If national museums like the Musée d’Orsay are too large, and St. Germain’s galleries too small for your art appreciation fix, you’ll love the scale of Paris’s fondations and the stellar exhibitions they attract. The Cartier Fondation and Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, which are within walking distance of each other on opposite sides of the famed Montparnasse Cemetery, are sized to offer just the right dose of the familiar and the cutting edge. Exhibitions rotate several times a year, with the Cartier — housed in a light-filled, contemporary Jean Nouvel building — bringing acclaimed talent such as the Japanese pop artist Takeshi Kitano and the Australian sculptor Ron Mueck. The Cartier-Bresson, smaller and more modest, concentrates on photographers like Walker Evans and Saul Leiter.  Unless waiting for bread at the boulangerie, queuing for food is not something Parisians do. But they make an exception for Le Comptoir du Relais, and so should you. On a sloping corner in St. Germain, the sliver of a restaurant is, in fact, most noticeable for the line of hungry people waiting for the first-come-first-served weekend service from the chef Yves Camdeborde, who’s often credited with starting the “bistronomy” trend currently rocking the Right Bank. This blend of a casual bistro environment and gastronomic cooking reveals its magic with simple yet otherworldly dishes like a creamy-crunchy smoked salmon croque monsieur or even a seasonal salad, heaped with at least 10 kinds of vegetables and dusted with fine bits of crunchy onion.  Since you’re in the heart of a bustling shopping district, why not put those credit cards to use for some French treasures? (Be sure to ask salesclerks for VAT refunds.) Alexandra Sojfer makes the most ornate umbrellas and walking sticks you can imagine, with details like carved wood animal-head handles and taffeta parasols adorned with Swarovski crystals. Deyrolle appears to be a modest gardening store at street level, but ascend to the second floor to find an exotic emporium filled with rhino heads, panther skeletons, tortoise shells and all manner of taxidermy. And leave it to the French to peddle even candles with pedigrees. Cire Trudon, established in 1643, once supplied King Louis XIV’s court with candles. Today, you can take home your own piece of French history of sorts: a burning bust of Marie Antoinette or Napoleon.  Parisians dine later, so you have the excuse to indulge in one of their prime pastimes: people watching from a cafe terrace. Snatch one of the coveted seats at Café de Flore, where figures such as Simone de Beauvoir and Picasso once sipped, puffed and pontificated, and watch the coiffed regulars come in and kiss-kiss the maître d’hôtel while harried waiters in long white aprons weave and wend, delivering trays of aperitifs. Try a bitter Campari or a sweet kir, white wine with a splash of cassis.  Neither trendy nor nostalgic, Semilla manages the perfect balance of nouveau Parisian cooking. Opened in 2012 by the international team of Juan Sanchez and Drew Harré, the sparse but sophisticated restaurant (marble tabletops, concrete floors, wood-beamed ceilings) attracts an urbane clientele from the neighborhood’s galleries and bourgeois homes. The menu is organized into categories like “raw,” “steam and broth” and “from the oven,” with crowd favorites like black truffle arancini with onion cream and the côte de boeuf for two, which is presented tableside before being taken to the open kitchen, where it’s sliced and then returned with mashed potatoes and horseradish cream.
The Right Bank may be more international and trendy, but sometimes you want to pretend you’re inside a black-and-white Robert Doisneau photo.