Tourists from all over the world queue up outside Paris museums and monuments, but the worst lines are at the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. You can avoid many a wait with the right pass—there’s the Paris Museum Pass, which provides entry to 60 museums over a two-, four-, or six-day period, and the pricier Paris Pass, which admits you to additional tourist attractions—but these make financial sense only if you’re planning to blitz at least two or three museums per day for at least two days in a row. Neither made sense for my family on our trip to Paris this past April: We wanted to visit museums only when it was raining, and of course we couldn't predict when rain would hit. Nor did it make sense to reserve—and prepay for—entry to the Eiffel Tower, since that would mean committing to a date and time: We wanted to ascend the Tower only when it wasn't raining and visibility was good, and of course we couldn't predict that either.
So I had to find other ways to avoid the lines. The kids were too jet lagged for us to arrive at sites early in the morning (my usual tactic for minimizing wait times), so here’s what we did:
When we arrived at the Pyramid that is the main entrance to the Louvre—on a Wednesday at 1 p.m.—the wait was more than an hour long.
So we walked three minutes away to a side door called the Porte des Lions, where there was no line at all.
As for the Eiffel Tower, we arrived on a Thursday at 10:30 a.m. The line at the elevator was 2 hours long. …there was no line to take the stairs to the second floor, then the elevator from there to the top. (You can’t ascend the stairs beyond the second floor.) So we bought tickets to walk the 670 steps to the second floor, then ride the elevator.
Contributed by Wendy Perrin, www.cntraveler.com
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