Myself and five other ladies leave for Paris in a couple of days. We%26#39;re interested in food, fashion and fun. This is the itinerary I%26#39;ve put together. I need the experts to look through it to see how I%26#39;ve done. Suggestions welcome!
P.S. This trip is a trial run for a trip we%26#39;re taking March 2010 with a group of high school students who are interested in a fashion and/or culinary experience.
Friday-
Arive in the morning. Purchase Paris Visite pass at the airport. (I know it%26#39;s a little more expensive, but I%26#39;m wanting convenience). Plan to use the metro often as we jump from one area to the next.
Airport shuttle will pick us up (we%26#39;re splurging) and take us to our apartment in the 7th.
Afternoon fashion show at Galeries Lafayette.
Evening river cruise.
Saturday-
Shopping at Rue Cler market in the morning.
Afternoon minibus tour of Paris with a stop in Montmarte. Hope to spend some time wandering through the fabric district. If time doesn%26#39;t allow, we%26#39;ll come back.
Sunday-
Half of us will go to the Porte de Vanves flea market in the morning and the other three will attend a church service.
Lunch at the Eiffel Tower - I know it%26#39;s very touristy, but we%26#39;re tourists:)
Spend the afternoon wandering Ile St Louis and Ile De La Cite. A visit to Pylones. Maybe a little shopping in the Marais area. Plus ice cream and chocolate!
Monday-
Trip to Opera Garnier, Perfume museum, shopping at Etams and LaPrintemps.
Late afternoon - 2 hour walking tour of Marais area. Snacks at L%26#39;as du Falafel.(set time)
Tuesday-
5 hour cooking class at %26quot;Elegant Cooking%26quot;.(Set time)
Wednesday-
3 options available to the ladies:
1. Day trip to Versailles.
2. Day trip to Chateaux
3. Wandering through designer stores on Champs-Elysees plus a tour through Musee nissim de Camondo and macaroons at Laduree.
I%26#39;m planning to do option three because I%26#39;ve done one and two.
Thursday-
Pastry and Chocolate maker tour in the morning.(Set time)
Tour the Louvre, Musee des Arts Decoratif, and
Musee des Arts de la Mode et Textiles in the afternoon.
I%26#39;ve been to the Louvre so while they are at the Louvre I plan to shop at Chanel boutique and Colette%26#39;s or maybe take the metro back to the fabric stores.
Friday-
Head for home.
I%26#39;m anxious to hear back from you guys!
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I%26#39;m pretty sure my shopping trip to Etam%26#39;s on Monday is in the wrong spot. I need to move it to Thursday when I%26#39;m shopping at Colette%26#39;s and the Chanel Boutique.
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Quite a dense and mainstream TA program, I would say. A few remarks:
-Since you will be a party of 6, you should consider taking 2 taxis ex CDG, rather than bothering with a shuttle. It should be around €50 per car with supplements
-rue Cler is a pathetically small and unimaginative street market. For a real Paris market experience on Saturday, try the marché d%26#39;Aligre in the 12th (rue d%26#39;Aligre), the wonderful Baltard-like marché des Enfants rouges in the 3rd (39 rue de Bretagne), or, if you want to remain within the boundaries of TA land, marché Maubert-Mutualité in the 5th
-Thursday afternoon: it%26#39;s not a museum tour, it%26#39;s a campaign! It%26#39;s absolutely irrealistic to plan on touring anything else once you have programmed Le Louvre on a single afternoon! Even Arts déco per se is a good 2 hour + visit
A fun thing to do, even though less glamorous but bang into your theme, is to tour the garment district, known as Sentier, around the eponymous métro station: a maze of tiny, constantly jammed little streets (rue d%26#39;Aboukir, du Caire, Cléry, etc. ) where most of Paris high street fashion is actually designed and made (well, now more and more in China or Tunisia, but you can still hear the rattle of the sowing machines! ). Most shops will only do wholesale, but a wand of bills might make them change their minds...
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Thank you for your suggestions. I appreciate you taking time to look over my itinerary.
Just curious - Not sure what you mean by %26quot;quite a dense and mainstream TA program%26quot;. Is that good or bad? :)
Thank you for the garment district suggestion. Great idea.
Again, many thanks!
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Now, just teasing, saying that one finds the usual TA buzz words: Ladurée, rue Cler, airport shuttle... But thank you for being that good humoured about it and taking it the way it should be: ligthtly and to the second degree. But %26quot;dense%26quot;, God I mean it! I hope you ladies are in boot camp training right now to sustain such a hectic schedule - it%26#39;s all that chocolate to erase, I know...
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A couple of things I thought of: keep the river cruise an open item. It can be re-scheduled any other evening. You%26#39;re not taking into account the fact that you might be dead tired from jet lag and want to go to bed early your first night.
The other thing is that I agree completely about the rue Cler market. I guess I don%26#39;t see the allure of r. Cler. Many other markets are much better, livlier and more diverse. If you want to stay in central Paris, there is the Saxe-Breteuil behind Invalides, Place Maubert although it%26#39;s small is very good and r. Montorgueil among others. Have a look here for a list and see if one is near you:
www.v1.paris.fr/EN/Living/markets/markets.asp
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Chocolates and pastries! At least one a day.:)
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I%26#39;m so glad to see musee Nissim de Camondo as an option - that was one of our favorite places.
Be sure you get to see the Eiffel Tower twinkling on the even hour for 5 minutes after dark. This can be done either by timing your river cruise or by being a block or so away at the time.
Thursday is a killer day - could one of the museums be moved to another day? I would suggest the Louvre on its late opening on Wednesday evening.
Discourage people from going on the chateaux tour if they have not yet been to Versailles. Versailles is so amazing and so much closer and its history and gardens - it should be the priority.
Have fun!
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Most of the designers stores are NOT on the Champs Elysees but on Avenue Montaigne and on Rue du Faubourg St Honore, both close from the Champs E. There are a couple more designers stores on and near Place des Victoires and of course the original Chanel store is at 31 rue Cambon.
I second a visit of the Sentier area. Besides clothes they also have stores after stores of costume jewelery. It all look disorganized and hectic, especially in the morning, but fun.
The museums tour is also WAY WAY unrealistic..
Lunch at the E.T is not worth the time and money at the altitude 58 (or whatever number it is..) and Jules Verne is a trap if you don%26#39;t ask for the lunch menu under Euros 100. I had rather go to Maison Blanche, on Avenue Montaigne..it has a view of many Paris monuments.
If your friends haven%26#39;t seen a Royal Chateau then Versailles is an absolute must. Fontainebleau is more interesting historically and architecturally but Versailles is the ultimate over the top fantasy..at the time even Kings from other countries were amazed. What other Chateaux did you have in mind??
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The more in the shuttle, the less it costs. Rue Cler is a nice area and on Saturday full of people. Lots of diplomats are in that area. Lots of restaurants there, and boutique shops. The market has beautiful fruits veg etc. Get off metro at Ecole Militaire. But I think if anyone has never been to Paris before, it would be wiser to do something else. The Champs Elysee I would not call a designer/fashion area - to me anyway. Just expensive. I saw some designer stores on Rue Bonaparte in the St Germain area a few weeks ago. Perfume Museum - Fragonard? Ice cream - Berthillon? You might check to see if the Costume Museum has an exhibit. I saw one in Feb there the title was something like Crinolines, but it was more than thast. They have temporary exhibits, the metro would be Alma.
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Please, someone tell me where Rue du Faubourg St Honore is - what district??
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