Paris 6 day itinerary review

I’d probably move some things around a little bit.

Day 3: I suspect the Catacombs will be more crowded than the Cluny so I’d do them first. The Pantheon, Luxembourg Gardens and Saint-Sulpice are within blocks of the Cluny so I’d combine them. If you’ve watched Midnight in Paris, the steps from which Gil catches the time-traveling taxi at at Saint-Etienne-du-Mont which is just behind the Pantheon.

Day 6: This feels a little scattered to me. Invalides is in one direction, Tuileries in another. I’d be tempted to do Orsay, Invalides and ET on the same day but I’d never make it until an 8PM ET time, lol. I would want to start at Orsay at 930. It’s much nicer when it’s cooler. The museums are not as well air conditioned as Americans are used to and the hot air rises to the top floor where the Impressionists galleries are.

You've got a fairly busy itinerary and are seeing lots of variety!!

Thank you Pam! Excellent point about switching Cluny and Catacombs. We are staying across the street from the Cluny, so would be easy to come back, I was just thinking the kids could sleep in a little that morning if we weren’t going far. But we’ll sleep at home when we’re not in Paris!

As for les Invalides to the Arc, my nephew wants to go over the Pont Alexandre III, so that seemed like a time to do it, then walk up the Champs Elysées. Perhaps we will reshuffle depending on whether we have done that yet. I am not exactly sure what our plans will be for the Tour de France finish day, so we may end up over that way anyways.

I am curious about your plan for watching the Tour de France on Sunday. We are also planning on that and can't decide if we want to try to wing it or purchase tickets to one of the viewing area. We are both over 50 and want to ensure access to restrooms!

re: TDF watching - We have 6 people (2 teens and a child), so I do not think we will purchase tickets, mostly because i don't want to invest in it and then have the kids get totally fried and we have to leave. flexibility will be key for us. If money wasn't a constraint I think the tickets could be good, but I have no special knowledge here if they are good seats or not unless you go for the $$$.

From these two blog posts, my general thoughts are head to the Tuileries as it sounds less crowded than further up on the Champs by the finish.

I am not sure how much of the info in these posts will be out of date with newer security measures. I will probably keep looking for these kinds of first hand accounts and maybe more recent photos of the day to see what is available.
https://www.freewheelingfrance.com/tour-de-france/watching-the-tour-de-france-in-paris.html

I follow this blogger and thus trust his information a lot, but again, it is from 2015 so may be out of date. There is good info in the comments section as well.
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/07/spectating-tour-france.html

When we went to the Catacombs we saw the line was 3 hours long, so we decided to line up before they opened and we were met with a smaller line and in about an hour after opening. I think you may be able to reserve a time slot, not sure.

Hi,

Great that your nephew wants to see especially Pont Alexandre III, the most beautiful one in Paris.

Just fyi, online booking for the catacombs is mandatory now, I just bought my tickets a couple days ago. Not sure if this will change before July, but it still seems like a good idea rather than waiting in line. I would move cluny museum to day 4 (it’s small) then on day 3 book catacombs in the morning first thing. Then you can spend some extra time in montmartre area. If you like falafel, check out la’s du falafel in the Marais on day 5!