As a Follow-up to Your Packing List, I give you Your Planning Guide. My couster also writes:
"I am interested in doing some great art pilgrimage, but I am not sure how to gauge the suggestion to take a full day to go to Versailles. Worth it? Better to spend the day stuffing my face in a café somewhere? Just trying to get my bearings so I can start to consider if I actually have specific things I'd like to do in mind or not. It's hard to tell sometimes: Somewhat reputable NYC tourist travel sites suggest things like 'go to Chinatown'...which makes some sense if you're from, oh, Oshkosh or BoFo (which, in my world, would be in Nebraska), but less so if you're from SF. I also dug up a few other things. If you get a moment, feel free to read them, laugh, scream in righteous indignation, or praise them. It'll give me a better sense of what's in store."
1) Among the various recommended five-day itineraries she sends me (examples one, two, and three here), one has her visiting the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, and l'Orangerie in one day. I would barely recommend this in one week, unless you really, really love art museums. And do not have children traveling with you. The Louvre alone could take a whole day, and you still would only see a fraction. If you've never done any of them, I recommend the d'Orsay, simply because the Impressionist collection is such a jaw-dropper and so enjoyable (not the kind where you pretend to enjoy staring at your 127th Virgin and Baby painting because you feel like you're getting educated, but the kind where it is actually pleasurable). If you happen to be here on the first Sunday of any month, most museums are free.
2) Do you want to go to the Eiffel Tower? Be prepared for crowds, and lines, unless you can go at a low-traffic time, which is mid-week, not on a school holiday, first thing in the morning, and ideally in the dead of winter. The crowds will be lighter then for sure. Get a reservation ahead of time, and know that "walking up" only means walking up to the 2nd floor; everybody gets an elevator to the top from there. It is fine to walk up, even with children. My seventy-something year old parents just did it, too.
3) Do you want to go to Versailles? You don't need reservations, but expect crowds. It's certainly worth doing, especially on a day nice enough to enjoy the gardens, Marie Antoinette's hamlet (her pretend peasant village), and maybe even boat rides on the lake. But is it a must-see? No, and it does take a whole day. The problem is that almost everything in Paris falls in this category -- fabulous but not a must. Because of that, I say, don't try to pack everything in your five days. Just do the things that appeal to you most and leave time for just wandering around. And eating.
4) An alternative to Versailles, in my opinion, if you can't spare a whole day: the more convenient and less crowded Palais Garnier, also called Opéra, which has English-language tours on Wednesdays and Saturdays (reservations needed). Or just go for an unguided visit nearly any day.
4) My advice on planning, in short. Some medieval Paris, at least one great art museum, a cemetery, some cafe time, churches, a tower (Eiffel and/or Notre Dame and/or top of Arc de Triomphe), boat ride or walk along the Seine, shopping, ride a metro, Sacré Coeur from the outside, Sainte Chapelle and/or Conciergerie, les Invalides, maybe underground sewer tour or catacombs, and something truly opulent like Versailles or Opéra. But not all of it at once.
"I am interested in doing some great art pilgrimage, but I am not sure how to gauge the suggestion to take a full day to go to Versailles. Worth it? Better to spend the day stuffing my face in a café somewhere? Just trying to get my bearings so I can start to consider if I actually have specific things I'd like to do in mind or not. It's hard to tell sometimes: Somewhat reputable NYC tourist travel sites suggest things like 'go to Chinatown'...which makes some sense if you're from, oh, Oshkosh or BoFo (which, in my world, would be in Nebraska), but less so if you're from SF. I also dug up a few other things. If you get a moment, feel free to read them, laugh, scream in righteous indignation, or praise them. It'll give me a better sense of what's in store."
1) Among the various recommended five-day itineraries she sends me (examples one, two, and three here), one has her visiting the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, and l'Orangerie in one day. I would barely recommend this in one week, unless you really, really love art museums. And do not have children traveling with you. The Louvre alone could take a whole day, and you still would only see a fraction. If you've never done any of them, I recommend the d'Orsay, simply because the Impressionist collection is such a jaw-dropper and so enjoyable (not the kind where you pretend to enjoy staring at your 127th Virgin and Baby painting because you feel like you're getting educated, but the kind where it is actually pleasurable). If you happen to be here on the first Sunday of any month, most museums are free.
2) Do you want to go to the Eiffel Tower? Be prepared for crowds, and lines, unless you can go at a low-traffic time, which is mid-week, not on a school holiday, first thing in the morning, and ideally in the dead of winter. The crowds will be lighter then for sure. Get a reservation ahead of time, and know that "walking up" only means walking up to the 2nd floor; everybody gets an elevator to the top from there. It is fine to walk up, even with children. My seventy-something year old parents just did it, too.
3) Do you want to go to Versailles? You don't need reservations, but expect crowds. It's certainly worth doing, especially on a day nice enough to enjoy the gardens, Marie Antoinette's hamlet (her pretend peasant village), and maybe even boat rides on the lake. But is it a must-see? No, and it does take a whole day. The problem is that almost everything in Paris falls in this category -- fabulous but not a must. Because of that, I say, don't try to pack everything in your five days. Just do the things that appeal to you most and leave time for just wandering around. And eating.
4) An alternative to Versailles, in my opinion, if you can't spare a whole day: the more convenient and less crowded Palais Garnier, also called Opéra, which has English-language tours on Wednesdays and Saturdays (reservations needed). Or just go for an unguided visit nearly any day.
4) My advice on planning, in short. Some medieval Paris, at least one great art museum, a cemetery, some cafe time, churches, a tower (Eiffel and/or Notre Dame and/or top of Arc de Triomphe), boat ride or walk along the Seine, shopping, ride a metro, Sacré Coeur from the outside, Sainte Chapelle and/or Conciergerie, les Invalides, maybe underground sewer tour or catacombs, and something truly opulent like Versailles or Opéra. But not all of it at once.
No comments:
Post a Comment