Moulin Rouge or other show recommendations?

Congratulations on your anniversary! Paris is lovely for a celebration.

Viator is just a middle-man company. I recommend purchasing from the actual company. I love taking the evening cruise; you can buy the cruise tickets on-line or just buy them at the ticket counter that evening.

I would not go to the Moulin Rouge. It is not in a very good area of Paris, especially at night. I had friends go to it and they said it was very crowded with group tours. I think an evening cruise would be a must. Be sure to choose the cruise which illuminates the monuments. They start after 10:00 pm in the summer.

Of course, go to the Moulin Rouge! Even if yosemite's friends don't recommend it. It'll be part of the Paris experience for you and fun to tell about it when you get home. It's a perfectly safe part of Paris, even if a bit seedy. You can take a taxi there and back. The Moulin Rouge is a quintessentially tourist thing to do, so what the heck .... go and have fun.

I went to the show a few years ago and I would skip it. You are jammed in like sardines. I could not even get out to go to bathroom. And I thought it was a very cheesy variety show. There were a couple good acts but on the whole not worth it. Take the river cruise just make sure you don't get on with a large group of teenagers on a school tour.

I am with sue , not the least bit romantic or special, unless you like breathing in the exhales of person sitting right next to you!

This cruise gets very food reviews, and I think it would be a far more special and romantic evening out , google for reviews.

Calife Cruises.
They also cook food on board , most of other bigger dinner cruises have it shipped on and reheated.

www.calife.com/english/intex.html

You can have a dinner cruise, or an evening cruise without food. The food-less cruises are much cheaper, but of course it is an experience to have your meal while floating down the Seine. Your choice.

Read about the Moulin Rouge experience before deciding if you want to go or not, and specifically if it sounds like it will be worth the high price to you. If you do decide to go, no need to use a middleman - you should be able to book direct with them: http://www.moulinrouge.fr/?lang=en (click "reservations" on the upper left, and a new tab will open).

Same for the cruises, by the way - no need to use Viator, just book direct on their website.

My wife and I went to the lido Caberet show , really enjoyed it , did the seine night river cruise ,bought tickets the same day , the river cruise companies have ticket booths on the river where they dock the boats . It left around 9:30-10pm and where able to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night from the boat . After the cruise take a walk along the river and get a glass of wine and sit on the bank and enjoy the evening .

Wow some great advice! Thanks everyone! Dave- the evening cruise that you took...was it the bateaux-mouches? I was going to book this online in advance but nice to know you can do it impromptu when you're there as well.

All the evening cruises( not dimmer) can be booked walk up.

Yes I think it was bateaux cruise boat. I bought the tickets in the afternoon ,then came back in the evening .

We went to the Moulin Rouge when we were in Paris the first time, ten years ago. I'm wondering if things have changed, because what others are describing is not what we experienced. Maybe it was our ticket type. We were seated at a table for two and had others across the aisle, but did not feel like we were on top of one another. We booked through a tour company that our hotel helped us find, and our tour started with a nighttime illuminated tour of Parisian monuments. There were 3-4 couples total, and a van picked us up from our hotels and dropped us back off at the end of the night. We really enjoyed the experience and for me it was cool to experience being at THE Moulin Rouge :). We were back in Paris this past fall and asked our hotel concierge about a show, and he didn't have great things to say, mainly because of the neighborhood it is in. He said you can get a taxi there, but many people have trouble finding a taxi home because a lot of drivers don't want to go there. It may be worth seeing if you can find a tour like I described with the to/from transportation included!