Hello book lover, and today I was reminiscing about my time in living in Paris (I lived there for three years when I was in high school) and I wanted to share with you some of my favorite places in the entire city that I haven’t seen mentioned in most of the ‘Visit Paris’ lists that you’ll find out there.
These are places that have a very special place in my heart as someone who lived there, and these are places that are very inexpensive, not very crowded with tourists, and will be a blast no matter how long you’re staying in the city, so first up on my list and it has to be my very, very, very favorite place in the entire city:
- Musée du Quai Branly
This museum is my absolute favorite museum in Paris. It is Stun-ning!
The entire museum is sort of like a disk that’s twisted on itself that’s up on stilts with a garden underneath it. So the architecture is very avant garde.
It’s a type of architecture you really won’t see at any other museum and the garden is super peaceful. Hell, you could visit just the garden, but the museum itself is also very special, because it features art and artifacts from any culture that’s non-European, which is something that’s very rare in a lot of very popular European museums, especially those in Paris.
For example, if you go to the Louvre, the majority of what you’re going to see (in addition to a whole bunch of stuff taken from Egypt) is a lot of European art, so lots of Roman and Greek artifacts, Renaissance paintings, you name it. It is actually very rare to find a museum like this one that covers places like Africa, the Americas, and Asia.
So breathtaking architecture, educative and culturally rich exhibits, and a beautiful garden. Overall this place had a really calm, peaceful vibe, and there weren’t a lot of tourists.
In fact, on multiple occasions during my high school career, I went I continued to go back to the museum just to do my homework in the garden underneath the museum because I loved how peaceful it was. So if you’re in Paris, please go visit one of my favorite places in the entire city.
Here is the link, so check it out
Moving on to the next one on our list:
- The Paris Aquarium
This one’s a really cute one. It’s the Paris Aquarium, (L’Aquarium de Paris) and it’s really close to the Eiffel Tower (just across the river from it so you’ll also get a great photo location with the tower in the background).
I had a really fun time visiting this with my family. It’s got interactive exhibits, it’s educational, entertaining, and super fun.
There are also a lot of really nice crêpe places nearby so this is a good place to go before or after lunch. If you are already in the area, definitely pop in for a visit.
- Gibert Joseph, and Shakespeare & Co.
The next one on our list is actually a collection of book stores (currently Gibert Joseph, previously Gibert Jeune) that are found around each other and they’re really close to Notre-Dame at the center of the city.
A lot of students get their textbooks here, so there are huge sections of educational books, but with these stores, a lot of them specialize in different things.
It’s just a really awesome collection of bookstores. They’ve also got sections on pretty much anything that you could possibly think of.
These Gibert stores are also close to Shakespeare and Co, which is a historic bookstore also near the Notre-Dame. All of these are located pretty much right outside the Place Saint-Michel metro stop. For book lovers, this is a must on your travel list.
Pick up a couple of books while you’re there. If you’re looking to learn some French, this is your go to.
- Paris Expo Porte de Versailles
The next place is one that I don’t think many people who don’t live in the city know about. Before you arrive, you should check to see if there will be any expositions at Porte de Versailles during your stay. It is a massive convention center and depending on when you go, you could be going during the dates of a really awesome exposition that is a limited time event that is not always available. So if whatever exposition that is currently going on is right up your alley, make sure to get some tickets.
Personally speaking, one of my favorite expositions that they hold every year is the world famous Salon du Chocolat (October 28 – November 1, 2026), which is a chocolate convention held in this massive exposition center. So much chocolate! Trust me you’ll never forget it.
If you’re going to the Salon du Chocolat, make sure to pick up some orange chocolate while you’re there, if it’s available. Truly it’s been years and I have not forgotten how good the chocolate is. So check it out.
Some other events they are holding soon (and some are recurring every year) are the cheese expo, the Korea expo, and the wedding expo.
Here’s the link to the expo center’s calendar
- Picnics Galore!!
Next up on our list is an activity that I think gets overlooked a lot, especially when people mention that Paris is a very expensive city to visit.
So there’s a few things here.
(First off, if you didn’t already know (as long as we’re talking about things like money and expenses) in Paris, the admission to the permanent collections of every single national museum and monument is completely and totally free for any EU resident under 26 and most of them are free for visitors of any nationality that are under 18.
In fact, some city museums will offer free entry to any individual under the age of 26 no matter their nationality, so if you’re in your early 20s or if you’ve got kids, this is really important information for you to know.)
Back to picnics: this particular activity is very family friendly and completely inexpensive. Some of the most cherished memories I have of living in Paris are picnics with my friends and my family.
There are several really perfect picnic places all over the city, but here are some that I will recommend that I remember very fondly.
First is obviously the grounds at the Eiffel Tower, but if you’re looking for a place that has less tourists, check out the grounds in front of Invalides, pretty much anywhere on the edges of the Seine, as well as any local parks that are close to your hotel.
The way that we would do this is we would, as a group, go to the nearest supermarket and get drinks, chips, and snacks. We would bring a picnic blanket and maybe some board or card games, and we would go to the closest park and just have a really awesome day.
Here’s the link to Invalides, so you have the location. (The Hôtel National des Invalides – Musée de l’Armée)
For those of you interested in picnicking next to the river, my friends and I would do this close to Place Saint-Michel which is close to the Notre-Dame.
If you’re a little bit more athletic, make sure to check out the next place on our list before you go picnicking so that you could do some sportive activities during your picnic, which obviously brings us to our next place on the list:
- Decathlon
This is for all my sporty people out there. This is a store that specifically caters to athletes and holds a number of sportive wear and equipment.
There are multiple stores, as this is a chain that can be found all over Europe, but personally speaking, the one that we always visited is the one found at Aquaboulevard (Which is the name of the water park that is literally right next door).
You can find equipment for pretty much any sport that you could possibly imagine at these stores. Check out the one nearest to you or check out the one at Aquaboulevard. If you do decide to go to Aquaboulevard, check to see if you can spot the local doughnut shop.
Here is the location of this specific store on the Decathlon website
- Banlieue
All right and that brings us to the last point on our list, which is to visit banlieue. For those of you who don’t know, banlieue is basically a word in French that refers to the outskirts of Paris.
Paris has a number of towns on its outskirts that are all super awesome places to visit and should be on your list, especially if you’ve already been to Paris a couple of times and you’ve already visited the big monuments within the city.
These are perfect for a day trip out of town if you don’t want to go too far from the city and you want to use public transportation.
Now, a note here is that in order to go to banlieue, (Same as going to Charles de Gaulle Airport) you will have to use the RER, which has its own separate tickets from the metro line system (And they’re usually more expensive, but not so expensive that you should nix this off your list)
Here is an article that explains the different areas of banlieue really well (it’s from a real estate agency, so if you’re not looking to buy/rent a property disregard all the real estate stuff)
Here is another article explaining even more banlieue cities (again from another real estate company)
Which brings us to my final point of the article:
- Which airport to fly into (The answer is Orly)
This is not a place to visit, but rather a word of advice if you are visiting Paris and you haven’t gotten your plane tickets yet.
I would recommend that you try your best to fly into Paris through the Orly airport instead of Charles de Gaulle. Here’s why:
The first reason is due to size. Charles de Gaulle is a much larger airport so it’s a lot more chaotic. Orly is smaller so you’re not going to be dealing with as much hustle and bustle. Charles de Gaulle is obviously one of the biggest airports in the world.
The second, and most important reason why, is if you arrive at Orly, you can get to the city on a bus, called the Orlybus which leaves you at Denfert-Rochereau station, where you can then enter the normal metro system (Metro Line 4 or Metro Line 6).
If you arrive at Charles de Gaulle, you have to take the RER into the city, which means that you have to buy a ticket for the RER, arrive at the city, switch into and buy tickets for the metro, and then arrive at your at your hotel, meaning you’ll have to buy two separate tickets for two different train systems. (You also have to buy two tickets if you’re using the Orlybus, but I’ve found the process to be a lot less chaotic and the last thing you need on arrival day is more chaos)
It’s much easier to just get the bus into the city. Orly is also closer to the city. (Note: Orly is south of the city, while CDG is up north)
(You can also take the RER from Orly into Paris, but you have to take a different Orlyval metro to Antony station, where you can take RER B)
Here’s an article that explains all the different ways to get to the city from Orly
And here’s an article that explains all the different ways to get to the city from Charles de Gaulle in case you already have tickets that arrive there (you’ll probably have to take RER B to Châtelet–Les Halles station where you can get on metro line 14)
If you want to know more about public transportation within Paris, please please please please please download the RATP app.
Here is the website. The app can be found on your app store.
This is a must have if you’re visiting Paris. In fact, almost every resident that lives there has this app on their phone. It basically has maps of all of the public transport systems and you can put in your destination and arrival stops and it’ll show you in real time schedules for those metro stops.
With all that being said, if you are going to Paris, I hope you have the most wonderful time in truly the greatest city in the world. If you do, drop some comments down below, send me photos of your trip, tell me how it went, and if you visit the places on this list and you love them, let me know.
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With all that said I will see you next time, bye!