This really isn't a must see but is something I like to do (although I've only been to Paris twice my dream is to go and spend a month). I like to walk along the Seine and then just take little side roads off of it and just meander and to look at the architecture. I also like to stop at little cafes buy a coffee and people watch.

Have fun.

If it were me, I'd find a flea market.

Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac is a couple of blocks from Tour Eiffel, and it is very interesting, with indigenous art and cultural artifacts from Africa, Oceana, the Americas, and Asia. They also have different expositions, when I was there last year it was Picasso in Africa.

The flower market near Notre Dame is lovely.

Popular, but my two favorite museums are Musée Rodin (and the lovely rose gardens) and Musée de l'Orangerie (two rooms of Monet's Water Lilies).

A restaurant recommendation is Firmin le Barbier, 3 blocks from Tour Eiffel. Chef Alex and his wife Gigi are terrific, and the food is excellent.

I'll see it in my dreams. I've never flown in an airplane and never will. I will never visit a place If I can't drive to it or take a bus or train. LOL

Thank you!! All of the suggestions sound like things I would do. Love walking and just ambling, flea markets are the best (I'm wearing the earrings I bought at a flea market in Croatia, lol) and the museums and restaurant suggestions are perfect. Exactly the kind of "insider info" I was looking for.

Enjoy!

My son and his wife are going for a long weekend in late October a followup to a visit last summer.

They are staying near Rue Cler which is one of the most famous market streets.

He recommends that you sign up for the Bonjour Paris newsletter.

I've been there a few dozen times, it's my favorite city.

Where to start? Maybe with this - it would be a shame and a huge mistake to not go to the major places that make Paris, Paris.

Where? The Louvre, The Musee d'Orsay, Versailles, Ste Chappelle, ND (as you said), l'Arc de Triomphe, Ile St Louis (near ND), Montmartre, Musee Picasso, Musee Rodin, l'Orangerie and on and on. I go to these places over and over again. Like a good song, once isn't enough. Many things are close together - when at the Louvre, walk to the Orangerie, see the Place de la Concorde and the eastern end of the Champs Elysee. The Musee d'Orsay is just across the river from there.

Sit in a cafe and watch the people go by. Use the Metro to get around, buy a "carnet" (pronounced car-nay), 10 single use tickets at a reduced price. Take a half day bus tour or a Hop on Hop Off - that's sometime I ALWAYS do in a new city to get a quick and inexpensive first glimpse of what's around, before deciding on a plan of attack. Take a nighttime bike tour of the center, one I've done includes a River Seine boat trip

You want offbeat? Try the Pere Lachaise cemetery and see the final resting places of important and notorious people from history, including Jim Morrison of the Doors. Or the Musee des Egouts de Paris, the sewer museum. Right in the middle of town, by one of the Seine bridges (forget which one). Very interesting, can't think of anything more offbeat that that.

Get a guidebooks from Amazon or in your library (check out one to take with you physically or an E-book on a Kindle?). Or Trip Advisor has good touristic data, but I view its info the same as restaurant ratings on Yelp - as an indication but taken with a bit of skepticism.

What to expect from the locals? You're in the French New York, not the French Omaha. Most people are very nice but they can also be a bit harried and harassed from the hassles of a huge city. If you get a brush off, that's why. I speak French well so I rarely experience that but Paris is overrun with tourists all year and some locals have lost patience with that, it's understandable.

Have a great trip.

*I* would return to Fouquet's for dinner -- and pretend nothing has changed since my honeymoon. It's a version of Paris we 'know' from watching American movies about Paris. I wonder if Parisians dine there? LOL

chisue, there are many hundred places like that in Paris, and most in more interesting locations (for a restaurant) than on the Champs Elysee. And hundreds (thousands?) of great restaurants, both those known and those less known.

Ah, but The American in Paris *wants* to dine on the famous Champs Elysee, don't you know? It was 53 years ago, and our hotel was practically across the street.

Thank you so much for the tips and hints! We are staying in Montparnasse, which is close to Le Jardin du Luxembourg, the tower of Montparnasse, Rodin museum, catacombs, La Fondation Cartier. We are near Rue Daguerre, which the apartment owner says is a bustling car-free market that is quite popular. Between an apartment on the 4th floor (no elevator) and all the walking we are doing I'm expecting to NOT gain weight on this vacation, ha ha.

We will probably use public transportation, but is Uber or Lyft available in Paris? We need a ride from the airport to our apartment.

The Montparnasse area isn't that close to the central area, too far to conveniently walk, but it's easy enough to get there once you get settled.

Montparnasse is on the far side of Paris from de Gaulle airport, meaning the trip involves the traffic of going through town or partially around the ring road. If arriving during daytime hours, I myself would avoid a taxi unless someone else is paying for it. The RER (regional train line, like the Metro but with fewer stops) has multiple lines and a station at the airport and many throughout the city and is fast, unaffected by traffic, and moderately priced. If you're reasonably mobile and don't have a lot of luggage, you should be able to easily get to where you're going through a combo of RER and Metro or RER and taxi/Uber. When I take the RER into town and want to avoid Metro, I typically get off a station or two too soon to leave the taxi driver a reasonable trip.

Edit to add:

There's also regular bus service to/from the airport. It used to be called the Air France bus but it's now called Le Bus Direct. Look it up, frequent and reasonably priced service in comfortable buses to major locations, from which you could take a short cab/uber ride to your final destination.

Make sure you go to the catacombs early. I think they close the line at 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon, can't remember. Took my kids and one of my son's friends in 2009 and guess who didn't get up and ready early enough? I kept knocking on their door and when they finally answered and slowly got ready. We made it in the line only to be told it was too late. I knew the cut off time too and thought we might barely make it.

Aw chisue, Paris 53 years ago with your sweetheart must have been heavenly.- The world became much smaller and more homogeneous in the intervening years.

We're going in November, for the third time - and unless something major happens while we're there, it will likely be my last time. I just haven't found anything to "love" about the place yet.

This time we're doing the Catacombs, Versailles, Notre Dame, and returning to the Louvre (it's immense and we want more time to explore). We're staying in the Latin Quarter, and I have a lot of stores, churches, museums, and restaurants on our itinerary.

On past visits, we've done the Champs-Élysées, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, and the Louvre, and we've done the "neighborhood roaming" and "eating like locals." Old cemeteries fascinate us, so we've wandered through many - which does take a LOT of time. We use the Metro, too.

Anyway. It's far from my favorite city, but my husband loves it, so I'm trying it again. Right now, of all the "world cities" I've visited, it's second-from-bottom (only ahead of Chicago).

Would you list your favorite cities? Just curious.

Paris is a great town - my favorite in Europe! On Sundays - there's a Bird Market right near the Ile de la Cité Metro - take the opportunity to admire the Art Nouveau entrance to the Metro.

I agree with Elmer - most of the locals there are very nice, I would advise you to take the time to learn a few phrases in French if you are not a speaker. Hello , goodbye, please and thank you in French will be appreciated, don't expect everyone to speak English.

sleeperblues, this is a great time to go, as it will not be as crowded. In addition to what was suggested, try the Musee de la Patrimonie, which is in Trocodero, up the hill from the Eiffel Tower. It has replicas of building facades from the late 19th C. We spend most of a day there, but we are the type who read all of the info provided in a museum. Have fun!

I skimmed through this quickly and didn't see this. If t was already mentioned, I apologize for not reading carefully. Anyway, the view of Paris from the top of the steps in front of this church is fantastic. http://www.sacre-coeur-montmartre.com/english/

Don't miss the main spots in Paris - they are so integral to what makes it Paris! At night, eat at restaurants in your neighborhood, within walking distance. The Metro doesn't run very late, Parisians eat quite late, and cabs are VERY expensive and hard to get - one does not just hail a cab in Paris.

Just be sure to follow your firs French class when greeting people: Bonjour, Madame! Comment alley vous? They will then ask you how you are and you'll reply "Tres bien, merci" You can then follow with "Je ne parle pas francais". The worst thing you can do at a bakery etc is to just walk up to the counter and say "Trois croissants". You will then be treated as a rude American and totally ignored.

Anglo, so is uber a better way to go than taxis? I would assume so, if you can order a car on your app. Thanks for the remedial French class, brings it back from high school, lol. Oui? I was so proud of myself when we were in Strasbourg and I could ask where there was a bathroom, ha ha.

We just used the Metro during the day, and ate at neighborhood restaurants at night. That's what most Parisians do - they pretty much stay in their own neighborhoods. I'm OLD so Uber is not on my radar!

The Metro runs past midnight 7 days a week and even a bit later on Fridays and Saturdays. Trains are less frequent in off-peak times as with any transportation system.

Some locations are easier to get to than others. Having a place to stay on a line that requires only a short ride and few or no transfers to get to main destinations is a bonus many don't learn to arrange for until after experiencing a few visits with a lot of unnecessarily long transfer walks and too-lengthy trips .

Uber is great in Paris.

John also mentioned that he like the Rick Steves' forums,

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france

To build on Anglo's comment, if you enter a shop, bakery, etc. that is not crowded, it is customary to say hello and good bye or thank you to the shop keeper. Europeans are much more polite than we are here in the states.

Curious Traveler on PBS just aired an interesting episode on Paris.

http://www.pbs.org/show/curious-traveler/

sherwoodva, having lived in that environment for several years, let me offer a slightly different spin on what you've said.

It's true that when entering a shop, unless it's uncomfortably crowded, one will hear (if a couple) Bonjour Monsieur-Dame. Hello sir and madam. In a restaurant, it's usually a simple Bonjour. It's not that that the speaker wants to be friendly or polite, because like anything else they sometimes couldn't give two sh*ts about you, but it's that the FAILURE to do so would be viewed as rude and arrogant and lacking in respect for a customer the business appreciates having. Depending on where (country) and when, the cordiality may be followed by terrific or indifferent attitudes and service, but at least the experience begins with a perfunctory cordiality. In other languages, it's more often just their version of hello without the honorific.

In return, the entering customer should always say Bonjour or its equivalent if in other countries. If unsure, say Hello.