Travel
A Guide to Le Marais, Paris
Travel with me to the 4th in Paris, and discover its many secrets…
Hey, I want to tell you a secret about Paris. But before I do, just know this secret involves real life magic. And castles. And gargoyles. It involves gothic charm, haunted mansions, and seductive art. It’s a secret that dates back thousands of years. Before Chanel. Before the Eiffel Tower. And before the beautifully dark Mona Lisa. It’s a secret that hypnotized Napoleon. Hypnotized Leonardo Davinci. And hypnotized me. But the question is: do you want to be hypnotized by this secret? Are you ready to allow it to tug at your heart and whisper into your ear, as it has so many others? Then keep reading.
As I arrived in Paris recently on a desperately needed she-cation, this secret kept teasing me, kept haunting me, “Hilary, you’ve been to Paris before, but why haven’t you come to see me? I’ve been waiting a very long time.”
“I know, I know,” I kept insisting, feeling guilty and giddy with anticipation as I peered out the window of my Uber on the way to my posh designer hotel.
The exterior of my ultra-charming boutique hotel
Though I was full of anxious suspense, when I saw my boutique hotel for the first time I could no longer focus just on the secret that brought me there; all I could see was jaw-dropping beauty everywhere. Butterflies suddenly rushed into my stomach. The peach fuzz hair on the back of my neck immediately stood at attention. This is why they call Paris the “City of Lights,” I thought. It was no longer just a literal city of lights; this place became a symbol for expressing the highest form of beauty: namely, that light is love, and that love is any kind of beauty created from your heart. When I got to my hotel, I stepped out of reality and into a place created from somebody’s heart. And I fell love.
ELSA
Paris is beautiful. The Chinese tourists are not. I don’t know what reason they have for going there but they claimed the city their own. Spitting everywhere, being obnoxious like they own everything. Disgusting.
Helena Lowson
There are plenty of nice streets, great restaurants, amazing stores. All you need is to quit the tourist path and make your own. Paris is full of surprises, just find them!
Emily Foulkes
Just stayed for a week – bustling, without too many tourists. Great area for walking, cafes, and the like. Interesting museums in the Marais or nearby. Definitely will stay in the area next time.
Daisy Clarke
I love this hip little area. We stayed in an old art gallery that had been converted to an apartment. There are tons of restaurants around and Centre Pompidou is right there. Lots of little clothing stores.
Frances Seifert
We stayed in a flat in Le Marais on vacation recently. I’ve been to Paris many times and never spent much time in this area. It’s a great location for a base of operations. Away from the noise and the crowds, a neighborhood full of locals.
Ayla Pennington
Hard to believe you have so much to discover in Paris ! Alone in the Marais, you should see the ‘Place des Vosges’ buily by Henri IV and one of the 8 museums to be found there, as well as fabulous fountains and old 17th century buildings and fabulous roofs and carpentry works with high ceilings…
Deborah Henry
Love it there! If you can’t afford the big names and want to see originality, Le Marais offers a variety of boutiques and stores at a fair value. There are a lot of discounters selling the flavor of yesterday, but dig deeper and find something a little different.
Catherine White
Let’s be honest – all of Paris, Haussmann re-designing or no, is atmospheric and full of romance. But the Marais, even as it becomes more upscale as it gentrifies, retains an old-fashioned Bohemian quality. Wandering the streets, stopping at a cafe, drinking it all in, that’s where it’s at.
Leah Helms
Le Marais helps you adjust your pace and regain a certain calm. It is a meeting with times gone by and it invites you to a tourism, which makes you see, really see and not only though the lens of the camera. 🙂
Melissa Princeton
We went to le Marais to see some of Paris as it was before the big changes under Napoleon III. Hidden gardens were great but so little else is left and the street is still wide. You get a better idea of it from Avignon or old Lyon, I think.