re: You have four days in Paris - what do you do?

se

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picnic(wine, baguette, cheese) at Luxembourg Gardens,

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Definitely recommend this. Watch some old men play petanque while drinking/eating some too go food.

Things that haven't been mentioned:
-Go to le grande epicerie. It might be the nicest grocery store in the world and is great for some to go food after gawking at outrageously priced stuff (like a fresh whole blue fin tuna on ice). I saw Guy Fieri there once filming and was like "hey, this isn't a dive). Get wine because you can drink in parks.

-Grab a cafe creme in a bar in the latin quarter and watch regular people do regular stuff while you relax. Great memory of mine was a solo trip to Paris where I am enjoying my coffee reading the news and "love me do" comes on and a bunch of random French men start singing along to it. Just garcons being garcons.

-Skip going up the eiffel tower and instead go up on top of the arc de triomphe. The view is awesome of the "spokes" from the "hub" on top. You get to have the tower in your view/pictures as well.

-To save on costs try eating a larger prix fixe lunch (many are) and get street food for dinner. Some of our best evenings have been hopping from bars to food stands to bars. I like miche for sandwiches and chez le libanais for lebanese to go food.

-If you are a runner go for a long morning run along the seine on day 2 of your trip (in the morning). It both helps you get over jet lang and gives you some bearings on the layout of the city between right/left bank. You also get to observe the city a bit from a non-tourist POV if you are up early enough.

-Go see Sainte-Chapelle. Its beauty is truly humbling. same for Notre Dame when they reopen the inside. Read up on the time it took to built Notre Dame and consider the generations who worked on it knowing they would never see the end.

-If you are Catholic (or have Catholics you would like to buy items for) go to Rue du Bac (next to le grand epicerie/bon marche) and see the Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. Next to the chapel (on the street, not in the chapel area) is a really nice Catholic gift store that is run by the nuns. Note that there are two, and the nicer one is directly on Rue du Bac. We get Miraculous Medals whenever we are there as gifts for Sacraments.

-Get a drink (one because they are outrageously expensive) at Bar Hemingway in the Ritz prior to a nice dinner. Crazy to think of the history in the place and all of the folks who have had a drink there. The place is tiny, so go a bit earlier and walk around if you finish early.