Lavie Maison face Palais Royal

Open the shutters and the colonnades of the Palais Royal are right there, framed like a postcard you didn't have to buy.

Twenty-seven square metres on the ground floor, single level, with an open kitchen that actually cooks — oven, dishwasher, proper wine glasses. The sofa in the living room folds out, so four can sleep without anyone drawing the short straw.

Step out and you're on rue de Richelieu. Cross the gardens for a coffee at Café Kitsuné under the arcades, or walk five minutes to the Louvre before the queues form.

It suits a couple who came for the museums and a small family who needs the extra bed. What stays with you is the view from the window — those gardens, every morning, all yours.

Step out and the first thing is the colonnade — the long arcades of the Palais Royal directly across the street, where someone is always photographing the Buren columns or eating a Pierre Hermé éclair on a bench. Rue de Richelieu runs quiet in the morning, the bouquinistes haven't opened, and the café terraces are still being wiped down with that particular Parisian seriousness.

For coffee, walk two minutes to Télescope on rue Villedo — a narrow room, one espresso machine, regulars who nod at the barista. It opened before Paris cared about flat whites and it still feels like the neighbourhood's secret, even though le quartier has long since caught on. Order the filter, take it standing, watch rue Sainte-Anne wake up around you.