buy tickets online beforehand i assume? with a tour? would anybody who's been recommend a guide?
been working on our Paris leg. we are skipping the two biggest ticket items (Tour Eiffel, Louvre), i just don't want to spare the time mostly, and there are good substitutions. we'll do a mix of metro (bus mostly), walking and Uber (or taxi) throughout the day, i've scoped out routes and times. did i mention i was a 5 star trip planner? βΊοΈ
one day we'll start with les jardins and plaza around the tower, get some touristy pics, move on pretty quick to Les Invalides...a much better place to spend several hours! work our way down to Jardin du Luxembourg, towards Latin Quarter. plan to have Catacombs tickets for sometime that day (they only go on sale 7 days before). optional: add Montparnasse at dusk, see the city from there with the tower in it
btw, studying street view and pics...the whole Eiffel area reminds me of the national mall in Washington. i assume that is on purpose? man we were really close with the French for a while weren't we? i'll be looking for the Statue of Liberty too lol
another day we'll start at Petit Palais and work our way down the river front...Musee L'Orangerie, Tulieres, Louvre plaza, Palais Royal...generally working our way towards Marais. optional: add Le Centre Pompidou which is open late.
optional stuff is just if we're feeling like it. so other than a few hard targets (Les Invalides, Orangerie, Catacombs), a lot of our time will be just...strolling thru parks or neighborhoods, ha, which we enjoy and which i am anticipating is going to be fabulously in bloom this time of year! i dig architecture and gardens the most, and my mate tends to get impatient if we're in one spot for too long. so the days feel full but fairly slow-paced.
a third day we will spend in Monmartre...we have a walking food tour in the morning and then will spend some of the afternoon kicking about that neighborhood. the tour includes lunch from the various shops we visit, fun!
and of course our first day which will only be about 65%...just rest, check out our immediate neighborhood, then we have an evening dinner cruise.
with a couple of exceptions (like Lafayette's) i'm not trying to go out of our way for any particular restaurant. there appear to be several within a few blocks of where we're staying in the 17th. i could maybe use recommendations in the Latin Quarter or Marais? otherwise i'm sure we'll stumble on something pretty good. π