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Boutique hotels

Self-catering properties

Paris Overview

France

Cityscape
Boulevards, boutiques, brasseries
City life
Vie bohème

Paris is a dream project for pedestrians, with endless secrets hidden away from all the wonderful clichés.

From the top of Montmartre to the tip of the Eiffel Tower, in the Louvre or on the Left Bank, Paris is stylish to its bones: not merely cool and chic, but seriously creative. Between its Gothic cathedrals and grand avenues are flashes of futuristic bravura: the Pompidou Centre and L’Institut du Monde Arabe, proving the revolutionary spirit is alive and relevant. It’s the layers of old and new, privilege and punk, that give Paris its ageless verve – the 8ème and 16ème arrondissements are tops for couture-clad swanking; diehard romantics will always have Montmartre (trendier than ever, these days); and Montorgueil is the up-and-coming area to watch.

Perfectly Paris

Play ‘Through the Keyhole’ with this select handful of establishments and you could only be in Paris. Visit Musée Carnavalet on Rue de Sévigné, 3ème, for an engaging history of the 1789 revolution (www.carnavalet.paris.fr). Turn teatime into an elegant ritual at Mariage Frères, 13 rue des Grands Augustins, 6ème (+33 (0)1 40 51 82 50; www.mariagefreres.com). To enjoy the naff-but-fun, safely air-brushed end of Parisian sleaze, try Le Crazy Horse on Avenue George V, 8ème (www.lecrazyhorseparis.com). It’s a cabaret performance in a small theatre where drinks are brought to your seat, meaning you never have to tear your gaze from the semi-naked burlesque dancing girls.

Local knowledge

Taxis
Can be hailed in the street if you’re more than 100 metres from a rank (these are all over Paris and have phones if no taxi is waiting).

Tipping culture
In bars, leave small change amounting to about 10 per cent. Restaurants usually state service compris, but it is polite to leave change.

Siesta and fiesta
Parisians hit the cafés around 7am for breakfast; shops usually open 10am–7pm. Restaurants get busy around 9pm, and clubs can stay open until dawn.

Packing tips
Sunglasses, silk scarf, cigarette holder. An arrondissement city map (taxi drivers can be uncertain).

Recommended reads
Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire; A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens; A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway; Paris: Capital of the World by P L R Higonnet; Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell; Perfume by Patrick Süskind. Three to Kill by Jean-Patrick Manchette; The Shoe Queen by Anna Davis.

Cuisine
If you only do one thing in Paris, let it be sipping a crème or a pastis at a boulevard bistro: whatever your wont (still-walking steak, croque monsieur, rillettes, warm chèvre salad or tarte tatin), it will taste immeasurably better eaten at a round alfresco table on a cane chair. Paris is also renowned for its dainty tea houses and French fancies – by which we mean mouthwatering millefeuilles, melting macaroons and buttery pastries. Ladurée is beloved of fashionistas for its pretty pastel macaroons; Mariage Frères is one of the finest tea rooms; and you’ll often see a scrum queuing outside haute pâtissier Pierre Hermé on Rue Bonaparte in chic St Germain (+33 1 43 54 47 77; www.pierreherme.com). We love his praline-packed 2,000 Feuilles.

Currency
Euro (€).

Time zone
GMT +1.

Dialling codes
Country code for France: 33. Paris: 1.

Do go/don't go
Paris shuts down (and relaxes) in August, a national holiday. Go in spring, when the blossom’s out, or autumn, not least for Nuit Blanche, an all-night culturefest.

Don't go home without...

…stopping at a boulevard bistro to sip a café crème or a pastis. Whatever your wont (still-walking steak, croque monsieur, rillettes, warm chèvre salad or tarte tatin), it will taste immeasurably better eaten at a cane chair and round table, alfresco.