Lavie Maison: Marais Studio Gem

Twelve square metres, a ground-floor door opening straight onto a Marais side street, and the sound of a café terrace setting up across the way.

Inside, every centimetre earns its keep: a sofa bed that folds away by day, a kitchenette with a real oven, wine glasses waiting on the shelf. Self check-in via lockbox, whenever your train arrives.

You're a few minutes from the Musée Picasso and the falafel queue on rue des Rosiers. Walk five minutes more and you're at Marché des Enfants Rouges for Sunday lunch.

This one's for a solo traveller or a couple who'd rather spend the day out than in — somewhere to drop the bags, change shoes, and head back into le quartier. The street noise comes with the address; so does everything else.

Step out and the morning starts narrow: scooters threading rue des Rosiers, the falafel shutters still down, a queue already forming outside Sacha Finkelsztajn for poppy-seed bagels. The pavement is uneven, the buildings lean in slightly, and by 10h the gallery on the corner of rue des Francs-Bourgeois rolls up its grille.

For coffee, walk five minutes to Café Charlot on rue de Bretagne and take the second small table by the window — then cross into Marché des Enfants Rouges, the oldest covered market in Paris, where the Moroccan stall does a tagine that's worth queuing for on a Saturday.