We, my husband and I, just returned from our first visits to Paris and London. I will report first about Paris. We had 8 full days to explore and explore we did. With the exception of one taxi ride to Sacre Coeur, we walked everywhere. We stayed at the K+K Hotel Cayre in the St. Germain (7th) area. The hotel was lovely, we had a nice size room, and the location was quiet. FYI, we arrived on a Saturday.
Our first full day, Sunday, we had a walking tour with Paris walks booked for 2:30 so we decided to walk to the TI to purchase our Paris Museum Pass (PMP). The gentleman at the office helped us make reservations for St. Chapelle and L’Orangerie. We already had our Lourve and Versailles dates booked.
After the tour we had a lovely dinner. We then took a Seine River boat ride and caught the Eiffel Tower at it’s twinkling best. (We did not prebook this and had to wait for the next cruise as the one we went for was booked - just an FYI)
Museums - armed with our 6 day Paris Museum pass, we didn’t start till Tuesday which meant we were covered till Sunday, the day before we were leaving. We definitely saved many euro by purchasing the pass.
Definitely read about the special exhibitions some of the lesser known museums have going on before you rule them out. The Decorative Arts museum, steps from the Lourve with no line, had a fascinating exhibition about Hair. They had videos showing the process of women, from Louis IV’s time, having their hair done. Not wigs, which I always thought they were. Nope. They added some hair extensions and curls (I kept thinking about poor Fantine from Les Miz) and teased and manipulated their hair into those styles. They had one for the men too. The Conciergerie, right next door to St. Chapelle, again, no line, had a fun exhibition about food.
After visiting many famous, must see museums in various cities (ex - the Prado in Madrid) we have decided that we like the smaller, less visited ones. The Lourve for us was too crowded, lines too long even with timed entrance, too confusing to get around, and just too big. I will admit we were kinda disappointed with our visit to Versailles. The Hall of Mirrors was exceptional and amazing, but the rest of the chateau just okay for us. Another FYI, the PMP only gets you into the palace, not the gardens. It’s only an extra 10€ but just be prepared. Our 2 favorite museums were the Cluny and Carnavalet.
Markets - we only made it to one, the Marche Bastille, but it was a very nice mixture of food, produce, meat, clothing, and knickknacks. I purchased a lovely scarf and shirt. And we purchased a nice sweater for my husband.
Tours - we did two walking tours with Paris Walks, The French Revolution and Medieval Paris and the Templars. Both were interesting and fun. But our best tour was the Les Mysteries de Palais Garner at the opera house. It was at 5:00 when the day visitors are gone. It was magical being there with no other people to crowd you. We sat in the seats by the stage, we walked up and down the grand staircase, we visited the private boxes, and learned all about when Opera came to Paris. Our guide was a lovely Frenchman who was informative and funny. It was one and half hours and a don’t miss.
Food - we did not have one morsel of bad food. Everything we ate was delicious. The French really do take their food seriously and it shows and was appreciated by us. We did splurge and eat at the Le Jules Verne restaurant at the Eiffel Tower. To say it was magical and beyond delicious is an understatement. From the moment you go through their doorway and up their personal elevator, you feel special. It is white glove service all they way. It is one the second level, and after you finish eating you can go outside to take pictures. We had a lovely view of Paris. We ate lunch, all the dinner reservations were booked. We booked about 4 weeks out. I will let you know that it was very expensive but being older travelers and my husband has a heart