Paris like the locals: four days outside the Eiffel cluster

Four days in Paris without a minute spent queuing at the Eiffel Tower. Not to be alternative for the sake of it, but because the 11th, 12th and Belleville offer a Paris that is much quieter than the cluster around Champ-de-Mars and the Louvre. We at Favotrip think this is the Paris people come back for, which is why our Paris package is deliberately built around three or four nights in a hotel with Metro on its doorstep. From London via Eurostar to Gare du Nord, you are in central Paris in two hours twenty. Two nights are simply not enough to escape the Eiffel cluster.

The 11th: Rue Oberkampf and the bistro you should know

The 11th arrondissement is, for us, the Paris we like to sleep in. No five-storey Haussmann facades, but narrower streets with shops not yet bought up by international chains. Rue Oberkampf and Rue Saint-Maur are the heart, and on a Friday night every bistro is full of Parisians who are not there to take photographs. Our Paris packages put you in a hotel with the Metro within reach, so you can get from the centre to the 11th in ten minutes without working out the ticket system yourself. At Le Servan on Rue Saint-Maur 32 we had a lunch menu we would have paid double for in London. What we appreciate about this arrondissement: you can walk the streets until midnight and nothing happens. Quiet, ordinary, normal Paris.

Marais on a Tuesday, not a Saturday

The Marais is no secret any more. On a Saturday afternoon Rue des Rosiers is a moving stream of tourists heading for L'As's falafel. But on a Tuesday morning at half ten it is quiet, and the protected beauty of the lanes, the corner of Rue Vieille-du-Temple and Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, the one with the blue awning, only reveals itself then. Which is why our package deliberately runs three or four nights and not two: it gives you room to do these places on the calmer days. Place des Vosges is, in our view, the most important square in the city, perfectly square, perfectly symmetrical, with a park in the middle where you can comfortably sit on a bench for an hour. Pair it with the Musee Carnavalet (free) for an hour of Paris city history. Then coffee at Boot Cafe on Rue du Pont aux Choux, a converted shoemaker's of four square metres.

Belleville: the Paris that has not been restored yet

Line 11 from Chatelet, get off at Belleville. A district with a large Chinese and Tunisian population, conveyor-belt restaurants, artist studios in old factory buildings and a view over the city where no tourist stands. Parc de Belleville is a terrace garden on a hill and the view towards the Eiffel is just as good as from Sacre-Coeur, without the crush. We always have a drink at Aux Folies, Rue de Belleville 8, a neighbourhood cafe whose terrace fills with thirty-somethings from the area in June and July. Then a bowl of hand-pulled noodles at Le Grand Bol on Rue du Faubourg du Temple. This is not the Champs-Elysees version of Paris, that is exactly the point, and exactly why our package includes the Metro pass so that this kind of side trip happens without faff.

Buttes-Chaumont: the loveliest park you have not heard of

Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, 19th arrondissement, was until a few years ago entirely unknown to British visitors. We ask around at a cafe every season, and six in ten UK guests have never been. Hard to fathom. It is a Napoleon III park on a former limestone quarry, with a lake, a small island topped by a Roman temple replica, and a hanging footbridge. Three times the size of Place des Vosges, and on a Saturday it has none of the Hyde Park crush. Picnic under the trees, bread and cheese from Fromagerie Beillevaire on Rue de Belleville. You can easily lose four hours here. Then back to the hotel on line 11. No Louvre, no queue, no complaint, and precisely why we believe a Paris package does not have to revolve around the well-known top list.

The Seine cruise that is actually worth it

Going against our own grain for once: the evening Seine cruise is genuinely worth it. Not the big bateaux-mouches, the speakers are too loud and the groups too large. The Vedettes du Pont-Neuf from Place du Pont-Neuf instead. Save it for the last hour of light (in May that is around 9.15 pm), and you glide under twelve bridges and see Notre-Dame, the Louvre and the Eiffel from the water in pink-gold evening light. Our Paris packages with evening cruise have the ticket already in your name, no queue at the quay, you walk through and step on. Three quarters of an hour looking out, and the last fifteen minutes for photos. It is the most touristy advice in this whole article, and we still think it earns its place.

Why three or four nights, not two

We often get the question why our Paris package is not bookable as two nights. Honestly: because that is not the Paris we believe in. A two-night break means Friday to Sunday, and you walk straight into the Eiffel cluster. Three or four nights gives you Sunday in the 11th, Monday in Belleville (Metro is quiet then), and a Tuesday morning in the Marais without the masses. We only build packages we believe in, and a two-night Paris trip does not give us better memories.

Three small lessons before you leave

One: do not arrive on Saturday. Friday or Sunday, that way you avoid the Saturday peak in the Marais and you have Sunday in the 11th. Two: one arrondissement per day. Our editorial team tried eight in four days the first time, and came home having forgotten everything. Concentration helps. Three: no Metro between 5 and 6.30 pm. We have stood in a sardine tin four times. Walk, take a Velib, or sit on a terrace for an hour. Paris asks you to slow down, not to speed up.

Which Paris package fits your weekend?

For a couple on a first proper Paris trip: our three-night package with hotel in the 11th or Marais and an evening Seine cruise. For repeat visitors who want to skip the well-known clusters: four nights with Friday arrival, no Eiffel ticket, but Metro pass and one museum entry of your choice. For a group of friends: book midweek, avoid the Metro rush hour, and pick the variant without a fixed dinner so you can discover the neighbourhood food yourselves. Below you will find the packages this article refers to, take a look at which one fits your weekend.