# Paris in three days **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 21, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-in-three-days/507230 "2009-08-21T19:17:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sundog66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@sundog66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sundog66)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-in-three-days/507230/1 "2009-08-21T19:17:32Z")
I’m going to be in Paris for the first time next month, and have scheduled three consecutive days for sightseeing on my own. I know there’s more than I could ever hope to see in three days, but does anyone have suggestions for a reasonable itinerary? Anything in particular that I should be sure to see, or to steer clear of? I’m an avid walker, so itineraries that emphasize exploration on foot would be of particular interest to me, but given the size of the city I suppose learning to use the metro will also be inevitable. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-in-three-days/507230/2 "2009-08-21T19:38:57Z")
You can walk much of Paris is you are really dedicated to it and in shape. I walked around a large part of it in one 12 hour (fast) stroll just because that is what I do. I guess you already know about the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. You can’t see the whole Louvre in that amount of time but you can hit major highlights in an afternoon if you aren’t a serious art fan. You may or may not want to skip going to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It is predictably touristy and takes a bit of time and money. I just liked walking along the Seine River the most. You run into all kinds of things to see and do and it is very pretty. There are also the more odd things to do like the sewer towers and a self-guided tour of the Parisian catacombs (I loved that gigantic spooky thing). Most youngish people speak English if you don’t speak French. Just be polite and humble about it and they will usually just switch to English on their own. Contrary to stereotypes, I have never had a problem with that. However, there are special “American” sections in some restaurants with inflated prices and rude service so don’t get sucked into one of those but they aren’t that common. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-in-three-days/507230/3 "2009-08-21T20:24:20Z")
Which three days? (Not that you have to tell us, but it matters). In three days, with planning, you can see most of the “must see” tourist attractions, a few semi-tourist attractions, and have time to wander around quite a bit. But you will need to know which three days so that you know what’s open, what time it’s open, and where it is (as compared to the other things you want to see). I would also highly advise getting the Paris museum pass, it’s big benefit being not that don’t have to pay to get into places, but that you don’t have to wait in line to get into places. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-in-three-days/507230/4 "2009-08-21T21:09:35Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > I would also highly advise getting the Paris museum pass, it’s big benefit being not that don’t have to pay to get into places, but that you don’t have to wait in line to get into places. Agreed. [It’s essential](http://www.museums-in-paris.com/museum_pass.php). A lot of things worth seeing are clustered in various [arondissements](http://www.paris-tourist-information.co.uk/About/Arrondissements.html), so knowing what’s near what will allow you to get a ton of walking in (the best way to explore the city) while also covering as many sights and To-Do’s as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-in-three-days/507230/5 "2009-08-21T21:18:26Z")
Three days in Paris? I’ve done it before. I’ve been for even shorter trips as well. Please trust me when I say that you absolutely MUST committ an entire day to walking Versailles. It’s just west, south west of central Paris. If you love exploring and _walking_, you will never want to leave that place!! > **[Palace of Versailles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Versailles)** > > The Palace of Versailles (/vɛərˈsaɪ, vɜːrˈsaɪ/ vair-SY, vur-SY; French: Château de Versailles \[ʃɑto d(ə) vɛʁsɑj\] i) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about 19 kilometers (12 mi) west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, under the direction of the French Ministry of Culture, by the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles. About 15,000,000 people visit the pal Lou... > **[Gardens of Versailles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardens_of_Versailles)** > > The Gardens of Versailles (French: Jardins du château de Versailles \[ʒaʁdɛ̃ dy ʃɑto d(ə) vɛʁsɑj\]) occupy part of what was once the Domaine royal de Versailles, the royal demesne of the château of Versailles. Situated to the west of the palace, the gardens cover some 800 hectares of land, much of which is landscaped in the classic French formal garden style perfected here by André Le Nôtre. Beyond the surrounding belt of woodland, the gardens are bordered by the urban areas of Versailles to the ... > **[Hameau de la Reine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hameau_de_la_reine)** > > The Hameau de la Reine (French pronunciation: ​\[amo də la ʁɛn\], The Queen's Hamlet) is a rustic retreat in the park of the Château de Versailles built for Marie Antoinette in 1783 near the Petit Trianon in Yvelines, France. It served as a private meeting place for the queen and her closest friends; a place of leisure. Designed by Richard Mique, the queen's favoured architect, with the help of the painter Hubert Robert, it contained a meadowland with a lake and various buildings in a rustic or ve... If you go on the right day, there is even a fireworks show in the evening. That will occupy an entire day. Use your other two days for the tower and your “check the box” sites. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-in-three-days/507230/6 "2009-08-21T21:29:27Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > Three days in Paris? I’ve done it before. I’ve been for even shorter trips as well. Please trust me when I say that you absolutely MUST committ an entire day to walking Versailles. It’s just west, south west of central Paris. If you love exploring and _walking_, you will never want to leave that place!! > > [Palace of Versailles - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Versailles) > [Gardens of Versailles - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardens_of_Versailles) > [Hameau de la Reine - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hameau_de_la_reine) > > If you go on the right day, there is even a fireworks show in the evening. That will occupy an entire day. Use your other two days for the tower and your “check the box” sites. I would encourage that. That WILL be my house some day. I am saving up some money for a downpayment right now and it will be closed to tourists shortly thereafter so get it while you can. ---
**Author:** ![Sonnenstrahl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Sonnenstrahl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonnenstrahl)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-in-three-days/507230/7 "2009-08-21T21:38:35Z")
I would spend a few hours in Montmartre. It was one of the highlights of my trip. The Place de Tertre is full to the brim with tourists, and the steps of the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur were difficult to walk down, there were so many people out, but the little side streets are just as charming as they looked in _Amélie_. (It’s silly to go to Paris and complain about the tourists, but I draw the line at where you can hardly walk for pushing your way through crowds of people with cameras.) I went to Notre Dame at 8 a.m. and there were about five other tourists there, and a few people praying. I had no idea until someone told me that if you go at more normal hours of the day, you have to stand in line outside. Since you only have three days, you’ll probably want to begin early, right? 😃 I would definitely recommend taking one day to wander around outside, do some window shopping and sitting in a cafe for a while. You could easily line up three days of museums and sites, but it would be a bit of a shame not to just wander a few districts. The Marais and the Latin Quarter (of course) are the other ones I’d want to see. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-in-three-days/507230/8 "2009-08-22T06:12:31Z")
Take a night time cruise down the Seine. Don’t bother with the dinner cruise. The food is not that good and you may never see the musicians. Seeing the Eiffel Tower go into its “spasm” is absolutely a must! It won’t be doing that forever, but now it happens once an hour. If you walk down around the Seine, I would take the steps down from around Pont Neuf. You will feel like you are in the film _An American in Paris._ Hemingway, Fitzgeral, and a few others used to watch the world go by at Cafe Les Deux Magots on Saint Germaine Dupres close to St Michel Blvd. About a block or so up from that is where Sarte and de Beauvoir held court with the Existentialists at Cafe de Flore. It will cost you only the price of a lemonade or a coffee to soak up the atmosphere. Someone help me out. There is a marvelous smaller museum that is located where there used to be a train station, I believe. There are wonderful famous paintings by Monet, Manet, Cezanne and others here. Is that Musee d’Orsay? I just loved that museum! I felt more comfortable there. Be sure to print the name and address of the hotel where you are staying and the name of the closest Metro Station on a piece of paper to carry in your wallet. If you decide to take a cab instead of the Metro, it helps to be able to show it to the driver. Anywhere you eat will have good food. But if you want some place really special, my favorite is La Closerie des Lilas 171, boulevard du Montparnasse. Hemingway wrote much of **The Sun Also Rises** here in the outdoor cafe among the lilacs. Henry Miller liked to eat here. Even Lenin. What a history! I found that if I let the Parisians know that I loved their city and was happy to be there, I was treated with great kindness and courtesy. When you get into Paris from the airport, you won’t have to really “go see” things to find great beauty. You have arrived _within_ a living work of art. It is all around you. Every bridge. Every building. The faces of old men in the park. The pastries and chocolates. Drink it all in. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-in-three-days/507230/9 "2009-08-22T11:28:43Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > Someone help me out. There is a marvelous smaller museum that is located where there used to be a train station, I believe. There are wonderful famous paintings by Monet, Manet, Cezanne and others here. Is that Musee d’Orsay? The Musee dOrsay certainly has several galleries full of impressionist paintings (top floor, on the left), but it’s freakin’ huge. Like train station size 😉 ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-in-three-days/507230/10 "2009-08-22T12:05:54Z")
Pere Lachaise cemetery has some really cool monuments. It’s huge, over 118 acres. [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&rlz=1C1CHNB\_enUS339US339&biw=1024&um=1&q=Pere+Lachaise&sa=N&start=0&ndsp=20](http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&rlz=1C1CHNB_enUS339US339&biw=1024&um=1&q=Pere+Lachaise&sa=N&start=0&ndsp=20) > **[Père Lachaise Cemetery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A8re_Lachaise_Cemetery)** > > Père Lachaise Cemetery (French: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise \[simtjɛʁ dy pɛʁ laʃɛːz\]; formerly cimetière de l'Est, "East Cemetery") is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at 44 hectares or 110 acres. With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Notable figures in the arts buried at Père Lachaise include Colette, Michel Ney, Frédéric Chopin, Émile Waldteufel, Édith Piaf, Marcel Proust, Georges Méliès, Marcel Marceau, Olivia de Havilland, Sarah B has an alpha list of some of the famous graves. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-in-three-days/507230/11 "2009-08-22T18:05:47Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > Someone help me out. There is a marvelous smaller museum that is located where there used to be a train station, I believe. There are wonderful famous paintings by Monet, Manet, Cezanne and others here. Is that Musee d’Orsay? I just loved that museum! I felt more comfortable there. Yes, \*Le Musée d’Orsay. \*I’ve been to Paris four times, and this is the only place I visit every single time. The building itself is not to be missed, and features works from early impressionism through art deco. And on the top floor . . . there’s a room of Van Goghs, a room of Monets, a room of Cezannes . . . . And within walking distance is the Rodin Museum, in the sculptor’s mansion and grounds. It contains an amazing collection of his work, including \*The Thinker \*and _The Kiss._ And my favorite walk in Paris, is the straight line from the Louvre, through the Tuilerie Gardens, and up the Champs d’Elysées to the Arc de Triumphe. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-in-three-days/507230/12 "2009-08-23T15:00:41Z")
I just started a thread about [where to eat in Paris](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=529034)that you might want to check out. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-in-three-days/507230/13 "2009-08-23T15:31:58Z")
If you want to see Paris from up-high don’t bother waiting in line for the Eiffel Tower. Instead try the roof of the fifty-nine story _[Tour Montparnasse](http://www.tourmontparnasse56.com/uk/informations/visite_panoramique.html)_. It’s open late and the last time we were there we witnessed sunset over Montmartre and floodlit Paris.