Itinerary too full?

Hi all! I was feeling pretty good about my itinerary %26#39;til reading some others here, now I wonder if we%26#39;re trying to cram too much in. We want to see as much as we can because who knows when we%26#39;ll be back. At the same time, we want to allow for strolling, cafe-sitting, and doing whatever happens to grab our attention off the beaten path. Have I put too much in our itinerary?

Thanks in advance!

Day 1 – Friday – Ile de la Cite

(We arrive this day and won%26#39;t get out %26#39;til 1p or so.)

•Buy metro and museum passes

•Notre Dame – crown of thorns is there only on Fridays

•Conciergerie

•Sainte Chapelle

•Place Dauphine

•Vert-Galant square

•Wrap up with grocery shopping for the apartment, light dinner in or out depending on how jet-lagged we are.

Day 2 – Saturday

•Louvre

•Place de la Concorde

•Lunch or coffee at a cafe

•Champs-Elysees Walk, Arc de Triomphe, Tuileries Garden

•Dinner on Ile St. Louis?

Day 3 – Sunday

•Worship at Notre Dame (evening?)

•Musee d’Orsay

•Musee Rodin

•Napoleon’s Tomb (Invalides)

Day 4 – Monday

•Sacre-Coueur

•Montmartre

Day 5 – Tuesday

•Eiffel Tower

•Lunch and walk on Rue Cler

•L’Opera Garnier

•Galeries Lafayette

Day 6 – Wednesday - Versailles

•Versailles

•Shopping and leisure in the late aft/evening

•Seine dinner cruise

Day 7 – Thursday

•Catacombs

•Bon Marche

•St. Sulpice

•Latin Quarter

•Marais

•Dinner at Place des Vosges (?)

Too much?

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I think Day 1 is overscheduled given the time you arrive and jet lag and you can see Place de Concorde in about 10 minutes. There%26#39;s really not much there, but a traffic circle and obliesk. Monmartre is relatively small and I doubt it will take you all day. St Chappelle is best if seen in sunlight given the lovely stain glass.

Enjoy!

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In a word, YES. Narrow it down to one activity in the am, one in the pm. Any more and you deprive yourself of wandering time, window shopping and unexpected discoveries.

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Thanks for your comments. And the more I read the more I%26#39;m thinking %26quot;less is more.%26quot; I think I%26#39;ve overplanned myself, which is quite a feat for this Type A personality! LOL!

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Here%26#39;s a couple of concrete suggestions which you may ignore completely...

On Friday drop the Concierrgerie and the Sainte-Chapelle. You%26#39;ve got too much on that day. Besides, standing in line is the last thing you want to be doing when you are tired and jet-lagged IMO. Instead get in some reasonably brisk walking around the islands.

On Sunday pick two of your three museums. If you feel like adding a third after you have seen the first two go for it but don%26#39;t make yourelf do something just because it is %26quot;on your itinerary.%26quot;

On Monday morning if it is sunny get to the Sainte-Chapelle a half hour before it opens so you won%26#39;t have to wait so long. Then go to the Conciergerie if that is something you really want to do. A half day will probably be enough for you to visit as much of Montmartre as you want to. If you have dinner up on the hill you can see the view of Paris at night from the steps of the Sacré Coeur before you head for home. (If if is not sunny that morning go to the Opéra and G.L., then to Montmartre, and hope for sunshine on Tuesday.)

Thursday looks like you just used it to dump all the things you didn%26#39;t have time for the rest of the week. Pick the couple of things you most want to do on the list — and be prepared to dump them if there is something you didn%26#39;t get to do earlier in the week that is more important for you.

More than anything just pick out the things that matter most to you and do them and then — whatever is on your %26quot;to do%26quot; list for that day — allow yourself to be seduced into just going for a stroll or sitting in a café for an hour or so watching the world go by, or whatever...

You can%26#39;t do it all in 6.5 days so pick a couple of real gems for each day and leave the rest for the next trip...

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Thanks IrishRovr! This is very helpful! And you%26#39;re right, whatever we don%26#39;t hit this time around gives us a good reason to come back!

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