CONCIËRGE

On Île St Louis, this very elegant and intimate restaurant is in a 13C building. The food, by a chef who has an impressive CV to his name, turns out to be lively and creative, as you embark on a set menu crafted with finesse. The place may have only opened its doors in 2012 but it is already a sure bet. Le Sergent Recruteur is splendidly located in the heart of Île St.-Louis; it’s swank, stylish and expensive and is loved by many. It’s also full of surprises, and the service is brilliant...

A tiny bistro just a stone's throw from the Folies Bergère. Here, at tightly-packed tables, you tuck into dishes that vary with the seasons. The impressive cooking comes courtesy of a Japanese chef (who has clocked up plenty of experience in France), and is served with judiciously selected wines. Great value for money.

Mondays and Saturdays, 10am-5pm, there’s only one reason to come to Abri (‘shelter’), a pocket-sized restaurant next to the Poissonière metro: their multi-layered, super-stacked, millfeuille-esque sandwiches, put together by chef Katsuaki Okiyama. One regal specimen contained grilled bread, a deep and lovely sauce, a vegetable omelette, crusty breaded pork (‘tonkatsu’), sweet and sour cauliflower purée and soft cheese. The rest of the week, there are plenty more of the young Japanese chef’s talents to enjoy. His CV (Robuchon, Taillevent, Agapé) would already be impressive on a far older chef, and against a bare décor, he makes his experience felt with French cuisine enhanced by Japanese touches. It crops up, for example, in the sauce of the marinated mackerel, with its almost transparent sliced vegetables, or a winter squash soup with pumpkin seeds and coffee. The tasting menus are a big draw – four dishes for €22 at lunchtimes, six at dinner for €38.50), including dessert. You’ll need to be patient and reserve far in advance to get one of the 20 tables, but once you get in the service is charming and disarmingly serene, in a postage-stamp-sized room where the open kitchen takes up half the space. A lovely place to take shelter, full of delights.

"La Régalade is one of this city’s most beloved classic bistros. Founded by Yves Camdeborde in 1992, it was left in the hands of Bruno Doucet, a chef who (high praise) didn’t ruin it. I visited this bastion of bistronomy last year, loved my meal, but never returned. I suppose that distance trumped delicious. How excited was I, then, to learn that Doucet was opening a new location in central Paris? Daniel Rose filled me in about this when I ran into him yesterday at Spring Boutique (I am addicted, of all things, to their spelt). After chiding me for not being up on the news, Rose suggested we try to book a dinner right away. Right away turned out to be the very same (opening) night..."

The Faubourg Saint-Antoine area has been making waves on the food scene for quite a while: Rue de Cotte, Rue Trousseau, the Marché d’Aligre and lots of other little streets offer an excellent range of good things to eat, and since the Rue Charonne's latest makeover, the area is more than ever on the up. Graphic arts bookshops and trendy boutiques proliferate, so it’s no surprise to fine Bertrand Grébaut’s latest restaurat venture here. A former pupil at Penninghen design school, the décor reflects his background: huge mirrors, industrial installations, antique flooring and furniture, reinforced concrete and bare wood, all designed by Julien Cohen & Co. The cooking is direct, pure, and serious. Raw horse mackerel with yoghurt and red cabbage was superb, as invigorating as the velouté of eggs, mushrooms and chicken foie gras was comforting. Saint-Jean mackerel with sweet and padron peppers was perfectly cooked, Iberico ham and pumpkin was tender and delicious. Dessert was a lovely mixture of apples, fromage blanc, honey and thyme. It's all topped off with charming service and a lunch menu at €26 including a glass of wine (when we visited, Romorantin 2010 by Frantz Saumon or an Argentinean Malbec, Amalaya 2009). Evening menu at €55.

Akrame has been one of the hottest Paris addresses since it opened its doors in early 2011, and talented young chef Akrame Bellalal confirmed his potential when the Michelin Guide took the unusual step of awarding the restaurant a star in its first year. So expectations are high. Bellalal worked with both Ferran Adrià and Pierre Gagnaire, and the buzz only increases when you discover how difficult it is to get a reservation, followed by a reminder call from the maitre d’ on your mobile at 9.30 the morning of the booking to reconfirm. Just a couple of minutes from the Arc de Triomphe, Akrame certainly looks the part, a small but stylish dining room seating around 20 people, with modern designer furniture and muted black décor that contrasts with a striking series of large colour photographs of tattooed women. But Akrame is full of surprises, far from the typical Parisian Michelin-starred dining experience of stuffy waiters and diners talking in hushed voices. At one end is an open kitchen where the chef works away animatedly with several assistants, while the friendly young staff immediately put diners at ease, and remain attentive rather than intrusive throughout the meal. Don’t come expecting a typical menu with dozens of different dishes, as Bellalal has opted for the flavour-of-the-day concept of no-choice tasting menus – though the waiter checks first if you have allergies or dislikes, and the chef can then prepare alternatives. There is an excellent value €35 three course menu at lunch, which changes every day, but to really appreciate Bellalal’s dazzling, inventive cuisine it is worth opting for the €60 four course menu or €90 for six courses. The four-course menu knocked us out: it kicked off with three delicious amuse bouche, including a smoky sliver of eel on a crispy squid ink wafer. Then a strange but very tasty mix of a milk jelly with smoked potato was followed by a brilliant interpretation of the humble lieu jaune fish, pollock, which was marinated in carrot juice then cooked to perfection at a low temperature with vinegary carrot spaghetti and polenta gnocchi. In the same spirit, simple champignons de Paris were served with an egg yolk and transformed into a Japanese-style soup as the waiter poured over a steaming mushroom bouillon. After a refreshing thyme sorbet with lime jelly, a juicy veal medallion was accompanied by crunchy root vegetables smothered with grated liquorice root, and somehow we still had room for the three small desserts, home baked madeleines, and a slab of chocolate to take home.

A restaurant called Pirouette suggests both deft maneuvering and a dash of panache. Set in a secluded little courtyard behind the concrete mess of Les Halles in the 1st arrondissement, the stage set for the meal is immediately promising, so shiny new behind its huge plate glass window that the first thing you notice as you walk in is the fresh smell of the wood pannelling. So, with a swift arabesque, to the menu, which includes a formule for a mere €36. We started with a perfect coddled egg on a bed of greens, over which a subtle mushroom and chestnut was poured at the table, and the ‘alouette sans tête’ (headless lark), a fanciful name for a ‘paupiette’ (stuffed piece of meat) of pigeon and foie gras enriched with lardo di Colonnata. Then a cabriole leap into the mains ­– a lovely piece of mullet with salsify and meat gravy, and beautifully tender and pink pigeon royale with a delicate foie gras sauce. Down into the final plié and dessert, with a delicate mango tart and a salty Ossau Iraty sheep’s cheese presented as a cheesecake and topped with a black cherry compôte. All in all, a round of applause for the chef (Tommy Gousset, trained in some of the city’s best kitchens), the excellent wine list, and the company overall for an elegant, affordable whole (the lunchtime menu is even better at €17).

As the global economic climate has forced consumers to shop more selectively, it has also forced retailers to sell more creatively. Merci, Paris’ newest concept store, provides a breathtaking space where visitors can shop with a conscience. Created by Marie-France and Bernard Cohen, founders of renowned children’s clothing line Bonpoint, Merci donates all of its proceeds (after breaking even) to a co-op for young women in Madagascar.

Fleux is specialized in trendy decor and design decoration . A world of decoration to find a unique gift idea . Whether you seek a suspension luminaire design, a lamp, decorating table, Tolix chair , a lamp design, or simply the trend decoration for your home, you will find exclusive design objects, decorative objects of gift ideas original or even designer furniture and contemporary. You will find all the more surprising decorative objects from each other!

Le Bon Marché ("the good market", or "the good deal" in French is the biggest Left Bank department store and the oldest department store in Paris, designed by Gustav Eiffel and opened in 1852. Le Bon Marché is specialized in luxury fashion for men, women and children but also furniture, upscale gifts and housewares. it’s one of the 3 best known and visited department stores in Paris along with the Printemps and Galeries Lafayette. But it’s from far the best one for its food department called: "La grande épicerie de Paris" a grocery department that offers you over 5000 different products, selected from around the world.

The Bazaar de l'Hotel de Ville, known simply as "BHV" to Parisians, is an always-bustling hive in the smack center of town, right across from City Hall (Hotel de Ville) after which it's named. Best-known for its very extensive home and hardware sections, BHV's flagship on Rue de Rivoli also has sizable sections devoted to beauty, fashion, accessories, books and crafts, as well as a separate men's store, wine shop and even a zany pet accessories outlet.

Colette concept store is the Paris' shoppers' paradise for fashionable luxury goods still manages to retain a certain elegance in spite of its flashy, state of the art decor. You will find style design art food beauty party and much more at Colette. The store's aim is to bring together the most beautiful, most unusual and most expensive designer items. So if you're looking for a Gucci watch, a dress by Jeremy Scott, Chloe Sevigny, Junya Watanabe, Comme des Garçons, Emilio Pucci or make-up from New York, this place is bound to have it. Worth a look is its kiosk containing the latest, most incisive fashion and design magazines, whilst its high-tech cafe downstairs offers over 100 different brands of mineral water.

Near the Hotel (40, Rue de Sévigné), l’Eclaireur shop opened in 2009 this large space of 450 m2 in the Marais district. It is the latest store of Martine and Armand Hadida. It summarized 30 years of creativity in a kind of designer concept store where you’ll find brands like Sonia Rykiel, Versace, Alberra Ferretti, Giambattista Valli, Jasmine de Milo and other..

Paris manquait de ce type d’endroits très en vogue à New York, les Mixology Bars qui réinventent les cocktails avec des alcools rares, des jus de fruits frais et des épices subtiles. Le Tommy’s Margarita Especial est par exemple un démentiel mélange de tequila Arette - 100 % agave, citron vert pressé, miel d’agave bio infusé à la vanille bourbon et clous de girofle. Le Bee’s Kiss est un équilibre entre rhum jamaïcain Appleton VX, crème, miel de fleurs bio et poivre concassé d’Indonésie.

The Mary Céleste oyster bar looks more like a neighbourhood pizzeria than the newest, hippest destination in the Marais. But we like this lack of pretension, and the big bay windows that will remain steamed up throughout winter promise great things for pavement apéros in summer. Around a bustling central bar are ranged a few stools, tables and chairs occupied by the inevitable well-dressed clientele, drawn by the hype and by the oysters that are the hook du jour – oyster happy hour runs from 5pm-7pm with Marennes-Oléron, Bouzigue and Belon varieties at €1 a throw (usually €1.50) washed down with one of the white wines from the great list at €5 a glass.<br/>If you want to check it out but aren’t in the market for shellfish, the cocktails, beers and wine lists are intelligent if not cheap, and there are some interesting snacks and sharing plates. DJs spin in one corner and the atmosphere is genial even during peak times: all in all, a lively but relaxed venue serving excellent drinks, oysters and more.

You go to the Ave Maria to have a good nosh with your mates, squeezed between your neighbours at the table. As you enter, you’ll blink first of all at the psychedelic décor, featuring Latina Virgin Marys and Hindu goddesses. Next, you’ll be made rapt by the copious menu. Ave Maria’s speciality is to take you taste buds around the world – try out the original Himalaya Dream (delicious grilled chicken with turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg, red lentils, split peas, coconut milk, mint, basmati rice and salad), the Indian Ocean (a creole dish to sweep you off your feet), the Women on Top (a spin on the traditional Brazilian feijoada stew)… if you can manage to make a choice. The house also proposes a range of foreign beers and surprising exotic cocktails like the Aguas Borobora (a cocktail with mango, rose, vodka and champagne). We only regret that the service isn’t nicer, and also the eternal wait for a table at the weekends (no reservations). Doesn’t take credit cards.

At la Pinacothèque de Paris, from 18 April 2013 to 08 September 2013. The Decorative Revolution: The two exhibitions displayed simultaneously in both spaces of the Pinacothèque de Paris allow visitors to discover the first retrospective of French Art Nouveau and its evolution towards Art Déco, through one of its icons, Tamara de Lempicka.

After the first edition organized in September 2011, the Museum Halle Saint-Pierre (Montmartre) and the magazine Hey! (graphic arts) join forces again to show us the second part of this exhibition, settled a little bit more underground art in the capital. Exposing more than fifty artists ignored or sidelined, Hey! invites us to discover a foremost unbridled imagination, sometimes strange, but definitely creative. Paintings, sculptures, comics, tattoos … The exhibition is displayed as a cabinet of curiosities in which each artist is presented, while the work is left to the discretion of the pure spectator. We stroll, laugh, be offended… In short, an exhibition which does not leave unconcerned and just refreshes a somewhat numb contemporary art in its own paradoxes (until August 23th).

Discover the groves of Versailles, and the fountains whose jets of water rise and fall in time to the music.