How many days for Paris?

Hi Ruth, this is a difficult one because you’re going to be there during hot weather, and that & the crowds (which will be even greater) are what gave you your negative impression.

I love Paris, and I also love the smaller cities in France. For Paris I would normally say five days minimum. But in your case I would recommend three in Paris & two nights in a different city. The smaller city will have less crowded museums- sometimes they’re even free. Or you could do something like take the train to Nancy which has a beautiful center (reminds me a little of Vienna), and they have a spectacular light show in the evenings projected on the four sides of the square. You can enjoy the feeling & setting of France without pushing yourself to “love” Paris.

The evening boat ride on the Seine is a special way to enjoy Paris lit at night. I do it during each trip. Also the Musée Jacquemart-André museum is small & very nice. Arrive as they open.

And I love special cooking classes. I took the La Cuisine croissant pastry class several years ago, and it’s such a great way to bring back thoughts, smells & the taste of Paris each time I make them at home.

Don’t force it. : ). There’s no requirement to love Paris. I didn’t fully appreciate Rome for the first few trips, either. ; )

How many days for Paris?

In your case zero.

Just skip Paris in the summer and do something different: go stay in St Malo in the region of Brittany right next to Normandy on the way back it has a beach and fly back from Rennes.
Where do you live?

If you’re ending your tour in Normandy, why not spend a few days in Rouen and explore that city. You could even take a day trip into Paris from there to see the museums and sights that you really want to revisit, rather than feeling obliged to spend more time in Paris than you want to.

Ruth,
Well, summer will be crowded, but I love Paris and still would go. How much time? Paris, London, Rome...a month apiece. However, things you haven't seen in Paris and which I really, really recommend (and which means 5 days for sure):
Musee Rodin...the sculptures in the garden...I go every time I am in Paris, especially to see The Burghers of Calais
Musee Cluny...finally saw it in 2023...fell in love with it...must go back!
Bouquinistes along the Seine...harks back to the 1960s for me and I check them out in spite of the crowds
Ride on Vedettes de Pont Neuf.....sitting up top and relaxing for an hour as Paris rolls by
Church visits....St. Denis (burial place of kings and queens), St. Sulpice (organ music and mass), Notre Dame (heart of Paris), Ste. Chappelle (not a "church" anymore, but Oh My!), and many other beautiful places of worship
Concerts here and there throughout the city
Musee d'Orsay and Musee Marmottan Monet....(top floor of Orsay)...impressionists galore
Buying a crepe from a street seller
Cafe or aperitif at a sidewalk cafe almost anywhere in Paris
Just walking around, esp. certain neighborhodds

So sorry your previous visit was disappointing. I hope you give Paris another chance. Hot summer and crowds can color our feelings of any place, so maybe you could try Paris in May or June next year. To me it isn't just the capital of France, but the capital of Europe!
Bonne chance!

P.S. Amiens would be nice to visit. Also Beaune, Bordeaux, Nancy, Colmar and/or Strasbourg.
What is covered in your tour?

Zero. A quick search indicates you can travel to Tours (or Amboise, I don't know where your tour starts) from CDG without going into Paris at all. And there are lots of other cities you can reach directly from the airport. This is what I would do if I were in your position. France has a lot more to offer than Paris in the summertime.
P.S. There is nothing in this world that would get me to go to Versailles in any weather.

That is a conversation you need to have between your heart and your head. And with your friends and travel mates. Husband? The rest of us can confuse the issue or shed light as we will.

So let me add my thoughts, anyway.

Our first trip to Paris. September 2010. Mild weather. One week. Saw much of what you saw. Plus some smaller museums and neighborhood wanderings (4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 13th, 18th, 10th and 11th). Walked those same steps UP the Eiffel Tower. Museums: Louvre, d’Orsay, Orangerie, Carnevalet, Pompidou, Jewish History and Art. Went to Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur and other churches. Great time. No time for Versailles or Giverny. Stayed in an apartment in le Marais. Stayed nowhere else in France. Eurostar to London and stayed with friends, there.

Second trip. June 2024. Warm to Hot. After 3-1/2 weeks in France (Bordeaux, Dordogne, Chartres and Versailles) we planned 4 nights in Paris. No big museums. A couple of small ones (Petite Palais and Musee du Luxembourg, both for special exhibits that intrigued me: Sarah Bernhardt and Leon Monet, Claude’s brother), Maison Balzac, Passages Couvertes, organ recital and mass at St. Sulpice, and yes, finally that day trip to Giverney. After BA cancelled our flight home, back to Paris for a fifth night plus a bonus visit to Musee Orangerie that we had also visited back in 2010. Wandered Rue Mouffetard a couple of times, as well as the 16th Arr after we visited the Maison Balzac. Stayed in the 6th. (BTW, Versailles was too hot, too crowded, too big, too much and, other than the ceiling frescoes in the King’s Apartments and State Rooms, too mediocre. Especially the gardens. Big, yes. Enchanting? No, not compared to Villandry or Chaumont in the Loire.)

Coming up. Just 3 nights in Paris. Hope to see Notre Dame (second visit) apres le feu et la restauration. Musee Jaquemart-Andre. Second time to d’Orsay. Musee Cluny. Seine cruise (never done). Maybe a Paris Walks tour? Maybe Hugo House? Ruled out the Louvre. Will stay in the 5th ... just a few doors from where Hemingway and his first wife lived. We’ll pass through the Jardin des Plantes en route from Gare de Lyon to our hotel. This quick trip to Paris allows us to see the restored Notre Dame and more - at the end of a 30 day trip to southwestern Germany and eastern France.

So, will you love it a second time? Will you go join the crowds for great sights and love it? Or hate it? Might you go to smaller gems or wander neighborhoods? Will the heat exhaust you? Might you find respite somewhere? I have no idea. Your friends and family will give you better advice … and you’ll be traveling with them.

Bonnes Vacances.

Easy choice. There are so many places to visit that it makes no sense visiting someplace you don’t care for. If you do decide to visit, only go to places that interest you, not ones that others say you must see.

I’ve been to Paris on three occasions, never visited the Louvre nor gone up the Eiffel Tower, and never will. I did however enjoy the places I visited for the five days I was there in 2015.

We were in Paris end of May/first part of June for 7 days. My husband wanted to visit his old favorites, I.e. Versailles, the Louvre, Montmartre and the Eiffel Tower. I didn’t want to discourage him, but I was aware of the crowds we’d encounter and he did not enjoy that part of the trip. Once we started with less popular sites, he had a wonderful time. Our itinerary for the less popular sites was: Jacquemart-Andre (book tickets ahead because they were really limiting walk-ups), Jewish Art and History Museum, the recently reopened Musée Carnevalet, Pere Lachaise Cemetery, and Vedettes Pont Neuf. There are lots of other places that are listed here in other posts that we’ve done and loved.Also, check out special museum exhibits at places like the Grand Palais and the Petite Palais. Not sure what part of “summer” you planning to go, but events like sound and light shows were scheduled til later in the season. In 2019 we went to a sound and light show at des Invalides that was amazing.

Thank you, everyone. We will be traveling in June (tour begins June 10). Our most recent 2 vacations were in early May, and I much prefer to travel slightly off season, but this is a very small tour company, and the tour we were interested in is only offered once in 2026 (we actually put our names down in 2024 for the 2026 trip). I’m still open to exploring all options, but thanks to those of you who suggested skipping Paris this time around (and perhaps trying to visit when it’s less likely to be hot). I don’t think I’d really given myself permission to consider that….how could we travel in France and not spend time in Paris? It’s an interesting possibility and I’d be interested both in the possibility of spending more time in or near Normandy at the end of the tour, or perhaps heading to somewhere like Strasbourg or Colmar prior to the tour. Either skip Paris altogether this time around or limit our time there and focus on some of the less crowded experiences you’ve listed.

Our tour begins in the Loire Valley east of Tours and we spend 3 nights in the valley, followed by about 6 nights in Brittany and 4 nights in Normandy (based near Bayeux). I suspect the combination of coastal weather and a well organized and very small tour group will minimize the disadvantages of hot and crowded summertime travel. So maybe we could tolerate a couple of days in Paris….or focus elsewhere and save Paris for a different trip.

On our most recent trip to Rome we got up at about 7:00 a.m. each morning and found we had the city to ourselves between 7-10. In Dublin nothing was crowded before 10 or 11 most days. Is that the case in Paris, too?

I’m really appreciating all the suggestions and will look at them more closely over the next couple of days. Please keep them coming!

Ohhh, just being nosy but are you doing the Seymour Travels tour of Loire, Brittany and Normandy? If so, I did it last October and it was excellent! Mark and his wife Toni live in Brittany near Vannes and he will have taken weather into consideration.

If you decide on days in Paris, I’d do them before the tour. If you have a desire to do the Louvre there are uncrowded areas where almost no one visits! I’ve sat in front of the Vermeers with few to no people in the room. BUT the Louvre is in no way required!

If it is a Mark tour, and if he is picking up in Saumur again next year, I’d go out at least the night before. I enjoyed Saimur but i hit it at the tail end of a hurricane (!!).

Hi Pam — yes, that is the tour we’ll be taking! It isn’t yet clear if/where there will be a pick up. I’ve emailed a few questions to Mark this week (letting him know I understand he’s in the thick of tour guiding right now and there’s no need to reply until later) including whether we should plan to arrive at the tour start point a day in advance and — if so — the name of the first tour hotel so we can book an extra night. It sounds like you arrived in the region (but not the first hotel?) ahead of time?

Another question I posed to Mark that I’d love to hear from you about as well: Are there places to visit/additional experiences in Normandy that aren’t covered in the tour that might be worth spending an extra day or two in the area (either based in the final tour location or somewhere in the vicinity) before we head home? Would you liked to have spent more time there? Or did you do so?

Due to challenges finding long term pet sitters, etc we will probably limit the trip to 3 weeks. Building in travel days, we’d only have a total of 6 days to spend on our own before/after the tour. Paris (or save that for— fingers crossed— another trip at a cooler time of year)? Fast train east to the Alsace region for a few days pre tour? A couple extra days in the Normandy region post tour? I’m in the early planning stage for a country I’m not familiar with and that’s always the most overwhelming part for me!