Paris in ONE week! Last minute details

tagging along on this thread cause I would love the answers to where to get souvenirs in Paris that won't break the bank.

There are lots of nice souvenir shops along the Rue du Rivoli - roughly from place de Concorde east to the Louvre, and across the street from Notre Dame. All the museums have wonderful gift shops too.
You can buy carnets for the metro at any station --either from a person at the window, or from a machine.
I usually buy a Museum Pass at the Louvre, but I believe you can buy them at any museum covered by the pass.

As we've preferred to get out of the airport as quickly as possible, "best and easiest" place to buy the pass was the nearest attraction to our hotel… as long as it wasn't the Louvre or any other of the busiest Top 10's. Once you've stowed the luggage and freshened up, you'll probably be ready for a walkabout so check which attraction might be nearby.

We bought carnets from ticket windows at the metro stations.

Awesome thanks! we are staying by the Orsay - so we'll hit them up there then. We don't plan on using it until the next day. And we are close to a metro stop. I will keep you posted on the souvenir shopping and give ideas. Plus I'll post in trip reports.

The best place to buy a museum pass is at one of the smaller, less popular museums. I bought mine at the Cluny. The Louvre, d'Orsay, and Pompidou Centre are among the busiest. Sounds like you are fairly close to the Rodin Museum, so that would be a good place to get it. Have a great trip.

Nicole, a little thing about that pass, if you're an American? When you date the thing for your day of first entry, use the European dating system of day/month/year instead of month/day/year. That's indicated on the card but we're so conditioned to doing it the other way that it can be easy to overlook!

http://en.parismuseumpass.com/rub-t-how-to-use-it-19.htm

Carolyn - I was just thinking that after I posted. It would be super busy. Rodin will be close by, I hope we can get them. I have heard that part of the museum is closed. I have also heard that the smaller places may actually run out of their passes. DO you know this to be true?

Kathy - thank you for the tip. I know what you mean. I often look at "European dates" for work, and still get tripped up!

The tourist information booth in the airport can sell you both a carnet of metro tickets and your museum pass. All done before you even leave CDG.
Or, the Museum of the Legion of Honor, fifty feet from the steps in front of the Musee d'Orsay, could sell you the Museum Pass, as it is included in the pass (if I remember correctly). Sometimes there are lines for the Rodin. There was no one at the Legion of Honor museum. Nice, clean bathrooms, too.

Another good place to buy a PMP is at a branch of the FNAC books/music/electronics chain. They are dotted all over Paris and they sell the PMP with no additional mark-up.

the Orsay is one place you should never go without pass or ticket already in hand. IN high season the line can be two hours long; in low season, it can still be pretty long. THe special security line for pass holders may be 15 minutes or so in high season and often you can just walk in the designated door with no line at all in less busy seasons.

Museum Des Artes Decoratifs rarely has a line, if so, less than 5 minutes. You can purchase a Museum Pass from here. Location:
With the Louvre/Pyramid to your back and opposite side of the traffic circle that is in front of the Louvre at 1 O'Clock is the Museum. You can walk under the small archway and cut through the grass/park that everyone is usually laying on and head to the entrance. The museum itself is a nice place to visit as well.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Paris,+France/@48.862389,2.3327199,558m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x47e66e1f06e2b70f:0x40b82c3688c9460!6m1!1e1

Congrats Nicole! I hope you have a fabulous trip!

We go in 10 days so I'm also anxious to know all this. Right now I'm just trying to justify a museum pass or not. We go on a tour of the Louvre one day and I'm trying to figure out if we would want to go back and if I should just buy tickets in advance for the other things that we would want to see or get the PMP (we will be there 5 days but have tours on 2 days and Disneyland Paris on 1 day so we couldn't use a PMP on consecutive days.

Do you know what the Big 10 that someone would want to stay away from buying the PMP?

We are staying by the Louvre and our concierge said there was a tourist office next door to our hotel that we could buy everything from.

I'm taking a few foodies with me so I'm in the process of searching for cafes and must have eats! Ha!

Again, I hope you have a fabulous time! Please post your adventures!

Kelly

Kelly, I just threw the "top 10" phrase out there. Only so that there's no standing in line or holding up the line to buy and fill out the thing, I personally wouldn't do it at the Louvre, the d'Orsay, Sainte Chapelle or Towers at Notre Dame. Then again, it may work just fine to get at the Louvre desks listed below, or a metro station:

This regarding purchase at the Louvre:
"It is available at the Louvre's membership center (Espace Adhésion, Allée du Grand Louvre, under the Pyramid), participating museums and monuments, in metro stations and at the various branches of the Paris Tourist Office, including the Espace du Tourisme in the Carrousel du Louvre.

Please note that from June 9, 2015 the Paris Museum Pass will be available for sale at the group reception area (“Accueil des groupes”), under the Pyramid."