My list of must see sights in Paris on this trip is pretty small.
1. The Orsay Museum
2. Versailles
3. Saint Chappelle/Notre Dame
4. Nighttime bateau mouche trip
If you've never been to Paris, the Louvre and Le Tourre Eiffel are probably things you need to check off of your lifetime list, but I think I'll skip those this time through. Also, I think the ladies are plotting a shopping day, and I'll bow out on that as well.
After that, it's pretty much up for grabs for me. There are a few other "lesser" sites like the sewer tour (or the catacombs, but only one underground visit) and the advertising museum (with my advertising professor wifie) that I may want to visit time permitting.
One thing I'm planning to do is to take several walking self-tours in Paris. I've found a really good book called "Frommer's 24 Great Walks in Paris" that happens to be published by my employer that I'm going to be using.
I got this book a few months ago and have only recently begun to really go through it. It contains 24 themed walks that each cover less than two miles and should take a couple of hours each. Some of them really sound interesting and I'm going to try to knock out several of these while we're there.
Realistically, I don't know how many of these walks I can cover given our limited time in Paris and weather will certainly have an impact on my walking tour plans. Paris really is one of the greatest cities on our planet and there's no way to cover it all in the short time we'll have there.
If you want to join me on any or all of my pedestrian excursions through Paris, you're more than welcome.
There's also a service offered through the Paris tourism board that matches a local volunteer with a small group like ours for a free walking tour. I'll investigate that as we get a little closer.
So much Paris, so little time!
4 comments:
Could we plan a night bateau tour for our first night there?? We'll all be ready to sit and enjoy.....
Day one lets do the Isle, as it is close to where we will live. Then day 2 I have to hit the museums....
The only downside to the boat ride that first night is that we're all going to be really jet lagged, exhausted and grumpy by then because our bodies will be well into our second day with little or no sleep.
Trust me, we'll be walking zombies by the time the sun sets on the day we arrive and a bunch of us would literally fall asleep on the boat. Teri would be asleep before the boat left the dock.
We'll land in Paris early enough that we can get in nearly a full day of sightseeing that first day.
A little power touring followed by a spot of dinner and you'll be way ready for a good night's sleep.
I vote for a boat ride the second night.
Oh and here's the other thing:
My vote doesn't count on when you take your boat ride. This is YOUR vacation, and you are not subject to the tyranny of the group.
If you want to spend your entire time in Paris by yourself shopping for antique corkscrews, you are free to do that.
My hope is that we'll end up doing a lot of stuff together on this trip in large and small groups (and I'm sure that will happen), but nothing is really mandatory other than our one birthday dinner.
If you and perhaps others have the energy and desire to do the bateau mouche on the first night, by all means go for it! I suspect I'll be snoring away by the time the sun sets.
Hmmm....antique corkscrews? That actually could come in handy.
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