While the hundreds of Parisian landmarks and attractions that draw visitors from all over the globe continue to amaze and delight, every year their numbers are swelled by new restaurants and museums, cutting-edge art galleries, space-age hotels and 21st century parks.

If you want to see the ‘real’ Paris, find a hotel off the tourist track. Hotel Color & Design in the 12th arrondissement is a tiny, value-for-money, back-street gem. Next door there’s a great bistro, L’Ebauchoir, where you dine on what Parisians eat as opposed to the ‘le menu touriste’.

The Place de la Bastille is a five-minute walk away, with direct metro links to the major sights and museums. This is the vast square where 600 ‘sans culottes’ stormed the Bastille and set the French Revolution in motion. Today, it is famed for the new Paris Opera house and the Café des Phares, a philosopher’s café where, on Sunday mornings, a crowd arrives to engage in a lively public debate.

Head west and you step straight into le Marais – a labyrinth of winding, cobbled streets packed with unconventional fashion boutiques, gourmet food stores, art galleries and pavement cafés. At its heart lies the Place de Vosges, an architectural gem. Pull up a chair on the pavement at the Café Ma Bourgogne and order a ‘Kir’ (dry white wine with a dash of blackcurrant liqueur). If it’s chilly, they’ll give you a blanket to wrap around your knees.

Head south on the Pont Marie over the Seine to the most romantic island on the planet, the Ile Saint Louis. It’s a miniature village with a host of boutiques and the best ice-cream shop and brasserie in town. Not to be missed is Antiquités de L’Ile Saint-Louis at 20 Rue des Deux Ponts, which specialises in vintage clothing and accessories, and iconic furniture by 20th century masters at surprisingly affordable prices.

Across town – and a world away from smart Paris – is the latest arrival on the cultural scene. Cent Quatre (104) is a new arts centre in the poorest part of Paris. High-rise council blocks tower over the late-19th century complex that was built to house the city’s funeral service, now reborn as a centre for all the arts.

Bibliophiles should head for the Left Bank Latin quarter with its famous literary cafés, such as Café de Flore, where Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir held court. Gourmets will love Fauchon, the luxury grocers in the Place de La Madeleine, which has the world’s most stylish public loos – all original Art Nouveau.

If antiques are your thing, buy La Gazette de l’Hotel Drouot, the magazine of Paris’s best-loved auction house. Drouot, which opened in 1556, is an auction house like no other. The Gazette lists items by theme, and lots range from the sublime to the ridiculous – Drouot once sold the world’s most expensive potatoes at €224 a kilo.

In Paris, you’ll be tempted to walk until you drop. The best remedy for aching limbs is to head for the Hamman de la Mosqueé at 39 rue Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire in the fifth arrondissement. They’ll give you the best Turkish bath and massage you’ll find in the western world.

‘Les jardins ecologiques’, which are springing up all over the city, are another joy. Planting schemes take their cue from the contemporary gardens of the city’s newest museum, the stunning Museé de Quai Branli on the banks of the Seine. The ‘piece de resistance’ is the four-storey vertical garden – a living wall of 15,000 plants. For a gourmet treat, dine in the fifth-floor restaurant, Les Ombres, where the views of the Eiffel Tower, the Seine and the city skyline are sensational.

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