Hidden Gems in Paris — The Attractions Tourists Miss

Musée des Arts et Métiers (3rd arrondissement)

The museum of technical arts and crafts: a faithful Foucault pendulum, a reconstructed Boulton & Watt steam engine, and the original Relativité laboratory — all inside a 17th-century former monastery. It is routinely skipped by tourists in favor of the bigger museums, which is exactly why it is excellent. Fridays after 6pm: €10 flat rate. The collections on the ground floor alone are worth the visit.

Canal Saint-Martin

The 4.5km canal from Place de la Bastille to the Parc de la Villette is one of Paris's most atmospheric walks. The iron footbridges, the lock gates, the plane trees — it's where Parisians come on Sunday afternoons to sit on the banks and drink wine from paper cups. Café Zen at the eastern end: €6 glasses of wine, no attitude. The water is genuinely clean now, after a decade of restoration.

Musée de la Vie Romantique (9th)

George Sand's house in the 9th, unchanged since 1876. The garden studio where Chopin composed, the collection of 19th-century watercolors, the tearoom that serves gâteaux de voyager (travel cakes). Free on the first Sunday of every month. Quieter than the Marais galleries and more beautiful than most of them.

The Petits Ponts (the little bridges)

Three tiny footbridges cross the Seine between the major quays: Passerelle des Arts (the artist's bridge, where lovers leave padlocks), Passerelle de la Cite (near Notre-Dame), and Passerelle de la Gare d'Orsay (the old railway bridge, now a garden walkway). They are all free, all beautiful, and all walked by almost nobody in the early morning.

Cimetière du Père Lachaise (20th)

The world's most visited cemetery: 70,000 tombs on 110 acres, Oscar Wilde, Édith Piaf, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf. The map at the entrance is essential. The east section (sections 86–120) is the least visited and the most interesting — more unusual tombs, fewer tour groups. Free entry. Open daily until 6pm.