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!

L’homme Tranquille and surrounds is sounding like a winner! We’ll definitely head there one evening.

And have booked a River cruise for the Tuesday night now…

Cheap eats: the Bouillon chain of restaurants. Chartier is the original, but I really like Julien; amazing decor.

La Sarassine on the Ile St Louis has bargain formules at lunch. €15.50 for 3 courses. I took visitors there this weekend just gone.

Not French, but the Big Mamma group of restos is fun. La Felicità is an amazing food court with super Instagrammable loos. Pizzeria Populare is excellent and you can book (took my visitors there on Sat night).

Fancy: Le Train Bleue at Gare du Lyon.

Good places to find funky bars and restaurants: Canal Saint Martin.

Boat trip: Les Vedettes du Pont Neuf. Smaller boats and not so sardine like (avoid the actual Bateaux Mouches).

Best view of Eiffel Tower: take the overland metro line 6 from CDG Etoile (Arc de Triomphe). After Passy, it crosses the Seine and you have the most marvellous view.

Eiffel Tower: just don’t. Such a waste of money. Do the Tour Montparnasse instead. Much cheaper, easier to book, and more interactive/informative. If you absolutely have to do Eiffel, do the 2nd floor stairs. They release tickets 14 days before.

Museums: Galerie Dior is wonderful. The Jacquemart-Andre is my favourite for art and has a beautiful art-decorated cafe with a great formule for lunch. Le Petit Palais is an excellent free pit stop half way down Champs Elysees, with interesting exhibitions and decent loos, plus a nice cafe.

Versailles is lovely, but you’ll need the full day. Opt for the Palais Garnier (Opera house); it’s a gilded marvel and absolutely jaw-droppingly beautiful.

Oh, and I was very disappointed by La Coupole. Nice decor but full of badly dressed tourists and didn’t feel at all special. Save your money and dine at Julien for a third of the price.

Thank you @Oriunda We have Big Momma in London too so have been to a few here, didn’t know they were also in Paris.

Le Train Bleue looks amazing!!

Love him, and had actually forgotten about him, so thank you!

I can recommend'Les Frenchies' on YouTube. He's French/American and she's American. Their videos are nice and short and they cover everything you need to know. They live just outside Paris.

Head straight for the top, and the front. We could hear fine. If you’re near the back, all you hear is the engine.

For architecture, check out the Tour Jean sans Peur, by Etienne Marcel (fab shopping area by Les Halles). Medieval tower that’s super interesting. Nearby is the Passage du Grand Cerf; very beautiful arcade. Also go see the hidden church under Printemps.

You can just have drinks in the bar at the Train Bleu - it’s a lot cheaper than dinner! We did this once and the room is truly amazing. They serve breakfast till 11:30 am too.

Oh this has made me really want to go to Paris for the weekend. I took my DD there when she was 9 and we had the best 4 days - I have been back a couple of times since but that trip was magical. I know Paris is romantic and supposedly for couples, but I will hold that trip in my heart forever.

We did so much walking. I love Montmartre (we stayed just off the Rue des Trois Freres) and had a lovely meal in L'Homme Tranquille too! We really enjoyed Bouillon Chartier for the decor and the sense of being in an old Parisian Bistro, adored the Pompidou Centre and surroundings, she took pictures of all the street art, we went to Les Catacombes and surfaced from the metro to find ourselves in a mass student demo with all routes shut off with very serious riot police. My DD was THRILLED. Gawd even a ham baguette we had from somewhere in Le Marais was the best sandwich I'd ever had.

A walk along the Seine, a wander through the Tuileries, a gentle boat ride past Notre Dame... if the weather is nice there's just nothing better than ambling around looking at all the gorgeous architecture. Palais Garnier, Grand Palais and Petit Palais are breathtaking.

You are going to have such a wonderful trip.

That reminds me of a couple of Labour friends of mine who posted an account of their Parisian trip on Facebook recently. Attended a demo and enjoyed that most Parisian of experiences- getting teargassed 😱

Re: museum pass - it was absolutely worth it for us. We were there last week, got a 4-day pass (you can also get 2 and 3 I think) and used it 9 times! It didn't just save money but also time as in most places there is a separate queue/entrance for pre-booked tickets (which the pass counts as).

Highlights of the trip for us were various viewpoints (eg from the Arc de Triomphe and the Pompidou Centre - but also the rooftop of Galeries Lafayette, which is free! Fab art deco ceiling inside too) and seeing loads of amazing art in beautiful settings (Rodin, Orangerie, Musee d'Orsay). Saint Chapelle was jaw-droppingly impressive (need to prebook a slot for that one). Sparkly Eiffel Tower worth staying up for (it's quite late this time of year)!

We're just back from 3 days in Paris, so lots is fresh in my mind!

We had a meal at one of the Bouillon restaurants (not the Chatriere one, but a different one) and it was lovely.

We had our anniversary meal at an amazing place called Dersous. It was near Bastille, and I found it as a Time Out recommendation. It was a 6 course taster menu, with cocktail pairing, and it was absolutely lovely. Really delicious food, but totally unpretentious. Can't recommend highly enough.

We went to Versailles for the day, which was nice. We got there for 10.30 and were in the gardens until 2, which is when our entry to the palace was. It was busy though, which was fine in the gardens as they are MASSIVE, but it was heaving in the palace itself. We didn't get the audio tour so we just followed the masses around. We went around in about 45 mins I think!
I would definitely do it that way around - gardens first and then palace - if it's hot, then it's better to be indoors in the afternoon.
I would rather do that than spend a lot of time in museums in the summer, but then I've been to the Orsay and Louvre before. If it was my first time in Paris, I'd probably want to do one of those (although the crowds/queues around Louvre would have really put me off).

There were huge queues at the Eiffel Tower too. I wouldn't want to stand around for hours waiting to go up there.

We did a cycle tour - the 'Quaint Nooks and Crannies' (or something like that), booked through Air BnB - that was really good.

Other than that, we did a lot of walking (back from Eiffel Tower, down the Canal St Martin to the Seine, through the Marais district, around Montmatre). It was a really nice 3 days.