Paris: Secondary and Tertiary sites

The Maison de Balzac just reopened (or will do so very shortly). Located on a quiet street in the 16th, it is the former residence of Balzac, famous 19th c French writer, quite cute inside, and with a pretty and peaceful garden.

On a grander scale, La Malmaison, Napoleon's former residence in Rueil, is very interesting, has a beautiful park, and is little visited. Same for Saint Denis Basilica, the resting place of the Kings of France.

Paris's free museums.

St. Denis Basilica on the 13 metro -- should be on everyone's top 5 but often overlooked
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2010/10/26/confronting-mortality-at-st-denis/
Picpus Cemetery and the Tomb of Lafayette
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2016/01/24/lafayette-we-are-here/
Promenade Plantee
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/promenade-plantee-turning-discarded-public-space-into-a-pleasant-place-for-parisians/
Remains of the human zoo at Park Vincennes
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/jardin-dagronomie-tropicale-ruins-in-paris
From the Nogent Sur Marne RER stop you can also visit the only one of Les Halles beautiful art deco halls that was preserved from the vandalism of the destruction of les Halles by Pompidou in the 60s.

The famous painting featured in Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George by Seurat (Sunday on the Island of Grand Jatte) was based on a painting done on an island in the Seine. If you go to the end of the 3 line at Pont Levallois and then cross the pont, there are stairs down to the island of Jatte in the middle of the bridge. We discovered this quite randomly
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2010/06/20/end-of-the-line-3-levallois-to-gallieni/
There are also just tons of great neighborhood walks. We had a book by Fodors years ago with self guided walks and I particularly remember one in the 16th with a lot of very interesting buildings by Guimard and the Corbusier house and museum is on that walk too.

The City of Paris Museum in the Petite Palais...EXCELLENT collection and free. Make sure to see both the upstairs and the downstairs. Pleasantly uncrowded - great cafe in the central garden.
Dayrolle - old taxidermy shop that looks like something from a movie set.
Marche Aligre in the 12th. Very local outdoor market and brocante.
Galeries Lafayette food halls. Roof of the Galeries Lafayette.
Nobody seems to go to Maxim's anymore but it's amazing! The relatively new owners have done a great job keeping/restoring the Art Nouveau interiors.
Cluny Museum...lovely small museum with the famous unicorn tapestries.
Where the Canal St. Martin comes out from underground to meet the Seine there is the Bassin de l'Arsenal. It's a lovely canal with barges and boats and some well-placed bars and grassy lawns looking over the water.
Le Train Bleu in the Gare de Lyon is a fantastic restaurant leftover from another time....hasn't changed since it was opened in 1900.
I could go on but these are pretty good start!

If you’ve been around that much, I feel like you should be telling us :)

If you haven’t been, I really enjoyed Musee Jacquemart-André combined with some time in nearby Parc Monteau. Opera Garnier would be my other secondary must-see. Otherwise, Paris’ best sight is Paris.

I second St. Denis - amazing. I am going back this trip in October.

Musée des Arts Forains. The tour was in French, and even though I don't speak French, I still enjoyed it very much. Fun interactive things too. It really was a cool, different thing to do! http://arts-forains.com/ You do have to make a reservation to visit.

Thanks, Everyone! There are some interesting options here.

I keep coming to Paris with newbies who want to see all the biggies, so I show them around and don't have a collection of stage 2 or 3 sites.

Thanks again!

Have you looked at any of Corey Frye's A French Frye in Paris videos? He is a guide who videos a walking tour most Saturdays and streams it live on his FB page. He then uploads to Youtube so you can watch all his older ones. I've found some neat sights thru his walks. I particularly liked one of the Lesser seen sights around Trocadero and walked myself over there last visit to see some of the things he pointed out.

Have you done any Paris Walks? Those often get me to areas that are a bit different.

Try a Paris Greeter
Walk though the passages of Paris
Musee Marmottan -- not undiscovered obviously, but out of the usual tourist route
Flea Markets
Rooftop bars?
A self-guided walking tour of Hemingway's Paris (I was obsessed after reading The Paris Wife
Montmartre beyond Sacre Coeur
Crepes near Montparnasse Tower