Ahhh Paris!! What a dreamy, beautiful city with it’s grand and dignified streets, awe-inspiring bridges, and delicious crepes!! It’s a sight for all the senses to delight in. It can also be overwhelming when there is so much to take in. We have captured 3 days of magic to help you set up your trip, as well as a small wish list of items in case you have more time than we did when you visit.

*Everywhere we went, we walked or used the metro to get around, except when we took an Uber to the airport (which was more out of convenience with our luggage).

Let’s get into it! Bon voyage!!

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How to Spend 3 Magical Days in Paris, France:

Day 1

Our first day in Paris, we wanted to get a big overview of the city . We ended up getting tickets to the Big Red Bus Tour (hop on hop off)- that ended up being awesome. We had a hard time finding the first stop (that seemed to be the theme of our Europe trip- getting lost!). But once we found it, it was great.

I loved learning about the different parts of the city. There’s the fancy part: the intimidating and showy Avenue de Champs Elysees where all the fashion and outward looks and money are super important. Everything was really big and shiny bright. And then there’s another part of the city, the Latin Quarter, where creativity, art, culture, and education are more important. I really identified with the Latin Quarter. I loved the artists selling their work on the sidewalks, musicians playing on the bridge, the prices were lower and if felt like a more family/social side of town.

Got off the Big Red Bus at the Eiffel Tower and walked around the grounds and took pictures. I think the thing that shocked me most about the Eiffel was its color! I always thought it was black or a dark brown from the pictures and movies I’d seen of it. I’d never thought much about it before until we were in person. It is such a lovely bronzish/gold color. Truly beautiful!!

Little tip: If you need a little rest stop, there is a little public bathroom on the outside of the grounds of the tower.

We hopped back on the bus and rode to the Latin Quarter to see Notre Dame. I wish we could’ve gone inside Notre Dame, the outside was magnificent! The inside was still being repaired from the fire several years ago. We did a bit of souvenir shopping and got some tasty crepes. When you go to Paris, you must stop at a crepe stand at least once a day!! How fun would it be to have your own crepe making stone??

The Latin Quarter is our favorite place to find food!! We loved it so much, we ran over there just for lunch on our second day to grab some things that caught our eye the day before. There are lots of restaurants and stands with reasonable prices. We especially loved the gyros and the crepes.

We were so excited to take a Seine River Cruise just before sunset. The bridges in Paris are all very unique and ornate. It was awesome and such a great way to see all the beautiful bridges in the city. Super romantic!! Every bridge has it’s own story and the river is magical how it runs throughout Paris.

We grabbed our river cruise tickets (Bateaux Mouches: Seine River Sightseeing Cruise With Live Commentary) through Headout. This website saved us on this trip!! They had the best deals and were the easiest for us to navigate as Americans. Once we bought a ticket for something, they would send us a coupon code to get a discount on other tickets, which worked out so great since we were buying tickets for lots of different places and activities.

Just after dark we made our way to Montmartre to hike the steps up to the The Sacré-Coeur Basilica. At the top is the most gorgeous view of Paris looking out over the city. But just a word of warning, there are NO bathrooms at the top- ahhh!!! That ended up being a big problem for us and were weren’t able to enjoy the view very well or for very long. Make sure you use the restroom before so you can soak in every minute of the incredible sights!

For dinner, we took the metro to the most delicious restaurant called The Cafe de L’ Empire. It’s near the Latin Quarter, the Louvre and Musee d‘Orsay. The roasted chicken and mashed potatoes was the most delicious dinner we had in Paris. I’m dreaming of it now!!

Quick Sum Up of Day 1:

Big Red Bus Tour of the City - riding along the Champs Elysees & Arc d’ Triumph

Eiffel Tower - just walking the grounds
Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter
Seine River Cruise
Montmartre- hiked the steps up to the The Sacré-Coeur Basilica
Dinner at The Cafe de L’ Empire

Day 2

The morning was a bit stressful as we were trying to get to church. We arrived at what we thought was church and there was a sign that said it was closed until the next week (Church of Jesus Christ meeting house locator). We thought that was weird, and there was another American couple there also looking for church.

Luckily, an English speaking local walked by and asked if we were looking for the Church of Jesus Christ sacrament meeting. YES!! We were just around the corner from the meeting, but the church just looked like every other Parisian building, so we missed it. We had been standing at a visitors center.

I loved going to that church service. We used the translation head phones and the meeting was so powerful to me. I love how the church is the same around the world. I loved hearing their prayers for Ukraine (it was crazy traveling in Europe when war was just breaking out), and seeing their collection table of donations of all kinds for the people of Ukraine. After church, we took the metro back to the Latin Quarter and grabbed some gyros for lunch. We ate as we walked to the Louvre.

As we crossed the bridge to the Louvre, we enjoyed walking past beautiful works of art on the sidewalks by local artists. We also loved hearing talented street performers playing live music.

The Louvre was a lot larger than I ever imagined! It was very similar to a lot of the art we saw in Rome and London. But I am very glad we went, and there were definitely some big highlights: The Mona Lisa, The Winged Victory of Samothrace, and just the decor of the palace was mind boggling. The architecture, the walls and the ceilings were ornate and unbelievably intricate.

The Louve is so gigantic, we were looking for a tour that would hit the most famous parts and then we could wander about on our own after that. We found some great audio tours by Rick Steves. The app is free and has tours covering many cities in Europe. We even listened to some of his old radio episodes about before our trip to Paris to make sure we better understood the culture and some of the places we wanted to make sure to hit on our trip. My biggest suggestion here, is to download the tour to your device before you get there incase your cell service isn’t good enough to get the audio running properly.

We went back to the Champs Elysees for a bit of shopping (our airbnb was very close) then rested a bit. As you look at our itinerary, you can see we didn’t rest very much. We move at a fairly fast pace.

We ate dinner at a little restaurant by the Eiffel Tower for dinner: Cafe le Dome. I had a lovely Croque Madam sandwich with a little green side salad with vinaigrette. It was simple and within view of the tower.

We took a tour of the Eiffel Tower (once again Headout had the best rates!!) all the way to the top. The most coveted time to go up the tower is sunset, so if you want that experience, you want to book way in advance. We booked just a few days before we went, and ended up being there just after sundown. It was still AMAZING! We loved looking out over the city when it was all lit up at night.

We grabbed some Nutella crepes on our way back to the metro from a crepe stand by the tower. It was a magical and full day!!

Quick Sum Up of Day 2

Worshipping at church
Latin Quarter for Lunch
Louvre
Champs Elysees shopping
Eiffel Tower

Day 3

We were super sad Versailles was closed while were were in town (we also missed the Paris Temple) due to an EU Meeting for the weekend (the Ukraine had been invaded by Russia just a week before we flew to Europe). Because of this, we had to alter our plans. We learned that flexibility on this trip is a must!!

We decided to head to Disneyland Paris and we were so glad we did!!! Once again, Headout saved the day with the cheapest rates. While we were there, the crowds were so low, we didn’t need to add on any extra passes that would move us more quickly through the lines.

Compared with the eats in Disneyland California, the food was nothing to talk about, which really surprised us for Paris! We brought sandwiches in for lunch and were so glad we did. The food aside, the park was absolutely charming!! The gardens were gorgeous and the architecture was lovely. It was very fun to see Disney in the French style.

After our long day at the park, we were starving for dinner, and it was late by the time we got back into the city for dinner. Luckily the Champs Elysees is open really late. We went to grab a bite at Five Guys. Not my first choice when eating in Paris, but it fed us!

After eating, we walked just a bit down the street to see the Arc d’ Triumph lit up at night. It was gorgeous!!

Quick Sum up of Day 3:

Disneyland Paris
Champs Elysees & Arc d’ Triumph at night

If you have more than 3 days:

I would highly recommend taking a day trip to Beauvais, just over an hour outside of Paris. Check out this post below for some amazing things to see and do in Beauvais: