There’s a person who semi-regularly posts flight deals on the Atlanta subreddit, and that’s how I found this one. And yep - I’m on American/BA with layovers in London both ways. 
I’ll be the contrarian as I strongly prefer London over Paris. So, taking the Eurostar to London is an excellent idea, assuming you have 2-3 days to do so. It’s not worth it as a day trip.
Skipping the Louvre would be madness if you have any interest in art. The Musée d’Orsay is excellent as well.
I didn’t particularly enjoy the Sacre-Coeur, but I was bombarded by scammers there, which soured my mood.
The Marais was my favorite area of Paris.
In my experience, all Parisians speak acceptable English, they just don’t want to. If visitors aren’t going to make an effort to connect, neither are they. But - if you pull out a phrasebook and try to speak to them in their own language, they will consider that all the effort they need out of you and will switch into English mode immediately.
Yeah yeah! Take the Metro to Place Blanche (that was my stop when I lived there when I was 19) and walk up the Rue Lepic, through the Place du Tertre (the “bohemian” meeting place during the Banquet Years) and on up the Sacre Couer.
The church was finished in the early 20th century, so it’s not my bag, either, but the view is tremendous.
For a cool church, try Saint-Sulpice on the left bank. Close to the Jardins de Luxembourg and many other wonderful things.
And yes, do NOT miss the Musee d’Orsay. Late 18th-early20th century art, my favorite, and the building, the old railway station, is fantastic.
I happen to agree about London- I actually did it in reverse order- was staying in the UK and did a long weekend to Paris via Eurostar.
Paris is… very French. It’s just similar enough to our culture and ways of doing things to make the differences infuriating- I always had the feeling that a lot of Parisians were being dicks more because they could, not because of a legitimate cultural difference.
London, OTOH, is inside that threshold, being even more similar than Paris. Somewhere like Budapest is far enough out of it where annoying stuff just gets chalked down to cultural differences.
I’m not aware that either Paris or London has a statistically greater amount of dicks or assholes than any other big city. Just don’t go desecrating any national monuments.
The only asshole I ever witnessed in Paris was a German tourist. He insisted on photographing a multi-racial couple and their children, even though they emphatically told him they didn’t want him to.
A lemon and sugar crepe is more Parisian to my mind! Another fun food place is Ladurée for some macarons. Every bakery is mind blowing.
But one place that every Doper will truly love is Deyrolle which is a taxidermy and curiosity shop. Think Field Museum but you can buy things- like a 40,000 euro stuffed elephant. We have their education posters on microbes and chickens (12 euro) on our walls at home. It is really unique and kids to adults will find something of interest to them- they will ship to the U.S. as long as it isn’t an endangered species. And it is only a couple hundred meters south of the Louvre.
WIth regard to the Louvre and presuming you have a museum pass, go multiple times- our last trip we went 3 times to different wings or areas. But just 60-90 minutes per time- it is really only packed from 11-3 so go earlier or later or in the evening. Several years ago, I was with my offspring (who was 6 and tired after 2 weeks of Europe’s museums) so in 90 minutes we walked through literally every other room of the Louvre that we’d never been in before. Sometimes we’d go 5+ rooms without seeing anyone, but literally every room is a treasure. The scale of that place is insane and I can’t believe how some of the pieces/exhibits aren’t more popular- and it is simply becuase there are even more impressive or famous treasures!
A multiple visit place is also Musée de l’Orangerie (and Musée de Orsay) as neither is large but some of the pieces especially impressionist paintings change color due to daylight, weather, and mood. They are magical- particularly the lillies at the Orangerie.
The Rick Steves’ audio (walking) tours are a great introduction to many european cities and museums and are free via his website/podcast/iOS app.
I’ve been to Paris 5x and still haven’t been to all of the things I wanted to see my first trip.
Their latest find? “The Japan sale is back! Atlanta to Tokyo for $772 round trip!” Makes me want to move to Atlanta (jk)
Wonder if anyone’s doing this for Chicago?
We bought croissants and cafe au laits at a cart every morning, and my wife noticed it was only the tourists WHO SLOWED DOWN THE LINE who were treated rudely. (“Dadburn, Maud, I know I had me a cent-ime here somewheres…”)
So it wasn’t Gallic Disdain, it was normal Big City Impatience.
I speak 0 French and have never had anything but warm interactions with Parisians. Be polite, quiet, and respectful. No shorts, no tacky shirts, cover your shoulders in church.
My best “French are jerks” story occurred at a bakery at 6:30 in the morning my final morning of my first trip. An old american couple with, no joke, bedazzled flags and eagles on sweatshirts and gnarly shorts are in front of me at the bakery. This was a highly recommended bakery that we hadn’t made it to and I was getting breakfast plus some food for the flight later with the final cash I had. The old couple said, “do you speak english?”
“No no inglish. sss sss sOrry”
“CAN WE HAVE TWO [two fingers up] Cressants and TWO CHOCOLATE CRESSANTS and two normal COFFEES [imitate drinking]?”
[Turns to his wife and whispers loudly] “they’d do more business if they’d learn to speak english like everyone else”
Rings up. and spins around the cash register and says “35 euros”
Now I think to myself, well nuts, I wanted way more food and only have 25 euro. I’m going to have to rethink here. The couple finish and walk away.
So I say “Pardon, <my french is not good. I apologize>” all in French and the barista says, “My English is fine, I just didn’t want to have a conversation.” And then I got 10+ pastries and a coffee for 18 euro. And I walked away thinking:
And that was exactly why the French hate americans and americans hate the french, but they both have a story to tell to back up their view.
Per my previous post, that is the sort of advice that would usually apply, but won’t this January. In enforcing pre-booked, time-allocated ticket entry to the museum - with (effectively?) no exceptions - for the duration of the Leonardo exhibition, that’s almost exactly one version of what they want to temporarily suppress.
Funny thing happened on my first trip to Paris: a guy stopped me and asked me a question in French. I answered in my best French, “Sorry, I don’t understand you; I don’t speak French very well.” Again, he asked me something in French. Again, I told him I didn’t understand. He asked me a third time, becoming very agitated. I repeated myself, also very agitated. We were almost about to come to blows, when I asked, “Do you speak English?”
Turned out, the guy was another American tourist who didn’t speak much French. We had each assumed the other was a rude Parisian.
Yeah, rude Parisians are no worse than rude NewYorkers. We just both hate you tourists.
Of course, I could move back to Cleveland, meet panache45 at the Tick Tock Tavern on Clifton for Strohs beer and spare ribs, and we could both hate the tourists TOGETHER.
That’s almost certainly not the case. The Louvre’s own press release only speaks of timed slots for the exhibition. They’ve done that before. The only innovation is that this time the exhibition tickets must be bought in advance.
It can’t possibly be that every visitor to the Louvre will have a timed slot for the exhibition. Even allowing for the fact that this will be on over the winter months, the number of visitors the Louvre will be getting each day will be several times that of the daily attendance at any exhibition that the Louvre has ever staged. Or that of any other exhibition that any other museum will stage this year. So the only way that it would be at all practical to allow all visitors access to the exhibition, even with timed slots, would be if they drastically restricted the numbers visiting the rest of the museum. Why would they do that? That would transform a sure-fire moneyspinner into a major loss of revenue.
This is my “don’t miss” place. It’s like stepping into a bath of colored light. I haven’t seen anything like it anywhere else.
This whole “rude Parisian” thing: always remember that standard etiquette is to open every interchange in a shop with “Bon jour”, and include your pleases and thank yous. If you miss it out and launch straight into what you want to ask about, you will come across as rude. If it’s an extended discussion, it helps to close it off with “Merci, bonne journée”.
A couple of non-budget-breaking hotels I like (no frills, but clean, comfortable, and well placed for public transport, albeit not at the heart of everything - but nowhere is):
https://www.cosmos-hotel-paris.com
(Bear in mind that breakfast is usually charged as an extra in this sort of hotel, and will normally be the standard continental breakfast rather than cooked - you might want to scout out local cafés to see if you can get more variety at lower cost elsewhere).
Public transport in Paris: https://www.ratp.fr/en
https://www.ratp.fr/en/visite-paris/english/visiting-paris-and-its-surrounding-areas
I may be a bit weird, but one thing I like to do is check out the hardware/DIY department in the basement of the BHV department store: apart from seeing what’s different in style from what you’re used to, they have potential souvenir items like assorted signs for your house. Or the kitchenware/housewares departments will have small gadgets and easily-packable items.
Yes, you might be weird, but I did the same thing the last time I was there.
A third vote for Sainte-Chapelle. Choose a sunny day. Without wanting to talk it up to the point where it could never live up to expectation, I always assumed that, in days of yore, simple rustic souls would regard it, on first viewing, as miraculous. I mean in the strict sense of the word.
Practical point (it’s been a few years, but I assume this is still true): they really do search you on the way in. I was told that this is because it’s technically a Ministry of Defence site, or something similar (no, me either). I rocked up with a tiny key-ring pen knife, and had that taken off me before I could enter. They were very good, stored it and gave it me back on the way out, but it’s hassle you don’t need. It’s worth bearing this in mind when (not if!) you go.
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