Weekends in Paris, especially in the summer, can be crazy and jam-packed with tourists. If you can spare the time, it's best to spend the weekend avoiding sights such as the Eiffel Tower like the plague, and instead opting for a local-style urban relaxation. This is how we spent last Sunday in Paris.
Start your day at the Petit Palais. Wander around the exhibition halls, and follow up with some tea or a chilled pea & mint soup with a view onto the beautiful courtyard garden. This museum isn't as popular with tourists as some others, so you'll escape the crowds here, but you'll be hard-pressed finding a table in the garden, as this spot is very popular with locals - totally worth the wait though!
Get on the metro to Saint Paul, and queue for some ethnic street food at King Felafel Palace on Rue des Rosiers. Walk a few houses down and step through the archway at number 10 to eat your take away pita in the charming Jardin des Rosiers - Joseph Migneret.
Walk lunch off in the streets of Le Marais. Drop in a few boutiques, sit down to listen to street music on the edge of the sidewalk, and be sure to keep an eye out for the dancing grandma of Le Marais - we found her and her accompanying band across from the Carnavalet Museum on Rue des France-Bourgeois.
Stop for cafe au lait at a sidewalk cafe. We enjoyed sitting in the little red chairs at Le Petit Italien at 5 Rue Saint-Gilles.