Lavie Maison: Welcoming Apartment in Montmartre

Second floor, quiet side of the building. Eighteen square metres that feel considered rather than compact — the kind of studio where the light does most of the decorating.

A sofa bed anchors the room, flexible enough for working by day and sleeping by night. The kitchen is fully kitted (coffee machine, oven, kettle), and the bathroom hides a proper walk-in shower behind the door.

Épinettes is the 17e most Parisians keep to themselves. Wander two streets over to the marché de la rue des Moines for oysters, cheese, and the kind of Saturday morning that ends in a café.

Made for one or two — a solo traveller on a long stay, a couple slipping into the city for a few nights. What stays with you is the neighbourhood: unhurried, un-touristy, entirely Paris.

Step out and you're on the flatter, quieter side of the 17e — wide pavements, a school somewhere nearby letting out at 16h30, a Franprix, a fleuriste, and the Guy Môquet métro sign catching light at the end of the street. The zinc counters here still belong to the neighbourhood: workmen at 8h, retirees at 11h, everyone reading Le Parisien.

Walk five minutes to rue de la Jonquière on a Tuesday or Friday morning for the marché — oysters from Normandie, a rôtisserie with the queue that tells you which chicken to buy, and Chez Léon at number 42 for a proper café crème before you carry everything home.