In 2003, when I first came to Paris, the one place I wanted to visit was Montmartre. Primed with visions of penniless painters and Moulin Rouge, tiny vineyards and Amelie , it was the one area that represented the City of Lights. Skip forward to 2015, when I moved bag and baggage to Paris and the only place on my agenda was the Marais. I had no movie references, and there was no nostalgia for the glory of things past. What drew me to the Marais was that it was Paris now — a place chock-a-block with cafes, boutiques, museums and galleries — but within a Paris older than that of Baron Haussmann’s broad avenues and tree lined streets.

Finding hipsters and history Le Marais comprises the third and fourth arrondissements or districts of Paris. That puts it a hop, skip and jump from the historic heart, the first arrondissment with the Louvre, the Ile Saint-Louis and the Notre Dame. Historically, the Marais was a swamp, now, it’s one of the few areas that still serves up a picture of the higgledy-piggledy old Paris, with narrow streets (full of pedestrians), gabled houses and hôtel particuliers or town houses of the French nobles dating back to the 14{+t}{+h} century, as well as the oldest planned square. In 1965, after centuries of neglect, it became a protected area. And around half a dozen years ago, it started to come into fashion. Now it has everything from famous vintage shops to hipster cafés, designer boutiques as well as Jewish bakeries and many falafel restaurants that dot its map.

At its heart is the Place des Vosges, the oldest planned square in Paris, and the city’s prettiest garden, bounded on four sides by warm brick buildings, whose arched colonnades house art galleries and restaurants. Inside the square, you can sit on the grass (which you can’t at the Jardin des Tuileries) or walk across the road to Carette, for its famous afternoon tea; there’s nothing like the presence of good food on demand to add to the appreciation of nature. To one corner is the Hotel de Sully with a gem of a garden and bookstore that puts the pleasure in browsing.

In the 19{+t}{+h} century the Marais became the Jewish area and there’s still a strong presence centred around rue des Rosiers, where three falafel restaurants attract queues and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with kosher Jewish bakeries such as the Boulangerie Patisserie Murciano selling apfelstrudel and challa. Eating falafel is an event here, and on Sundays, it’s best done at the Jardin des Rosiers, another secret little garden just off from the falafel hubs.

Sights and tastes For shopping, rue des Francs Bourgeois is lined with pretty boutiques and branded stores. Rue de la Verrerrie is home to Free*p*star, one of the city’s best vintage stores. Next door is something to make every Indians’ heart sing — a kilo shop, where €30 will get you a kilo of clothes.

There is no shortage of museums either. Centre Georges Pompidou (all pipes on the outside and one of the best views from its restaurant Georges), Musée Picasso, Musée des Arts et Metiers (with Foucault’s Pendulum and a bat plane!) Maison Européenne de Photographie, the place for the best photography exhibitions. The quirkiest is the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, a museum devoted to hunting and nature, where even the staircase iron work is wrought in the shape of animals.

Art is serious business here and some great galleries abound: On Rue Debelleyme there is Galerie Karsten Greve and next door Gallerie Thaddaeus Ropac; on Rue de Turenne is Galerie Perrotin showing artists such as Terry Richardson and JR, and Polka Galerie on rue Saint-Gilles.

Of course, no experience is complete without the accompaniment of good food, and the Marais has no shortage of choice. At Breizh café, you can sit at a community table and eat gourmet crêpes, at L’Improbable, you’re in a covered courtyard overrun by plants with a food truck parked in the centre, with vintage rocking chairs and organic food served on recycled plates. Café Pinson serves vegetarian food that makes you forget it’s vegetarian and Chez Julian dishes out some high French cuisine.

But most often I find myself at Cafeotheque, Paris’s best coffee shop. And after months of walking towards it and around it, I stumbled upon a whole new area in the Marais. A little village, just around the corner. Village Saint-Paul is a little pedestrian enclosure full of designers and antique dealers, bordered on one side by a wall with towers that date back to the 11{+t}{+h} century when it enclosed the whole of Paris. It’s things like this that make the Marais special — you discover something new each time you visit.

Nishat Fatima is a photographer and journalist currently based in Paris. She is also the author of Seriously, Sitara?

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