Landing day is a light one by design, just enough to shake off the flight and get a first feel for Paris before tomorrow's Louvre push. You touch down at Charles de Gaulle at 2:30pm, get into the city, and settle into Le Marais with an easy afternoon that ends at Place des Vosges and a low-key dinner nearby. Nothing here demands sharp focus, which is the point: tomorrow's the Louvre, Tuileries, and Orangerie in one go, so tonight is for resetting your clock, not sightseeing hard.
From CDG, the RER B gets you to central Paris cheaply, but you'll still need a second leg (Métro or a short walk) to reach Le Marais, so budget closer to 70 to 80 minutes door to door if you go that route. A direct taxi or ride-share is simpler with luggage and lands you close to Place des Vosges. Once you're there, everything today is on foot: Place des Vosges to Chez Janou is a 3-minute walk, so there's no need to plan around transit for the rest of the evening.
Le Marais mixes old aristocratic Paris with a dense, walkable grid of narrow streets, so a paper map or offline map on your phone helps more than GPS turn-by-turn. Shops in the neighborhood often close on Saturdays rather than Sundays, a holdover from the area's historically Jewish quarter, worth knowing if you plan to duck into any boutiques later in the trip. Tipping isn't expected the way it is in the US: rounding up a euro or two at a bistro like Chez Janou is plenty, service is already built into the price.
Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG)
95700 Roissy-en-France, France
Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport is France's main international gateway, a sprawling complex of terminals about 16 miles northeast of central Paris, with direct RER B train service into the city.
Place des Vosges
Place des Vosges, 75004 Paris, France
Chez Janou
2 Rue Roger Verlomme, 75003 Paris, France
After yesterday's first stroll through the Marais, today is a museum day, and a full one. The Louvre opens the morning, with three hours enough to see the Denon wing's highlights (the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory, the great French paintings) without walking yourself into the ground trying to cover all 380,000 square feet of gallery space. From there it's a short walk west into the Tuileries, bare-treed and quiet in February, before the afternoon closes with Monet's Water Lilies at the Orangerie. Dinner is back across the river in the Marais, so the day traces a loop: east to west through the museums, then east again for galettes and cider.
Wear real walking shoes. Museum floors are hard and you'll be on your feet for most of six hours even with the seated breaks.
Book the Louvre ticket online before you go, timed entry, about 22 euros as of 2025, and use the Carrousel du Louvre or Porte des Lions entrance rather than the pyramid, where the line can run 30 to 45 minutes on a Friday. If you're buying the Orangerie ticket at the door, get the joint ticket with the Musée d'Orsay there instead, since you're going to the Orsay tomorrow anyway and it saves a few euros.
Arrive at Breizh Café close to 19:30 as planned rather than at 20:00; the wait grows fast once the dinner rush hits.
The Louvre to the Tuileries is a straight 13-minute walk out the museum's west exit, no metro needed. The Tuileries to the Orangerie is another 6 minutes on foot, at the garden's southwest corner near Place de la Concorde. From the Orangerie to Breizh Café in the Marais, take the metro rather than walk (it's about 26 minutes by transit, closer to 40 on foot in February cold). Line 1 from Concorde to Saint-Paul is the simplest route, then it's a five-minute walk to the restaurant.
The Louvre's cafés and lockers are on the lower level near the pyramid; drop bags there if you're carrying anything bulky, since large backpacks aren't allowed near some galleries. In the Tuileries, the hot chocolate kiosks near the central pond are a good excuse to sit for ten minutes rather than power through, and there are metal chairs scattered around the paths if you just want to rest your feet before the Orangerie. Both museums enforce a no-flash photography rule loosely for the Louvre's big-name works but strictly in the Orangerie's Water Lilies rooms, so don't test it. Tipping isn't expected in French museums or cafés beyond rounding up a euro or two at dinner.
Musée du Louvre
Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, France
Jardin des Tuileries
Place de la Concorde, 75001 Paris, France
Musée de l'Orangerie
Jardin des Tuileries, 75001 Paris, France
Breizh Café
109 Rue Vieille du Temple, 75003 Paris, France
Musée d'Orsay
1 Rue de la Légion d'Honneur, 75007 Paris, France
Eiffel Tower
Champ de Mars, 5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007 Paris, France
Trocadéro Gardens
Place du Trocadéro, 75116 Paris, France
Le Totem
17 Place du Trocadéro, 75116 Paris, France
Notre-Dame de Paris
6 Parvis Notre-Dame, Place Jean-Paul II, 75004 Paris, France
Sainte-Chapelle
8 Boulevard du Palais, 75001 Paris, France
Jardin du Luxembourg
75006 Paris, France
Le Petit Pontoise
9 Rue de Pontoise, 75005 Paris, France
After yesterday's Left Bank walk through Notre-Dame and the Luxembourg gardens, today is your last full day in Paris, and it belongs to the hill. Start at Sacré-Cœur, whose white domes look best in the low morning light before the tour groups arrive, then drop into Place du Tertre where painters have set up easels for over a century. Musée de Montmartre follows, the old house where Renoir and Suzanne Valadon both lived and worked, with a garden most visitors walk straight past. The afternoon is left open on purpose: use it to sit somewhere with sore feet or drift down the quieter streets below the basilica before dinner at Le Consulat, the red-faced bistro that's been photographed for decades. Pack tonight too. Tomorrow morning you're on a train from Gare de Lyon toward Basel and Interlaken, so this is the day to finish any souvenir shopping.
Wear shoes with real grip. Montmartre is all slopes and stone steps, and February mornings can leave them wet or icy, which is exactly why the funicular from Place Saint-Pierre is worth the fare over the stairs. Bring a warm layer for the dome viewpoint outside the basilica, it's exposed and windy even when the rest of the city feels mild. No reservation is needed for Sacré-Cœur (entry is free) or Place du Tertre, but consider buying your Musée de Montmartre ticket online, it runs about €15 as of 2025 and the museum is one of the few in Paris open on Mondays. Go to the basilica and the square before 11am if you want photos without a wall of people in them, portrait artists get more insistent as the day fills up. If someone starts sketching you without asking first, walk on, and if you do want a portrait, agree on the price before they pick up a pencil.
Everything from Sacré-Cœur to Place du Tertre to Musée de Montmartre is a two to four minute walk, so there's no need to plan transport between them. The nearest metro is Abbesses on line 12, a short walk to the funicular base at Place Saint-Pierre; a standard t+ ticket or Navigo works for the funicular ride up, no separate fare needed. For the open afternoon, Rue Lepic heads downhill past the old windmills and the Café des Deux Moulins if you want a coffee stop with a bit of film history attached. Le Consulat is a two minute walk from the museum, so there's no rush getting there for 7pm.
Keep bags zipped and in front of you on the basilica steps and inside the funicular car, both are known pickpocket spots given how packed they get. Photography is not allowed inside Sacré-Cœur itself, keep phones down once you're through the doors. The residential streets just below the tourist core are genuinely quiet, a good reminder that people live here year round, so keep voices down after dark.
Sacré-Cœur Basilica
35 Rue du Chevalier de la Barre, 75018 Paris, France
A white basilica on the summit of the Montmartre hill, visible from most of Paris, with a terrace looking south over the whole city.
Place du Tertre
Place du Tertre, 75018 Paris, France
Musée de Montmartre
12 Rue Cortot, 75018 Paris, France
Le Consulat
18 Rue Norvins, 75018 Paris, France
Paris Gare de Lyon
Place Louis Armand, 75012 Paris, France
Basel SBB
Centralbahnplatz 1-10, 4051 Basel, Switzerland
Interlaken Ost
Bahnhofstrasse, 3800 Interlaken, Switzerland
Restaurant Schuh
Höheweg 56, 3800 Interlaken, Switzerland
Check-in - Interlaken
3800 Interlaken, Switzerland
Check-in - Interlaken
3800 Interlaken, Switzerland
Interlaken Ost
Bahnhofstrasse, 3800 Interlaken, Switzerland
Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe
3823 Jungfraujoch, Switzerland
Interlaken Ost
Bahnhofstrasse, 3800 Interlaken, Switzerland
Goldener Anker
Marktgasse 57, 3800 Interlaken, Switzerland
Check-in - Interlaken
3800 Interlaken, Switzerland
Check-in - Interlaken
3800 Interlaken, Switzerland
Lauterbrunnen
3822 Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland
Schilthorn - Piz Gloria
3822 Mürren, Switzerland
Mürren
3825 Mürren, Switzerland
El Azteca
Postgasse 5, 3800 Interlaken, Switzerland
Check-in - Interlaken
3800 Interlaken, Switzerland
Check-in - Interlaken
3800 Interlaken, Switzerland
Unterseen
Unterseen, 3800 Interlaken, Switzerland
Höheweg promenade and Kursaal Interlaken
Strandbadstrasse 44, 3800 Interlaken, Switzerland
Lake Thun shore at Neuhaus
Neuhaus, 3800 Unterseen, Switzerland
Restaurant Bären
Seestrasse 2, 3800 Unterseen, Switzerland
Check-in - Interlaken
3800 Interlaken, Switzerland
Interlaken Ost
Bahnhofstrasse, 3800 Interlaken, Switzerland
Zurich Airport (ZRH)
Postfach, 8058 Zurich, Switzerland
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