Every street in Paris seems to echo with the ghosts of love stories Photo: AP/FOTOLIA

May we suggest a stroll through the gardens of the Palace of Fontainebleau, just outside the city, a sundowner (and the views) in Belleville, the hilltop district where Edith Piaf was born, a show at the Palais Garnier, and dinner at La FermetteMarboeu, where the Art Nouveau decor is as exquisite as the Grand Marnier soufflé? Then recreate Robert Doisneau's Le Baiser de l'Hôtel de Ville (Kiss by the Town Hall).

2. Getting there is a doddle

Just 2 hours 15 mins on the Eurostar, with return fares from £64.

3. It's got 70 Michelin-starred restaurants

Including 10 with three stars.

4. And you'll learn about the true hierarchy in the relationship between waiter and diner

"It is an ignoble lie that Parisian waiters are rude," explains Anthony Peregrine. "They aren’t. They are simply professional men (generally men) in a hurry. Consider your average London waiter or barman who, unless he actually is French, certainly doesn’t speak French and will give short shrift to anyone who cannot speak English. "Anyway, he doesn’t consider waiting his real job. It’s just something he does until he goes back to college or gets a role in a reality TV show. He is, therefore, clueless. French waiters are, by contrast, men doing a serious job. It’s a career. "The fellow may take an order for 14 different drinks in English, dodge between traffic, give directions to a Japanese passer-by on how to get to the Eiffel Tower – and still be a damned sight more agreeable than any waiter I have recently encountered in any British airport (they are legion) in recent times."

Why France is better than britian

5. It's got the world's greatest museum

6. There's the most beautiful stained glass you'll probably ever see

Inside the Sainte Chapelle, on the Ile de la Cité, you'll find the most awe-inspiring 13th-century stained glass in the world. The place exults with the sort of light which heralds angels. Fifteen huge and exquisite windows constitute the side and end of the chapel, held in place – only God knows how – by the frailest possible stone-work. Whoever designed it had mastered the sublime. The scriptural stories in the 1,113 panels – recently restored to glory – are impossible to follow. It doesn’t matter. When the sunlight pours through, the effect is of being bathed in grace and serenity.

7. Because the Rodin Museum has just reopened

Hôtel Biron, home to the new Rodin Museum, has a wonderfully bucolic feel about it. Nick Trend adds: "This 1720s mansion may be in the heart of the city, tucked away behind the gilded dome of Les Invalides, but it looks out over seven acres of lawns, topiary and avenues of pollarded trees. It has always been one of the great sights of Paris: perhaps the most perfect of the city’s museums, and the most appealing to visit."

The museum reopens last week after a three-year renovation