Paris - what to see, where to go etc - let's have your tips.

[Willow2]

Am off to Paris for weekend at end of month to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary. We are staying at Hotel Caron de Beaumarchais in the Marais area, and have booked Bofinger and La Tour D'Argent for dining out. Anyone been to any of the above? Also, what are must see's, bearing in mind we are only really there for one afternoon, one day and one morning.

Willow2 - depends what you're interested in. I'd give the Baton Mouche a miss - you can't really see much anyway from the river. May be better in summer. Around the Sacre Coeur is good for mooching on a Sunday morning - good market stalls doing hot nut brittle and lovely things like that. See Notre Dame and then wander over to Isle St Louis ( I think it's that one) for lunch - loads of restuarants. I wouldn't try to do too much - Paris is for mooching and meandering. Oh, and I think the Louvre is free on Sunday.

We love just wandering in PAris as well. My favourite area is around the 'Madelaine Church' some wonderful food shops and upmarket boutiques for Window shopping. Also love the Musee D'Orsay as it isn't too large and has some great Art Nouveau stuff which we are in to. Whatever you do, have a wonderful time, its my favourite city.

La Sainte Chapelle, just around the corner from Notre Dame. It's like walking inside a jewel. It is completely built from stained glass windows, with very slim columns of stonework supporting them. Beautiful!

Have a great time, I'm jealous! Ditto what everyone has said, try and check out at least one musee - I loved the Picasso.

Snap! We're off to Paris at the end of this month too and will be taking our 18 month old. Has anyone any tips on where to go with her, ie where to eat with a baby, where to stay, what to avoid?? We're there for 3 days so should have time to see some things. It's my first time so I'm really excited!
Thanks v. much.

We went in September and had a great time with our son.

Sacre Couer, up all the twisty steps, if babe doesnt object to being carried, great views. Little land train that goes round the area from the front. All the artists paint nearby and sell their wares. If you walk down all the front steps there is a little playground.

We then walked down towards Galerie Lafayette, its on all the maps (I think they sponsor the paris maps that get given out) big dept storem fantastic toy dept, our son loved all the computer games out to try, big loos and an inside McDonalds on the same floor.

We really got into using the buses, they were ever so easy, when we arrived in Paris we got a 3 day tube and bus ticket. So after that never had to bother with queuing etc. Big queues for metro when we arrived at Gare du Nord.

If you go to The Louvre, go down the escalators inside the glass pyramid, and there is a shopping centre down there, and a food hall with ALL different foods, we had some great crepes there.

Got to do Eiffel Tower of course! Get the metro to Trocadero (I think) dont have map handy, walk round the corner and you have a FANTASTIC view of it, you walk down lots of steps, big wide/shallow ones, fine with buggy, past the fountains, over the Seine. Go early!! The queues are BIG. You could avoid queues by walking to the first florr (ha-ha!) or booking a table on the first floors restaurant for lunch, good food apparently, and they have their own separate lift on one of Eiffels 'legs'!

From Eiffel you can just walk to the Bateuax Parisiens for the boat tour of the seine, might be a mite long for toddler.

After visiting Notre Dame, you can walk to Pompidou, wacky sculptures on a pond outside, nice restaurants alongside. Usually lots of entertainers outside the Pompidou entertaining the crowds.

Cant think of much else at the mo, we did enjoy just wandering with the map and finding places.

We stayed in the 6e, St Germain area, quick and easy to get to from Gare du Nord, wouldnt recommend the hotel, but there are so many. Nice area, lots of cafes/restaurants, book shops, felt very safe etc. Short walk to Seine.

Janus you'll have a wonderful time, its a great city and there is alot to catch the attention of a toddler.

Willow2, how romantic, Paris in the Spring! Have a great time.

living in Paris at the mo with 18 month old; if you do have bb with you, definately the Louvre, pyramid and Tuileries gardens - all in one long strip, lots of play areas in the gardens and safe space for running, with the big wheel for having a look over Paris - great on a sunny day, pointless if it's raining. It's the first sunday of each month that most of the museums have free entry, although they tend to have massive queues too. PS: wrap up warm - it's freezing here! PPS: Very jealous about visit to La Tour d'Argent - French hubby says it's very special

pob - no we are baby free (hoorah) - so any more suggestions for grown ups will be gratefully received!

La Tour d'Argent AND no baby!!!! How jealous?!! Basically, I agree with Tinker, Paris really is for mooching and meandering...The Marais (lucky you having a hotel there!) is very trendy and beautiful - lots of little streets packed with interesting shops and cafés, as well as the Place des Vosges...it's lively at night, so after one of those fabulous meals you could wander around and decide whether to spend more time there or not. If you do fancy window shopping, I'm with Viv for the area around the Madeline - the Rue Fauberg St Honoré, from the Palais de l'Elysée leads onto the Rue Royale between la Madeline and Place de la concorde and has everything expensive, classy and designer. If you keep following the same road (past La Durée, snack?, and a wonderful toy shop), you get to Place Vendome..jewelry and the Ritz...go out the top and you're facing the Opera. Walk down the Avenue de l'Opera - and you're at the Louvre, go through and along the river and you're at the Pont Neuf, the Isle de la Cité, and Notre Dame.....and then south to St.Germain......sorry, this is ridiculously long; basically everything is pretty close together, if you get tired, hop on a bus - there's one which goes along the river from the Hotel de Ville (outdoor skating rink) to the Eiffel Tower and back. As Montmartre is a bit out of the way, maybe whizzing up there in the early evening before going out is an idea? The lights over the rest of Paris are beautiful, the church will be lit up, and it will still be bustling with artists etc...
Okay, I'll shut up now!! Do whatever takes your fancy and you'll have a fabulous time....

Within the Bois de Boulogne is the Jardin d@acclimatation, where there is a fabulous park for children with traditional fairground rides, go kart rides, a miniature railway, boat rides and lots more - its lovely for adults and children.

Ok, just got back and wanted to say thanks for all your suggestions. Had fab weekend, walked for miles, ate loads, drank bucket loads. Hotel was very sweet, well situated and good value so would recommend it (but rooms small so would barely fit travel cot in - which fortunately was not a problem as we were sans toddler). However, would not recommend Tour D'argent unless you are a millionaire. Have eaten in some excellent restaurants in London, but never have I been faced by a menu where the cheapest dish was £30 for a bowl of soup(well actually I wasn't as my menu didn't have prices on - which pissed me off too, who's to say that I wasn't paying?). Frankly, if I am going to pay £30 for soup I want a bowl big enough to bathe in. I thought DH was about to have a heart attack - especially as a) we couldn't really see anything we fancied on the menu and b)with main courses around the £60/70 mark it looked like we were going to have to spend the best part of £400 for a meal with wine! A quick look around the restaurant confirmed my worst fears, big businessmen with big expense accounts and a number of other couples on special nights out who were also obviously in shock. The last thing I was going to do was be intimidated into having to remortgage my house for a meal, so I did the decent thing, feigned impending death and we walked out, went back to the hotel, got out of our posh gear, whacked our trainers on and hit a fun bar where we spent £15 on a meal for two. Much more fun all round!! Anyway, just thought I would warn anyone who was thinking of going for a special treat. Save the money and go away for another weekend!

Willow2, nice to hear you had a great time. Quite agree with you on the prices. No bowl of soup is worth £30 IMO. R

I've just printed off all your suggestions as we are off to Paris on Thursday - yipppeeeee! We have our lively 18 month old but she loves being out and about so am prepared to walk the town with her, strapped in the backpack on her Dad! I've never been so I'm sooo excited, can't wait to see it all, eat it all, drink it all!

Sorry to hear about the Tour d'Argent, Willow2...funnily enough dh has never taken me there (now I know why!), although it does feature heavily in guides etc....very impressed by how you got out of there though!!!

pob - don't worry, we had a fab time regardless, though do think I might fire off a few rounds to the guides that suggested it was around £70 a head. Not cheap I know, but a damn sight cheaper than £200 a head! I'm sure it would have been lovely - but there are more important things in life than Duck a la orange.
Only downer has been returning home. Find that the thing about the few "romantic" weekends away we have is that they serve to remind you of just how much more restrictive your life now is. Hasn't been helped by DS coming down with horrible cold and ear infection two days after we got back. Have been incarcerated in house with frankly satanic 22 month old since Wednesday and am on point of insanity (if not already there)! C'est la vie (or something like that, my French is rubbish) as they say in Paris.

Willow2 - wouldn't know about the follow on from romantic weekends...haven't had one since dd was born...pooh! When ds returns to normality - and he will!!! (or is he better already?) - I wholeheartedly agree with contacting the guides....when mentioned your experience to dh, he muttered something about being happy to pay for good food - part of his quintessential frenchness, I guess - but had to admit he was 100 pounds out on the price! (and that we haven't been out for a looooooong loooooong time!!!

pob - am happy to pay for good food too - but, having eaten at some of the best london restaurants for about £70 a head plus wine, thought this was pushing it a bit too far!

Have just returned from my jaunt to Paris (first visit am embarrassed to say) and just fell in love with the place!
Stayed at lovely hotel where I could have just sat and 'people watched' for hours but we spent most of our time retrieving our daughter from various nooks and crannies! Not one person huffed and puffed like they would in England.
I have never walked so much in my life, the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Arc de Truimph, Notre Dame, Marais, all in quite a straight line really so just pushed the pram together for hours.
Am sold, want to go back now but would like to be more glamourous next time!! Thanks again for the tips.

Janus, what hotel did you stay in? Was it central? and would it be good for 2.5 and 7 year old? thanks

Addle, stayed in Hotel Costes, about a 15 min stroll to the Louvre BUT very expensive, extremely dark everywhere and no other children in sight!!! We did like it for being able to walk everywhere but our daughter was in bed by 7.30 so we went down to dinner on our own and kept popping up to look at her (didn't have a listening service). I literally didn't see any children in the hotel in the evening. On the other hand, they were all superb with our daughter, we never got the feeling they didn't want us and were good as gold about her running through the bars in the early evening before bed.
I think the Lancaster has a listening service and/or babysitting but again wildly expensive, we were in the mood to treat ourselves but prices really are mad.
Hope this helps??

Can I revive this thread a bit? I'm off to Paris on a three-day trip for work on Wednesday. I'm terribly nervous as it's a kind of trip I haven't done since 1996. What if Bob the Builder, Thomas the Tank Engine et al have taken over the bit of my brain where I used to store the ability to speak French? More importantly, does anyone have any Christmas shopping hints? I used to know the city fairly well (haven't been there much for 15 years, but I assume they haven't moved the main landmarks). Anyone else been there on their own?