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Transit time in Paris from Liberation Museum to left bank (city mapper clarification)

I’m trying to determine whether it’s feasible to get from the Liberation Museum to the start of a Paris by Mouth tour in the Left Bank in 35 minutes (40 minutes maximum) on a Sunday morning or whether my latest plan is a recipe for disaster.

According to city mapper, it’s a 30 minute walk or 20 minute metro ride from the Liberation Museum to our Rue Monge hotel. From there I’m assuming maybe a 10 minute walk to wherever the food tour begins. I’m assuming City Mapper doesn’t account for wait times for the Metro or getting a wee bit lost on a walk. I don’t know whether we could easily get a taxi from the museum on a Sunday morning or whether that could shorten the trip?

My “brilliant idea” had been to be at the Liberation Museum at 10:00 a.m. when it opens on Sunday morning to purchase tickets for the underground bunker tour at 4:30 that afternoon. Bunker tours can only be purchased at the museum on the day you wish to take the tour, and they apparently fill up quickly.

We hoped to take a food tour from 11:00-2:00, rest for an hour, and arrive at the museum at 3:30. There is almost no chance underground tour tickets will still be available if we wait until 3:30 to purchase them. However I’ve confirmed with the museum that it is possible to stop by the museum in the morning, purchase bunker tickets, and then return for the museum and bunker tours later in the day.

However, now I’m beginning to think it might not be possible to purchase the tickets with adequate time to get back to the Left Bank and start of the food tour (I’m assuming we’ll need to be there about 10 minutes in advance). Could someone with some knowledge of getting around Paris weigh in on this? Would taking a taxi be viable and time saving? Or should we just scrap this plan altogether? I don’t think there’s any other time we can slot the Liberation Museum into our agenda.

Thanks!

Thanks!

Posted by
11599 posts

It shouldn’t be a problem because the museum is at a major intersection on the left bank with multiple Metro lines at the station and buses. Just take what you need for the food tour when you leave for the museum earlier in the morning. Going back to rue Monge is probably out of the way. I doubt the tour is in a remote corner of the left bank but probably near a shopping street or the Sunday organic market, probably somewhere in the 5th or 6th, easy to reach from the museum. Just don’t go back to rue Monge between getting the tickets and the food tour.

Posted by
1732 posts

Contact Paris by Mouth and ask where the starting point is on that date.

The tour description says

Our fantastic Left Bank food tour moves between both the Latin Quarter and Saint-Germain neighborhoods along the beautiful, tree-lined Boulevard Saint-Germain.

They sometimes start near la Maison d'Isabelle, my favorite place for croissants.

Posted by
11234 posts

I’m assuming City Mapper doesn’t account for wait times for the Metro or getting a wee bit lost on a walk.

CityMapper absolutely calculates in the time it takes, for example to get between two different lines within a metro station, and how frequent the trains are (i.e. is it regular service, is it Sunday slower service, is it July /August slow service, is there a problem along the line somewhere causing delays or a shutdown).

As for getting lost on a walk, I think it calculates you will follow its directions, so except for 30 seconds to a minute orienting oneself when you start or come up from a metro, for example, those times should be pretty true. However, they are not accounting for anytime you may spend in the classic French pastime of lèche-vitrine, so you will have to add ghF to your travel time yourself !

(And just to note that the Liberation Museum is on the Left Bank, so there is no "going back to" the Left Bank between your hotel, the Museum, and wherever this food tour starts. They are ALL on the Left Bank.

Posted by
926 posts

Thanks everyone. Sounds like we should be able to do it, especially if we go from the museum to the start of the tour without a stop back at the hotel. The person I emailed at Paris by Mouth said we do not to arrive before 11:00 ( and they will actually wait for up to 10 minutes, but I wouldn’t want to inconvenience others in the group). Hopefully it will take less than 15 minutes to purchase the tickets and leave the museum. Which gives us 45 minutes in which to take the metro to somewhere near the start of the tour. Kim, sorry for the miscommunication—I know everything is on the Left Bank and was referring to the tour start point, which will be closer to the Seine than either the museum or hotel. But I didn’t state that clearly.

And since we can’t book the museum prior to the day we want to visit we can always drop it from our agenda if things are feeling too rushed or we’ve been having a lot of difficulty navigating on the days prior to this.

Posted by
11599 posts

Just to reassure you: you will have plenty of time. The museum is close and has excellent transportation back to where the tour will start. I estimate that you will be about 20- 30 minutes early for the tour after buying tickets at 10-10:10 and taking the #38 bus or the #4 metro back up the Boulevard Saint Michel and walking to the starting point.