"Paris 2000" a Paris Travel Page by kandl1

We only had 48 hours in Paris! Could we fit in all the big sights in that small amount of time? Here's what we did:

Day 1:
Arrived via the Chunnel (eurostar train) from London at about 3pm and took a quick cab ride to our hotel. The Hotel Du Cadran located in the 7th arrondissement, right next to Rue Cler (for you Rick Steves fans).
We changed into our walking clothes and took off!
First stop, Invalides & Napolean's Tomb.
Then a quick walk to the Eiffel tower for sunset...we got a little lost on the way back to the hotel, but getting lost in Paris isn't a bad thing.
We found a great dinner spot right next door to our hotel: The Cafe' du Marche'.
We sat next to a family from the Bay Area (USA) and an English mother and daughter on holiday. There were plenty of locals there too.

We had a quick breakfast in the cellar of the hotel and took off to see the sights. This was going to be a big and long day.
We took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe and climbed the stairs to the top. It's a lot bigger that it looks in the pictures. Great views of all of Paris.
From there we did the tourist walk down the Champs Elysées …all the way down to the Tuileries Gardens. After wandering the Place de la Concorde, we decided to bypass the Louvre (just for today!) and keep on walking. We wandered over to Ile de la Cité and grabbed a chocolate crepe (mmmmm) before entering Notre-Dame Cathedral. It was dark, cool and filled with music from the children’s choir practicing that day. After that, we walked over to the Ile Ste Louis to check out that area. We just wandered though and didn’t make any memorable stops.
After wandering along the Left Bank for a while and checking out the book stalls, we headed over to the Musée d'Orsay to look at the Impressionist paintings, along with all the rest of the amazing exhibits there. We spent a good 2 hours there soaking in all of the fantastic art…but alas, it was time to keep on moving. We met a couple of friends of ours who were also on vacation and we all wandered around the Marais, and also the Place des Vosges. We had a wonderful dinner at a neighborhood restaurant and crossed the river and walked around the Latin Quarter before heading back to the hotel.

We didn’t have too much time on this day, only about 3 hours before we had to catch the train back to London, so we couldn’t head over to Versailles or anyplace else outside of the center of town. We decided on the Louvre. After breakfast at the hotel, we hopped on the metro and were whisked to the museum in no time! Wow! The place is huge. We purchased the Paris Museum Pass and I recommend it to everyone. The lines were huge, but we just walked right past everyone and entered through the special museum pass side door. No waiting at all! We also used our pass for the d’Orsay and the Arc De Triomphe.
It is almost impossible to see everything here in one visit, so I’d recommend grabbing the museum guide and follow along one of the paths that is noted in the guide. The Rick Steves Books also have a good guide to the museum and he makes it quite easy to follow while also hitting many of the most famous works of art. Our favorite painting was the Coronation of Emperor Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David. We had just seen a musical in London about Napoleon and Josephine and this painting was “acted” out in the play. Oh, the painting is HUGE!
After 48 hours in Paris, we were exhausted, exhilarated and already looking forward to our next visit.
I also recommend taking the Chunnel Train if you get the chance.