Paris Step by Step: A Romantic Weekend in the 1st

It’s the ultimate cliché – romantic Paris – but every commonplace conceals a truth. 1st choice for the amorous has to be the 1st arrondisement, Paris Central, at any time of year.

Paris still holds sway over the romantic. I was invited to the wedding of a giggling couple who flew in, dined on the Champs Elysses, proposed on a bateau mouche, and were now sipping champagne before the Eiffel Tower (flashing its illuminations every hour). And this wasn’t even spring – it was midwinter!

Paris is a beautiful city, its Haussmann architecture has survived the years and prevented the kind of development which created post-war modernity around the world, at a cost. Chic Parisians appreciate their midtown: boulevards and avenues, high culture, and good food.  The traffic may be a nightmare, there may be political unrest, but for le weekend, join them.

Getting there:

From London, Eurostar is the best, cheapest, greenest way and within two and a half hours you are in central Paris. Once you hit the Gare du Nord go downstairs and take the metro (only €1.60 for a single ticket) and take RER B to Chatelet Les Halles or go one stop further from there on line 1 to Louvre Rivoli or take a taxi (€10). If you haven’t booked accommodation, head straight to the ultra modern L’Office du Tourisme at 25 Rue des Pyramides (Metro Pyramides) who will help. To book in advance, look at their website and multi-lingual books (such as Paris Hebergements) for extensive, reliable information.

OK. WE’RE HERE.

All large cities are confusing at first, with tourist traps and areas to avoid. But Paris is laid out like a child’s jigsaw – a basic map is of 20 different coloured arrondisements and Number One sits in the middle, on the ‘right’ bank of the Seine.

This is where Paris fashion is centred, mostly expensive but with bargains at big names like Galleries Lafayette, Printemps, and Monoprix. This is also where you’ll find The Louvre, where the Mona Lisa is just the start.

STAY WHERE?
Not that long ago, the words “I know a little place just by the Louvre” either meant the eye-wateringly expensive (The Ritz) or the down and dirty. Or both. But then boutique hotels arrived. You can still find fleapits but Paris has buffed up. 

The Hotel Lumen is chic and stylish, a flick from the catwalk that is Rue St Honore, and a mere brushstroke from the Louvre. Small and discreet, created for business or pleasure. Or possibly both.

A petite, sharp lobby features bespoke modish furniture – the designer Claudio Colucci created a milestone in hotel design here two years ago – and the desk staff will not only welcome you in English, but recommend and book dinner, shows, whatever. The Lumen’s own restaurant, Saint Roch, defies the rule “we must go out” as you’ll notice lots of Parisians coming in to eat here. Friday nights are busy, but a late arrival from London doesn’t require a search around town for closing bistros, you can linger here with a fairly voguish crowd over a steak tartare and a glass or two of Burgundy, before they get a cab and you retire upstairs.

The bedrooms tick all the boxes for comfort and joy. Large, inviting beds, crisp white linens, flat screen TV, hair dryers and a general sense of modernity throughout. Clean, sharp and alluring. Rooms aren’t big but the balconies open out on to Rue des Pyramides, where the Louvre is clearly visible at the end of your street.

Now that is cool.

REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL, 1,2,3...

(1)    Rue St Honore
A few metres from the Hotel Lumen, the street in which to spend the day.

Start at Colette (213), which from the day it opened a decade ago became the world's coolest shop. It still is. Think Conran with designer fashion (Adidas to Yamamoto via Jimmy Choo and Miu Miu), restaurant (lower ground) and art space. Colette is loud, vibrant and the flagship of Parisian cool. Plus it's named after the owner's mum.

To satisfy the fashionista in you there's also Stephane Marais make-up (217), brilliant hats and shoes from Jacques le Corre (193), and up a side street (rue du Marche St-Honore) Vercourt Paris for decently priced menswear. This really was a marketplace before being covered in glass: some signs, a bar or two, are still there beside the Marc Jacobs superstore.

Up at 384 you'll find John Galliano and over the road minaPoe, another funky mix of fashion and accessories.

At Rue Cambon, you're at the heart of things - Chanel, blah - so make a left and find Rue du Mont Thabor, the "new St Honore" as evidenced by the arrival of Yohji Yamamoto's flagship store and Maria Luisa, plus a variety of other small, quirky shops. 

Seats outside the little café opposite Colette is grandstand central for people watching.

Walk east, towards the centre of Paris, and fashion gives way to tourism and commerce, but along the way the Palais Royal and the Temple Protestant de l'Oratoire du Louvre are interesting diversions, the latter with French Opera performances on occasion. The walk comes to a natural end at the Pompidou Centre, the famous inside-out art gallery/study centre of Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers.

(2)    Yikes! Bikes!
Velib has taken hold in metropolitan Europe, and kicked off first in Paris. It's a public bike-sharing service that works a treat. Go to the website first (ideally before leaving home) to check it out. This is a system that really works for both residents and visitors alike. It's heavily used and is the best way to see parts of central Paris. There are kerbside stalls all over the city (1450 at the last count holding 20,000 bikes), with several in Rue St Honore, a short hop to the beautiful Tuilerie Gardens and the Louvre. The bikes are well maintained, safe and clean but check them out first (like, are the tyres inflated?). The first half hour is always free, after that it's a euro or two. Unlock your chosen bicycle (via a keypad) pedal off then leave it any of the other stations around the area. Simple. Your credit card will be docked €150 for non-return.

(3)    Art
In Paris it seems somehow right to visit the kind of art gallery you'd avoid back home.

The Louvre is the most visited art museum in the world. A Grand Palace and French National Monument, it famously houses the Mona Lisa where permanent queues of snapping flashing tourists tend to spoil things a bit, but the collections of Antiquities and decorative arts are unrivalled. Try going when it's a little quieter (Mondays at 10am) or Wednesday/Friday evenings when it's open until 10pm. About €9 entrance, except the first Sunday in every month (free).

If the Louvre is too crowded, over the river is the Musee D'Orsay, a splendid collection of 19th Century French art - the impressionists most notably - in a beautiful conversion of a former railway station.

More modern appetites should be sated at the Pompidou Centre, a very pleasant half hour stroll from the Louvre in the Beaubourg (4th), which is how it's referred to locally (Metro: Les Halles). Its forecourt attracts buskers and street performers year round, but inside, it's much more rewarding. Head up the exterior escalators to floors 4/5/6 for the best modern art collection in all of France, therefore possibly the world, in the Musee National Moderne d'Art. There are hundreds of works which rotate but they include the Matisse originals for his masterpiece chapel in Vence and works by Ben, whose latest scribblings can be found on the covers for mobile phones.

Sadly, the area's shops are mostly tourist tat now, apart from 1969 Curiosities Desirables at, ahem, 69 Rue St Martin which takes a very Parisian approach to toys, chocolate, and intimacy. Just opposite the church, interestingly.

LET'S DO LUNCH

Cheap

Since quality croissants and coffee have now conquered the world, it's back to basics for elevenses. Tartine et confiture is exactly what it sounds - a long slice of baguette with jam. Sometimes it's just plain old bread, but sometimes it's carefully toasted sourdough Poilane with home made preserve. Towards lunch try it with rillettes, or just grilled with olive oil and salad. 

Not so cheap

While strolling east along Rue St Honore at no. 150, (just opposite the Temple Protestant de L'oratoire du Louvre), you'll find Restaurant du Stado, an unprepossessing little Bistro full of happy Parisians. It's dedicated to rugby and Alain Barriere, a 60's singer unknown outside France (unless you're a devotee of Eurovision - 1963!) who's top-selling songs were only outweighed by his outspoken opinions.

The €17 menu will give you a choice of entrée, plat and dessert du jour. It's not a landmark restaurant - in fact I've never seen it written up anywhere - but it is nice to randomly find a little bistro sometimes that doesn't disappoint. Or break the bank. Cheerful service, reasonable food.

Not cheap at all

If you're going to do this area justice, then it's the Hotel Costes at 239 Rue St Honore, the most talked about bar/restaurant/hotel in Paris. Don't even think about wearing anything last season (i.e. five minutes ago), the staff will know. At night the dinner can only be described as wallet-emptying but in the courtyard during the day a light lunch and a glass of Chablis is a very pleasant thing. As darkness falls, it becomes destination cool.

AN APERITIF

The definitive cocktail bar is in The Ritz (see below) but a stroll along the Seine into the neighbouring 8th will brinjg you to the bottom of Avenue Georges V, where it meets the impossibly fashionable Avenue Montaigne. This is Place de l'Alma, where sits Chez Francis, resplendent in red velvet, polished dark wood and chandeliers, just as it was in 1900 when it opened. The dinner menu's a bit steep but a glass of champagne outside comes with one of the best places in Paris to sit and contemplate the Eiffel Tower which, just for you, will light up on the hour, every evening.

DINNER IS SERVED

The Brasseries from Alsace which dominated Paris dining are now generally herded under one umbrella, the Flo Brasserie Group named after the original in the 10th. Of the entire group, there are two worth travelling to for dinner. Bofinger beside the Bastille and La Coupole on Boulevard Montparnasse. Both are open to 1am, are big and certainly not cheap but they manage to convey a charm largely absent elsewhere. The food? Oysters followed by choucroute - pickled cabbage served with a variety of sausages, salted meats, charcuterie, potatoes and a hearty mustard. Yum. Drink Riesling too.

DRIVE BY

For an hour or so...

Les Bateaux Mouches ply their trade up and down the Seine, ferrying thousands of visitors each year between Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. A cliché indeed.

Do it.

For the day...

Versailles sits west of Paris, the RER ‘C' Line from Musee d'Orsay will take you. The gardens are overwhelming, the buildings make Buckingham Palace seem small. Fabulous day out. Now with an added Gordon Ramsay restaurant. (You cannot escape!)

Overnight...

The Ritz in Place Vendome. Rooms start at €700, suites at €3000.

Or possibly just a drink in the Hemingway Bar - he claimed to liberate the place in WW2. Merci beaucoup, Ernest.