On Location
Paris, and Why It RewardsThose Who Look Past the Obvious
Paris is one of those cities that arrives pre-loaded with expectation. The photographs, the films, the cultural mythology — all of it means most visitors arrive already knowing what they’re going to find. The paradox is that the city is considerably more interesting, more layered and more surprising than any of that preparation suggests.
A weekend in Paris, done properly, is not about the Eiffel Tower. It’s about the neighbourhood you walk through to get somewhere else, the restaurant that has no presence online, the bookshop that has been there since before your grandparents were born. Those things are still there. They’re just not on the itinerary that most people arrive with.
Where to Stay
Le Meurice, on the Rue de Rivoli overlooking the Tuileries Garden, is one of the great Parisian palace hotels — and one of the few that manages to feel lived-in rather than preserved. The Salvador Dalí connection runs through the building’s DNA in the most considered way: his suite, his art, his particular brand of theatrical surrealism woven into the hotel’s character without overwhelming it. The views over the Tuileries from the upper floors are among the most quietly beautiful hotel outlooks in the city.
For those who prefer something less formal, the Four Seasons George V on Avenue George V offers a different register entirely — a hotel that has earned its reputation through consistency, a rose programme that produces approximately ten thousand flowers per week throughout the public spaces, and a restaurant — Le Cinq — that represents the kind of Michelin-starred dining that makes Paris worth planning around.
How to Spend the Time
Friday Evening — Arrival
Arrive on the Eurostar if at all possible. St Pancras to Gare du Nord in two hours and fifteen minutes, with no airport security theatre and a considerably more civilised arrival into the city. Check in, change, and walk. Paris at dusk, with the lights beginning to come on along the Seine and the cafés filling for the evening service, is one of the most reliable pleasures in travel.
Dinner on a first evening in Paris should be uncomplicated — a good bistro, a carafe of something decent, steak frites or duck confit prepared by someone who has been doing it for thirty years. Le Relais de l’Entrecôte on Rue Marbeuf requires no reservation, takes one choice from you — steak or steak — and executes it with the kind of unhurried precision that the French deploy on simple things. Queue early.
Saturday — The City Properly
The Louvre requires a morning and advance booking for timed entry. If you have been before and feel the principal rooms are accounted for, the Musée d’Orsay — the Impressionist collection in the former railway station overlooking the Seine — is more contained and, for many visitors, more immediately rewarding. The Rodin Museum in the 7th, with its sculpture garden, is worth a late morning if the weather allows.
Lunch in the Marais — specifically at one of the cafés around Place des Vosges, which is the finest square in Paris and one of the finest in Europe — handles the middle of the day well. The afternoon is for walking: through Saint-Germain, across the Île de la Cité, along the quais. Notre-Dame de Paris is now open following the restoration completed after the 2019 fire, and the interior — seen anew after the rebuilding — is worth the visit.
Dinner at L’Arpège, Alain Passard’s vegetable-focused restaurant in the 7th, requires booking well in advance and rewards the effort considerably. The tasting menu is entirely organised around the produce of Passard’s own farms, changes with the season, and represents one of the most considered expressions of French cooking currently available. Not cheap, and absolutely worth it.
Sunday — Before Departure
A Sunday morning in Paris has a particular quality that the rest of the week doesn’t. The city quietens slightly — not completely, but enough. The Eurostar departures typically allow a late-morning walk before heading to Gare du Nord. The Palais Royal gardens, a five-minute walk from Le Meurice, handle a final Paris morning well.
A Note on Notre-Dame
Notre-Dame reopened in December 2024 following five years of restoration after the 2019 fire. The rebuilt interior is extraordinary — the original Gothic structure restored with materials and craftsmanship that represent a genuine achievement — and visiting it now, in this specific moment of its history, carries a resonance that the pre-fire visits didn’t quite have. Worth building time around it.
Travelling with The Wanderlust Edit
Bookings at Le Meurice or Four Seasons George V arranged through The Wanderlust Edit may include preferred partner benefits such as a hotel or dining credit, complimentary daily breakfast, room upgrade on arrival where available, and early check-in and late checkout subject to availability. Benefits vary by property, room category, season and availability and will always be confirmed at the time of booking.
Every journey begins with a conversation.
