Best of Paris tour question

We went on the RS Paris city tour in 2012. The itinerary includes excellent tours of the major museums conducted by expert guides. Tour members may continue to visit the museums after each tour or not as preferences dictate.

Gretchen, when we took this tour (2012) the group visited three museums: Cluny, Louvre, and Orangerie. And Versailles, as well. None of the museum visits was very long, although some of us either stayed longer on our own, or returned later in our free time. The Versailles trip took up most of a day, but our group had some special problems that day (involving misplaced tour members.)

And anyone who wants to skip an activity can. This is especially easy on a city tour, like this one.

Gosh, I have to ask: did you read the itinerary? I mean it's all there. Yes, you will be visiting museums, churches, the famous sites in Paris. If he does not like museums and you want to be with him you'll both be opting out of much of the tour and it will be a waste of money. And the city tours are very different from the other RS tours where you travel from place to place. But all the tours I've taken (7 to date) are heavy on historical sites, churches, museums.

Gretchen, thank you for your post and on behalf of the entire free world allow me to apologize for David's extremely ostentatious reply and the misspellings, including my name. What I was trying to point out, and I could have done this better, is that tour activities, including museum visits and the costs of the guides are part of the overall cost of the tour. While you only visit a few museums, this is a short tour. You only have 4 full days in Paris (one is in Versailles, first and last day are arrival and departure) and you are seeing the Lourve, Cluny, Orangerie, Orsay as well as Notre Dame and Saints-Chapelle. So, if your brother would like to see Paris but not these places, fine, he can opt out of any or all of these activities. But, he is paying for them nonetheless. And if he opts out and you feel the need to stay with him, you are on the losing side of that calculus as well.

Gretchen, I've taken that RS tour and some others. If both of you would rather be in less museums, you might want to check out the Alpine Tour or Germany, Switzerland, Austria tour.

The Paris week was wonderful but has several art museums we toured during mornings, along with Versailles.

I just want to mention, this tour had my best and least favorite museum experiences. The tour of the Louvre was really good. We went at night and were able to see a lot, the guide was great and the building itself was really interesting. The worst was the Orangerie museum, to be fair we left in the middle of the tour museum after over an hour in the same room with Monet Water Lilies- I'm not an art historian and was bored out of my mind. We left after touring the rest of the museum on our own and had a great rest of the day.

For me, the hour spent with the water lilies at the Orangerie was one of the highlights of the tour. Our guide Elisabeth did a masterful job putting Monet and his work into artistic and historical context. A few of our tour mates did get up and wander around during that time, but most of us were spellbound. I know DH and I were.

Gosh, Jane...me too! I loved the art historian presentation in the Orangerie! Every time I go back there I wish I could re-hear that lecture.

I also agree with what someone said upthread about GAS not being museum-heavy. Maybe Best of England too? That started with the Roman baths which is a museum of sorts, though.

IIRC the Eastern France trip was light on museums too. We never had a day start early in order to avoid crowded museums. Relaxed pace, fun trip. But it’s a two week trip.

Gretchen, I just finished the Paris tour 3 weeks ago. Yes, it is heavy on museums, but they are some of the finest museums in the world. They are all art museums, so be prepared. I wish I had opted out of the tour on the third day, which is the Marais district. There was nothing to see that you would say "Gee, I wish we'd visited that!" The day at Versailles was a highlight for us, because of the gardens.

If "brother doesn't like all the art museums, you might consider "Paris and the heart of France tour". You only have 2 full days in Paris, but you have 2 days in the Normandy area in addition to the chateau's, castles and cathedrals that you visit. It's only a few days longer than the Paris tour. The one thing that I didn't like about the Paris tour is that you don't bond with fellow tour mates like you do wihen you travel on a bus. Also the longer time period gives you more time to bond.

I also felt that this tour is pretty physical because you don't have "bus-time" to rest your legs. My knees were killing me by the time I finished this tour. I hope you find some common ground for a special time to experience Europe with your brother.

I've been looking at the Best of Paris tour as I plan my travels next year. I'm not interested in a lot of walking, perhaps I might want to skip the Marais tour, for instance. But I see on the schedule that after that you go to the Louvre. If I skip the Marais, can I rejoin the group for the Louvre? Also Montmartre--do you have to walk up the hill to get to Sacre Coeur?

Gretchen,
I took the tour two winters ago, and I want to add this comment to the mix: our guide slightly altered the written itinerary by giving us our Seine boat tickets but by saying we would not do it as a group. Which was fine. A guy from the tour and I went one of the evenings after dinner. And maybe the itinerary has changed, but we did not have a quick overview of d'Orsay. We were on our own at that point, and it was New Year's Day, so maybe that had something to do with it (many of the other museums are closed that day, so the crowds are bigger). I could kick myself for not visiting d'Orsay a different time or adding a day on after the tour to visit it because I love Impressionism.

I really enjoyed the Marais district. Wow sights, no. Quiet and a walking tour focused on history, yes. Regarding the water lilies, I'd taken a number of art history electives in college, and I thought the explanation of Monet's work was overkill. So, be warned, it's a detailed explanation. I thought the Louvre tour was the right amount of information and the right length. We were on our own for Cluny.

My long-winded point is that you will see or have access to everything on the itinerary but know that your guide may mix it up. To me, the London and Rome tours are a little more history, and a little less art. All have a bit of art, but Paris seems to have the most.

Abiddle - I am guessing between the Marais walk and the Louvre tour you will have a free afternoon for lunch and sightseeing so it should be easily possible to join the group for the Louvre tour. You'll want to let your guide know if you are skipping an activity as well as letting your RS "buddy" know. If you haven't been on a tour, each person has an assigned buddy and you look for that person when gathering as a group. The guide says "buddy check", every person makes eye contact with their buddy and if everyone's there off you go. It saves the guide having to count and recount.

I did enjoy the Marais walk and still go back to one of the hidden gardens the guide took us to! If the weather is nice I get a falafel pita to go from one of the many nearby restaurants and then sit in the walled garden to enjoy.

Hi to add to the replies we took this tour six years ago (wow crazy how long ago) when my youngest was 10. We all loved it while it looks to have changed a bit we do remember spending quite a bit of time in museums which we loved. We liked the week museum pass included and went to many during our free time. It is a very short tour. If you don't want to spend much time in museums you might want to consider another tour to get your monies worth. Enjoy!

Best of Paris was our first tour in 2015 and we had a totally wonderful experience. All the guides were terrific, including Joelle, the art historian at the Orangerie. She piqued my interest in impressionist art, and I was entranced with the collection at the Orsay later in the morning. Yes, the tour is fairly museum-heavy, but you also have quite a bit of time on your own. There's a fair amount of walking on the tour, but we probably walked as much or more on our own in free time, so you have some control of that. You have
time to do your own thing and simply enjoy being in Paris. You can be as fast-paced or laid-back as you wish.

This May, we took the Venice, Florence and Rome tour, which I would say is a bit more active and fast-paced. Again, it was fairly museum and history heavy, but I think that's part of the package with RS tours. You say you've taken seven tours, so I imagine you know the drill. While individual tours will vary, I would expect the company philosophy to be fairly consistent.