Paris

50 things to do in Paris

Billiards and brasseries, catacombs and cocktails, 50 ways to enjoy the perfect Paris trip

1. Picnic under the Eiffel Tower
You may have been there, done that and bought the keyring on your first trip, but visiting Paris without glimpsing La Tour is unthinkable. If you’re over when the weather’s warmer, head for the grassy area with bread, pâté and lashings of wine for an impromptu picnic – best in the evening when 20,000 bulbs flash on the tower for ten minutes every hour for shimmery effect. Of course, if you haven’t already ascended, add it to your itinerary. At the top there’s a viewing platform with panels pointing out what’s on display in every direction – on a good day, you can see for over 65km – though some of the best views are of the ironwork itself.
Eiffel Tower, Champ de Mars, 7th (00 33 1 44 11 23 45/www.tour-eiffel.fr) Métro Bir-Hakeim or RER Champ de Mars Tour Eiffel. Open until June 13 daily 9.30am-11pm, June14-Aug 31 daily 9am-12 midnight. Adm from €3.80.


2. Drink champagne at Place de la Concorde
Grandiose isn’t the half of it at the neoclassical Hôtel de Crillon, which sits resplendently on the place de la Concorde. Gilt, mirrors and marble are all in abundance and the Les Ambassadeurs restaurant has got its eye on a third Michelin star. If you can’t stretch to one of the fabulous rooms, many stuffed with antique furniture and oil paintings, you could treat yourself to a glass of Taittinger at the bar or cocktails after 6pm. Redecorated by Sonia Rykiel, it remains as elegant as ever: no wonder Madonna and Harrison Ford favour it. Needless to say, leave your trainers and scruffy jeans at home.
Hôtel de Crillon, 10 place de la Concorde, 8th (00 33 1 44 71 15 00/www.crillon.com) Métro Concorde. Open daily 11am-2am.

3. Dip into ethnic arts
Opening in June, the new Musée du Quai Branly will house a 300,000-strong collection of ethnic art from Africa, Oceania, Asia and the Americas. Its prime riverside site near the Eiffel Tower, building designed by Jean Nouvel (also responsible for L’Institut du Monde Arabe, see number 25) and landscaped gardens and open-air amphitheatre make it an exciting addition to the capital’s trad museum scene.
Musée du Quai Branly, 29-55 quai Branly, 7th (00 33 1 56 61 70 00/ www.quaibranly.fr) RER Pont de l’Alma. Phone for opening times.

4. Overhaul your underwear
Cheese, chocolate croissants, romantic movies… knickers – there are some things the French do best. Sabbia Rosa, an eternally elegant old French lady, still runs her legendary lingerie shop on rue des Saints Pères (Paris’s premier underwear shopping street), which is a favourite with Madonna and Catherine Deneuve, as well as mistresses, housewives and harlots across the globe. Buzz to enter Rosa’s small softly lit store and find a room full to the brim with desirable silk knickers and negligées in a range of take-me-to-bed shades. Go treat yourself, or indeed your loved one.
Prices start at around £35 (€50) for a pair of knickers.Sabbia Rosa, 71-73 rue des Saints Pères 75006, 6th (00 33 1 45 48 88 37) Métro St-Germain-des-Prés or Sèvres Babylone. Open Mon-Sat 10am-7pm.

Places Georges Pompidou

5. Enjoy some pomp and ceremonyOnce you have tired of gawping at all the Pompidou’s modern art and its excellent Art and Cinema exhibition (which are on display until the end of the year), take the escalator up to the top of the centre, where you’ll find the unashamedly chic restaurant Georges, run by Thierry Coste, son of revered restaurateur Gilbert. Inside it’s almost intimidatingly smart, but the heated outside terrace, designed in a swish, modern style that’s in keeping with the Pompidou’s tubular extravagance, offers some of the best views of town. You don’t have to eat – you can simply choose from the extensive cocktail list (the Shark and Lillie of the Valley come highly recommended at €15 (£10) and watch Paris go by.
Georges, Place Georges Pompidou, 19 rue Beaubourg, 4th (00 33 1 44 78 47 99) Métro Rambuteau. Open Mon, Wed-Sun 12noon-2am.

Le Corbusier

6. House hunt with Le Corbusier
You can literally tick off Corb’s points of architecture as you walk round the arresting house he designed for a Swiss art collector in 1923. Main part of house elevated on stilts? Check. Ocean liner strip windows in place? Check. Cylindrical staircase? Check. Built-in furniture? All present and correct. Alongside the three-dimensional examples of his work you can also see all the drawings, plans and artwork he bequeathed on his death in 1965, with the aim of keeping it all together. His visionary architecture and design practices are as much a blueprint for living today as they were when they were created.
Fondation Le Corbusier, Villa La Roche, 8-10 square du Dr-Blanche, 16th (00 33 1 42 88 41 53/www.fondation lecorbusier.fr) Métro Jasmin. Open Mon 1.30-6pm, Tue-Thur 10am-12.30pm, 1.30-6pm, Fri 10am-12.30pm, 1.30-5pm.


7. Drink till dawn
Le Tambour is a classic nighthawks’ bar, decked out with vintage transport chic, its slatted wooden banquettes and bus-stop-sign bar stools occupied by chatty regulars. The small counter area, a busy conservatory and a long dining room make for plenty of room to kick back and while away a few hours.
Le Tambour, 41 rue Montmartre, 2nd (00 33 1 42 33 06 90) Métro Sentier. Open daily 6pm-6am.

The Louvre

8. Be overwhelmed at the Louvre
You could spend all weekend in Paris and only do the Louvre. In fact, make it a week and there’s still only half a chance you’d see everything here. With around 300,000 works of art, it’s massive. However, it’s an unmissable attraction and worth braving museum fatigue for. First tip is to pick up a map – the museum is divided into three wings: Denon, Richelieu and Sully. Signs on the map point you towards the most popular exhibits. Also, take breathers – your tickets are valid all day, so think of it as a game of two halves and come back. Must-sees include Delacroix’s flag-flying ‘La Liberté Guidant le Peuple’, the two rooms in Denon of Renaissance frescoes and an exhibition of work by Ingres, which runs until May 15. Mona who?
The Louvre, rue de Rivoli, 1st (00 33 1 0 20 50 50/www.louvre.fr) Métro Palais Royal Musée du Louvre or Louvre Rivoli. Open Mon, Thur, Sat, Sun 9am-6pm, Wed, Fri 9am-9.45pm.

9. Murano Urban Resort
Not a past-their-best Miami R&B outfit, but the Marais’ flashest hotel and definitely the area’s slickest cocktail spot. The Murano Urban Resort’s bar matches the rest of the hotel’s chic decor with brightly coloured op-art fabrics. If fashionable surroundings aren’t enough of an inducement, what about 19 hours-a-day drinking or 140 varieties of vodka?
Murano Urban Resort, 13 boulevard du Temple, 3rd (00 33 1 42 71 20 00/ www.muranoresort.com) Métro Filles du Calvaire or Oberkampf.

10. Max out the cards in the Marais
The Marais’ reputation for great shopping has been in ascent for the last few years and it continues to rise largely thanks to the young designers who have their atelier-galleries here. While it’s often billed as Paris’s Shoreditch, wandering round its narrow streets lined with elegant butter-coloured buildings and mercifully free of men with directional haircuts, you realise it bears no resemblance. Rue des Rosiers is the best starting point, not just for its clothes and accessories boutiques full of original treasures, but because it’s a handy place to set your compass by in the neighbourhood. Loop back round to Roi-de-Sicile for more of the same. Rue Charlot is the latest street to make a style debut; here, for instance, you’ll find homewares sourced from Indonesia at Soi 38 – the emphasis is on contemporary rather than ethnic – while Les Belles Images is unmissable for clothes, with a considered collection of French, Australian, Japanese and English designers.
Les Belle Images, 74 rue Charlot, 3rd (00 33 1 42 76 93 61) Métro St Paul. Open Tue-Sat 11am-7.30pm.
Soi 38, 26 rue Chalot, 3rd (00 33 1 48 04 31 87) Métro St Paul. Open Tue-Sat 11am-7.30pm.

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