Paris is a really easy city to wander! My daughter asks to go back all the time. Do all the obvious things. Buy street food. The garden at the Musee Rodin is fantastic on a nice day.
My dog is one of 10 puppies that came into the rescue (she's now 4). We have kept in touch with all the owners, and there is one sister of Salsa's that we see a couple times a year. This morning my DH got a call that Lucy had slipped her collar not far from our house, and her owner had been looking/calling for her for 30 minutes. She wanted the name of our dog tracker, but Jeff also said he'd meet her in a nearby park to help her look. When they got to the park, Salsa barked a greeting at Lucy's mom, and who should zoom out of the woods after hearing that but LUCY! So, happy ending. And a play date for the sisters.
msbelle, I spent 5 days there last Christmas. My recommendations:
Actually plan your restaurants because you don't want to waste a meal in Paris on bad food. (We had two bad/mediocre meals I still regret.) Plan your museums: there are long lines to get tickets for most of them. Versailles is closed on Tuesday, I believe. Versailles is a full day, Musee d'Orsay is half a day. The museum cafes have good food.
There's a thing with the Metro: the locals all have transit cards but it's a hassle to get them, you have to get a photo taken to put on the card. Otherwise, the only way to get cheaper transit is to buy a bunch of individual tickets which are also a hassle and easy to lose. I think it's an intentional policy by Metro to gouge the visitors. We got the cards and then didn't use them much. If you're mostly just in the center of the city, you can walk or taxi most places, weather permitting.
All that said, build in time to just wander: it's a fantastic city for walking.
We stayed in a VRBO in the Marais, 4th Arrondissement. It was tiny but very nice, in a hip neighborhood 10 minutes walk from Notre Dame. I think it was about $200/night USD. It was lovely to be able to make endless cups of tea and have a fridge to store fruit and leftover pastry.
We never made it to the Louvre or Versailles, but we saw Monmartre, the Musee d'Orsay, Monet's Water Lilies, the Picasso Museum (he was a horrible person but the museum is very good), and the medieval art museum in the Latin Quarter. We bought macarons multiple times, and had a fun visit to Bon Marche.
Oh, and we did a food tour in the 12th Arrondissement, that was fun. Wandered with a guide through a market and tasted cheese and bread and wine, ended up with an olive oil tasting in her shop.
Rick Steves has a pretty good guide.
It's been years since I was in Paris, but I particularly remember the beauty of Notre Dame - not just the windows but the flying buttresses, the way the light comes in, pretty much everything - and the Musee de Cluny. the two of them pretty much cemented my wishes/plans to get a degree in history. Very evocative.
Musee de Cluny is wonderful. So is Fontainebleau - I liked it more than Versailles as far as palace day trips go.
I managed to do the transit card thing, although the clerk was Not Happy about selling it to me.
With a year, you could learn enough French to get them to grudgingly speak English to you, lest you continue to mangle their language.
You have to ask for the check at restaurants.
Huh. Dennis Quaid is at my workplace.
That's wonderful, Sparky1!
With a year, you could learn enough French to get them to grudgingly speak English to you, lest you continue to mangle their language.
Based on my experience, the line in My Fair Lady got it right -- Parisians forgive a fair amount if you have good pronunciation. A polite and respectful demeanor helps, too.
My main tip for Paris: there's a mini golf course at the Bois de Vincennes where every hole is tiny Parisian architectural landmark. It's fun to play mini golf in Paris!
Many restaurants have very affordable Prix Fixe lunch deals, so that's often your best bet for big meal of the day.
Other cheap food option: bakeries sell sandwiches. Of course they are delicious French sandwiches on fresh baguette. I was fond of Tonne de crudite. But you can also get a jambon.
My best chocolat chaud was at a Salon de The and it's worth looking up which place has the best. Because it was incredible.
There are lots of little nooks and cranny places in France that it's worth tracking down a great local guidebook.
My favorite neighborhood was the Marais. Just a great long ramble with lots of shops, antiques and restaurants. (You can get your hot chocolate there, and see the Picasso museum.)
The other best thing I did in Paris was my afternoon snack. I was really pushing myself to See All The Things, which meant I crapped out mid-afternoon. So I found somewhere with wi-fi to get a snack (crepe, macaron, whatever) and just sat for a while.
When they got to the park, Salsa barked a greeting at Lucy's mom, and who should zoom out of the woods after hearing that but LUCY! So, happy ending. And a play date for the sisters.
Oh wow! That's great.
Y'all -- I have 6 unread emails. That's the lowest I've had all year! And several of them are about the same pending item! I have nearly taken care of everything!!
