I liked walking around Paris and did found minor interesting things there: statues, parks, that sort of thing. Paris looked good outside of main tourist attraction to me.

My wife and I took a walk along one of the Paris canals on a nice early spring day. You are very right that there wasn't much exciting to see once we got out of the touristy areas but locals were out enjoying the day and it was nice to see how the more average Parisian lives rather than only seeing the attractions and neighborhoods occupied by the 7 zeroes and up class.

I think we walked 18 miles that day all told.