Two day itinerary for Paris in the springtime. Please help with it.

[MaggieW]

We're arriving on a Friday evening and will be staying at La Defense. We leave at 4pm on the Sunday. I gather there isn't much in the area where we're staying so it'd be good to eat before we go to the hotel that night - recommendations near Gare du Nord or en route to Defense. After that we'd like to do the touristy bits as the DCs (11 and 9) have never been. Please help design and itinerary to maximise our time, so that we don't miss anything and get to eat some lovely food!! Oh and it's DH's birthday on the Saturday so it'd be lovely to go somewhere nice, but not to pricey for lunch and dinner! TIA.

we got a 2 day pass on the boats that go round the seine - think they begin with a B. you hop on/off at the various tourist places which mainly are adjacent to it. nice to sit and chill out and watch the view as you go.

Don't forget to build in some time do deal with the aftermath when you get your pocket picked on the metro. Always seems to happen to us anyway...

Batobus - that's probably the one dreaming means - it's just a "bus" which goes on the river, and it stops at lots of useful places. There's a website. There are also loads that do fancy cruises, but I don't think that's as good a use of your limited time.

The touristy stuff can have long queues, so you might be better to focus on looking at the outside of things like the Eiffel Tower rather than doing the full tour. If you do want to "do" one thoroughly, get there early!

Le petit Zinc on the Left Bank is lovely - and close to St Germain metro station. If I was going for 2 days, I would start at Notre Dame, get the Batobus to the Louvre and look at the fountains, walk through the Tuilleries then visit the Musee d'Orsay. After that I would get the Batobus to the Eiffel Tower and book a table in the restaurant on the first level for dinner. You don't have to queue then, and everything looks fantastic when lit up. Sunday I would go to Montmartre maybe via the Arc de Triomphe.

yes 'batobus' thats it amuminscotland. if you go in the side entrance to the louvre there's no queue - they were quite long via the glass entrance.

Thank you all - great suggestions - can't wait. Any more?