The best city break is rarely your first time somewhere new. Instead it’s the second, the third, the fourth visit, when you’ve already ticked off the big sights and can really relax — and when your travel itinerary says little more than eat, drink and be merry.
This is especially true in a jam-packed city such as Paris, where the secret to unlocking its best bits is choosing a great neighbourhood and never straying very far. But how to choose? Ask a Parisian for their favourite and they won’t hesitate. Ask several, though, and you are unlikely to get the same answer twice. It is these fiercely unique quartiers that make this city so alluring, so worthy of returning. Or at least that’s what I think, having lived in Paris in my early twenties and gone back again and again, each time continuing my quest to find the best crêpe.
On my most recent trip I decided on the Marais, opposite Notre-Dame Cathedral on the Right Bank of the Seine. I was already a fan: in part because it’s home to great museums such as the Musée National Picasso-Paris (£13; museepicassoparis.fr) and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (£11; mep-fr.org); in part because its medieval architecture, higgledy-piggledy streets and opulent 17th-century hôtels particuliers (grand townhouses), such as Hôtel de Soubise, make it ridiculously beautiful; and in part because it’s filled with intriguing shops that sell souvenirs you’ll actually want to keep (try Sabre for posh cutlery and Chichi Castelnango for lovely lingerie, both on Rue de Poitou).
The name Marais means swamp and refers to the fact that, until the 13th century, the area used to flood. It’s had many lives since then: it was the preferred home of French nobility in the 17th century, became the Jewish quarter in the 19th and 20th century, was a centre of LGBT nightlife in the 1980s and is now a hip haven of culture, shopping and hospitality that thrums in the weekend sunshine. You’ll see a mix of these influences as you wander the streets (a falafel spot here, a rainbow mosaic heart there).
News of a hotel opening by the Experimental Group on Rue du Temple sealed the deal. The group, which has 12 boutique hotels in destinations including Paris, Val d’Isère, Menorca and the Cotswolds, is known for its fun and flirty design and cool cocktail bars. This particularly appealed as this was to be my first trip with my boyfriend, and drinking martinis (him) and margaritas (me) was high on the agenda. The location in the Haut-Marais, a northern corner of the neighbourhood that’s a little less touristy but still an easy walk from many places in the city, is sublime.
The hotel is not new but a takeover of the Sinner, which opened in 2019. That iteration was a mischievous, sexy take on a medieval church. Staff dressed in robes, while there were glowing lanterns, lots of dark corners and even a confession booth in the lobby. It was also known for being a party spot, with a smoke machine, DJ and late-night dancing in the bar.
Much like the Marais over the years, the hotel has been reinvented rather than totally transformed, with the Sinner’s interior designer, Tristen Auer, overseeing the space again. It still feels sexy but is now more grown-up and refined — less theme, more thought. The chef Mélanie Serre is leading the charge in the gorgeous double-height chop house Temple & Chapon, which has a living wall, long flickering candles and a menu of seafood and meat (mains from £20).
The cooking is great and the ambience delightful, but it is the American Bar upstairs that is the standout, with low-slung chairs and moody lighting. Drinks are inspired by acclaimed New York bars — try the fat-washed Benton’s old fashioned and a seriously smooth dry martini — and there are intriguing original takes too, such as the Flatiron, an upgrade on the margarita with tequila, mango, manzanilla and chipotle salt (cocktails from £14). It’s a place where you want to keep ordering another, where time slips away.
• Discover our full guide to Paris
The 43 rooms have similar interiors to the Sinner days but you can see why they haven’t changed them much: they are lovely, containing funky geometric green sofas, pops of burnt red in the furnishings, stacks of vinyl and French books, nice modern art (which has been updated) and powerful rainfall showers. The minibar now has Experimental Cocktail Club drinks, of course. And on the first floor there’s a small spa in collaboration with the natural skincare brand Suzanne Kaufmann, with great treatments such as couples’ massages (£125pp).
Given the great location and the fact we want to stay local rather than zipping all over the city, we don’t take the Metro once during the weekend. We order flaky pastries and orange juices to our room for lazy mornings, then meander through the streets, poking our heads into cool galleries such as Thaddeus Ropac (free; ropac.net) and lingering in the oldest square in Paris, the pleasingly symmetrical Place des Vosges. I used to love the Marché des Enfants Rouges (39 Rue de Bretagne), a busy food market that is perfect for a casual lunch, and am pleased to find a new contender for best crêpe at the street food spot Lulu (crêpes from £7; @lulu.creperie). The serrano ham and pesto galette has at least an inch of moreish crispy mozzarella peeking out from the top.
On our final night we pair champagne with sole in a punchy gochujang sauce at Le Mary Celeste on Rue Commines (mains from £15; lemaryceleste.com) and return to the hotel’s cocktail bar, where we once again lose track of time. No matter: as this isn’t the first time in Paris for either of us, we don’t have anywhere else to be.
Lizzie Frainier was a guest of Hotel Experimental Marais (B&B doubles from £392; experimentalmarais.com). Take the train to Paris
Four more other great Paris neighbourhoods to explore
Belleville by Huw Oliver
I didn’t have much sense when I spent a year in Paris at 21 — for a start, I remained a vegetarian throughout — but somehow I landed a pied à terre off what is still my favourite street in the city, Rue de Belleville. This stretch separates the 19th and 20th arrondissements in northeastern Paris and winds up a hill that, like Montmartre, sat outside the city walls until the Belleville commune was annexed in 1860. The quartier is perhaps best known for its rebellious working-class roots (its people were among the staunchest backers of the 1871 Paris Commune, a revolutionary government that took power for just over two months). Nowadays, it’s one of the few inner-city neighbourhoods that feels genuinely diverse, with big Chinese, Vietnamese and north African communities.
Two glorious parks bookend Belleville. To the north, Parc des Buttes Chaumont is a former quarry filled with lakes, follies, epic bridges and Rosa Bonheur, a colourful LGBT-friendly bar in the middle that buzzes with post-work drinkers (glasses of wine from £5; rosabonheur.fr). To the south, the hilltop Parc de Belleville offers spectacular views towards the Seine, with only a fraction of the tourists you’d find at the Sacré-Coeur in Montmartre. The Frenchest thing I’ve ever witnessed was an angry woman throwing onions out of her window (I couldn’t figure out why) from the delightful terrace at restaurant Moncoeur Belleville at the top of the park (mains from £13; moncoeurbelleville.com).
Belleville’s most famous former resident is Édith Piaf, who sang at the Aux Folies bar on Rue de Belleville, and this youthful area is still renowned for its live music. Line your stomach at Le Cadoret, a casual bistro with a zinc-topped bar serving exquisite fish dishes and natural wines (mains from £19; @le_cadoret), drink a cocktail or two at flower-festooned Combat (from £9; @combat.belleville), then catch some punk at La Maroquinerie (lamaroquinerie.fr), jazz at La Bellevilloise (labellevilloise.com), or world music at Studio de l’Ermitage (studio-ermitage.com). The place to crash is Babel (room-only doubles from £110; babel-belleville.com), a sleek restaurant with rooms off the graffiti-splashed Rue Dénoyez. I’d spend another year in Belleville if I could.
St Germain des Prés by Cathy Adams
The St Germain des Prés neighbourhood, across Le Pont des Arts south of the Seine, has always had a non-conformist streak — which is probably why I love it. It’s perhaps best known as the setting of the birth of existentialism, after the Second World War. The philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir would chew the fat at Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots on Boulevard St Germain (once very ordinary, now firmly overtouristed). To this renegade young French student, ordering une crème for a fiver from the very seats where life’s true meaning was discussed felt the ultimate in cerebral chic.
• Great things to do in Paris with children
Now I do mind the crowds, the prices and the poncey faux-philosophers, and I know the proper places to hang out. I don’t bother with the forest green and lemon-yellow Shakespeare and Company on the Left Bank, and instead nose around the classy Assouline Paris on Rue Bonaparte (assouline.com); I swerve the Instagram-famous Brasserie Lipp and instead grab takeaway croques and jambon beurre baguettes from the belle époque Gosselin boulangerie on Boulevard St Germain (from £3; gosselin.paris).
Like the regulars Marion Cotillard and Catherine Deneuve, I love Bar Josephine in the grand Lutetia on Boulevard Raspail — the Left Bank’s only Palace hotel, a French designation that means it is rated above five stars (B&B doubles from £1,258; hotellutetia.com). When your wallet can’t stretch to a Round Midnight cocktail (£23), its take on an espresso martini, sit on an outdoor table underneath vibey Sip Babylone opposite the Sèvres-Babylone Metro and order a coupe of house champagne (£11; @sipcafebabylone). Here, watching all of Parisian life pass by, I feel like the most perfect version of myself.
• Read our full review of the Lutetia
Now visiting with a boisterous five-year-old, it’s the simpler things I enjoy about St Germain des Prés. My son might one day want to see Paris Saint-Germain play in Parc des Princes in western Paris, but for now it’s a sunny wander through the Jardin du Luxembourg with a coffee. You might have to pay for the children’s playground — £2.50 for the wooden Ludo Jardin (jardin.senat.fr) — but still, it’s cheaper than a coffee at Café de Flore.
Canal St Martin by Genevieve Wheeler
Designed to expand access to fresh drinking water after a cholera outbreak, and constructed under Napoleon’s rule in the early 19th century, Canal St Martin has a rich history. But what sets this northern quartier apart are its bobo (bohemian-bourgeois, meaning free-spirited but high-earning) residents, who have revived the area in recent years, bringing fresh life and plenty of new storefronts to its banks.
Having lived in Paris off and on since the Nineties, it’s one of those neighbourhoods I’ve watched transform over time. Once edged by factories and warehouses, the canal is lined with dozens of bars, restaurants and boutiques, each begging you to pop in for a quick peek — stop by the bookshop Artazart on Quai Valmy, then try on some handcrafted jewellery at Dante & Maria on Rue de la Grange aux Belles — or an apéro en plein air, particularly on sun-soaked evenings in spring and summer. Brasserie Valma (brasserie-valma.fr), La Marine (lamarinecanalsaintmartin.com) and Chez Prune (chez-prune.res-menu.com) — all unfussy restos just across from the canal with outdoor seating and classic French dishes — are a few of my favourite spots. If you’re looking for something with more energy, order a ginger rum cocktail and fruits de mer at Le Comptoir Général on Quai de Jemmapes, which often has live music and dancing (sharing plates from £8; lecomptoirgeneral.com).
As far as hotels go, Le Grand Quartier is hard to top, both in terms of location and price (room-only doubles from £110; legrandquartier.com). Set around a large garden on Rue de Nancy, a ten-minute walk from the canal, it has a lovely rooftop bar.
In the morning, try Ten Belles on Rue de la Grange aux Belles (tenbelles.com) or Residence Kann on Rue des Vinaigriers (residencekanncoffeeshop.wordpress.com) for a coffee, then head over to Holybelly on Rue Lucien Sampaix for an American-style brunch of pancakes, hash browns and eggs (mains from £8; holybellycafe.com). It doesn’t take reservations so there’s a perpetual queue, but its sweet stack and bourbon-butter pancakes are well worth the wait. Or, if you’re craving pastries, Du Pain et des Idées on Rue Yves Toudic has flaky pains aux raisins and delicious croissants (from £1; dupainetdesidees.com).
Montmartre by Hannah Meltzer
Like most Parisians, adopted or otherwise, I am loyal to the area where I live — but that doesn’t mean it’s not also the best. I’ve lived in the 18th arrondissement, the neighbourhood on and surrounding the Montmartre hill in northern Paris, for six years. This idiosyncratic area was once a hilltop country village, first mined for gypsum by the Romans, and later dotted with vineyards and then windmills (some of which can still be seen today). It was annexed to Paris in 1860 but retained a unique identity as a bastion of counterculture, first as the hub of the Paris Commune uprising in 1871 and then the stomping ground of artists such as Pablo Picasso and Suzanne Valadon.
Partially thanks to the charming book and film Amélie, the butte of Montmartre has become a must on the tourist circuit. To explore the best-known sites, wind your way up Rue Lepic, passing Les Deux Moulins, the café where Amélie worked (cafedesdeuxmoulins.fr), then the former home of Vincent van Gogh at No 54. Alternatively, for the price of a Metro ticket, you can ride the funicular all the way to the top, landing at the steps of the Sacré-Coeur basilica for a dome tour (£7; sacre-coeur-montmartre.com).
• More great things to do in the City of Lights
I always recommend a visit to the Montmartre Museum, a small but beguiling gallery housed in Renoir’s former studio (£13; museedemontmartre.fr). Be sure to explore the gardens, which back onto the area’s last surviving vineyard. Each October, this part of the hill throngs with merrymakers celebrating the Grape Harvest Festival (fetedesvendangesdemontmartre.com).
For a quieter feel, head down to my hood on the northern side of the hill, which in contrast to the tourist-trodden zone around Sacré-Coeur is quiet and local. In the area around the Metro stops Jules Joffrin and Lamarck-Caulaincourt, you’ll find a generous selection of authentic neighbourhood bistros and bars, from long-established legends such as Au Rêve (mains from £15; aureve.com) to more contemporary alternatives, including the cool cocktail bar Hiru (sharing plates from £12; hiruparismontmartre.com) and the low-key modern gastronomic restaurant Fana (mains from £18; fanabistro.fr).
Terrass Hotel on top of the hill is a hit with both visitors and locals (room-only doubles from £300; terrass-hotel.com). For a special occasion, I recommend the rooms for a contemporary take on luxury — and you can book a treatment at the Nuxe spa or sip on a cocktail while watching the Eiffel Tower sparkle from the rooftop bar.
Please share your favourite Paris neighbourhood in the comments
Become a subscriber and, along with unlimited digital access to The Times and The Sunday Times, you can enjoy a collection of travel offers and competitions curated by our trusted travel partners, especially for Times+ members
