Paris recommendations - including restaurants

[Floof79]

Hello! Can I ask you to hit me up with your Paris recommendations, for both activities and restaurants? I have a short break booked in March (Thursday-Sunday) with friends. None of us have been before. So far we have a boat trip booked (which ends at 5pm at the Quai de l’Horloge), and I would like to visit Montmartre and the Marais. I want enough time for people watching and wandering, and give very limited shits about the Eiffel Tower and Mona Lisa. We are staying in the 14 arr, close to Blvd Raspail
Thank you!

If you are arriving on the Eurostar at the Gare du Nord and feeling peckish, go left out of the station front door (keep moving - the 50 or so metres around the entrance are not the nicest bit of the town) and then left again up the hill. This Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis. Take the second road on the right, which is after about 400 metres. This is Rue Cail, the "little India" (or, more accurately, "little subcontinent") of Paris. Lots and lots of modestly priced authentic Indian, Sri Lankan, etc eateries. Vegans easily catered for because it's Indian (indeed, many of the restaurants are "Veg" or "Pure Veg").

Another cool and less-known place to visit is the hammam of the grand mosque: https://www.la-mosquee.com/le-hammam/

You’re not far from the Montparnasse Tower so would recommend a trip up there on a clear day for a fantastic view of the city - with the Eiffel Tower in it. Go first thing as it’s quieter then. I liked the Rodin Museum - beautiful building and lovely gardens in the middle of the city (although went when it was v hot so the garden was a refuge).

Musee d’Orsay is one of my favourites if you want a more mainstream museum - I think you can get a combined ticket with the Rodin but it can get v busy - or the Musee de l’Orangerie has some huge Monet waterlily paintings. Jardins de Luxembourg is lovely for a stroll. There’s a roof terrace on Galeries Lafayette which has a great view - the store itself is pretty amazing inside. I liked the Musee Carnavalet in the Marais for history of Paris, and it was relatively quiet, but the streets/courtyards in the Village St Paul section nearby are a quiet haven and worth a wander - it’s a very old part of the city. The Pantheon is worth a visit - just up from Luxembourg and in the Latin Quarter - you can wander to nearby Place de La Contrescarpe and Rue Mouffetard where there are lots of bars/restaurants. It’s just a lovely city for strolling and looking at the architecture or sitting outside a cafe and watching the world go by.

If budget isn’t too much of an issue, definitely do a cooking workshop. We did an English-speaking croissant and macaron workshop and it w@s a highlight.

I loved La Chappelle.

If you are near Montparnasse there are lots of places serving galettes and crepes as the Brittany trains arrive there.