A Paris day on the Left Bank

A 19th-century café where Sartre and de Beauvoir wrote at the corner banquette. Order a café crème and a tartine beurre. Sit upstairs to hear the regulars rather than the tourists ordering from the ground-floor menu.

The 17th-century royal gardens. Sit on a metal chair beside the central basin and watch children sail toy boats. Palm trees in planters for the summer, the Medici Fountain in the northeast corner, pétanque at the southern end.

The 1951 bookshop opposite Notre-Dame. The creaky staircase leads to a reading room where a cat usually sleeps. Buy something small and ask them to stamp it with the shop's seal at the till.

Yves Camdeborde's bistro. Short menu, communal tables, lunch service runs until 15:00. Order the pâté en croûte and the rognons de veau. Dinner reservations are impossible — come at lunch.

The 13th-century royal chapel on Île de la Cité, with fifteen stained glass windows telling the Bible in six thousand panes. Go on a sunny afternoon — the light through the blues is the whole point. Security queue is faster than Notre-Dame's.

The museum in a former train station. Impressionists on the top floor under the old clock face. Two hours is enough if you skip the sculpture halls. The van Gogh bedroom at Arles is at the far end — head for it first.

Standing-only wine bar next door to Le Comptoir. Festoon bulbs overhead, plates of charcuterie, pintxos on the counter, eight kinds of tarama eaten by the spoon. One or two glasses, then move on — it'll be packed by 20:30.