Paris for Grown-Ups: Beyond the Postcard
You've done the Tower and the Louvre. Here's the Paris that reveals itself on the second, third and fourth visit.
First-time Paris is a checklist: the Tower, the Louvre, a boat down the Seine. It's wonderful, and a lot of it is spent in queues. Second-time Paris is where the city actually begins, when you stop trying to see it and start trying to live in it, if only for a few days.
Adopt a Café
The single most Parisian thing you can do is nothing at all, slowly, at a café you return to. Order a coffee, take the outside table, and watch the street for an hour. Do this at the same place twice and the waiter will begin to nod at you. That small nod is worth more than any museum ticket.
Cross the River
Most visitors cluster on the Right Bank around the big sights. Cross to the Left, to Saint-Germain or the village streets of the 5th, and Paris softens into something more intimate: independent bookshops, tiny galleries, and food markets that have run twice a week for two centuries.
Where to Stay
If you're going to do Paris properly, do it from Place Vendôme. The Ritz Paris invented much of what we think of as the luxury hotel, and after its four-year restoration it is once again the most romantic address in the city.
