Any Paris dwellers/experts around?

[Chelsea26]

Heading to Paris on Sunday for 3 days - V excited!

Would like some recommendations of restaurants especially, but also must-sees and any hints and tips on what to queue for and what to pay to skip the queues. Is it worth getting a museum pass?

I’m not a massive art fan but I love museums and architecture - really want to do Versailles one day but that’s a whole day out isn’t it? Would we have time?

Restaurants - we would like maybe one fancy-pants for one evening and then some mid-range options?

Thanks very much!

Also is a river cruise and dinner a good option for one evening?

If you like books there is an amazing bookshop called Shakespeare and Company literally just across the river from Notre Dame.

There’s a boat restaurant on the Seine right by the Eiffel Tower, I think it’s called Chez Jeanette. It was great sitting out with that view, a cocktail. Food was ok - but not fancy.

Versailles is very special both inside, outside and is worth a day to itself. you need to wear comfy walking shoes

The Bateaux Parisiens do a really good lunch or dinner cruise, have done both and thought they were pretty good value for money, all things considered - lovely food and service and plenty to drink if I recall rightly!

Versailles is indeed a whole day out!

I don't know about dinner on board the boats, but I think the Vedettes du Pont Neuf (based by the Pont Neuf, funnily enough 😆) are smaller, nicer and more central. It's a great way to take the weight off your feet and see all the sights for a couple of hours.

Otherwise, I recommend exploring the Ile de Cite, preferably arriving at Cite metro with its Hector Guimard entrance where you emerge right next to the flower market, having a look at how the reconstruction of Notre Dame is going (very slowly, inevitably!), paying to visit the Sainte Chapelle, popping over to the Ile St Louis for an ice cream at Berthillon, and from there you can easily walk to Les Halles (for the Pompidou centre), which has lots of good restaurants, or the Marais with beautiful 17C buildings and trendy shops and restaurants....

....OR you could head over to the Left Bank to check out the Latin Quarter, Shakespeare and Co (very crowded nowadays, not like when I stayed there 30 years ago!), St Severin Church etc.

I also recommend a big loop on the left bank, taking in the Jardin des Plantes, the Grand Mosque, the Pantheon and Rue Mouffetard especially Place du Contrescarpe, the quintessential pretty Parisian square.

Also, Montmartre- Abbesses is Paris's deepest metro stop and has another beautiful Guimard entrance. Take the funicular up the butte (costs the same as a metro ticket) and check out Sacre Coeur and the view- including the Eiffel Tower. After dusk it goes all sparkly every hour on the hour.

Don't actually go to the bloody Eiffel Tower. You'll probably ignore me though 😆

I know nothing about good restaurants, being a skint vegetarian!

If you like architecture AND museums but not art specifically, perhaps the Musee du Cluny, which is housed in a beautiful building in the Marais, and has a wide variety of medieval artefacts alongside paintings? 🤔

The Louvre also has a lot of stuff that is NOT art- it's the equivalent of the British Museum and the National Gallery at once!

Musee d'Orsay is 100% art (impressionist), but also architecturally stunning. Big queues though- the Louvre has more visitors, but has 4 separate entrances under that big pyramid, so can handle them better.

Or perhaps (if you ignore my advice about the bloodyfucking Eiffel Tower), the Museum of Mankind next to it at Quai Branly, which has really interesting plant covered modern architecture and landscaping.

(sigh) is it obvious I really miss working in tourism?!

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g187147-d718174-Reviews-L_Homme_Tranquille-Paris_Ile_de_France.html

This is my favourite restaurant in Paris, although I'd happily eat / drink / wander anywhere on Rue Des Martyrs or Rue des 3 Frères.

Josslin's 67 Rue du Montparnasse, 75014 Paris, France
Fantastic creperie, and by Montparnasse cemetery if you want to see the famous graves there.

Bar Etna is a very nice wine bar
33 Rue Mazarine, 75006 Paris, France as is the very close Chez Nous 10 Rue Dauphine, 75006 Paris, France.

I like La Jacobine 59-61 Rue Saint-André des Arts, 75006 Paris, France, which is on the road that the guillotine was invented in.

Place Dauphine by the Pont Neuf has some nice places and has a good atmosphere.

I'd personally skip Versailles as it's a whole day, but I prefer ambling around to going to specific locations! Definitely just walk along the Seine at night - there's often dancing, live music, friends hanging out.

Apologies for the oddly specific addresses - I copied from my Google maps saved places!

I was in Paris last week. We took the Vedettes du Pont Neuf boat tour. If you want an actual tour with a guide you can hear, choose another company. The boat we were on had speakers at only one end and we couldn’t hear a thing. It was a lovely boat ride, though.

Just back from a weekend there...

Versailles is amazing, and worth a day trip. However - there are rail strikes that might make it more difficult at the moment... They do a son et Lumiere show every Saturday evening but sounds like you wouldn't be there for that anyway...

The Louvre - there is too much to do more than scratch the surface on a single visit; and it is jammed with people. If you want to do any of the big spots then book ahead - don't just turn up.

There is a Monet museum outside the centre which is the exception to that - not many people visit because it's out of town, but if you want to see some Monet then that's the place to go. (Musee Marmottan Monet). The Orangeries museum is in the centre, purpose built to show the waterlilies, amazing - and rammed!

Go to Berthillon near Notre Dame for ice cream. Creme de Citron flavour is just in for summer (it is boiling in Paris from about midday to midnight currently)

L'opera Garnier, get the multimedia tour and see the phantom's box!

Hardware Society in Montmartre for brunch, be prepared to queue.

La Coupole for a seafood platter in art deco surroundings.

Depends where you're staying but you might like Bouillon Chartier which aims to be a typical old style French restaurant - bills calculated on the paper tablecloths - waiters in black - very French food - and not at all expensive. Nearest metro is Grands Boulevards . I can't do a link but you could Google it.

Many museums and galleries need booking in advance so make a list and plan.

Shakespeare and co is just a bookshop. Not worth the trip.

Musée d'Orsay is fabulous as is the orangerie.

Ah, I’ve been to L'Homme Tranquille a few times but not for years - so it’s still there! The lovely waiter was the owner and his mum did the cooking. It’s tiny and so friendly. Standard bistro fare but a lovely place to eat. Definitely need to book, I’d say, to be on the safe side.

When we went to Paris we always stayed round that area - Montmartre/Abbesses.

If you like architecture, @Chelsea26, I highly recommend a tour of some of the beautiful galeries and passages, which are a joy. Good info here. Also useful if it rains and you need shelter!

Oh, I love Paris so much, and I miss it 😢

Oh, and a good place to research restaurants etc is on the blog of an American chef who's lived in Paris for years, David Lebovitz. This is his guide to good restaurants (he links to another page for more casual places). I can’t vouch for all of them being current but I looked at the first two and they’re certainly still going.

His blog is a very entertaining read generally about living in Paris btw.

I was there in December - mum, son and dog still there! :)

Oh my goodness!

THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU ABSOLUTE LEGENDS!!

im at work today but my evening is going to be spent looking at all your fabulous suggestions!

Even more excited now! 😁

I was in Paris recently and have a few recommendations. Like others have said l'Orangerie and the Musée d'Orsay are fabulous, you can book tickets for both together at a reduced price. We went to the Louvre but it was too much and too overwhelming to see in a short time so I wouldn't recommend it unless there was something very specific you wanted to see. However, we did book Café Marly that is overlooking the pyramids which was a great spot for people watching.

We booked an evening cruise on a Bateau Mouche that included a dinner, wine and live music. It was a bit cheesy but they timed passing the Eiffel Tower just as it twinkled and it was fabulous.

Finally we booked a trendy rooftop bar called The Roof. The food is expensive and just a limited selection of sushi but the cocktails were excellent and the views and atmosphere were very cool.

Yes! Crêperie Josselin was my favourite crêperie when I lived in Paris. Didn't realise it was still going...!

Just bumping for the evening crowd!

Thanks so much for all the suggestions so far - that blog is fantastic @Halsall.

Very much enjoying browsing the restaurant suggestions - should have got DP involved as he is much better at mapping things than I am but he is starting his journey to Paris tomorrow (cycling) so it’s down to me I think!

Is most of the city walkable? We’re fairly good walkers…

Oh. Oh. Oh. I LIVED in rue des trois freres as a student. Feel impossibly nostalgic now!!

it’s been a long time since I’ve been to Paris but I’d definitely recommend wandering around the Marais and just picking a nice restaurant.

I’d steer clear of anything on the champs or too close to the Eiffel Tower. Ooh go up the arc de triomphe rather than the Eiffel tour.

It's wonderfully walkable (much smaller than London, something you don't realise at first)!

Think we covered about 10 miles with a 7 year old when we were there for a day last summer!

Check out my mega post upthread for a couple of walking itinerary ideas.

Very impressed by your DP cycling there!

When I spent a day there on my own last Easter, I walked all the way from my hostel north of the Gare du Nord along Canal St Martin (also a beautiful and interesting area) carrying my rucksack, started to flag near Place du Republique and caught the Metro to Gare d'Austerlitz where I left it in the left luggage, then walked through the Jardin des Plantes, Arenes de Lutece, Rue Mouffetard and Place du Contrescarpe, Place du Pantheon and Montagne Ste Genevieve, down to the Ile de la Cite, took a gander at the amazing hoardings decorated by comic artists outside Notre Dame, crossed the Ile St Louis, back over to the left bank and walked back to Austerlitz along the Seine, stopping at (Parc? Place?) Tino Rossi to watch everyone tango dancing, with still enough time to spare for a beer before catching my night train to Nice.

Think I did 14 miles that day....

Ah thank you @crackofdoom i will send both your posts to him to give him something to do in the evenings (when he’s not drinking beer with the other MAMIL’s 😂) He’s excellent at plotting routes!

My record is 20 miles in a day on the Amalfi coast - have to admit we got the bus for the next stage after that!