3 Best Sights in Les Grands Boulevards, Paris

Considering that a daily dose of chocolate is practically obligatory in Paris, it's hard to believe that this spot (opened in 2010) is the city's first museum dedicated to the sweet stuff. Exhibits on three floors tell the story of chocolate from the earliest traces of the "divine nectar" in Mayan and Aztec cultures, through to its introduction in Europe by the Spanish, who added milk and sugar to the spicy, dark brew and launched a Continental craze. There are detailed explanations in English, with many for the kids. While the production of chocolate is a major topic, the museum also has a respectable collection of some 1,000 chocolate-related artifacts, such as terra-cotta Mayan sipping vessels (they blew into straws to create foam) and delicate chocolate pots in fine porcelain that were favored by the French royal court. Frequent chocolate-making demonstrations finish with a free tasting.

If you like wax museums, this one founded in 1882 ranks among the best. Pay the steep entry price and ascend a grand Phantom of the Opera–like staircase into the Palais des Mirages, a mirrored salon from the 1900 Paris Exposition that transforms into a hokey sound-and-light show the kids will love. (It was a childhood favorite of designer Jean-Paul Gaultier, who is in the collection, of course.) From there, get set for a cavalcade of nearly 300 statues, from Elvis to Ernest Hemingway, Picasso to the late Queen Elizabeth II. Every king of France is here, along with Mick Jagger and George Clooney, plus scores of French singers and celebrities.

This exquisitely landscaped, 20-acre park began in 1778 as the Duc de Chartres's private garden. Though some of the land was sold off under the Second Empire (creating the exclusive real estate that now borders the park), the refined atmosphere and some of the fanciful faux ruins have survived. Immaculately dressed children play under the watchful eye of their nannies, while lovers cuddle on the benches. In 1797, André Garnerin, the world's first-recorded parachutist, staged a landing in the park. The rotunda—known as the Chartres Pavilion—is surely the city's grandest public restroom: it started life as a tollhouse.