Trail-Stop One: Musée Carnavalet.
In the Marais, one of the oldest parts of Paris and in fact so old the Knights Templar walked some of the same streets, is most fittingly, a museum of the history of Paris.
It's a short line and it's free and there is a wonderful garden in front with a bench.
Then the inside of the museum puts Paris in a perspective with models of how the city used to look, and other cool stuff like bits of the old bastille.
Really, if you're as in love with Paris as I am, this museum is worth a stop. Even if you're really not as in love, this museum will change your mind.
There's a little park behind the museum off of Rue Payenne. It’s called Square George Cain and I'm not sure if there is an official point system for judging parks in Paris, but I fell asleep on a bench here last time, so, in terms of allocating points to a park, that's pretty much catching the snitch.
Trail-Stop Two: Place des Vosges.
Speaking of the history of Paris, a few minutes or maybe less due southeast on Rue des Francs Bourgeois and you're at Place des Vosges, the oldest planned square in all of Paris, a city who's done a square or two in its lifetime.
If it's early enough and the Marais isn't swamped with tourists yet, I get an ice cream at Amorino which is at the northwest corner of Place des Vosges on Rue des Francs Bourgeois and eat that ice cream on the Vosges lawn surrounded by the beautiful red buildings.
There's a water fountain for drinking and for sticky fingers, if you're asking.
Trail Stop Three: Victor Hugo Museum
In the southeast corner of Place des Vosges is Victor Hugo's old house which they've made into a museum. If you know the words to every Les Miserables song or even if you've seen the play or read the book, it's sacred ground because unless your soul also went on vacation then you love Les Miserables. Also I'm fairly certain I saw Jean Valjean snooping around Victor Hugo's old quill pen. Remember the scene when he tried to steal the candlesticks? Anyway, it's an uncrowded, interesting way to see the way a Parisian writer lived years ago in an old Parisian house, if nothing else. A good time.
Trail Stop Four : Tea at Le Loir dans la Théière.
From The Victor Hugo Museum, you'll already be on the south side of Place des Vosges so walk south on Rue de Birague for a minute or two, take a right on Rue Saint-Antoine for a few minutes, continue straight on Rue de Rivoli, take a right on Rue Mahler, a left on Rue des Rosiers, and a bit less than a ten-minute walk is Merengue as high as my hand in a place that doesn't take itself as seriously as some places do around here. So, it's fun, if you've got time.