30 minutes Getting a sugar high at Bar à Chocolat, a café devoted to all things cocoa, located on the third floor of the Mauboussin Jewellery Boutique. Bright and minimalist, the café is decked out with white vinyl armchairs, black jewellery display cases, and a menu that includes a cup of thick 80% cocoa, accompanied by a pot of hot milk. Believe us, it's worth $25.
66 Avenue des Champs-Élysées, 01-42-560-342
30 minutes Picking up a few gardening pointers from the living wall at the Musée du Quai Branly. The 8,600-square-foot vertical garden is the work of French scientist Patrick Blanc, who devised an irrigation system that allows 150 plant species to thrive on the north-facing brick exterior. The museum, featuring indigenous art from around the world, is pretty nice, too.
37 Quai Branly, 01-56-617-000; lesautduloup.com
1 hour Holding your breath as you zigzag perilously through Parisian traffic in the back seat of a vintage Citroën 2CV. The Deux Chevaux Vapeur—literally, "two steam horses"—is as iconic to French culture as baguettes and fine wine. Hire a car and driver for a nighttime ride. He'll take you past the city's grandest sites (the Hôtel de Ville and the Arc de Triomphe, for sure), while offering colour commentary on the inner workings of his "Dedeuche."
parisauthentic.com
This mobile 'pod' hotel is only in Paris until December
8 hours Gazing at the Eiffel Tower from the one-room-only Hotel Everland. Designed by Swiss artists Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann, the mobile hotel looks like a futuristic train caboose and has an enviable address on the roof of Paris's Palais du Tokyo (a 320-tonne crane hoisted it up in October, 2007). The interior's sleek palette of lime green and turquoise would have pleased the Jetsons. Spin a few LPs on the retro turntable, crack open the complimentary—and fully stocked—mini-bar and accept the open invitation to steal the gold-embroidered bath towels. The room can only be booked for one night, however, and Hotel Everland ends its run in Paris this December. From $516/night.
13 Avenue du Président Wilson; everland.ch
DON'T MISS THIS Paris's dim and dank sewer museum would almost be romantic (after all, these sandstone tunnels were home to the Phantom of the Opera and a refuge for Victor Hugo's Jean Valjean) if it weren't for the malodorous river of waste flowing just beneath your feet. Yes, the Musée des Égouts is part of a real, working sewer, though this section is just a fraction of Paris's vast underground network. And while the fumes threaten to overcome you after an hour or so, the exhibits are oddly fascinating: an 800-year chronicle—from the first open-air drains in the early 1200s to the days of Napoleon, whose most lasting legacy was the city's modern septic system. And if, when you emerge back into sunshine, you can't shake the stench, here's a cure: a pichet of wine, a fresh baguette and some delightfully stinky Camembert.
