There are so many things to see and do in Paris? If you’re like me, you didn’t even know where to start planning your week-long trip. I asked my sister what she had to see (because she’s the one who wanted to visit Paris the most out of the three of us!) and I used that to plan our itinerary. But to be honest, it was hard! There are so many neighborhoods in Paris and how do you know if you’ll have enough time to visit everything you want in one day? I didn’t want to end up packing all of our days to the point where we would only see half of what we intended.
I did a bit of researched too and finally came up with a good looking plan, which happened to change quite a bit when we got there!
But anyway, I wanted to share it with you in details, so you can start somewhere when planning your own trip!
Day 0
Everybody landed in Paris, and we got settled in our Airbnb apartment. I don’t count this day, as we didn’t do any sightseeing. Chris and I landed in the evening, so it doesn’t really count as a full day.
Day 1 (Sunday)
Visit of the Louvre Museum in the morning.
Since we had to wait for the line, we didn’t want to end up going in and having to leave an hour later because the museum was closing. That’s why we started with this. Make sure you don’t go on Tuesdays, as the Louvre is always closed!
Walk around the Tuileries Gardens, along to the Seine, next to the Pompidou Centre, and to the Place des Vosges.
I didn’t plan a lot for the first day, as I didn’t know how long we were going to be in the Louvre. But after a good four hours in the museum, we had seen enough. So we went for a nice walk and came back home early. Coming back home early is awesome when you can cook dinner yourself and save €30.
Day 2 (Monday)
Visit of the Sacré-Coeur Cathedral
The Cathedral was beautiful on the inside and the outside! If you have the time, I would definitely recommend climbing it. It was a great experience, as you also get an awesome view of the city.
Visit of the Montmartre Museum (optional)
Go there only if you’re an impressionist fan. If you don’t like art that much or don’t care about the impressionist movement, you’ll find this visit boring. I happen to love impressionism, so I quite enjoyed visit the gardens that inspired many artists!
Find the Moulin Rouge
From Montmartre, the walk isn’t very long to Moulin Rouge! We didn’t see any shows, but we did get a few pictures in front of the iconic building!
Shop at the Galeries Lafayette
We ended the day shopping! (Well, my sister was shopping. Chris and I just chilled on the terrasse that had the most amazing view of the sunset!)
Day 3 (Tuesday)
Visit of the Garnier Opera
Please, please, please! If you have time, do go there! It was the highlight of our trip and the place we preferred! Because a lot of people overlook it, it was quiet and calm, and we had the chance to admire the architecture without being annoyed by ten thousand other tourists. You don’t need to spend the whole day at the opera either! An hour or two is more than long enough!
Walk in front of the Arc de Triomphe and on the Champ Élysées
Walking is cheap. Cheaper than the metro! So to go from the opera to the Eiffel Tower, we decided to walk there! We didn’t go up the Arc the Triomphe, but you can if you want! The line was too long, and the price was too high, so it didn’t look like it was that worth it to us.
Relax under the Eiffel Tower
Because our tickets to go up the Eiffel Tower were at 8 PM, and we were still early in the day, we decided to chill on the grass next to the tower and let our feet relax. Our trip to Paris went by so fast, but that was a moment we appreciated a lot. We had the chance to slow down for a bit and just enjoy ourselves!
Boat Cruise on the Seine
We had so much time to kill that we decided to get on a boat for a quick hour. That still left us enough time to eat and go back to the Eiffel Tower! The cruise itself was actually really interesting. Even if there were way too many people on that boat to my liking, I did learn quite a bit about Paris. Apparently, the French audio-guide is different than the English one, so Chris and I ended up sharing the facts that we’d just learned!
Go up the Eiffel Tower
Finally, it was time to go up! If you’re not too afraid of heights, I’d recommend going to the top! We didn’t, as I couldn’t find tickets online that would let us. But even just going to the second floor was amazing! They have an awesome video on the first floor about how the tower was built; you should definitely watch it!
Day 4 (Wednesday)
Visit the Orsay Museum
Art lovers can’t go to Paris without checking out the Orsay Museum! I wanted to go simply because they have a bunch of Monet paintings there, and I couldn’t miss them. If you like Monet too (or other painters like Van Gogh), it’s worth stopping by! Note that the Orsay Museum is closed on Mondays.
Visit of the Orangerie
We decided to buy the combined tickets of the Orsay Museum and the Orangerie, as I wanted to see both. The Orangerie is a lot smaller than the Orsay Museum, so I’d suggest paying only if you know you like art!
Day 5 (Thursday)
Visit of Notre-Dame-De-Paris
This is definitely something you don’t want to miss! We loved climbing on top (because we apparently love the top of churches!) There was quite the line to go inside, but it went faster than expected!
Visit of the Conciergerie and Sainte-Chapelle
I bought the tickets for both and even thought they were interesting, it wasn’t absolutely necessary to see. I did love the second floor of the Sainte-Chapelle, with all of its stained glass, though!
Day 6 (Friday)
Visit of Versailles
This is not something you want to miss! If you can, spend a full day in Versailles! The castle might be crazy crowded and not that interesting to visit, but the gardens are well worth it! Don’t forget to check out the farm at the end of the Marie-Antoinette’s estate!
Day 7 (Saturday)
Visit of the Cluny Museum
If you’re into Medieval and history, you’re going to enjoy this museum! Otherwise, you can always swipe it with something else!
Walk to the Alexander III Bridge
Even if we’d been really close to it before, we hadn’t stopped by this bridge yet. Our last day in Paris was basically a melting pot of all the things we had to see before we left!
Visit of the Lachaise Cemetery
I’m not big on visiting cemeteries, but we were there on Halloween, so why not? It was definitely creepy!
Day 8
Time to take the train to the airport and leave!
If you had to skip one of those days, I’d probably skip the last one! (Or you could find a way to put those things on other days.)
You can use this itinerary starting with Day 1 on your first day, or use the day of the week it is! It’s important to check all the opening hours of the places you want to visit, as they close on random days. If you follow my plans with the same days of the week, you should be fine!
Have a fun time in Paris!
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