One of my absolute favourite museums in Paris is the Musee Nissim de Camondo. We also enjoyed a free Sunday visit to the Museum of the 30s in Boulogne Billancourt--some great work and we were practically the only ones there. And another time we literally stumbled on a great (free) photo exhibit at the Swedish Institute in the Marais.

Another museum that most people don't visit on first time trips is the architecture museum at Trocadero- the Cité de l'architecture & du patrimoine

Aside from a wonder collection they also have a stunning view over the Eiffel Tower

https://www.citedelarchitecture.fr/fr

Happytvlr beat me to the suggestions I was going to make. We enjoyed taking some of the walks with Paris Walks.

We also loved our food tour from Paris by Mouth.

You guys! So many wonderful suggestions! I really appreciate it so much!

I've started a Google spreadsheet so that I can track everything.

I'm going through each of your comments piece by piece and adding the suggestions to it. I've colour coded the arrondissements for each suggestion so that I can see where we can combine activities/meals/etc.

I'm having way too much fun researching each item and filling it out.

Thanks so much, and keep 'em coming!

Maybe you could find a way to post your spreadsheet for general use here!

The view from the Tour Montparnasse is vastly superior, and from there you can actually see the Tour Eiffel without tripping over all the visitors jamming the second and top floors.

Are you talking about the view from the the Cité de l'architecture?* Every time I have been there it has been empty and it has the same view as from Trocadero so pretty nice.

*

Ummm, not sure. I take the elevator to the top of the Tour Montparnasse and walk out to the scrabbly gravillon-ed "yard" - it's not a pretty spot but you have a sort of yard all around you and have a fabulous view of Paris.

AJPeabody I would love to share my spreadsheet... let me see if I can figure out how to do it without sharing any private details.

menachem Thanks for tipping me off about messynessy... what a great blog!

Glad you like it. It's always nice to have at least 1 weird location. Like a mini expedition. Taking the Tram for instance. Or the "Hemingway in Paris". But wander a bit and go slow. You'll have time for that. That's where the memories are. Last time we went, we wanted to go to something very avant garde at Palais de Tokyo. Something highly conceptual, with electronic soundscapes, whatever. Anyway, we were walking there, and a few blocks away, we thought, ah, no, not worth it, and instead we crossed the Seine to Bvd St Germain and had lunch there at a brasserie. One of the best lunches ever. Now and then, we still say: remember that lunch in Paris? That was the one.

That's what wandering does for you.

• There are many farmers markets around town, you can look up the schedules and maybe pick an day to visit one. The book "Paris in a Basket : Markets - The Food And The People" has pictures and descriptions
• We have done several of the walks in the set "City Walks: Paris: 50 Adventures on Foot" which is a set of 50 walks on 4x6 cards
• The "Paris Walks" company offers many guided walks, have enjoyed all the ones we've done
• A book with ideas for short trips is "An Hour from Paris"
• The Basilica St Denis is the burying place for the French Monarchy and is just a few miles outside Paris, easily reachable by public transit (see https://www.introducingparis.com/basilica-saint-denis)

Unless the very few farmers' markets are especially noted, the open markets miket123 refers to all get their supplies from warehouses at Paris' central market at Rungis. Quality differs but none of these markets purchases directly from farms and can thus not be called farmers' markets.

The "real" farmer's market I deal with, takes my order on the web and delivers my order from Picardy to one of three locations in Paris. You might enjoy the web site. This is pretty typical for the way a farmer's market operates.

https://www.kelbongoo.com/