Itinerary and Hotel Location(s)

You would be wise not to stay in Paris and attempt to visit the sites you mention as day trips. While Versailles and Giverny are easily done from Paris, chateaux in the Loire Valley, Normandy landing sites and Mt. St. Michel require closer stays. Particularly for MSM I would recommend staying one night on the isle itself. Daytimes are crowded with tourists and there’s really only one way to the top. Besides, it’s magical to watch the evening tide come in from your hotel on the island. That said, there are not a lot of hotels on the island, so you will need to make advance reservations as soon as practicable.

How many nights do you have? That's the real indication of how much time you really have. Two nights = 1 full day and so on. You can't count your arrival and departure day if this is your only time in Europe. Let's assume you have 8 full days, which is 9 nights. You want Paris, Normandy, MSM, Loire, Versailles and Giverny. You will have no time for Paris. Normandy is not a one day thing. If you spend 3 nights there you would have one day for some D-Day sites and one day for MSM. You would need a car or do organized tours. You may be able to do a quick one day tour of the Loire from Paris, but not if you plan to do it on your own. Versailles and Giverny you could do on your own, but not on the same day. You need to prioritize and know you can't do it all. My own choice given your time frame would to stay in Paris and to do day trips to Versailles and Giverny. If you have been to Paris previously you could squeeze in an organized day tour to the Loire.

Completely agree with Patricia. You'll probably spend much less time in transit, and more time actually seeing these places if you sleep outside of Paris for most of the trip. Consider taking the train to Tours and renting a car. Stay somewhere like Amboise while visiting the Loire chateaux. Then travel to MSM, then on to Bayeux for the Normandy sites. Giverny could be visited on the way back to Paris, or you could do it and Versailles as day trips from Paris on the back end of the trip. BUT, if you only have a week in France, I think you're going to have to edit your plan, eliminating one or 2 things. Think in terms of nights, not days.

We haven't been to Paris before so we may be planning too many things for this trip. We will be taking an overnight flight arriving very early on our first day in Paris. Eight nights total. We have planned to do a food tour on our first day. We do want to spend some time seeing the Paris attractions. We enjoy guided tours, preferably small groups or private tours. Suggestions? :-)

You are planning way too many day trips for such a short visit. Either do a week's tour of Normandy and the Loire Valley, or a week in Paris with a maximum of 2 day trips to Giverny and/or Fontainebleau. I suggest the latter because it would give you a taste of chateaux, but avoid the huge crowds of Versailles while being equally accessible. Or, if you can extend your trip to 2 weeks, you can do both. Whichever you decide, get some good guidebooks and maps to aid in your planning. Good luck.

This being your first trip I would stay in Paris the entire time. There is so much to see and do there. I love Giverny and if you like Monet and gardens I would make it a point to go there. If you don't I would recommend that you skip it with your limited time. You could easily spend a day at Versailles. It's a quick trip by RER from Paris. If you enjoy museums I would recommend a 6 day museum pass (it works for Versailles) so you can go in and out of museums at your leisure. I don't know what days of the week you will be there, but there is a metro pass that may be convenient for you. https://parisbytrain.com/paris-train-metro-week-pass-navigo-decouverte/

A good guide book such as Rick's Paris book can help you plan your time and give you handy tips.

As for hotel locations, I like the 4th, 5th & 6th arrondissments as close to the river as possible for being the most central. The single digit arrondissments are the most manageable. Some people like Montmartre and it can be a little less expensive, but you will have to take the metro or bus to get to almost anywhere from there, which is why I don't recommend it.

Posted by Marci (Mount Airy) on 09/10/18 07:20 AM

We will visiting Paris in late April of this year for eight days.

You have a patent on your time machine?

Eight nights is only seven truly usable days. You are likely to be severely sleep-deprived and jetlagged after the overnight flight. Many (most?) of us have a lot of difficulty functioning on arrival day. I would never prebook an expensive activity for that day (like a food tour), because I probably would have no interest in actually participating in it. In addition, your body clock may well be so off-kilter that you aren't much interested in food during the time of the tour. That first day is good for walking around outdoors in atmospheric neighborhoods.