italy with a side trip to paris?

Do Museu d Orsay
Take a bateau mousse boat trip
Use a day at Chrartres
Gare Monparnasse
St Chapelle or St Julien le Pouvre

As a rule of thumb, I would never take advice from people who can't spell the place they are recommending correctly. It's a clear sign of incomplete knowledge.

Some people apply the same rule to those who show no manners. It's clear sign of something else.

You never pass up an opportunity to try and put somebody else down, do you? Excuse me if I stop taking any notice of you - you make the forum a worse place.

I agree with 18. It's a bad taste to comment someone elses spelling of places in a international forum.
Not everyone speaks all languages perfectly and therefore knows firsthand the right spelling of
the places and not everyone is a walking guide book or has the time to look up the right spelling.

It's not a "french grammar forum", but a travel forum.

Yes, capttim missed some letters or misplaced it, but that's no reason to say "that's incomplete knowledge"
because I think that capttim wrote only about places he knows and has firsthand experience.

Well, to me it indicates Capttim did not pay a lot of attention to where exactly he/she went. If you have good knowledge about a subject, I think you would know how to write its name. If you can't write its name properly, that is a sign that your knowledge is very superficial, and that your advice is not based on great familiarity with the subject at hand.

Honestly, this has nothing to do with 'French grammar' (apart from the fact that names aren't grammar). I'm not in the habit of correcting grammar- especially that of non-native speakers like myself. It is just is a conclusion i've come to after years on this forum.

As far as manners are concerned- I'd prefer factual, useful information presented in a no-nonsense way, whereas others seem to be OK with being told sheer unrealistic rubbish, as long as it's friendly and supportive. ('Your trip of 15 countries in 12 days sounds amazing! Go for it!') Each to their own.
When feelings become more important than issues.

Excuse moi...bamboo

Oui

Sometimes I make a spelling mistake in seven language ..even English ...more this IOS changes the word without me noticing!

But after 60 yrs en France the facts are very good..

Go rain on someone else's picnic

Auf wiedersein

Actually great trains from Milan to Paris are reasonable....with great views of Alps, and opportunities to meet people and chat.
i
The Man in Seat 61 website gives options ..3 fast TGV daily at 29 euros daily, or overnight sleeper at 39'euros..

And a video of the journey

Best Europe rail info

Cheers

Thanks everyone for your responses :)

@capttim-do you recommend going to Versailles also?

any more ideas for places to see or things to do, or should I start another thread?

Is the moulin rouge a tourist trap?

Is the moulin rouge a tourist trap?

Yes it is. Unless you want to drink outrageously expensive champagne watching topless girls dancing, I would avoid it.

Erica
Suggest u do a fewer places...leisurely

Get the feel and flow of Paris ...
The list I suggested....even if misspelled by my iPad ....is a good trip

Fat Tire bike tour included a sunset boat ride..very kool

First museum should be Museum of the Middle Ages / Roman n basement
Marvelous artifacts and interior architecture....linger with Cluny tapestries
Rescued by Georges Sand

If you bought your two day museum pass there...then do Sainte Chapelle after lunch,
Then Abbey bookstore...say hi to Brian
Next day d Orsay at 930 before crowds...start Upstairs first

After lunch walk across the Seine to l Orangerie....Waterlillies upstairs...Cezanne and more downstairs

Next day treat yourself to medieval town and France's best cathedral at Chartres...only hour ride from Gare Montparnase..

Forget hectic tourist jammed Momartre, Louvre...nightclubs
Walk the seine w wine and baguette ..

Watch for pickpockets at Eiffel tour and Notre Dame...go to tower at night for light show
Nip around Notre dame area...little restaurants etc

Helpful

As other have said.....relax and have fun

Visited for half a century, lived there, and still more to do

Best

I'm sure Capttim's heart is in the right place--even if his fingers aren't.

However, to truly optimize your visit, I suggest buying a guidebook and determining your own personal, subjective set of "must-see" sights. There's certainly some overlap between some of my favorites things to do and see in Paris and Capttim's list--but it's far from a perfect match. Yours wouldn't perfectly align with either list--or perhaps anyone else's list.

I have yet to buy a guidebook that didn't pay for itself in terms of the time, money and effort it saved me. And for me, there's always been a big enough difference between the good/great time I would have had in a destination without a guidebook, and the optimal time the details in a guidebook helped me to craft to my specific, oddball tastes.

I'd also note that you're under no obligation to visit any of the most famous sights if they hold little appeal for you even if other people expect any visit to Paris to include them. Especially if they involve waiting in long lines and/or running a gauntlet of would-be pickpockets.

My own list of favourites would include The Cluny, Musee D'Orsay, The Rodin Museum, The Musee Carnivalet (for a quick, painless overview of Parisian history), maybe Pere Lachaise cemetery. And whatever it's drawbacks, I wouldn't outright dismiss The Louvre. Then again, I'm an art maven and if you're not, you might give it a miss.

Finally, if you're going out of your way and spending all this extra time and money to visit Paris, I'm not sure a day trip out of Paris is the best use of your time. Even with 6 days, there's plenty in town to keep you occupied. Especially if want to spend a morning or two just wandering around various neighborhoods (the Marias, Latin Quarter, etc).