Okay, you mentioned Paris. So let's, let's dive in, because I want to make sure we get to some, some details. You know, Paris incredibly well, you've written books about Paris in multiple languages. It's, it's impressive. Let's talk about someone planning there, you said, you know, at least three or four could be a week, days in Paris.

Well, in terms of staying, I think the first question to ask is what neighborhood you really want to be planted in, because that can determine the rest of your, your itinerary, essentially. I mean, no, nothing is really that far to get to. And if you're going to use public transport, I mean, you could be on the, in the 11th arrondissement where I live and still, you know, go to the Fondation Louis Vuitton, which is, you know, on the western extremities of the city.

So it's not, it's not impossible, but I think you need to know sort of what you, what you're going to do the most of. Are you going to be going to a lot of museums? Are you really keen on being near the river? That would dictate sort of what neighborhoods I would recommend to you.

And once you've narrowed down what neighborhood you want to be in, and then you can go into sort of, okay, do you want an apartment? Airbnbs are getting way more expensive. At this point, some people think that hotels are back to being sort of the greatest value. And you can also get a lot of boutique hotels, which are really, you know, really charming, really interesting, great views, great services, and, and put you sort of in the heart of the action.

I, you know, I know a lot of people who stay in the, in the Saint-Germain area, because it's like, you know, it's, it's, it's close to a lot of things. It's good. It's near the river. It's very charming. It's very picturesque. But for the best food experiences, it's, it's, it's not there.

So, so I think the person who's planning needs to think like, okay, am I the food traveler who really just wants to go to all the best restaurants? In which case there's a huge concentration of them in Eastern Paris. Maybe it's best I stay sort of right bank over by Bestie or near Oberkampf or, or in the Marais at least, you know, because at least that is, you know, sort of getting you closer.

If that's not your thing, and you really are like, I want to go antique shopping and go to museums and be in the pure center of the city, then I'd say, yeah, you could stay in the first, you could stay in the sixth, you could stay in the fifth.

But it might not be the most sort of like dynamic in the evening. Generally, I think that the seventh is one of the more boring places to stay. It's very sleepy. It's very residential. So yes, that's closer to the Eiffel Tower. But like, you don't need to seat in your backyard to have a, you know, a wonderful experience.

I just realized we both have been to Paris. You've lived there 16 years. I've been there a bunch. For anyone who doesn't know, Paris is structured with about about how many? Like a snail, it's a snail. 20 arrondissements. Yes, exactly. They kind of circle around from the center. So one being dead center going clockwise around 20.

So just if you hear if you hear references to the seventh and the fifth, there, you could just search Paris map and you'll see all of these numbers highlighting the regions. Yes, it's true. I often forget that this is not, you know, the most common knowledge. I take that for granted.

So good thing you reminded people. You know, at the end of the day, if you're like, I struggled to find a place and this is what I could find. And it was in the 15th arrondissement, you'll be fine and you'll probably have a really lovely experience. But it's not ideal.

Right. So there are just neighborhoods where you're going to get really like you're in the get the sense that you're in the heart of things, that you're close to things that, you know, you could be it could be practical given the type of trip you want 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 staying somewhere where I'm surrounded by locals.

I'm having a local experience. I'm close enough to things, but I'm OK. Trekking to the sites. I'm OK. Trekking to the best restaurants. But I just kind of want like a fun, interesting neighborhood with, you know, good cafe. I could go relax, but just feel like I'm not in the in the mix of it.

Is there a place you'd you'd throw out? Yeah, I would say my part of town, you know, you could you could you could stay near. It's funny because we tend to think of things in terms of like their metro neighborhoods. So like Sharon, where there's a lot of good food for those listening who have been here and who might know Paris, it's not far from the restaurant Septime, which is, you know, sort of like now totally beloved.

You could stay you could stay in Belleville, which is hugely dynamic and super diverse and super interesting. And that gets you close to a park that I really love called the Butte Chaumont. So either in Belleville or further up into the 19th arrondissement would be would be wonderful. And you could easily get on the metro and get right back into the center of in the center of things.

And then on the flip side, if you want sort of a very calm, calm and quiet experience, then, yeah, I would say the fifth and sixth deeper in sort of closer to like Luxembourg Gardens is probably going to be more of a tranquil, serene, relaxing kind of experience that isn't necessarily, you know, right in the middle, but will be lovely.

And just for everyone's awareness, I don't want to go in and say, here are the 50 sites like we don't need to list off all the tourist destinations that everyone can find in any guide or anything like that. But I would love to tap on what are what are a few things, because like you said, we don't want to plan your whole trip for you.

We want to just give you some inspiration. Are there a few things in Paris that you think aren't the obvious attractions or activities that someone should put on their list to check out? Maybe they're not good for everyone, but for some people worth sharing? Yeah, I think people who are overwhelmed by the Louvre, especially which I know I am.

There are plenty of smaller museums. This is sort of the city of smaller museums and also what you would call a house museum. So sort of the private, former private home of a very prolific writer, artist. And there are several that I think are worth visiting. The Musée de Montmartre, which is in the 18th.

So if you're going to go up toward the Sacré-Cœur Cathedral or Basilica in that neighborhood, so the 18th arrondissement, that's a fantastic, small, really intimate museum. And I believe they have a nice in inner garden. You also have the Gustave Moreau Museum. And similarly, it's so beautiful. It's quite small, really inexpensive entry fee and is focused on it was the former home of the of the artist Gustave Moreau.

And so all of it is sort of not recreated, but sort of frozen in time as though it's how he left it. And his works are displayed. And there's this really iconic spiral staircase. It's really beautiful. And that's a much smaller, less overwhelming experience. And then for something bigger, but still, still completely worth visiting is the Carnavalet Museum, which is in the Marais.

And it's the city of Paris museum, essentially. And so you have all of the works, all of the exhibits are related to the history of Paris. And that is just sort of a non-negotiable for me, but it often doesn't make the list for people when they when they come and they're doing, you know, the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay and some of the other big classics.

And then finally, I would say if you're really into contemporary art, you could go the gallery route, which is a little bit more intimidating, and I think a little bit less sort of easy to navigate. Or you could go to the Pinot collection, which is again, one of, you know, one of France's billionaires who has a private institution, but it's in a really spectacular building quite in the center of city, not not far from the river.

That's a that's a that's a very unique experience. Yeah, we we because we had kids skipped out on all of the art, so I have nothing to add here. But the Cité des Sciences Museum. Oh, for kids. Yeah, that's great. Absolutely. Like, you know, I wish our kids nap schedule allowed us to be there longer, but I will give it a plug there.

It might be the best kids science museum I've ever been to, which I can't say I've been to a lot, but it was awesome. The park around it was awesome. Yeah, easy to get to. So that's my one plug. That's a good plug. And also, I would say another spot that's also very good for adults and kids is the it's called the Musée de la chasse et la nature.

It's the hunting the nature and hunting museum, which sounds like kind of like it could be a little bit grim, but actually, it's super well done. It's beautiful. And for kids who are like interested in seeing animals and, you know, paintings of animals in there in the natural environment, that's a good choice.

Or the Natural History Museum, which is in the Jardin des Plantes, which is one of the gardens. And there you'll have like, you know, dinosaur bones and and fossils and all sorts of stuff that's like really good for for kids. Any other kind of like unique, weird tour kind of stuff, whether it's like at a market or or is that catacombs that or is that just overrated or stuff in that vein?

That's maybe not not the museums that we're kind of typically told about, but but kind of cool, maybe other other experiences. I do think the catacombs is a really unique experience. You really have to be someone who's not afraid of closed quarters and closed spaces. I think you also sort of have to plan ahead because I know that if you go too late in the afternoon, you may hit a point where they're not actually letting anyone in anymore.

And so you just sort of waited in line. It's very cool, though. I mean, I think that's something you're not going to get in a whole lot of cities, other cities. And then beyond that, I think there's some sort of unusual tours you can you can get on that are sort of like taking you through a specific history.

So it might be like, you know, a Paris under the occupation or something like a women, the women of Paris tour. So there are things that are sort of not necessarily super unusual, but just not your general overview kind of experiences that that are, you know, that are worth looking into.

And where where do these good experiences exist? Is Airbnb experiences a place to find them? Is there a better local site? Is there a, you know, I don't know, a blog that talks about things? I, for one, think the problem is that, you know, people don't spend a lot on those.

And so you sort of get what you pay for. I think that there are a couple of things you can do if you're interested in, you know, wine tastings or certain specialists, for example, certain spaces. There's the Cave du Louvre, there's Cave Woman Wines, and she runs different events in her in her wine shop.

I think there, you know, you sort of have to be specific when you're looking. But if you're looking for a service that has multiple types of tours or experiences, I think it's good to look at, for example, Context Travel, which is a company that runs experiences and tours in a variety of different cities in the world and have very good docents and very good themes.

And, you know, I think in general, the quality of the experience is very high. In Paris specifically, you also have Paris by Mouth, which are obviously, as the name suggests, food, food focused tours. And then there are a bunch of independent, smaller run kind of experiences in food. I mean, food is really the area where we're, like, bursting at the seams with options.

But I would say, you know, either you get recommendations from, let's say, like a travel planner who has connections with certain key guides, or, you know, I, for one, do a couple of tours upon request that are based on my book, but I don't do this full time. So it's sort of like an upon request thing.

If you're looking for something you can sort of jump on at last minute, you need to sort of find bigger companies, Get Your Guide also has some that I think are going to be a little bit more qualitative than an Airbnb experience.