Paris

Paris numbers its twenty arrondissements in a clockwise spiral, winding out from the 1st at the centre, a system fixed in the 1860s when the city took in the villages around it. Baron Haussmann's nineteenth-century rebuilding cut wide boulevards through the old street plan and put up the cream-stone apartment buildings that still give the centre its looks. Two places got off lightly. The Marais kept its medieval streets, and Montmartre, on its hill, still has the layout of a village.

The months to go are April to June, and September and October, mild and clear of the summer's heat. Rain falls fairly evenly through the year, so there is no dry season to wait for, and winter is cool rather than cold, with snow that rarely settles in the centre. Mid-July to the end of August is hot and humid, and the stretch many Parisians spend on holiday, taking a good share of the smaller restaurants and boutiques with them.

Since much of the centre can be crossed on foot, the area matters more than the distance to any one sight. The Left Bank, the Latin Quarter and Saint-Germain-des-Prés, is literary and well-heeled, and for a first visit it is the one to choose. Le Marais and the East is younger: the medieval streets first, then out past République to the Canal Saint-Martin. The Historic Centre is the postcard middle, with the Louvre and the Tuileries on the doorstep. Montmartre and the North is bohemian by day and a nightlife strip after dark, the area for anyone planning to come home late. The Champs-Élysées and the West, the grand avenues and embassy streets, is formal and moneyed, and quieter after dark than anyone out for dinner would want.

On the Right Bank a morning at the Louvre, any day but Tuesday, covers the Denon wing, and the Tuileries lead into the Jardin du Palais-Royal, flat all the way to the streets round the Opéra. Over the river the Impressionists hang in the Musée d'Orsay, once the Gare d'Orsay railway station, and Saint-Germain-des-Prés is a short walk on, with the Carré Rive Gauche's antique shops running south towards Rue du Bac. Another day goes up Rue des Martyrs, past its food shops and cafés, to Sacré-Cœur, about ten minutes on foot from Place Pigalle, or through the Marais from Place des Vosges to the Canal Saint-Martin. Versailles is about 45 minutes out on the RER C.

Dinner east of Bastille is a matter of timing. At 80 Rue de Charonne, Septime releases its tables at ten each morning, three weeks ahead. Clamato, its seafood bar at the same address, takes no bookings at all.