Anyone else going on the Paris and HOF May 7-17?

Just bumping this up for you, Gretchen.

Not on this tour, but I did take it last June and I know you will really enjoy yourself! A few hints that may be helpful. If you are interested in the Eiffel Tower, plan that into your free time before or after the tour. I was surprised by the amount of free time in Paris and I had not given enough thought about what my top free time choices were. You will get a museum pass at the first tour meeting, so it makes sense to save your museums for the afternoons during the tour.

Enjoy!

I, also, did this tour a few years ago and it is excellent!

I have a few recommendations as well.

I see you are arriving ahead of time which is EXCELLENT! It looks like the tour starts on a Tuesday so you'll have Saturday which will be a get-over-jet-lag day plus Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Even though you'll get a 2-day Museum Pass for Wed and Thurs, I'd consider either getting a 2 or 4 day pass for those 3 days ahead of your tour. The pass needs to be used on sequential days so if you buy a 2-day one you'd either have to use it Sunday and Monday OR Monday and Tuesday. You may do just as well wasting a day and getting a 4-day if there are lots of sights you want to see ahead of time

Here's the official link to the Museum Pass. You can click on Museums and Monuments to see all the ones it covers.

http://en.parismuseumpass.com/

Do be aware there are days some of the museums are closed, generally Monday and Tuesday so you'll want to figure out what museums you want to see plus their closure days. For instance, Louvre and the Orangerie are always closed on Tuesday so you'd do them Sunday or Monday if you want an extra visit. The Orsay is closed on Monday.

Depending on where your tour hotel is located, you might want to stay there for your previous days OR you might want to stay elsewhere.

Take a look at www.paris-walks.com These are fun and interesting walking tours. Since you'll be there Sunday, they usually offer a Paris During the Occupation walk that day and that can be a good prelude to your visit to the DDay sites on your tour. By April (maybe March) they'll have the May selections up on the site so you can narrow things down on what might be of interest to you.

I'd watch The Longest Day movie before you go. This is about the DDay landings and has all the stars from the early 1960's in it. It is a fairly good representation of the DDay landings and it can help set the scene for your tour. I watched it before and after and while it is not strictly history it got me prepared. Plus it was so cool to see it after I traveled to the DDay landings area and then could see the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc AND the church at St-Mere-Eglise (altho Red Buttons was hanging off the wrong side of the church in his parachute).

I'd also watch Midnight in Paris. I'm neither a Woody Allen or Owen Wilson fan but I love this movie. The scenes in the movie always put me in the mood for Paris!

See?? Now you've got me wanting to go! As if Darcy doesn't do that enough on her own....

Enjoy! Your on the tour before ours!!

Kim

"The Longest Day" is also a book, and I highly recommend it. I just finished "Is Paris Burning," also the book, and it's good, too.