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Tour Montparnasse (view from top only; above)

Cimetière de Montparnasse (opposite)

Musée de la Poste

Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain (left)

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The 210m-high Montparnasse Tower, a startlingly ugly, oversized lipstick tube built in 1973 with steel and smoked glass and housing offices for 5000 workers, affords spectacular views over the city. A lift whisks visitors up in 38 seconds to the indoor observatory on the 56th floor, with exhibition centre, video clips, multimedia terminals and Paris’ highest café. Finish with a hike up the stairs to the open-air terrace on the 59th floor. To know what you’re looking at, buy the multilingual Paris vu d’en haut guide (€3) from the ticket office before hiking up.

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TRANSPORT: MONTPARNASSE

Bus Gare Montparnasse for 91 to Gare d’Austerlitz, Gare de Lyon & Bastille, for 92 to Charles de Gaulle-Étoile, for 94 to Sèvres Babylone (Le Bon Marché); blvd du Montparnasse for 82 to Invalides & Eiffel Tower; rue de Rennes for 95 to St-Germain des Prés, Quai Voltaire, Louvre, Palais Royal, Opéra & Lamarck-Caulaincourt (Montmartre); blvd Raspail (metro stop Vavin) for 68 to via Opéra, Louvre & Musée d’Orsay

Metro Denfert Rochereau, Duroc, Edgar Quinet, Falguière, Montparnasse Bienvenüe, Pasteur, Raspail, St-Placide

Train Gare Montparnasse

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FAUBOURG ST-GERMAIN & INVALIDES

Drinking; Eating; Shopping; Sleeping

Staid and with no nightlife to speak of, agreed, but this 7e arrondissement – a formal world of exquisite ironwork, flashing gold leaf, Seine-side art galleries and conventional manners – has a timeless beauty and extravagance all of its own. And when it all gets too stiff, take a stroll through pedestrian rue Cler and its bustling street market.

In the 18th century, Faubourg St-Germain, the area between the Seine and rue de Babylone (1km south), was Paris’ most fashionable neighbourhood. Elegant mansions ran riot on rue de Lille, rue de Grenelle and rue de Varenne, now an overdose of embassies, cultural centres and government ministries; Hôtel Matignon at 57 rue de Varenne has been the official residence of the French prime minister since the start of the Fifth Republic (1958), and it was to the stylish pad at No 53 that Edith Wharton moved in 1910 to write Le Temps de l’Innocence (The Age of Innocence). Play voyeur and peek at dreamy hôtels particuliers for sale in the windows of Sotheby’s real-estate agent Propriétés Parisiennes (www.proprietesparisiennes.fr) at 7bis rue des St-Pères.

Framing all this Parisian refinement is the Eiffel Tower in the skyline, the gracious curve of the Seine at eye level and, underfoot, the smooth lawns of Les Invalides, where it always feels like Sunday. If you suddenly find yourself leaping on a bike (Click here) and pedalling along the river to watch the kaleidoscope of the National Assembly, the cavernous railway-station shell of the Musée d’Orsay and Quai Voltaire’s bijou art galleries flash by, don’t be surprised. Just make sure you jump off at 5bis rue Verneuil to see the quarter’s finest example of over-the-top extravagance – the house where Parisian singer, sexpot and provocateur Serge Gainsbourg lived from 1969 until his death in 1991. Neighbours have long since given up scrubbing off the reappearing graffiti and messages from fans.

ASSEMBLÉE NATIONALE Map

01 40 63 60 00; www.assemblee-nat.fr; 33 quai d’Orsay & 126 rue de l’Université, 7e; Assemblée Nationale or Invalides

The lower house of the French parliament, known as the National Assembly, meets in the 18th-century Palais Bourbon, which fronts the Seine. Tours are available through local deputies, making citizens and residents the only ones eligible. Next door is the Second Empire–style Ministère des Affaires Étrangères (Ministry of Foreign Affairs; 01 43 17 53 53; 37 quai d’Orsay, 7e), built between 1845 and 1855.

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TRANSPORT: FAUBOURG ST- GERMAIN & INVALIDES

Bus Quai d’Orsay for 63 to St-Germain, Odéon, Gare d’Austerlitz & Gare de Lyon, for 83 to Grand Palais, Rond Point des