Review Paris 3 day itinerary

Welcome to the forum! When are you traveling? Asking to know about sunset times.

Here are my thoughts:

Day 1: This looks like a lot but you might be younger than I, hahaha. You can't actually see Sainte-Chapelle from the outside unless you have tickets and can go into the Palace of Justice. It is surrounded by buildings. I guess you can see a little bit of it from the gates where you would exit from visiting the chapel. There is also an Amorino near your hotel by the Edgar Quinet Metro Stop so I would not go out of my way to go to one in the Marais. At least you don't have anything critical booked so you can cut your day as you need to. You can just walk up to Notre Dame...you don't really need the timed entry as the untimed line goes very quickly.

Day 2: The Eiffel Tower booking and the Orsay booking look a little tight to me but if you are disciplined and can leave the ET when you need to to get to the Orsay it will work.

Day 3: I get that you want the Golden Hour for the ET but you are going back on yourself by going back to the Champ de Mars again this morning. IF you wanted to move the ET to this morning that would work as well. I'd probably take Metro Line 6 from Edgar Quinet to La Motte-Picquet-Grenelle which is the station before Bir Hakeem. Walk the couple of blocks to the CdM and then walk down the "Field of War" from the Ecole Militare (the military school where Napoleon went) toward the ET. I don't like the Bir Hakeem stop as there is a lot of pickpocket presence there. I've also seen the Roma clipboard girls and the pea under the cup shysters who are with them go in and out of this station. IF you use it be pickpocket proof. I did not get to the Petit Palais on my April visit when the cafe was supposed to reopen, so no report on what that is like after the reno. There are also tons of places to eat along Ave de Grenelle, Rue Cler and Ave Saint-Dominique between the ET and the Petit Palais. This is quite a bit today but again, nothing booked and you can adjust based on the weather, your energy level and whether you see something fun you want to divert to!

Have a wonderful time!

Just looking at Day 1-

• l would be surprised if you can be in and out of La Rotonde in an hour.
• You won't see much of Sainte-Chapelle without going through the airport style security (with lines) to get inside the courtyard.
• I have no idea where Lenny Bistro is in Paris. But, I can't see how you could possibly make an 8pm reservation if you are entering Notre Dame at 7:30pm.

thanks for the response Pam. We are travelling in the next 2 weeks & Yes we are young so can adjust the pace as needed :) but yeah, travel philosophy is not be pacey and avoid spot hopping.

Day1 - Point noted on the Amorino, thanks.
Day2 - we can get into Orsay by 8pm max (including the 30 min buffer) so should be doable if we need to walk from ET as a last resort.
Day3 - thanks for the feedback, will try to adjust the morning.

On your Day 3 in the Marais, if time permits, you could go inside the newly renovated (and free!) Carnavalet Museum. The collection, building and garden are all wonderful!

Enjoy your trip!

We were in Paris in mid April this year on a Saturday night. We went to the esplanade to see the Eiffel Tower as the lights came on (~8pm) we walked across the bridge toward the Eiffel Tower then got on RER C to head back to our hotel in the Latin Quarter. Unfortunately, the train wasn't going all the way through that night and everyone had to get off at Invalides. There was very little signage to figure out alternate routes. We ended up taking a bus, although the route shown on both google maps and IDF Mobiles apps didn't have the modified bus route so it took us awhile to find where the bus was stopping that night.
Just beware that sometimes public transit doesn't run exactly as scheduled, so give yourself plenty of time to get to/from booked attractions.

I thought of something else. Depending on how your days of the week fall, there is a market along the Boulevard Edgar Quinet down the street paralleling the Montparnasse Cemetery. Sometimes those are fun to walk through.

Some forum friends and I have been buying inexpensive Mariniere striped shirts from a guy who sold there. He retired but I bought from another guy at the Bastille Market this last trip and they are the same brand. Made in Portugal, 100% cotton, long sleeves, machine wash and dry well. I’d not be surprised if he is there Wednesdays and Saturdays if one of you is looking for an inexpensive but fun women’s shirt.

I did not key in to your plan of trying to eat at La Rotonde in an hour. There are some Breton Creperies along Rue du Montparnasse where you might get in/out in an hour. The Art Deco interior of La Rotonde is beautiful, though. And there’s a Josephine Baker connection if that’s something you are after.

A Rick Steves tour guide who has a blog called France with Vero recommends a neighborhood cafe called Le Select which is right across from La Rotonde but I doubt you’d be in/out of there in an hour either.

There's a timing issue on day 1, you have dinner in the Marais but plan to see the Eiffel Tower at the same time?

Also, Amorino is nothing special. It's my last resort when I can't find any other ice cream place!

I would just check to make sure you can check in at 12:00 at your hotel. I'm finding that most hotels in Europe aren't allowing early check-ins. They're trying to clean the rooms from the people who just checked out at 11:00. Usually you can leave your bags there but you aren't going to get any rest...unless you book the night before you land.

The Marais has a LOT to see and I felt the shopping is better there for average people than the Galeries Lafayette which is basically just a big fancy display of out-of-budget stuff with security guards everywhere. I also liked Printemps in the same area. There's also the Opera if you wanted to visit that.

Sunset in Paris on 15 June is 956pm so the ET won't sparkle until 10.

Also, not much of a Seine or ET golden hr at 5 or 6 pm.

Orsay is worth much longer than 1 1/2 hrs, and I'm not an art person.

Just a couple of thoughts:

1. Have you arranged an early check-in with the hotel? Most likely the room won't be ready and you will have to store your bags and find something to do until the room is ready at the official check-in time.

2. On day 1, I am not sure why you would book 7:30 pm Notre Dame tickets and then 8 pm dinner reservations. The inside of Notre Dame deserves way more than 15-20 minutes. It is absolutely spectacular.

3. 90 minutes at the Musee d'Orsay is...short. You will have to pick and choose what you see for sure. I do recommend getting the audio guide - it enhabces the visit. I was just there in December for the third time and in almost five hours didn't even make it to everything I wanted to see.

Honestly, you are missing out on a lot of Paris by taking the Metro everywhere. I know it saves time but I enjoyed the long walks from one neighborhood or attraction to another. For example, you can easily walk from the Galeries Lafayette to the Marais. It's only 30 minutes at the most and you see so much of Paris when you're walking. I walked from Montmartre to the Marais and also from Marais to the Eiffel Tower without any problem and I'm older.

We just returned from a week in Paris where we used the subway/bus application on our phone to buy tickets. This was a wonderful improvement over past years when we had to figure out how to use a vending machine underground or stand in long lines to buy passes from the ticket seller. Do not hesitate to download one of two apps for your phone.
https://www.iledefrance-mobilites.fr/en/titres-et-tarifs/supports
https://www.ratp.fr/en
You can type in destinations from your position and will be offered a choice of itineraries, either bus, metro or a combo. Plus, you can buy tickets one by one from anywhere with cell connection, so there is no danger of returning home with unused tickets. Plus, you can get the RER line to and from CDG airport if you don't want to blow money on taxis. The RER B is fast, efficient, and cheap at 14 euros. You'd proabably get off at Denfert-Rochereau and walk to a hotel on Bvd. Montparnasse, depending where it was located, or buy a bus ticket. But what everyone else says is true. Most hotel check-ins are 3PM at the earliest.
As for the rest of your itinerary, I couldn't look at at it b/c you had so much packed in so little time. I'd consider deleting half. The only sights I still take pleasure in visiting after 40+ years of tourism are the Passages, and there are many more than the two you have listed. The museums are wonderful but wildly crowded. And most of your restaurant choices are tourist traps. La Rotonde is good, though.
If this is your first trip, I think a bateau mouche on the Seine is delightful and romantic, esp evening.

Thanks, wmmoeck and others, for the suggestions.
Apart from La Ratonde, which non-tourist trap restaurants would you suggest?
We would be flexible with our itinerary to move it around, and yes, we have booked a Vedettes du Pont neuf night cruise, looking forward to it.

I’m sorry, but the logic of this itinerary eludes me. I’ve been to Paris a total of sixteen times over the years and even on my first trip, when I was 22, I could never have kept up this pace, nor would I have wanted to. Just one example : on day 1 you plan to take a look at Ste Chapelle from the outside . I can’t understand this. First of all, except for the steeple, you can’t see anything to from the street. Second, the glory of SteChapelle is its breathtaking 13th-century stained glass, especially when it’s illuminated by the sun. Walking past the building to say you’ve seen it is frankly pointless.

You’ve got yourselves going to the Eiffel Tower two nights in a row. Could you perhaps combine the visits and spend a few minutes in any one of a thousand cafes and just take in the atmosphere instead watching the clock so you get to your next destination?

You mention wanting to absorb the vibe of Paris. Please consider slowing the pace instead of racing around and take the time to look around you - poke in an interesting shop, detour down a side street, find beautiful little places like the place Furstemberg or the place Dauphine (a delightful place with several good restaurants), spend time in a lovely park like the parc Monceau and watch the kids play.
I’m just afraid you’ll see so much that you’ll see nothing, racing from one part of the city to the next.

I don’t mean to be a crank, and I understand the wish to make the most of every minute. Maybe this kind of schedule works for you. But please stop and perhaps reconsider at least some of it.

I am exhausted just reading about the itinerary!
If you want to wander and absorb the vibes, then I think you need to eliminate some things and not being running all over so much.
TLDR: I think you should allow twice as long as you are planning at places, and a lot more transpiration time. Thus there are not enough hours in the day to do everything and need to pick and choose what to keep.

Day 1-
As someone else pointed out, you likely won't be able to access your room that early. You will want to stop at the hotel first so you can drop your bags, but don't count on getting in your room until late afternoon.
I think you need a lot more than 30 minutes to do justice to wandering the Latin Quarter. If it were me, I'd allot 1.5-2 hours.
I don't think there is really any point in just seeing the exterior of Sainte-Chapelle. Not much to see and you can't get a feel for the windows that way. I would skip this step.
I think you will need 30-60 minutes for inside Notre Dame, so don't count on making an 8pm dinner. I would not book anything until about 9pm, or plan on going somewhere without a reservation once you finish at Notre Dame.
So this would then put you at Trocadero much later than 9pm. If the light show is on the hour, then I would say 11pm might even be pushing it. I would eliminate this activity.

Day 2 -
Most the day looks plausible, just a lot of running around!
I would not book a restaurant reservation that close to your Musee d'Orsay time. I would not want to be rushed there - probably best to plan on no reservation and eating somewhere you can walk up. Also - you want to go 9 hours between meals? That seems like quite a lot. I'd be 'hangry' by six hours.

Day 3 -
Again, timing looks plausible, just lots of running around.
This would probably be a better night to hit Trocadero for the lights since you should most likely make the 10pm showing.

Bon Voyage!