I have a suggestion for your very first souvenir of France.
Paris has more really cool museums and major sights than perhaps any other city on the planet and there's a way to cram in a bunch of the biggest of them for one reasonable price.
Two of my top 10 museums in the world are just a few minutes walk from our hotel (the Louvre and the Orsay). Other "must sees" on my list include Napoleon's Tomb, St. Chapelle, Notre Dame, the Arc du Triumphe, the Palace of Versailles, etc., etc.
Paris also has a really cool way to prepay admission to all of these and about 60 other museums and sights in and around Paris. It's called the museum pass and it's a really good deal.
Some of the other museums include a Picasso museum, a decorative arts museum, a ceramics museum, a sewer tour--there's something for everyone here. Hey Teri, there's even a museum of advertising!!!
Here's how it works. You can buy a 2 day museum pass for 30 Euros (a bit under $50 at today's exchange rate--and still cheaper than our one day tickets to Dollywood a couple of weeks ago). You can also buy a 4 or 6 day pass, but we won't need more than the two day pass for our trip. Teri and I got these passes on our first trip to France.
The best and cheapest place to obtain the pass is at the tourist information desk at the airport. Then you validate it on the first day you use it by writing in your name and the date on the back of it.
But here's the really good part. If you've ever been to the Louvre in high season (when we'll be there) you'll see that the lines for tickets can be very long. With the museum pass, you go right in--no waiting! This is true at all of the sights. How cool is that?
You don't have to hit too many of these sights for your museum pass to more than pay for itself, and the not waiting in line part is truly priceless.
Just about the only major sites I can think of that aren't covered by the museum pass are the elevator ride up the Eiffel Tower and a nighttime boat ride on a bateaux mouches (that's a must-do in my book).
There's more information and a listing of the sights you can see using the pass on their website. There's also a handy 1 page listing of those attractions and a full 28 page booklet you can print out if you want detailed info on all of them.
http://www.parismuseumpass.com/en/home.php
There are only three places I have to visit on this trip--the Orsay, St. Chapelle and the Palace of Versailles. For me, everything else will be lagniappe (and whatever Teri tells me to do). All three will be repeats for me, but the last time I saw Versailles I was something like seven years old.
If you've never been to the Louvre or to Notre Dame, you've got to go to both of those, although I'll probably skip those this time in favor of something else. At the Louvre you'll get to say hi to the Mona Lisa (and her hordes of admirers) and then get lost in one of the biggest museums you can imagine. Remember, the Louvre was a palace before it was a museum, and it is both huge and amazing. Notre Dame is just one of the great buildings of Christendom. Teri and I went to mass there when we were last in Paris and that was quite an experience.
So, start thinking about how you want to spend your time in Paris. Maybe you want to go museum crazy, maybe you just want to walk the streets, maybe you want to take in a bit of shopping or while away the hours at a cafe. I'm planning on doing some of all of the above.
Paris has more really cool museums and major sights than perhaps any other city on the planet and there's a way to cram in a bunch of the biggest of them for one reasonable price.
Two of my top 10 museums in the world are just a few minutes walk from our hotel (the Louvre and the Orsay). Other "must sees" on my list include Napoleon's Tomb, St. Chapelle, Notre Dame, the Arc du Triumphe, the Palace of Versailles, etc., etc.
Paris also has a really cool way to prepay admission to all of these and about 60 other museums and sights in and around Paris. It's called the museum pass and it's a really good deal.
Some of the other museums include a Picasso museum, a decorative arts museum, a ceramics museum, a sewer tour--there's something for everyone here. Hey Teri, there's even a museum of advertising!!!
Here's how it works. You can buy a 2 day museum pass for 30 Euros (a bit under $50 at today's exchange rate--and still cheaper than our one day tickets to Dollywood a couple of weeks ago). You can also buy a 4 or 6 day pass, but we won't need more than the two day pass for our trip. Teri and I got these passes on our first trip to France.
The best and cheapest place to obtain the pass is at the tourist information desk at the airport. Then you validate it on the first day you use it by writing in your name and the date on the back of it.
But here's the really good part. If you've ever been to the Louvre in high season (when we'll be there) you'll see that the lines for tickets can be very long. With the museum pass, you go right in--no waiting! This is true at all of the sights. How cool is that?
You don't have to hit too many of these sights for your museum pass to more than pay for itself, and the not waiting in line part is truly priceless.
Just about the only major sites I can think of that aren't covered by the museum pass are the elevator ride up the Eiffel Tower and a nighttime boat ride on a bateaux mouches (that's a must-do in my book).
There's more information and a listing of the sights you can see using the pass on their website. There's also a handy 1 page listing of those attractions and a full 28 page booklet you can print out if you want detailed info on all of them.
http://www.parismuseumpass.com/en/home.php
There are only three places I have to visit on this trip--the Orsay, St. Chapelle and the Palace of Versailles. For me, everything else will be lagniappe (and whatever Teri tells me to do). All three will be repeats for me, but the last time I saw Versailles I was something like seven years old.
If you've never been to the Louvre or to Notre Dame, you've got to go to both of those, although I'll probably skip those this time in favor of something else. At the Louvre you'll get to say hi to the Mona Lisa (and her hordes of admirers) and then get lost in one of the biggest museums you can imagine. Remember, the Louvre was a palace before it was a museum, and it is both huge and amazing. Notre Dame is just one of the great buildings of Christendom. Teri and I went to mass there when we were last in Paris and that was quite an experience.
So, start thinking about how you want to spend your time in Paris. Maybe you want to go museum crazy, maybe you just want to walk the streets, maybe you want to take in a bit of shopping or while away the hours at a cafe. I'm planning on doing some of all of the above.
