101 things to do in Paris: attractions

Enjoy a couple of hours picking your own fruit and veg at the Vergers de Champlain in La Queue-en-Brie. There really is nothing like getting out of the city centre and back to nature then cooking with food you picked yourself. If you’ve not got time, buy a readymade basket from the Vergers de Champlain boutique. They stock fresh dairy and locally sourced meat too so you can grab a whole dinner’s worth in one swoop. Bon ap!
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Fifty years ago Bastille had a train station with a viaduct that carried trains into the centre from Vincennes. The station is no more (the Opera Bastille stands there now), but the viaduct is a permanent Paris fixture thanks to the Coulée Verte – an elevated garden (like New York’s High Line) that you can follow across Paris’s 12th arrondissement. Pop on your walking shoes and climb atop the Viaduc des Arts (the first part of the promenade, set over artisanal workshops), then grab a Vélib for extra speed on ground level along the Coulée Verte’s shaded old train lines.
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Paté? Check. Baguette? Check. Wine? Check. Now you’re ready for your panoramic picnic. Of all Paris’s parks, the Buttes Chaumont has the highest levels of charm and views, with waterfalls, a lake and lovely, hilly expanses that look over the city's northern extremities. Its parklife is also rather eclectic: you’ll spot everyone from meditating Tibetan monks and joggers, to groups of friends, and families walking their dogs. When the wine runs dry, Rosa Bonheur (the Buttes Chaumont’s guinguette) has a well-stocked bar where you can finish your day.
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Every Friday night, the whoosh of tiny wheels on tarmac can be heard throughout the capital as thousands of rollerbladers whizz around town with Pari Roller. Don your pads and helmet and join the throngs at Place Raoul Dautry at Monparnasse when the clock strikes 10pm. You’ll cover around 27kms in all (with a pause halfway round), and just when your knees can take no more, you'll head back to base at 1am. Just remember that Pari Roller cancels the ride when il pleut, as roads get dangerously slippery in the rain.
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Marie de Médici's Jardin du Luxembourg is a looker: parterres of lawn, tree-shaded alleys, statuary, water fountains and even an apple orchard make a postcard-perfect backdrop for an afternoon’s stroll. Kids are entertained too thanks to miniature sailing ships, pony rides and puppet shows. On your way round, look out for Bartholdi’s original Statue of Liberty (before he made the one for NYC); and spare a thought for Hemingway: when he was down and out in Paris, the Jardin du Luxembourg was his hunting ground for plump pigeons.
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Bring your bat ‘n’ balls and test your reflexes on the Canal de l’Ourcq’s table-tennis tables. Then, when you’re all ping-ponged out, head to the Bar de l’Ourcq (after 3pm) for liquid sustenance, before battling it out with a game of boules – also known as pétanque. The bar is set by a flat sandy stretch on the water’s edge and will usually let you borrow its balls. They’ll give you plastic glasses too, so that you can sup Chardonnay while you take in the Canal de l’Ourcq’s urban skyline.
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Navigating the French capital on two wheels may feel daunting at times, but since the arrival of Vélib, Paris’s fab self-hire cycle scheme, drivers are more tuned-in to cyclists and the number of cycle lanes has multiplied. Grab a Vélib from a stand then pedal your way around Paris for free for 30mins. When your time’s up, find a stand and return the bike, or carry on and pay 1€ for every extra half hour.
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Paris’ RIP VIPs are mostly at Père Lachaise, the city’s most famous cemetery, where the likes of Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde get to party together in the afterlife. Bring a book and soak up the quiet; it’s surprisingly soothing, with trees, flowers and birds. Or grab a map and check out the tombs: as well as from Oscar and Jim, you’ll find Gertrude Stein, Balzac, Sarah Berhardt and Colette. One of Père Lachaise’s most visited graves belongs to Bonne Maman (division 94), a 19th-century spiritualist whose tomb is said to have healing powers.
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When the kids need to let off steam, a trip to the Jardin d’Acclimatation usually does the trick. Start with a ride on the mini-train from Porte Maillot to the park; then it’s full steam ahead to the funfair, the wooden climbing frames, the Enchanted River Cruise, which takes you along a winding waterway in a flat-bottomed boat, and the magic mirror garden. The Jardin d’Acclimatation also has educational sections with an organic veggie patch, beehives, a little Normandy-style farm and a giant aviary.
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Louis XIII’s medicinal garden, the Jardin des Plantes, offers visitors a fine, floral-scented afternoon amid rows of roses, poppies, herbs and centuries old trees. Eleven gardens make up the park, including glorious 19th-century greenhouses filled with exotic shrubs, and the Alpine garden, where over 2,000 species of mountain flora grow. This is also where you’ll find the pistachio tree that botanist Sébastien Vaillant used in 1718 to prove that plants have a gender. If you’re travelling with kids the Jardin des Plantes’ Menagerie is a lovely little zoo with reassuringly happy-looking animals.
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