If it's your first time to Paris, Nathalie will make sure it is perfect!

France | Apr 20 - Apr 26, 2025

Excellent location. Quiet, easy to walk to shops and especially restaurants. Metro station is only a block or so away and every Uber/Taxi we took knew exactly where to go. The rooms themselves were very comfortable and the staff was kind and accommodating. We had limited French language abilities and they were well versed in English. Room was replenished and cleaned each day allowing us to come back from busy days and "crash" in luxury!

We booked a tour of these two locations, Sainte Chapelle and Notre Dame, so that we could get some history and architecture lessons on the buildings. The tour wound up being an hour long walk around the island, a brief stop in Sainte Chapelle and no tour of Notre Dame. This was our only disappointing experience. The photos of Sainte Chapelle are so breathtaking that visiting this chapel became almost more important to us that Notre Dame. I envisioned a quiet little jewel that we could sit and contemplate the marvels of architecture and artistic talent that contributed to these stunning windows. There is no doubt the windows were stunning, but we did not know that the chapel is not a current functioning religious church. It had no chairs or pews, and was packed with tourists talking loud and doing selfies. It's is also a small chapel so you basically walk in, do a circle and are right back out. When we finished here was when the guide told us that they would not be taking us to Notre Dame because the wait in line was 2 hours. This was somewhat our fault because we assumed we had timed reservations, but we booked for the week after Easter AND the Pope passed away while we were there so timed reservations were cancelled. We would have much rather waited in line to see Notre Dame than spent an hour walking the island. We did get up early the next morning and walked right into Notre Dame on our own.

This was a blast. Campy, crowded, fun. The food was better than we expected. We should have arrived about 45 minutes before our seating, but we still got a lovely table even arriving 15 minutes before our seating (in fact, we had easy access to the restrooms by being seated further back).

Pere Lachaise is just an unbelievable spot on this earth. It is arranged like it's own city. There are sunny spots and lots of dark, damp and cozy spots. There is every kind of architecture you can imagine in the family crypts and so many stories that you could spend years here and not know them all. Every little path has something fascinating and historical. It is huge so we recommend a map and a plan. We were fortunate enough to have Diane for a guide. She is passionate about this cemetery and knew where to go, the stories to tell and the nuances to point out.

Stephanie was our tour guide and she was simply amazing. She met us at our hotel and taught us how to use the train out to Versailles (different than the metro). She was full of information and tricks to get us straight into the palace. Every room she had a story and would take us right to the front so we could get a great view of the room. She set it up so we could stay later, after she left, and still we were comfortable on the train back to the city. We could not have asked for a better guide.

The museum is not intuitively organized and we wasted a lot of time following the crowd to the "popular" pieces of art that they were all determined to take photos of. That crowd was miserable. Once we figured out the layout we were able to enjoy the museum more. Just be warned, everyone is jammed into the Impressionist area and there are lots of other areas on the first and second floors that hold breathtaking pieces of art that are not jammed packed. We did not get to see all we wanted (we had a lunch reservation) because we wasted time trying to figure out where everything was.

So many reviews complain about the crowds at the Louvre, but because we were not interested in the Mona Lisa, our guide, Athina, was able to take us to works of art and artifacts of history that had, maybe, 3 other people in the room. Athina is an expert on the Louvre and could tell us everything about anything. She was enthusiastic and just as excited to see things the 200th time as we were to see them the first time. She knew the "secret" rooms and paths through the museum and made our experience a lifetime memory.