Housed in a graceful eighteenth-century mansion at 8 Rue d'Anjou in the 8th arrondissement, Restaurant 1728 takes its name from the year the building was raised and weaves that heritage through every detail. The period architecture sets a tone of genuine refinement, with high ceilings, ornate mouldings and the accumulated patina of three centuries of Parisian history. The house once belonged to the Marquis de La Fayette, lending the address a romance that few dining rooms in the city can claim.....

Behind a seventeenth-century facade at 62 Rue Mazarine, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, the Alcazar hides one of the most surprising interiors in Paris. The site has lived several lives: a royal jeu de paume tennis court in the 1600s, a printer's workshop in the 1700s, and from 1968 a riotous cabaret famous for its transformist revues under Jean-Marie Riviere. In 1998 the British designer Sir Terence Conran reinvented it as a spectacular contemporary brasserie, opening up a vast triple.....

A taste of Corsica in the heart of Paris, L'Alivi at 27 Rue du Roi de Sicile brings the flavours, aromas and easy warmth of the island to the historic Marais. The dining room, all exposed timber and rough stone, conjures the feel of a village auberge far from the boulevards outside. On sunny days the terrace, framed by olive trees, completes the illusion, transporting diners straight to the Mediterranean. The menu is a love letter to traditional Corsican cooking, from the island's celebrated .....

Aquaboulevard is a large urban water park in the fifteenth arrondissement of Paris, billed when it opened as the biggest of its kind in Europe. The project was launched by the city of Paris together with the leisure group Forest Hill and opened in April 1989, inaugurated that May by the mayor, Jacques Chirac. Spread over some seven thousand square metres, its centrepiece is a tropical-themed swimming area kept warm all year, with wave pools, waterfalls, geysers, water cannons, jacuzzis, a giant .....

Open seven days a week since 1956, Astier at 44 Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud is a proud standard-bearer of the classic Parisian bistrot and the bourgeois cooking that goes with it. Seasonal dishes from the traditional French repertoire are prepared on site, the kind of unfussy, deeply satisfying cooking that has kept the tables full for the better part of seventy years. Its legendary cheese board is a destination in itself, aged by Maison Anthes and offered either as a plate or as a generous sharin.....

The studio-museum of Chana Orloff preserves the working home of one of the most accomplished sculptors of the School of Paris, kept much as she left it in a quiet cul-de-sac in the fourteenth arrondissement. Born in Ukraine in 1888 and arriving in Paris as a young woman, Orloff became a celebrated portraitist and sculptor in the lively artistic world of Montparnasse, counting many leading figures of the day among her sitters and friends. In 1926 she commissioned the architect Auguste Perret, a .....

Badaboum brings a playful, intimate spirit to the buzzing nightlife of the Bastille district. Tucked away on rue des Taillandiers in the 11th arrondissement, it combines a club, a live-music room and a stylish cocktail bar under one roof, with a hidden lounge adding to its sense of fun. Its main room is compact and warmly designed, putting the crowd close to the booth and the band alike. The programming spans house, disco, electronic and live gigs, with an emphasis on quality bookings over she.....

Tethered to the ground by a cable in the Parc Andre Citroen, the Ballon de Paris is a giant helium balloon that lifts passengers high above the southwest of the city for a panoramic view stretching across the rooftops to the Eiffel Tower and beyond. Unlike a hot-air balloon, it does not drift away but rises and descends on its cable from a fixed point in the park, carrying groups of visitors in a circular basket to a height of around one hundred and fifty metres. The balloon dates in its present.....

Balzar has been a fixture of the Rue des Ecoles since 1890, when Amedee Balzar, a bearded, red-headed fellow from Picardy, first started pulling pints near the Sorbonne. Teachers and students have always made good dining companions, and this classic brasserie has served as their unofficial canteen ever since. The interior is quintessential Left Bank: gleaming brass fittings, mirrored walls, crisp white tablecloths and an atmosphere thick with conversation and the clatter of plates. Over more t.....

Bel Canto brings together fine dining and live opera in a concept all but unique to Paris. Here the professional opera singers double as the waitstaff, performing arias between courses while diners work through a refined French menu. The original location on the Quai de l'Hotel de Ville occupies a vaulted stone cellar whose natural acoustics and candlelit intimacy turn each performance into something genuinely affecting. A second venue near Neuilly-Porte Maillot offers a larger room for sizeab.....