Paris

Paris is an inland city, and a beach is not part of a normal stay. In summer, stretches of the riverbanks are dressed as beaches with sand, deckchairs and parasols, and there are outdoor swimming spots on the Bassin de la Villette and in the Seine. They are pleasant for a cool-off but they are not the sea. The city also has a good network of public pools, some of them handsome Art Deco buildings.

The nearest real coast is Normandy, around Deauville and Trouville, about two hours by train. The Channel is cool and the season is short. A visitor who wants sea swimming should plan another stop.

Eating well is part of ordinary daily life in Paris. Every neighbourhood has its boulangerie, cheese shop and butcher, and it has street markets on set mornings, such as the long Marché d'Aligre and the covered Marché des Enfants Rouges. The range runs from zinc-counter bistros serving steak frites and oeufs mayonnaise up to the haute cuisine tradition that set the standard for fine dining around the world. In between are a great many wine bars pouring natural and small-producer bottles, and a generation of cooks running small, inventive neo-bistros in the 10th and 11th arrondissements.

The city's immigrant kitchens add a great deal: North African couscous in Belleville, Vietnamese pho in the 13th, Lebanese and West African cooking across the north and east. Café culture is about sitting on a terrace for an hour as much as about the coffee. Pastry is an art form, from the croissant to elaborate patisserie. The tourist streets near the big sights serve tired set menus, so walk a few streets away.

Paris has few rivals for the number and quality of its sights. The Louvre alone could fill a week. The Musée d'Orsay holds the great Impressionist collection, and the Centre Pompidou, the Musée Rodin, the Orangerie with Monet's water lilies, the Musée Picasso and the medieval Musée de Cluny would each be the main draw in a smaller city. Notre-Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle on the Île de la Cité are masterpieces of Gothic architecture. The Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and Sacré-Coeur on the hill of Montmartre are known around the world.

The city itself is the setting for all of it. Haussmann's boulevards and cream stone façades give the centre a rare unity, while the Marais keeps its aristocratic townhouses and older street pattern. The Seine embankments are UNESCO-listed, and walking from the Louvre to the Invalides takes in centuries of history. The main sights draw large queues, so book ahead and use the quieter museums.

A night out in Paris usually starts on a café terrace or in a wine bar and moves on from there. The east of the city is the heart of it. Oberkampf, rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, the Canal Saint-Martin and Belleville are full of crowded, unpretentious bars, and the streets fill up on warm evenings. South Pigalle has the cocktail bars, the Marais has a lively gay scene, and the Bastille, Montmartre and the Latin Quarter are livelier and more student-heavy.

Most bars close around 2am. After that the night carries on in the clubs, which play house and techno until dawn, along with moored barges and riverbank venues in summer. The scene is chic rather than wild and can be selective at the door. Drinks are expensive, so many locals start with a bottle on the canal banks.

Paris is a city of parks rather than wild landscape. The Luxembourg and Tuileries gardens are formal, while the Buttes-Chaumont has cliffs and a lake on a hill. On the edges of the city, the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes are large woods for running, rowing and cycling. The quays and canals make good flat routes for walking and cycling, and the city's bike-share system is easy to use.

Further out, the forest of Fontainebleau is about forty minutes by train. It has oak and pine woods, sandstone boulders famous among climbers, and many marked trails. The forests of Chantilly and Rambouillet are also close. The Île-de-France has no mountains or coast, so active visitors come for gentle walking and cycling, not big landscapes.

Few cities have such a long list of easy day trips. The palace and gardens of Versailles are less than an hour away, and the Renaissance château of Fontainebleau and the château of Chantilly are just as close. Chartres cathedral, with its stained glass, is about an hour by train. Monet's house and garden at Giverny, Van Gogh's Auvers-sur-Oise and the medieval town of Provins are all within easy reach.

Fast trains stretch the range further. In about 45 minutes you reach Reims, with its coronation cathedral and Champagne houses, and Épernay is close by. Rouen's half-timbered old town and cathedral are just over an hour away. Tours, the gateway to the Loire châteaux, is about an hour and a quarter, and Lille and Brussels are each a short ride north. For a long stay, these trips can fill as many days as the city itself.

Paris works well for families, and a little planning helps. Disneyland Paris is about forty minutes out by RER, and Parc Astérix is a similar trip. In the city, the Cité des Sciences at La Villette is a huge hands-on science museum. The Jardin d'Acclimatation has rides and animals, and the Jardin des Plantes combines a small menagerie with the galleries of the natural history museum, skeletons and stuffed animals included. The Paris zoo at Vincennes and an aquarium below the Trocadéro add more.

The parks are good for younger children, with puppet shows, carousels and toy sailboats on the Luxembourg pond. Daily life is harder. Many metro stations have only stairs, pushchairs are awkward on crowded trains, hotel rooms are small, and long museum queues test patience. Children are welcome in cafés and bistros, but restaurants expect them to behave.

Paris is compact, and its centre is one of the great walking cities. You can walk from the Marais to Saint-Germain or from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower along the river, and the walk is often the best part of the day. For longer hops, the metro is dense enough that a station is rarely more than a few minutes away. The RER suburban lines reach the airports, Versailles and Disneyland, and buses and the city bike-share fill the gaps.

The weak points are practical ones. Many stations are reached by long corridors and stairs with no lift, the busiest lines are packed at rush hour, and changing between metro and RER can be confusing at first. Pickpockets work the crowded tourist lines. A car is a burden, not a help.

Paris is where luxury fashion was invented, and the great houses still have their flagships on Avenue Montaigne and the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Under the glass dome of Galeries Lafayette and in the Left Bank calm of Le Bon Marché, the historic department stores are destinations in themselves. Saint-Germain has fashion and old bookshops, and the Marais is full of independent designers, concept stores and vintage shops.

The range goes well beyond fashion. The nineteenth-century covered passages near the Grands Boulevards hide stamp dealers, toy shops and antique sellers. The Saint-Ouen flea market, just beyond the northern edge of the city, is a vast maze of antiques dealers, and the bouquinistes sell old books and prints from green boxes along the Seine. Food is shopping too: chocolate, cheese, mustard and tea from long-established specialist shops make good things to take home.

Paris is an expensive city to stay in. Hotel rooms are costly and often small, especially in the central arrondissements and during the fashion weeks and summer. Restaurant meals and drinks on a terrace add up quickly. The major museums and monuments charge full admission, and the queues often push visitors towards pricier timed tickets.

There are real ways to save. Public transport is reasonable, and walking covers much of the centre. Many museums are free for European residents under 26, and the city's own museums have free permanent collections. Bakeries, markets and lunchtime set menus make eating cheaper, and a picnic by the river is a Parisian habit. Staying in the outer arrondissements also helps.

Paris has two opera houses. The gilded Palais Garnier is home to the Paris Opera Ballet, and the larger Opéra Bastille stages most of the opera. The Philharmonie at La Villette is a world-class concert hall. The auditorium at the Maison de la Radio, home to the Radio France orchestras, and the Art Deco Théâtre des Champs-Élysées fill out a full classical calendar. Chamber concerts in the Sainte-Chapelle and other churches are a lovely way to hear music in a historic setting.

Theatre is taken seriously, from the Comédie-Française performing Molière to a large number of private theatres. Most of it is in French, though, which limits it for many visitors. Jazz has deep roots, with small cellar clubs around the rue des Lombards and in Saint-Germain. There is also cabaret in Pigalle, with the Moulin Rouge as its historic emblem, and a steady flow of rock, pop and variety concerts in old music halls such as the Salle Pleyel.

Paris has no thermal springs or bathing tradition of its own. What it does have is a modest hammam culture, brought by its North African communities. The hammam of the Grande Mosquée in the Latin Quarter, with its tiled steam rooms and mint tea, is the best known, and there are smaller neighbourhood hammams too. Luxury hotel spas and day spas cover massage and treatments, and a few historic public pools are pleasant places for a swim.

The city's pace is fast and its streets are crowded and loud, so rest comes in small doses: an hour on a café terrace, a book on a chair in the Luxembourg gardens, a slow evening walk by the Seine. Visitors looking for a real wellness break should go elsewhere.