Where to eat, stay, play and work in Paris

PARIS has paraded more looks than a model at an haute couture show. In the

first century BC, the Romans established a garrison town on the Île de la Cité, overthrowing the Celtic settlement on the Seine. In the Middle Ages, the walled city gave birth to Gothic architecture and its masterpiece, Louis IX’s SainteChapelle. In the 19th century, Napoleon III’s city planner, Baron Haussmann, tore through the medieval slums to create the boulevards, parks and limestone façades that now characterise what is arguably the world’s most beautiful city.

And the French capital – the gold standard in luxury, gastronomy and tourism – is still evolving. The Grand Paris project will see an estimated €28 billion (about $39 billion) invested up to 2030 to create a more innovative, sustainable, competitive city, expanding the transport network and connecting world-class hubs of finance, aeronautics, design, events and R&D. Île-de-France, the region that includes Paris, is already Europe’s leading economic area and home to 29 of the world’s 500 largest companies. The city hosts about 1000 conferences and 400 trade fairs each year, including June’s International Paris Air Show, and 40 per cent of its 46 million annual visitors come for business.

A surprisingly compact city, Paris is divided into 20 arrondissements that spiral clockwise from the first, north of Île de la Cité, outwards to the Périphérique ring road. Major tourist sites, shopping and business are concentrated in the centre. As befits a metropolis of nearly seven million, it’s layered with contrasts, heritage, diversity and culture and it continues to change.