To not know what to do with half a day in Paris this week

[HippyKayYay]

Shamlessly posting here for traffic. I'm in Paris for work later this week and have half a day free on the day I come home. What shall I do? I've been to Paris plenty of times before, so have seen all the 'sights'. I like art, galleries, museums, wandering, sitting in cafes...

I'm staying/working in Saint-Denis (north of the city) and travelling out of Gare du Nord.

When I found myself in a similar position, I just cafe hopped with my book - post lunch espresso in one, aperitif in the next, glass of wine in the third. Blissful way to spend the day! Presuming you don’t have a huge suitcase, of course.

Have you visited the Musee Jacquemart-Andre on Boulevard Haussmann? It's beautiful and not far from Gare du Nord. https://www.musee-jacquemart-andre.com/en

sounds like my ideal day! I will have a small case with me, but I'll try to leave it at the hotel as it's only 20 mins to Gard du Nord. Probably better than carting it around with me all day

I have not. Thanks for the recommendation

The 150 year impressionists exhibition at the Musée D’Orsay is very good if you are there in time. Otherwise I would go with the cafe sitting and a random small gallery - muse de La vie romantique is another one to try and

Go for a walk along the canal (near Gare du Nord) and for a drink at hôtel d'Amour before your train.

You could also walk down to La Gaîté Lyrique and have a snoop around what's going on there.

Or go the cinema and see a film, if your French is ok? Everyone is hyping about Un Petit Truc En Plus but there are some other films out at the moment that look decent (one with Alex Lutz about a stolen painting, for example).

Père Lachaise cemetery. I spent about six hours there on a gloriously sunny afternoon, communing with, among others, Chopin, Rossini, Molière, Bugatti, Piaf, Heloise and Abelard, Pissarro, Jean de Brunhoff, Bizet, Proust, Champollion, de Lesseps, Lyotard, Poulenc, Coro, Isadora Duncan, Oscar Wilde, Olivia de Havilland…

Maybe you have done it already but, if not, Sainte Chapelle is the perfect short visit and, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.

I'd find the nearest cafe with a view, eat as many crepes as I could stomach, drink wine and read.

Yes this, I love Père Lachaise - a cemetery (and also crematorium) deliberately built for denizens of Paris to go and have a picnic with the dearly departed. If the weather is crap I would head to the catacombs.

Canal St Martin is very much one of the hip new neighbourhoods in Paris. Weather coooerating, this would be a nice couple of hours stroll walking distance from Gare du Nord.

Just go to the Louvre and look at the Vermeers 🙂

Musee de La chasse in Le marais. Like nothing you have seen before!

Oh, I agree! It was like standing inside a jewellery case.

Yes, Sainte-Chapelle is lovely, and you can walk down from Gare du Nord (better without luggage).

If you are not eating with work, just be aware that there's not much (that's nice/not touristy) to eat around Sainte-Chapelle; you could go to rue Montorgueil or somewhere else around Étienne Marcel en route (Marché des enfants rouges if you can bear a crowd).

Have you been to the Fondation Louis Vitton? It's got some great collections and the building is pretty extraordinary.

Go up the Montparnasse Tower. It's got an incredible view of Paris.

Great suggestions, thanks!

Best kept secret!

The LVMH Foundation is lovely, but a slight arse to get to, it's a good walk from the métro (line 1 so from Gare du Nord you'll take the 4 or RER B or D to Chatelet which surprisingly Emily in Paris has never done... 🤣) and the fastest route is through the bois de Boulogne so be prepared to see prostitutes (fine) and their punters (not fine) or take the longer route around the outside. Or you can hope to get the electric navette from Étoile, the stops on avenue MacMahon.

One of the 2 main expos. at FLV at the moment is on Matisse and you can actually see Matisses for free at the musée d'art moderne near Trocadéro as well as some other lovely stuff. Huge and beautiful building, it's next to métro Iéna or Trocadéro and on quite a few bus routes too, so closer and easier from Gare du Nord.

That said, FLV is lovely as the pp said, and you can usually walk around the jardin d'acclimatation too (sometimes it's closed for private events) but be aware that on Wednesdays in June it will be full of little kids.

Eat before/after you go to FLV, in another area, as there is only a mediocre, pricey restaurant that doesn't have all day service and is often full (it's small) and a couple of food trucks in the jardin that are fine but nothing special and pretty pricey, and nothing else very nearby.

site-cinq-mars.webflow.io

A brilliant low key restaurant suitable for lunching alone with a book. V close to the musee d'orsay - i'd go and see 4 favourite things in the museum afterwards.

I second this - stayed in this neighbourhood with DD last year and we loved the vibe, great bars and restaurants, ships and places to just sit by the canal. Easy walk from Gare Du Nord.

*shops!

I loved Per Lachaise also. Peaceful and quiet too.

Jim Morrison is also buried there.