Help me plan a few hours in Paris, please!

[Janek]

Hi, on a Wednesday in July we (me, DD1 (18), DD2 (15), DN (12), DB and DSIL) will have a few spare hours in Paris, arriving at Gare du Nord at 09:20 and leaving Gare d'Austerlitz at 14:30.

I want to arrange a whistle stop tour of Paris, what should we do? I was imagining some kind of view of the Eiffel Tower (from the Arc de Triomphe? Tour Montparnasse?), perhaps a walk along the Seine. I am open to suggestions that will give us a feeling of having been to Paris!

Montmatre, I think it's better to do that and the Sacre Couer than the Eiffel Tower. Feels very Parisian and the view from the top makes you feel like you can see all of Paris.

Notre Dame but make sure you go round the back and visit the Jewish memorial, you also get a lovely view up the river.

hop on hop off batobus?

I would be inclined to get the metro to Trocadero: as you come up out of the station, you get a fabulous view of the Eiffel Tower. From there, you can walk down to the the river and walk along either side heading east - you'll go past the Musee d'Orsay, Tuileries, Louvre, Ile de La Cite. Or you can pick up the Batobus by the Eiffel Tower: it allows you to get on and off as you wish at several stops. The last stop is the Jardin des Plantes near the Latin Quarter - from there it's a short walk to Gare d'Austerlitz.

Swing past Le Bistro des Augustine’s, it’s so cheap for Paris but really good and really Paris-y and local feeling. It faces towards Notre Dame so grab something like a lovely gratin and salad for a good price. Follow the Seine back up and cross the bridge with all the locks etc go to or past the Louvre via Jardin De Luxembourg. Look at a map, talk about must sees with the kid, via some ‘one day in Paris’ YouTube vids, and mark off. Go to the furthest point you want to see via Metro, and walk as much as you can back to where you need to get to.

These are great ideas, thank you so much.

I've always had a theoretical soft spot for the musee d'orsay because it's an old station and I do a lot of travelling through Paris by train! Perhaps this will be the trip when I go there. The bateaubus is also a very good call.

Do a bus tour and you'll see loads

Also a good idea!

Check your dates against the Olympics, it might make some things difficult

It's the Olympics fault that we're in Paris for the day! We're getting a much earlier Eurostar than we ordinarily would and there isn't a train out of Paris till the usual time!

Having said that, I googled it today. We're travelling on 24 July and apparently the Olympics don't start till 26 July. I'm not sure they'll get in the way of much anyway, as long as we avoid the stadia. And any street marathons...

The setup and security operation will take a while to set up. I'm actually leaving Paris that day and would normally have stayed the night but I think getting around might be difficult so I'm just passing through this time.

www.paris2024.org/en/competition-venue-concept/

Have a lovely time.

We had a few hours in Paris last Easter

Shoved our luggage in a locker, got the metro to the Eiffel tower, walked down the Trocadero gardens to under the tower itself & got a tour boat up & down the Seine for a hour.
Had some lunch, got the metro back to collect cases & get our train to the airport.

It worked well. Kids loved it!

Lol at op spelling it correctly.

Oddly though, it’s is a batobis