this will be random, almost train of thought, based on 40 days stay in 2019 and 30 in 2017:
--do you have any interesting cartography? One of my favorite rooms in Paris is Musée Plans-Reliefs, top floor of les Invalides. You can easily amuse yourself for an hour, not feel the need to take in the entirety of the enormous totality of the army museum, and maybe admire the building of les Invalides at leisure.
--same neighborhood, one of my favorite things to do is lunch au plain aire on the grounds of the Rodin museum. there is a small (bad) café on the grounds, ignore it. Just bring in food and wine and go to the back by the children's playground and use the wide benches. Nobody cares. They don't search bags, and lots of people bring lunches, including wine. I went often enough that they waved me through admissions (neighborhood residents bring kids to play in the back lot, so it is common.). The sculptures are around you, it is tranquil, and in general you feel as if you are luxuriating on the sly. (The dome of les Invalides is the backdrop). Then you can take in Balzac, Calais, etc, at your leisure, though the delightful rose garden will be defunct.
--same neighborhood, Arnaud Nicolas is, I think, well known at this point. But worth a reminder as this restaurant does things not all that common. The variety and excellence of the p“té en croûte is unmatched. I know his charcuterie gets high marks, but I am so taken with the en croûte that I have never tried it. Rue Bourdonnais.
--same neighborhood, before dinner you can wander past l'Immueble Lavirotte on rue Rapp as you walk to r. Bourdonnais.
--the new(ish) bibliothèque nationale (Francois Mitterand), over beyond the eastern SNCF stations, gets bad reviews as a functioning library, *but* it puts on awesome exhibitions.
--residents of l'Île de France are big fans of les randonées and have excellent walking paths all around Paris. something I like to do is find a useful train line to one village as a starting pointing, take a pleasant morning walk (often along a stream), ending in another village with a good connecting train ride back to the city. It isn't hard to find a good restaurant for lunch at the terminus. I usually plan this in reverse, ie: find the village with a good restaurant, interesting small museum or garden or church, and look for the path leading out of it to find the starting village. Pretty much every village will have SNCF service, Montfort l'Amaury is a notable example of one without service.
--le Petit Sommelier (near Gare Montparnasse) has an excellent Loire valley wine list, prices at US retail, including some of the domaines that have reached high prices here: Alliet, Grobois, Guibertreau, Amirault. Food is good.
--my favorite cheese monger is Barthélemy. Not a particularly wide selection (though wide enough), the selling point is the quality. He must have long established ties with excellent producers. Near the Musée Maillot, so that must make it rue Grenelle(?).
--it might be a cliché at this point, but I think everybody should try the soufflé Grand Marnier at Joséphine Chez Dumonet at least once. Everything else is good, but priced at Paris levels.
I could go on! I hope to be going in November myself...
