Rick Steves Paris Tour

If you email the RS office, they can tell you what time your free time starts on a certain day. Then you can figure out if the timeline works with the sites you want to visit.

We came in early and spent the day before the tour started walking and saw the Eiffel Tower, L’Arc de Triomphe and Champs de Elysee.

Something to keep in mind is that sometimes there may be compelling reasons for the tour guide to adjust the itinerary. Several years ago our guide switched the Montmartre day with the Marais day on the first full tour day.

If there are sights you want to see that aren't covered on the tour, you could add a day or two either before or after the tour. That would give you adequate time to spend as long as you want seeing those sights. I find that it's also a good idea to arrive a few days prior to a tour, to get over jet lag.

The RS France or Paris guidebooks will provide all the information on transportation to the sights, opening times, admission prices, etc.

One thing you can do is read through tour scrapbooks for the Paris tour. This will give you an idea of what other tour members did during free time and if they mentioned being tired/exhausted after the guided part of the tour. And then you can plan accordingly.

https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/scrapbooks

https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/scrapbooks/tour-alum-scrapbooks

After 6 tours with RS, I've found the itinerary description to be accurate as to how the time will be spent.
So..... for the Best of Paris tour, you will have the morning of Day 1, the afternoon of Day 2, the afternoon of Day 3 before dinner free. On day 4, it depends on how long you spend at the Louvre and how tired you are as to whether you will have free time,

I usually fly in a few days early to get over jet lag, and that's when I would book a ticket in advance for the Opera Garnier in the morning, and you can sit the Arc de Triomphe in the afternoon. Or you can buy your ticket for the morning of Day 1 as you don't meet until 4 pm

I took this tour a few years ago, so the itinerary has changed a bit since then. However, we had several afternoons and evenings free when it would have been easy to fit in either of the sights you are interested in (and more!) A previous commenter listed those possible times based on the current itinerary. In addition, the last day had a very short organized tour in the morning and then a lot of free time in the afternoon before the final dinner. I don’t believe that you would need advance tickets for either L’arc or L’opera, so you could just wait till you are there and have been given a better idea of free time by your guide (who may adjust the itinerary for a variety of reasons).

That said, I have taken nine RS tours and always add a day or two at the beginning and end to see and experience more.

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. This was helpful. I will definitely check out some tour scrapbooks. We are scheduled to arrive 3 days early and already have Eiffel Tower tickets and Giverny tour booked. We are planning to stick close to the hotel for those days but might make an exception for these sights.

What RS tours can't predict or control are crowds, and security lines. So predicting when free time starts would be a guess. On our tour, the visit to the Louvre was being taken to the entrance (security line) handed our tickets and given a general orientation. Once inside, you were free to stay as long as you wanted, or not wanted. Some people had been there before and didn't go, and others made a beeline to the Mona Lisa and Venus, and then left. Some people stayed there all day. It would have been impossible to travel through there in a group due to the crowds.

My tip for the Louvre would be to research ahead of time (the guidebook helps) to figure out what you want to see in there. We loved the Persian mosaic floor in the lower level (no one else there) but did not know the Code of Hammurabi was in the Louvre, so missed that.