Hello to this fabulous informative forum. My husband and I will arrive in Paris Sunday 28 August at 0800. I've learned many things from this forum to help in my research and planning. We will be staying in Montmartre; I believe we take RER B to Gare de Nord then Line 2 to Place de Clichy. My spouse does not do jet lag well, (although hoping for some sleep in comfort seats), so I'm thinking after dropping our bags at hotel, we explore outside for the late morning/early afternoon hours. Possibly Sacré-Coeur, any suggestions for walking around Montmartre?, lunch at cafe to take it all in (my first time to Paris!), and perhaps a Seine river cruise late afternoon, and early to bed (trying to avoid the daytime nap). Thoughts, suggestions? I know we receive a 2-day museum pass once joining the tour, might it be a good idea to obtain our own 2-day pass for Monday and Tuesday? I have list of the museum closure days, so would like to visit the Eiffel Tower on Monday (awaiting the queue to open to book online tickets), possibly Orangerie, Pompidou, or Les Invalides; Rodin and Orsay or Picasso or one of the many others on Tuesday; although I haven't figured out the details of maps/areas, distances between establishments, transportation, etc. Of note, we will also have a few days after the tour to explore more of Paris and a trip to Versailles, before flying to Porto to meet up with some family for 2.5 days. I'd appreciate your expert opinions for this very exciting initial visit to Paris.
Posted by
Sapulpa, OK, USA
6293 posts
Before you get a museum pass, check to see when the museums in which you are interested are open. Many museums close on Monday, and some of the more popular ones close on Tuesday. You can get the hours from the various museums' websites.
And congratulations on your first trip to Paris! You're in for a wonderful time.
Posted by
North Carolina
2448 posts
You might want to look at the Paris Museum Pass website, to see what’s included, and use Monday and Tuesday to visit places that aren’t included.
Posted by
Southern California
16 posts
We just finished our Paris HOF tour with Rebecca Berry today. This is our 5th RS tour and Rebecca definitely sets the "standard" of an RS tour guide. I mean WOW. Hope you have her. The tour itself was one of our most favorite to date. A good mix of the city, small villages, Mont St. Michel, and D-Day beaches. We arrived a few days before the tour and are currently staying for 5 days after. One thing about the Metro in Paris - it is very efficient and can take you to all the must see sights. We have been using the Citymapper app everyday to navigate the Metro to our desired locations. Paper Metro tickets are still sold and for us, I"ve been buying 2-3 carnet (10 ticket pack) to give to the 5 of us. We have not used the Navigo cards, but they are an option as well.
Couple of things we did outside of the RS tour:
Versailles - We booked a tour by ToursbyLocals. Driver met us at our hotel and drove us to Versailles and gave us a private tour. If you see the palace rooms, Grand Trianon, Petit Trianon, and the hamlet - then it will be a full day trip.
Musee d'Orsay- can do this in 1/2 day, which we did. We pre-purchased tickets.
Montmarte - 1/2 day can be enough to see most of the interesting sights of Montmarte (including the Sacre Coeur). We booked a tour guide also for this.. But you can follow the info in the Rick Steves' Paris book.
Cluny Musueum - can do this in 1/2 day, which we did. No need to prepurchase Cluny tickets - not much of a line
Louvre - the RS Paris HOF tour gives you time on one day to see the Louvre from about 10 am ish to rest of the day. However, it is easy to get overwhelmed after 2 hours. You can see a whirlwind highlights in Louvre in about 2 hours. We ended up booking a private tour with a painter to give us a highlight of the paintings in the Louvre at our own pace prior to the RS tour. Some in the RS tour did a d'Orsay visit in the afternoon (but you have to decided if you can do to museums in one day).
Palais Garnier (Opera House) - We were glad that we reserved a guided tour for this. You can secure tour from the web site. They also offer self guided tours. The guided tour in English for us started at 5 pm (when the opera closes). One of our favorite sites. Plus across the street is Gallery Lafayette - great view at the top of the shopping mall.
Eiffel Tour - did this during our last RS tour (prior to COVID). Best to pre-purchase the tickets. Those in the tour this time who did this stated that it was crowded still in the elevators to the top. The line from the first observation deck to the top can be very long.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
13944 posts
@SoCalDoc - I loved having Rebecca for the HOF tour! What an awesome tour guide!
I'd agree that you need to check before you by the Museum Pass. It may be easier to just book timed tickets at the Orsay or the other big museums or see how your day goes and drop in the smaller ones. Rodin generally has no line nor does Les Invalides. You may decide to go to one of the free ones like Carnavalet (I don't think that's on the HOF tour) which is a City of Paris Museum(closed Mondays, lol!).
There is also no need to buy the pass ahead of time you can buy it there OR you can get the digital e-pass.
Posted by
OP
Jacksonville, FL
6 posts
Thank you all for the tips and SoCalDoc for your detailed reply. I hadn't yet thought of just getting timed tickets instead of another Pass. There are so many possibilities of large and small museums, and other sights. We want some things planned but keep flexibility to be spontaneous and relaxing too. Thank you, Pam, for info about Rodin and Les Invalides, and the E-pass. I purchased Eiffel Tower tickets, so that's covered. I will definitely check into private guide/tour for Versailles and learn to use CityMapper. Any favorite cafés or bistros we should check out?