Let's Plan A Trip To Paris

Let's Plan A Trip To Paris

Lesson #4

Day 7: In the Garden of Paris, Baby

All Day

Pack a picnic lunch and spend the day in Luxembourg Garden(Metro: Odéon or RER B: Luxembourg). Enjoy a relaxing, no-itinerary day – catch a puppet (“marionette”) show, ride the carousel, pop a bottle of wine, watch old-timers play "boules," nap in the sun.

After you’ve had your Luxembourg fill, walk into the adjacent Latin Quarter for dinner. Exit the park’s east side at a roundabout on Rue de Medicis. Walk across the roundabout to Rue Soufflot. Walk three blocks to Rue Saint-Jacques and take a left.

You’ll pass the Paris-Sorbonne University on your left, a reminder of how the Latin Quarter earned its name. During the middle ages, this area was the rare intellectual hotbed and scholars at the time spoke the only civilized, written language in the West, Latin. All that Latin-speak earned the nickname that persists today.

Just before reaching Rue des Ecoles, take a right on Place Marcelin Berthelot until it ends at Rue Jean de Beauvais. Cross this street, take a slight right, then an immediate left onto charming Rue de Lanneau, a narrow, atmospheric corridor. There are several quaint restaurants, cafes and brassieres in the area, but I like the rustic hole-in-the-wall, Le Petit Prince de Paris (12 Rue de Lanneau).

Walk three blocks north to Boulevard Saint-Germain to take the Metro home at Maubert – Mutualité station.

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Day 8: Art Blitz II

Morning

Begin the day early at the Orangerie Museum (Metro: Concorde) for impressionist and post-impressionist heavyweights like Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso. But everyone comes here for Monet’s spectacular "Water Lilies."

Afternoon

Eat a picnic lunch in the sprawling former royal grounds, Tuileries Garden, designed around an unbroken central axis that runs right to the Louvre.

Walk to the overwhelming Louvre Museum and follow one of the museum's excellent audioguide tours and don't miss the obvious: "Mona Lisa" and "Venus de Milo." Art lovers should consider a guide-led group or private tour because this place is immense.

Evening

Did all that art make you hungry? Go to the Louvre’s basement for quite possibly the best food court in Europe, Restaurants du Monde au Carrousel de Louvre (99 Rue de Rivoli). Choose from crepes, Indian food, whole-roasted chickens all in a convenient and affordable food court.

After dinner, head back above ground to Tuileries Garden for after-dark amusement park rides and French carnival sweets. You've earned it. Take the Metro home at Tuileries station.