Paris first-timer recommendations

"I'm wondering if any are really not worth the time based on the experience of travelers who've been there. And what things are absolutely, under any circumstances, not to be missed. Thanks!"

This is totally subjective. IF you are not a museum person then you should not feel obligated to see any of the dozens of museums available. Ditto churches and gardens!

It might help for you to list what you're intending to see so we can make specific comments and recommendations.

For myself, going up in the Eiffel Tower is not worth my time. I went up in the 70's and now have a fear of heights so that is a hard pass for me.

Arc de Triomphe? - again, did that in ancient times, don't need to do it again.

Champs Elysees? - I avoid like the plague. I am not a shopper.

Upscale eating? Not for me.

Sitting in a cafe for a couple of hours to people watch? Not for me either.

Sitting in a garden for a couple of hours to people watch? Oh yes, that is what I enjoy!

Louvre - always - for me. And I usually go more than once during my visits. The last 2 visits I went 3 times each visit. Others feel the Louvre is too busy, crowded, hot, exasperating to be fun. Meanwhile, because I've been often, I pick one area, go do that and then leave. I avoid the crowded areas around the Mona Lisa.

Other museums? Always! In a 3 week visit I will often have a museum visit every day BUT this is what I enjoy and I doubt anyone else wants this kind of itinerary!

Tell us what you enjoy as well. We might come up with some interesting ideas!

Of the large museums, the d’Orsay was my favorite, both architecturally and for its collections.

Thanks for the input. Here are the things on the list:
Louvre Museum / Musée de l'Orangerie - limit Louvre to main sites
Sainte-Chapelle / The Conciergerie (maybe) / Notre-Dame
Palace of Versailles
Musée d'Orsay
Musée Rodin, especially the sculpture garden (The Thinker, The Gates of Hell)
The Panthéon (maybe)
Musée de Cluny
Eiffel Tower (take elevator?)
Seine river cruise
Seine river promenade
Montemartre / Place du Tertre / Sacre-Coeur Basilica
Jardin du Luxembourg
Rue Cler Market walk - follow RS audio
Marais District
Palais Garnier / Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann
Arc de Triomphe / Champs-Élysées (follow RS audio) / Place de Concorde
Le Bon Marche department store - La Grande Épicerie de Paris (luxury gourmet food hall) - near our hotel

We all like something different so what I like and what you might or might not care for isn't going to be the same.

I've spent months in Paris (I did study abroad in France twice and been back many times since) so I've got to know it pretty well. But for my own personal self, here is what I'd skip if I only had five days:

1. The Louvre. Unless you are a passionate art history lover or this is on your bucket list, maybe consider putting it off for the next visit - it is a long, long day on your feet where after a while all the paintings and antiquities start looking alike. (The Mona Lisa is probably the most overhyped "attraction" in all of Europe. It's a nice painting but it's not going to change your life to see it and anyway you can't really see it as well as you would in a reproduction. It is SO not worth the hysteria to get glimpse of it.)

2. Notre Dame. If the lines are four hours long, take a pass. If you see it from the outside you've "seen" it. (There are other churches you can walk right in and many are even more beautiful than this one.)

3. Summiting the Eiffel Tower. The best view of Paris is not FROM the Eiffel Tower, it INCLUDES the Eiffel Tower. The best view of Paris is from Montmartre, near Sacré-Coeur, and doesn't require tickets or lines.

4. Ditto the Arc de Triomphe

Best things to do in Paris for ME:

Stroll along the Seine, cross the bridges, browse the bouquinistes. Walk through the Tuileries and YES cross the Place de la Concorde and proceed down the Champs-Élysées because that is how you get to l'Étoile and the Arc de Triomphe. Approaching the Arc is a sight to not be missed (Yes, the Champs-Élysées is commercial and touristy, but walk down it anyway because that is the avenue that links it all up.)

Stroll through the Latin Quarter - maybe duck into the Pantheon and consider Musée de Cluny if you are interested in Medieval art. Wind down with a stroll through the Jardin du Luxembourg and maybe even through the Jardin des Plantes.

Stroll through Montmartre and time your visit to ascend the hill at dusk (for that great view!)

Stroll through Père LaChaise

Cruise the Seine on a bateau-mouche, especially in the evening so you can see the panorama of the City of Light with the Eiffel Tower twinkling above it all.

If possible, take a day trip to Chartres (it is a change of pace to visit a small city if this is your first time in France and the cathedral is easy to visit unlike Notre Dame.)

If you want to see an art museum and are hesitant to commit to the Louvre, try the Orsay instead. Many people like it much better, especially if you are partial to Van Gogh and Renoir, Monet and the other Impressionists.

If you have only five days, honestly, you don't want to spend them running from one timed-entry attraction to another. I'd pick no more than two or three of those "Must See, Timed Entry, Wait in Line, Fight the Mobs" attractions and use the rest of the time to just BE there.

This is totally subjective. IF you are not a museum person then you
should not feel obligated to see any of the dozens of museums
available. Ditto churches and gardens!

Wise words from Pam! What cannot be missed is going to depend on your own interests. Me? The Louvre, D'orsay and Musée de Cluny were gotta-dos and didn't disappoint. Ditto to the Towers of Notre Dame, Sainte-Chapelle/Conciergerie, the Panthéon, Palais Garnier, Jardin du Luxembourg, Arc de Triomphe (top), Musée Rodin, Père Lachaise and Montmartre cemeteries, Dôme des Invalides, and some of the older churches. In between all that we wandered blissfully about just taking in the vibe.

What we skipped? Top of the Eiffel and a day trip to Versailles: no regrets. What didn't impress? Champs-Élysées. What I wish we'd been able to fit in? Basilica of Saint-Denis. Oh well, something for next time! :O)

I'm going to agree with Kate and Pam. It is so subjective and really based on what YOU like to do. And I think your list, while pretty full, is great for a first time visit.
Personally, I love L'Orangerie, Musée d'Orsay and the Cluny museums but not a fan of the Louvre--too big for me. I also love the various gardens around Paris (big and small). I'm also a sucker for churches and go to Notre Dame everytime I'm in Paris (super easy to enter the church without a ticket even if the line looks long, it moves quickly.) I love to shop in the smaller stores and, while I've gone to La Grande Épecerie and Galleries Lafayette it's not something I'd add to a list of recommendations. I would, however, recommend you check out all of the covered streets (passages couverts) in Paris if shopping is on your to do list. They are charming! And there are a number of them.
I hope you enjoy your trip!

So, these are the things I’d like to see when visiting Paris for the first time. But they differ in location and time needed to see them. Versailles requires to take a RER train and will take a large part of a day. Musée d’Orsay and musée Rodin are close to each other and near the Seine, so you could maybe take a Seine-cruise, though I don’t know if they start there.

My point is that you need to cluster and then see if it can be done in 5 days, but also in a way that you’ll have some time to yourself. It is also very nice in every city to just stroll around and see what you encounter.

Have a good trip and enjoy this magnificent city!

> what things are absolutely, under any circumstances, not to be missed

Using your list and tweaking it a bit:

I wouldn’t miss:
Louvre Museum (one wing, no more than 3 hours)
Sainte-Chapelle
Notre-Dame
Musée d'Orsay
Eiffel Tower (but don’t go up)
Seine river promenade
Montemartre
Sacre-Coeur Basilica
Jardin du Luxembourg
Arc de Triomphe (go up)
Walk in and around Île de la Cité and Île Saint-Louis

Try hard not to miss:
Musée Rodin
Palace of Versailles (problem is visit eats lots of time)
The Panthéon
Petit Palais
Musée Jacquemart-André
Palais Garnier
Musée Marmottan
La Madeleine
Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Can be missed:
Musée de l'Orangerie
The Conciergerie
Musée de Cluny
Seine river cruise
Rue Cler Market

Thank you all for your feedback. I'm kind of re-thinking the Palace of Versailles, only because it eats up over half a day. Thoughts on this?

Do you want to see Versailles? You need to decide what you really would like to see not what someone else thinks you should see based on their likes and dislikes.

I THINK we may want to see Versailles. Obviously, we've never been. I do know that it's a bit of a time commitment to get there and back. I'll keep thinking on it.

I like Marco's list.

If you think you'd like to see Versaille then I would keep it on your list of activities. That may mean you will need to drop some other items off your list to fit in your timeline. Honestly, there is no right or wrong choice here. It's your first (hopefully not last!) visit and I'm sure you will enjoy whatever you choose.

Thank you all for your feedback. I'm kind of re-thinking the Palace of
Versailles, only because it eats up over half a day. Thoughts on this?

As with the Louvre, unless seeing Versailles is a Bucket List Dream Come True for you, I'd save it until another visit when you have more time. It will take the better part of a day. It is worth seeing but on a short trip, I'd probably pass.

Personally, if I took ONE day trip, I'd go to Chartres if only to get away from the mobs (Versailles can be VERY crowded!)

I have spent months in Paris over many visits and some sights that might have been a draw years ago have changed and are less so now. I would put the Champs-Elysees on that list so if you can make the time there very brief to just ‘see it’, I think your time would be better spent elsewhere.

I would also toss out an alternative to Rue Cler which is Rue des Martyrs in the 9th. It is a quintessential market street filled with mostly locals compared to some of the others that are common tourist draws.

I have spent months in Paris over many visits and some sights that
might have been a draw years ago have changed and are less so now

Same here - I first spent four months there in 1980 (right out of high school) and another five month stay near Paris, along with several trips to France lasting a few weeks. So yes, I've seen things change too!

I mostly remember taking a weekly art class at the Louvre (every Thursday for three months) and the experience was so different. The first time I saw Mona Lisa, I wasn't even looking for it. I just wandered into a gallery where there were about ten people standing in front of a painting so I went over to see what it was. Oh, the Mona Lisa! Cool! Everyone just looked at it and moved on - no mobs, no selfies, no mass hysteria.

If you wanted to go to the Eiffel Tower, you just walked right up to it - maybe got in line to get a ticket if you wanted to go up (I never did) but there was no long line and no need to buy tix in advance. Ditto Notre-Dame, you just walked inside and had a look. We bought tickets to an Opera the day or two before the performance. Timed entries didn't exist back then, and weren't necessary.

I am SO glad I got to spend time in Paris in those days.

Bob

What do you like to do when you go to … Vancouver, San Francisco, LA, Chicago, NY or Washington DC. Or for that matter, Seattle?

And how do you feel about crowds?

Would you rather go to a museum, a jazz club, a park, or the Pike Place Market? Do you prefer to walk the Seattle waterfront or go to galleries in Langley? Or do it all?

And what was your vision when you chose Paris?

This morning, someone from my exercise class told me about her grandmother/granddaughter week-long trip to Paris. The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Shakespeare Books, Seine cruise after dark, Notre Dame, lunch on the Champs Elysees and flea markets. I asked what the 13-year old liked best. It was the patisseries and boulangeries and restaurants. Tea and croissants.

We’ve been to Paris three times; four times to France. Total of 15 days in Paris and 2 months is France, so I have less experience than many, here. But what I’d suggest is …

• Some special big sites
• Some off the beaten path
• Stroll a few neighborhoods
• Parks as well as churches and museums
• Music - whether a church organ or a jazz club or the opera
• I would recommend AGAINST Versailles, but hey, who am I to speak to your interests. I just thought it was way overcrowded and that the art and gardens were both second rate, compared to art we’ve seen in Paris and gardens we have enjoyed in Paris and elsewhere in France.

Organize your Paris days by neighborhoods … arrondissements. For example, one or two days for the 5th and 6th, choosing from Notre Dame, St Chapelle, Musee d’Orsay, the Cluny Museum, Luxembourg Gardens, and quieter spots such as Eglise St. Etienne du Mont (a real gem), Rue Mouffetard or the Musee du Luxemboug but only if the exhibition that it is showing is to your liking. Three years ago, we loved a little show dedicated to Monet’s brother, Claude. I see that the current exhibit there is Andy Warhol, which has a different appeal.

Another example. The First, Second and Ninth Arrondissements - Choose from among the Louvre, Musee de l’Orangerie, Tuileries Gardens, Les Passages Couvertes (we quite enjoyed, Passage des Panoramas, Passage Jouffroy, Passage Verdeau and Gallerie Vivienne), Opera Garnier, Galeries Lafayette (department store)

Smaller gems. Paris has so many museums and churches and the well-known ones are quite crowded. For good reason, but one can only take so much. I’ve already mentioned a couple of smaller gems that I’ve liked, Eglise St. Etienne du Mont and Musee du Luxembourg. Other small and not so small places that I’ve enjoyed at the Petit Palais, Musee Jacquemart-Andre, Maison Balzac, and Paroisse St. Pierre de Montmartre - a lovely and very old little church behind the grander Sacre Coeur Basilica. We followed our visits to both churches with a lovely slow walk to the back side of Montmartre and then around and down the hill for lunch at a creperie and then to the 10th Arr where we stepped into a patisserie to soak in the visuals of pastries that we were too full to eat.

Plan as you might, be free to enjoy the unexpected. Maybe it’s a street musician, or an unexpected gallery exhibit, or a cafe that looks tempting or a restaurant that smells great and that has the sounds of laughter coming outside. For what is happening, take a look at https://parisjetaime.com/eng/. You can also search that site for neighborhoods, activities, coming events, etc.

There are a lot of differing opinions here on what's time worthy and what isn't, so it seems it would be difficult to pick and choose from differing lists.

I've been around in France on and off for 50+ years, but I've never gone up the Arc de Triomphe though it sounds interesting, haven't been near rue Cler since the 1970s, nor Versaille since pushing a baby stroller on the gravel in the gardens in 1980, and didn't go up the Eiffel Tower until recently. The point being that whatever you don't do, will be fine, too.

People have given wonderful suggestions, so I urge you to group the sites on your list geographically, and enjoy your trip. It's all new to you and you'll love it.

Wow, thanks so much everyone for all your suggestions. A lot to digest. Great having this forum to get thoughts from experienced travelers.