On a Sunday, take a walk down Rue Mouffetard (starting at Place Contrascarpe). Mouffetard is a lively neighborhood market street. At it's terminus you will find a group of singers, accordian players & dancers enjoying typical French chansons. Everyone joins in in the singing. I took the walk for the first time on my November visit and had a lovely time.

Great idea Micheline. We stumbled on this one time and really enjoyed watching the wedding parties. As you said - some wonderful outfits. Was surprised at how many guests wore white or off-white.

Maybe take a train to Rouen, visit the cathedral, eat lunch at Pascaline (sp?) Also, my parents were definitely francophiles and I remember taking the metro to the furthest stop in each direction, and then exploring that area. It was lots of fun, and felt sort of adventurous to me as a teen!

for the second time in as many weeks, I'll chime in with Chateau Vincennes. Easy metro/RER ride. Impressive chateau and keep/castle, with (now dry) moats. Not sure why it doesn't rank higher, but that is a testament to how many great sites there are in Paris.

We also loved the Guimet (Asian arts museum). In addition to its Chinese and Japanese collections, it has a good Korean art collection - Korean art often gets overlooked.
http://www.guimet.fr/fr/

Small but interesting is the Curie museum in the Institut Curie. Currently closed but it should be open by the time you arrive:
http://curie.fr/en/Curie-museum

Bitter, I've had that on my list. Can you give a small description? There is a chateaum, there is park...

The Pantheon(very interesting)
Opera Garnier(tour is fabulous)
Canal St. Martin(only on a beautiful day)
Vaux-le-Vicomte( a short train ride away)
Marmottan(definitely worth it)
Pompidou(great views from the top)
Musee Delacroix(small & delightful)

The Château de Vincennes:

http://en.chateau-vincennes.fr/

I ride my bike past there all the time and if you go there you may as well pay a visit to the botanical gardens next door, the Parc Floral:

http://www.parcfloraldeparis.com/parc_floral.html

Then walk just up the street and go for a walk around the lovely Lac Daumesnil in the Bois de Vincennes. Rent a boat and row around the lake a bit:

http://www.paris.fr/loisirs/paris-au...incennes/p6566

If you've got energy walk back to Paris on the Promenade Plantée, which starts very close to Lac Daumesnil.

A nice pedestrian street is:

Rue Daguerre
75014 Paris, France
maps.google.com

If memory serves, there is a large bus/metro hub nearby.

Agree about Pompidou Centre. And it has a nice rooftop resto. Have you gotten to the Luxembourg Museum? Check online for it's opening days and making advance reservations.

We "lived" on Rue du Cherche Midi one time and loved the resto, Petit Verdot, and that entire area for walking, eating and window shopping.

Sighing for Paris....

Fiannly made it to the Branley last trip and it was more than worth the time.The island exhibits are fascinating , how they made these things with minimal materials etc blows the mind. It is huge ao allow plenty of time. The D'Orsay is now open after it's renovations and is really imprived IMO.

This is a fantastic list - thank you to everyone who has contributed. Some of the posts reminded me of places I'd been before (Napoleon's tomb, parc monceau, les passages, etc.) and some I'd wondered about (Canal St. Martin, Cluny, Marmottan, Branly). The Resistance museum and the Curie museum both sound interesting too. And now I have to keep my excitement in check for 3 months! Thanks again!

Bird/Flower market on Ile de la Cite
Classical music concert at small left Bank church
Candlelit concert at Sainte Chapelle
Amerino versus Berthillon ice cream
Museum under parking lot at Notre Dame
Taking the Seine water taxi
Catacombs
Paris Plage (summer only)
Jardin des Plantes/Natural History Museum
Renoir visit:
http://www.musee-fournaise.com/fourn...s/mf010201.asp

Auvers-sur-oise (Van Gogh)
Giverny (Monet)

If you took Michel Paris's advice re: Les Arenes de Lutece, you could easily combine that with a literary walk, and end up as Dee Dee suggested, taking a walk down Rue Mouffetard (starting at Place Contrascarpe). You'll find the residences between Les Arenes and Mouffetard of such notables as James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway along Cardinal Lemoine. Down the street from there is where Rimbaux lived, but I was never able to actually find that. The Cafe that Hemingway described in A Moveable Feast -- at Place Contrascarpe -- is no longer there, but that little square has a couple of pretty cool cafes to stop for a quick drink. All located in the 5th.

Or, if you really love Caillebotte, I created a Caillebotte walking tour that takes you to his home along rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis, the place in the 8th where he painted Paris Street Rainy Day, and the Le pont de l'Europe. Or his tomb at Pere Lachaise. Aside from the Musee d'Orsay, which houses what might be called his most famous painting, the Floorscapers, as well as a few others (his self-portrait I think has been removed for a while -- perhaps it was because the painting was slipping from the frame!), the Marmottan also has one of his paintings, as well as a sketch of Paris Street Rainy Day.

FMT - I love the idea of going out to the Bois de Vincennes & then walking back to Paris. That would be a lovely way to spend a day. So many good ideas!

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<i>I love the idea of going out to the Bois de Vincennes & then walking back to Paris.</i>

Following the footsteps of Rousseau who visited Diderot when the latter was under arrest in Vincennes.

Michel: the link FMT provided is good.

My impressions/experience: The outside walls are imposing and are surrounded by a moat (now dry). You walk into an open area and there is a beautiful chapel (unfortunately closed when we were there) and the Keep or castle. It too was surrounded by a moat.
There appears to have once been a drawbridge at the walls and the castle. That's fairybook stuff to me, so I thought it was very cool.
You can tour the castle, which is pretty empty but in good shape and has some neat details. One room, at the time of my visited, used technology to show what it would have looked like when in use.
There is a gift shop within the walls.
I liked this better than Versailles, but I'm sure I'm in the minority on that.

I think the roses may be in bloom at Malmaison. And I second Vaux Le Vicomte. Not to be missed. Les Andelys and Rouen also makes a fabulous day trip.

Great thread! I'll find this very useful when I'm in Paris for a few months and will have the time to seek out the lesser-known sights. Thank you!

Bookmarking =)

Fantastic list --- well worth studying for our next (4th) trip to Paris! Thanks to all who have contributed!