re: You have four days in Paris - what do you do?

As an add on to the many great suggestions, I would add taking a stroll through Pere Lachaise (sp) cemetery. Many many famous Parisians buried there as well as Jim Morrison.

I'm a history buff and that was a very cool couple of hours there and its also away from much of the crowds. Think of it as an outdoor Westminster Abbey (Poets Corner, etc.)

Could you provide the Tour Guide you used? I'll be making the trip with my wife and we had a similar plan. I found a few tour guides but looking for a recommendation. TIA.

I just returned from 2 weeks in France and the highlight was the Normandy tour. We used Overlord Tours and would recommend ( I got the rec from this board).

They do day trips from Paris but that would seem like a very long day. We rented a car and stayed in Bayeux for a few days. It was fantastic.

Also drove through seeing WWI sites in the area. I can give recs on that if interested.

Versailles was the only let down on the trip. Also explored French Riveria for a few days and 5 days in Paris.

I will echo going with Overlord Tours. We just did their full day tour last week and it was fantastic! It was a LONG day though, with the new train schedule departing Paris at 6:15am and with a train delay on the return, not getting back to Paris until 9:30pm. I’d do it again though - it was that good!

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Versailles was the only let down on the trip. Also explored French Riveria for a few days and 5 days in Paris.

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Very surprised so many are let down by Versailles?

Also I know the OP is a couple months old, but imo 4 days in a city the size of Paris and you should not even consider a day trip that’s 3 hours away unless you never plan on going there again. Which honestly Paris/ Normandy for any traveler shouldn’t really be the case imo.

As in, to me either fly into CDG and do Normandy for 4 days or go to Paris. Mixing them and you are rushing everything so much it kinda seems like a waste of time as you are gonna want to return and do it all again.

Thanks, this is exactly what we were looking for. We only have one day so this was the plan we were looking for.

This is what I did in Paris in 4 days:
-Walked the Latin Quarter: had a coffee at a famous cafe.
-Saw Notre Dame
-Night coach tour; dinner at a small cafe with unlimited “table wine”
-walked to the Eiffel Tower at night to see it light up, followed by drinking wine at a nearby sidewalk cafe with newly found friends
-Seine River Cruise with a massive hangover
-The Louvre
-Rode the Metro many times
-Had lunch at a small cafe with a carafe of wine
-Saw most of the major sights: Arc d’Triomphe, Place de La Concorde, Pompidou Centre, (too many to name).
-Visited Place d’Italie looking for Mr. et Mme. Thibaut from my high school French lessons(couldn’t find them).
-Catacombs
-Sat in an Aussie bar for two hours drinking proper beer.
-Visited a Fromagerie and bought some great cheese and wine.
-Versailles
-Went to the top of Eiffel Tower at night
-Ate at a mostly local restaurant. Great food and bottle of wine. Never thought I’d like a carrot soup with fish in it.
-Musee d’Orsay (which was the highlight of my visit to Paris).

I’m sure I’m missing a couple things. But I think I got in a lot of things for four days.

se

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picnic(wine, baguette, cheese) at Luxembourg Gardens,

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Definitely recommend this. Watch some old men play petanque while drinking/eating some too go food.

Things that haven't been mentioned:
-Go to le grande epicerie. It might be the nicest grocery store in the world and is great for some to go food after gawking at outrageously priced stuff (like a fresh whole blue fin tuna on ice). I saw Guy Fieri there once filming and was like "hey, this isn't a dive). Get wine because you can drink in parks.

-Grab a cafe creme in a bar in the latin quarter and watch regular people do regular stuff while you relax. Great memory of mine was a solo trip to Paris where I am enjoying my coffee reading the news and "love me do" comes on and a bunch of random French men start singing along to it. Just garcons being garcons.

-Skip going up the eiffel tower and instead go up on top of the arc de triomphe. The view is awesome of the "spokes" from the "hub" on top. You get to have the tower in your view/pictures as well.

-To save on costs try eating a larger prix fixe lunch (many are) and get street food for dinner. Some of our best evenings have been hopping from bars to food stands to bars. I like miche for sandwiches and chez le libanais for lebanese to go food.

-If you are a runner go for a long morning run along the seine on day 2 of your trip (in the morning). It both helps you get over jet lang and gives you some bearings on the layout of the city between right/left bank. You also get to observe the city a bit from a non-tourist POV if you are up early enough.

-Go see Sainte-Chapelle. Its beauty is truly humbling. same for Notre Dame when they reopen the inside. Read up on the time it took to built Notre Dame and consider the generations who worked on it knowing they would never see the end.

-If you are Catholic (or have Catholics you would like to buy items for) go to Rue du Bac (next to le grand epicerie/bon marche) and see the Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. Next to the chapel (on the street, not in the chapel area) is a really nice Catholic gift store that is run by the nuns. Note that there are two, and the nicer one is directly on Rue du Bac. We get Miraculous Medals whenever we are there as gifts for Sacraments.

-Get a drink (one because they are outrageously expensive) at Bar Hemingway in the Ritz prior to a nice dinner. Crazy to think of the history in the place and all of the folks who have had a drink there. The place is tiny, so go a bit earlier and walk around if you finish early.

Look for answers to questions that bother me so.

Caen might not be the best town to explore. Bayeux is where you should look. Especially if it’s the launching point for Normandy.