The Art of Living in Paris, from the Terrace to the Last Drink

There is a postcard Paris and there is a Paris you live. The second is on no itinerary: it is at a terrace table in the middle of the afternoon, in the conversation that lingers after dinner, in the quiet street you walk home along. To live it, you need something simple and rare: a home in the city, even for a few days.

ACT 3 chooses its addresses across Paris, one by one. Here are three neighbourhoods in the heart of the city, the 2nd, the Upper Marais and Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and how each spends its day.

The rhythm of a Parisian day

In the morning, a coffee at the counter and bread just bought. At noon, a lunch that is short but serious. At the end of the afternoon, the hour of the aperitif, when the terraces fill and the light turns golden on the stone. Dinner comes late and in no hurry. Everyday becomes theatre, and each neighbourhood plays it in its own way.

Saint-Germain, the terraces of always

On the Left Bank, the terrace is almost an institution. The Café de Flore, the café of Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, is still the place to watch the boulevard. Around Saint-Sulpice, the streets are quieter; the Luxembourg garden, with its green chairs, serves as the neighbourhood's open-air living room. Here the evening is elegant and unhurried: a good table, a glass of wine, and the walk home through streets of closed bookshops.

The Marais, an evening with character

The Upper Marais is more creative and less predictable. Contemporary art galleries, ateliers, designer shops, and in the evening bars with personality. At Candelaria, you walk through the taqueria to reach the cocktail bar at the back. At noon, the Marché des Enfants Rouges, the oldest covered market in Paris, gathers the whole neighbourhood around its stalls of cuisines from around the world.

The 2nd, between passages and cocktails

The 2nd is the smallest arrondissement in Paris and one of the liveliest as evening falls. The covered passages, such as the Galerie Vivienne, are explored under the shelter of their glass roofs; rue Montorgueil, a pedestrian street, is the neighbourhood's daily market and its liveliest terrace. For the last drink, the Experimental Cocktail Club, behind a discreet façade, is one of the addresses that gave birth to the cocktail scene in Paris.

And from the 2nd, the Opéra Garnier is very close: you go out in the evening to a performance and walk back.

Why a home changes everything

A hotel lets you visit Paris. An apartment lets you live in it. Inviting a few friends for a drink before going out, making a long breakfast on Sunday, coming home at midnight and having a living room in which to finish the conversation: these are details, and they are the ones you remember.

Our apartments have two to four bedrooms, an equipped kitchen and air conditioning, and our concierge is available seven days a week to book a table or handle a last-minute request. The city becomes our concierge.

Live the city, not a hotel. Discover the collection, our neighbourhood guides or our guide to museums and neighbourhoods.

The ACT 3 Team