Paris from October 11 - October 13

Take the stroll from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe and climb the stairs for fantastic sunset/dusk views of Paris. View the Eiffel Tower from the Trocadero. Wander down Rue Cler and have duck confit for lunch at Café du Marché. For a wonderful family owned restaurant, try Les Petits Papiers, 18 Rue Oberkampf, a short walk from the Oberkampf metro stop. The resto fills up with local,so unless you arrive by 7 or have reservations, the wait for a table can be long. Thierry, the owner and chef prepares excellent meals. Check to see what the specialty of the day is. Here’s a link to their site.

Thank you Phillip.

If you are lucky enough to get into the Louvre, (I believe you have to reserve tickets online now - perhaps someone else knows the details), afterwards, I suggest strolling through the Tuilleries garden down to Place Concorde. The Orangerie Museum is there, and contains Monet's waterlilies murals and other nice art -- I recommend it. Small and uncrowded.
From Concorde I suggest taking the metro, cab or Uber to the Arch de Triomphe -- as the Champs is very commercial and tourist oriented and not a very inspirational walk. You may want to save your walking for more interesting locations. The Arch is great though.
If you go to the Eiffel Tower, I suggest walking over to nearby Rue Saint Dominique, which has a lot of nice restaurants: Cafe Constant, Les Cocottes, Fontaine du Mars (a bit pricey but have heard great reviews for their duck confit) and others. Constant and Cocottes are crowded at lunch and dinner time, but if you hit them later in afternoon they are uncrowded, particularly on a weekday. If you walk a little further east you will reach Rue Cler, which is fun to stroll. It has some decent, but not memorable cafes.

Also across the Rue du Rivoli from the Louvre, at Place Collette, is cafe Le Nemours -- their outside tables are a great place to have wine, coffee, food, and people watch.

Thank you BG!
Do you know how best to buy or reserve tickets to Louvre? I thought i would buy the 2 day museum pass, which would include the Louvre. But if you recommend reserving it another way I would do that as well. There are so many museums included in the pass I figured it would still be worth getting it.

Recommendations??

The ticket situation at the Louvre has changed recently. You may search on this site for this topic, and also go to the Louvre's official website.

We wont want to wait an hour to get into a restaurant,

You should always reserve at restaurants. The first question you will be asked at any restaurant is the name under which the reservation was made. Generally, cafés do not require reservations. Very glad to share restaurant recommendations but need a budget window in euros and to know where in Paris you are staying.

Purchase Louvre tickets and make a mandatory reservation here.

Before buying a museum pass, be sure that it will be cost effective for you.

For summer months, purchasing tickets for the Eiffel Tower are advised but for October when it can be rainy and cloudy, chose any day with pleasant weather. Crowds are much smaller during winter months.

Are you leaving for Munich on Monday AM or Sunday afternoon?

I ask because some of the forum folks who live in Paris keep us updated on when there are strikes. This is an ongoing thing in Paris and nothing to be alarmed about. They are announced ahead of time. How they might affect you is on the Saturday of your visit some of the area around the Tuileries/Place de la Concorde and Champs-Elysee may be closed for a few hours during the day. It's worthwhile to take a look back here on the week before you leave. Take a look a the thread 75020 just posted about strikes this Saturday. Some Paris Metro stations will be closed from 10-12 for the marchers to go by.

If you have the full Sunday in Paris, I'd do the Louvre, Tuileries and perhaps the Orangerie on that day.

I'm heading to Paris soon and although I've always gotten a Museum Pass before, with the changes I'm not sure it will be worthwhile for me and very likely not for you. For the Louvre it will be easier just to purchase a timed ticket online and print it out at home before you go. You can also pre-purchase for d'Orsay.

I'd not do both of those museums on the same day!

What area are you staying in? There might just be some interesting cafes in the area that you'd not have to reserve and could just wander around and choose based on the look of the place and the menu. All Paris restaurants have a menu posted outside.