from the river cruise - it was magical! (and a full moon as well - that was not planned). That would be my suggestion, and for what you should do on your first evening in Paris.

Also, will you be arriving in Paris on the day before your first full sightseeing day? Otherwise, visiting the Louvre on your first day there, in the throes of jetlag, is likely to lead to not remembering much of what you see.

In terms of missing important attractions, it depends on what your interests are!

Thanks, Lexma! I will look into the Vedettes du Pont Neuf cruises. It looks like they would be great at night. As for visiting the Louvre while jetlagged, I suppose we could switch it with the Orsay museum we have scheduled for Wednesday. Either way, jetlag is going to affect something on our trip. We arrive Saturday late night and leave early Thursday morning, so we really only have 4 full days.

You can only do so much 4 days and this is well organized. I wouldn't do the Rue Cler walk -- just a street with shops. And I would want to see Pere LaChaise or St. Denis. The later is IMHO the most overlooked great site in Paris (well on the metro, it is just over the border) I also wouldn't do the Champs Elysees walk but I understand why you might want to on a first visit. It is just such an underwhelming thing with the boring big box stores and overpriced cafes. I'm a big fan of doing neighborhood self guided walks and choosing a less touristy neighborhood e.g. a graffiti walk in the 19/20th https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/graffitti-street-art-vandalism/ or an architectural walk in the 16th (Frommers has a guide in their Paris walks books) or a quirky neighborhood like Butte Aux Cailles. But again, you can't do everything and this is a good mix. I would look at priorities and mark some of these things as musts and some as maybes so you can be less rushed. One thing in the morning and one thing in the afternoon with possibilities nearby is a good plan. And if you love art, museums suck up a lot of time that needs to be planned for.

We used Vendettes du Pont Neuf last year - I purchased the tix ahead of time online as there was a discount - you can save a few euro - but we weren't locked into any time/date. They are good for a year - tho you do have to specify whether you are doing a morning cruise or afternoon/evening cruise. (So there is a bit of restriction on the time). Morning cruises only run from 10:30-noon.

I didn't notice much motion at all (maybe when it was turning around). We quite enjoyed it. Depending on time of day it could be cool - we were there end of Sept and went out about 6pm - it was getting cool to say the least as the sun was getting low on the way back and there was a bit of a breeze and I had wished for something a little warmer.