Paris Off the Beaten Path: Unique Museums and Hidden Gems
00:00:00.000 | Okay, you mentioned Paris. So let's, let's dive in, because I want to make sure we get to some,
00:00:04.480 | some details. You know, Paris incredibly well, you've written books about Paris in multiple
00:00:08.560 | languages. It's, it's impressive. Let's talk about someone planning there, you said,
00:00:14.000 | you know, at least three or four could be a week, days in Paris.
00:00:18.160 | Well, in terms of staying, I think the first question to ask is what neighborhood you really
00:00:24.320 | want to be planted in, because that can determine the rest of your, your itinerary, essentially. I
00:00:30.160 | mean, no, nothing is really that far to get to. And if you're going to use public transport,
00:00:33.760 | I mean, you could be on the, in the 11th arrondissement where I live and still,
00:00:37.680 | you know, go to the Fondation Louis Vuitton, which is, you know, on the western extremities
00:00:43.280 | of the city. So it's not, it's not impossible, but I think you need to know sort of what you,
00:00:48.000 | what you're going to do the most of. Are you going to be going to a lot of museums?
00:00:53.360 | Are you really keen on being near the river? That would dictate sort of what neighborhoods
00:00:58.000 | I would recommend to you. And once you've narrowed down what neighborhood you want to be in, and then
00:01:02.480 | you can go into sort of, okay, do you want an apartment? Airbnbs are getting way more expensive.
00:01:07.440 | At this point, some people think that hotels are back to being sort of the greatest value.
00:01:11.280 | And you can also get a lot of boutique hotels, which are really, you know, really charming,
00:01:15.600 | really interesting, great views, great services, and, and put you sort of in the heart of the
00:01:19.920 | action. I, you know, I know a lot of people who stay in the, in the Saint-Germain area,
00:01:26.960 | because it's like, you know, it's, it's, it's close to a lot of things. It's good. It's near
00:01:30.880 | the river. It's very charming. It's very picturesque. But for the best food experiences,
00:01:37.360 | it's, it's, it's not there. So, so I think the person who's planning needs to think like, okay,
00:01:44.240 | am I the food traveler who really just wants to go to all the best restaurants?
00:01:48.480 | In which case there's a huge concentration of them in Eastern Paris. Maybe it's best I stay
00:01:56.080 | sort of right bank over by Bestie or near Oberkampf or, or in the Marais at least,
00:02:04.240 | you know, because at least that is, you know, sort of getting you closer. If that's not your
00:02:08.640 | thing, and you really are like, I want to go antique shopping and go to museums and be in the
00:02:14.000 | pure center of the city, then I'd say, yeah, you could stay in the first, you could stay in the
00:02:19.200 | sixth, you could stay in the fifth. But it might not be the most sort of like dynamic in the
00:02:24.720 | evening. Generally, I think that the seventh is one of the more boring places to stay.
00:02:30.480 | It's very sleepy. It's very residential. So yes, that's closer to the Eiffel Tower. But like,
00:02:35.440 | you don't need to seat in your backyard to have a, you know, a wonderful experience.
00:02:41.520 | I just realized we both have been to Paris. You've lived there 16 years. I've been there
00:02:44.800 | a bunch. For anyone who doesn't know, Paris is structured with about about how many?
00:02:50.160 | Like a snail, it's a snail.
00:02:51.600 | 20 arrondissements.
00:02:52.880 | Yes, exactly.
00:02:53.200 | They kind of circle around from the center. So one being dead center going clockwise around
00:02:58.160 | 20. So just if you hear if you hear references to the seventh and the fifth,
00:03:03.200 | there, you could just search Paris map and you'll see all of these numbers highlighting the regions.
00:03:08.000 | Yes, it's true. I often forget that this is not, you know, the most common knowledge.
00:03:13.760 | I take that for granted. So good thing you reminded people.
00:03:17.520 | You know, at the end of the day, if you're like, I struggled to find a place and this is what I
00:03:24.160 | could find. And it was in the 15th arrondissement, you'll be fine and you'll probably have a really
00:03:27.680 | lovely experience. But it's not ideal. Right. So there are just neighborhoods where you're going
00:03:33.040 | to get really like you're in the get the sense that you're in the heart of things, that you're
00:03:36.720 | close to things that, you know, you could be it could be practical given the type of trip you want
00:03:42.480 | to have. Is there a place that you'd put if you're like, I want to have I want to feel like I'm
00:03:47.200 | staying somewhere where I'm surrounded by locals. I'm having a local experience. I'm close enough
00:03:52.320 | to things, but I'm OK. Trekking to the sites. I'm OK. Trekking to the best restaurants. But I just
00:03:57.120 | kind of want like a fun, interesting neighborhood with, you know, good cafe. I could go relax,
00:04:02.560 | but just feel like I'm not in the in the mix of it. Is there a place you'd you'd throw out?
00:04:06.400 | Yeah, I would say my part of town, you know, you could you could you could stay near.
00:04:12.000 | It's funny because we tend to think of things in terms of like their metro neighborhoods. So like
00:04:18.560 | Sharon, where there's a lot of good food for those listening who have been here and who might know
00:04:22.960 | Paris, it's not far from the restaurant Septime, which is, you know, sort of like now totally
00:04:27.760 | beloved. You could stay you could stay in Belleville, which is hugely dynamic and super
00:04:35.040 | diverse and super interesting. And that gets you close to a park that I really love called
00:04:39.680 | the Butte Chaumont. So either in Belleville or further up into the 19th arrondissement would be
00:04:46.560 | would be wonderful. And you could easily get on the metro and get right back into the center of
00:04:50.720 | in the center of things. And then on the flip side, if you want sort of a very calm,
00:04:55.120 | calm and quiet experience, then, yeah, I would say the fifth and sixth
00:05:02.640 | deeper in sort of closer to like Luxembourg Gardens is probably going to be more of a tranquil,
00:05:07.920 | serene, relaxing kind of experience that isn't necessarily, you know, right in the middle,
00:05:15.680 | but will be lovely. And just for everyone's awareness, I don't want to go in and say,
00:05:21.760 | here are the 50 sites like we don't need to list off all the tourist destinations that everyone
00:05:26.240 | can find in any guide or anything like that. But I would love to tap on what are what are a few
00:05:31.200 | things, because like you said, we don't want to plan your whole trip for you. We want to just
00:05:34.720 | give you some inspiration. Are there a few things in Paris that you think aren't the obvious
00:05:40.320 | attractions or activities that someone should put on their list to check out? Maybe they're not good
00:05:46.640 | for everyone, but for some people worth sharing? Yeah, I think people who are overwhelmed by the
00:05:54.240 | Louvre, especially which I know I am. There are plenty of smaller museums. This is sort of the
00:05:59.600 | city of smaller museums and also what you would call a house museum. So sort of the private,
00:06:06.560 | former private home of a very prolific writer, artist. And there are several that I think are
00:06:13.600 | worth visiting. The Musée de Montmartre, which is in the 18th. So if you're going to go up toward
00:06:19.680 | the Sacré-Cœur Cathedral or Basilica in that neighborhood, so the 18th arrondissement,
00:06:26.080 | that's a fantastic, small, really intimate museum. And I believe they have a nice in inner garden.
00:06:32.000 | You also have the Gustave Moreau Museum. And similarly, it's so beautiful. It's quite small,
00:06:38.960 | really inexpensive entry fee and is focused on it was the former home of the of the artist Gustave
00:06:46.720 | Moreau. And so all of it is sort of not recreated, but sort of frozen in time as though it's how he
00:06:54.800 | left it. And his works are displayed. And there's this really iconic spiral staircase. It's really
00:06:58.880 | beautiful. And that's a much smaller, less overwhelming experience. And then for something
00:07:04.160 | bigger, but still, still completely worth visiting is the Carnavalet Museum, which is in the Marais.
00:07:10.160 | And it's the city of Paris museum, essentially. And so you have all of the works, all of the
00:07:15.680 | exhibits are related to the history of Paris. And that is just sort of a non-negotiable for me,
00:07:21.360 | but it often doesn't make the list for people when they when they come and they're doing,
00:07:25.840 | you know, the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay and some of the other big classics. And then finally,
00:07:31.200 | I would say if you're really into contemporary art, you could go the gallery route, which is a
00:07:36.480 | little bit more intimidating, and I think a little bit less sort of easy to navigate. Or you could go
00:07:42.240 | to the Pinot collection, which is again, one of, you know, one of France's billionaires who
00:07:47.680 | has a private institution, but it's in a really spectacular building quite in the center of city,
00:07:52.880 | not not far from the river. That's a that's a that's a very unique experience.
00:07:57.680 | Yeah, we we because we had kids skipped out on all of the art, so I have nothing to add here.
00:08:03.760 | But the Cité des Sciences Museum.
00:08:06.480 | Oh, for kids. Yeah, that's great.
00:08:08.320 | Absolutely. Like, you know, I wish our kids nap schedule allowed us to be there longer,
00:08:12.800 | but I will give it a plug there. It might be the best kids science museum
00:08:17.040 | I've ever been to, which I can't say I've been to a lot, but it was awesome.
00:08:21.360 | The park around it was awesome. Yeah, easy to get to. So that's my one plug.
00:08:26.160 | That's a good plug. And also, I would say another spot that's also very good for adults and kids
00:08:32.000 | is the it's called the Musée de la chasse et la nature. It's the hunting the nature and hunting
00:08:38.000 | museum, which sounds like kind of like it could be a little bit grim, but actually, it's super
00:08:42.320 | well done. It's beautiful. And for kids who are like interested in seeing animals and, you know,
00:08:48.800 | paintings of animals in there in the natural environment, that's a good choice. Or the
00:08:53.040 | Natural History Museum, which is in the Jardin des Plantes, which is one of the gardens. And
00:08:57.360 | there you'll have like, you know, dinosaur bones and and fossils and all sorts of stuff that's like
00:09:02.880 | really good for for kids. Any other kind of like unique, weird tour kind of stuff, whether it's
00:09:09.680 | like at a market or or is that catacombs that or is that just overrated or stuff in that vein?
00:09:15.360 | That's maybe not not the museums that we're kind of typically told about, but but kind of cool,
00:09:20.560 | maybe other other experiences. I do think the catacombs is a
00:09:24.640 | really unique experience. You really have to be someone who's not afraid of closed
00:09:29.200 | quarters and closed spaces. I think you also sort of have to plan ahead because I know that if you
00:09:36.400 | go too late in the afternoon, you may hit a point where they're not actually letting anyone in
00:09:41.760 | anymore. And so you just sort of waited in line. It's very cool, though. I mean, I think that's
00:09:46.960 | something you're not going to get in a whole lot of cities, other cities. And then beyond that,
00:09:52.720 | I think there's some sort of unusual tours you can you can get on that are sort of like
00:09:58.080 | taking you through a specific history. So it might be like, you know, a Paris under the occupation
00:10:06.000 | or something like a women, the women of Paris tour. So there are things that are sort of
00:10:12.640 | not necessarily super unusual, but just not your general overview kind of experiences that that
00:10:20.000 | are, you know, that are worth looking into. And where where do these good experiences exist?
00:10:26.560 | Is Airbnb experiences a place to find them? Is there a better local site? Is there a,
00:10:31.280 | you know, I don't know, a blog that talks about things?
00:10:34.160 | I, for one, think the problem is that, you know, people don't spend a lot on those. And so you
00:10:39.520 | sort of get what you pay for. I think that there are a couple of things you can do if you're
00:10:44.080 | interested in, you know, wine tastings or certain specialists, for example, certain spaces. There's
00:10:49.440 | the Cave du Louvre, there's Cave Woman Wines, and she runs different events in her in her
00:10:54.400 | wine shop. I think there, you know, you sort of have to be specific when you're looking.
00:10:58.800 | But if you're looking for a service that has multiple types of tours or experiences,
00:11:04.000 | I think it's good to look at, for example, Context Travel, which is a company that
00:11:07.760 | runs experiences and tours in a variety of different cities in the world and have
00:11:13.280 | very good docents and very good themes. And, you know, I think in general, the quality of
00:11:19.040 | the experience is very high. In Paris specifically, you also have Paris by Mouth, which are obviously,
00:11:25.120 | as the name suggests, food, food focused tours. And then there are a bunch of independent,
00:11:29.520 | smaller run kind of experiences in food. I mean, food is really the area where we're, like,
00:11:36.800 | bursting at the seams with options. But I would say, you know, either you get recommendations
00:11:44.400 | from, let's say, like a travel planner who has connections with certain key guides, or, you know,
00:11:52.080 | I, for one, do a couple of tours upon request that are based on my book, but I don't do this full
00:11:57.360 | time. So it's sort of like an upon request thing. If you're looking for something you can sort of
00:12:01.280 | jump on at last minute, you need to sort of find bigger companies, Get Your Guide also has some
00:12:08.240 | that I think are going to be a little bit more qualitative than an Airbnb experience.