We cross town in the morning peak hour traffic to the posh 16th arrondissement for what he tells me are the ‘best, best pain aux raisins‘! On the rue de Chaillot we enter La Pâtisserie Cyril Lignac, a sleek pastry shop that’s only been open a few months and order two sweet, golden scrolls. Lignac also owns Chardenoux, a favourite old-school bistro back on the eastern side of town.

The sticky, fragrant pasties are slipped into a paper bag and we jump back in the car en route to Salle Pleyel.

On the way Sébastien stops to show me La Suite Bleue, an exclusive beauty salon on Avenue Hoche near the Parc Monceau, a favourite of many of his clients. Here, you can experience true Parisian chic with a bevy of pampering beauty treatments for the body and hair.

Just down the road we pull up at the backstage entrance of Salle Pleyel, a famous Arc Deco concert hall where Stravinsky directed Agon in 1957 and music greats from Louis Armstrong to Ravi Shankar have played.

Today the distinguished maestro Myung-Whun Chung is rehearsing Bartok, Concerto pour Alto with L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, one of the finest orchestras in Europe. Sébastien has arranged for us to watch the rehearsal and we slip in the back door to take a peek. But first, we head to the café to grab a coffee to go with those pains aux raisins. They are divine: crunchy, buttery and flaky on the outside and dense and flavourful inside. Worth crossing town for.

Inside the concert hall the rush and noise of the city outside suddenly fades and we are transported to a calm, serene and peaceful world. We eventually drag ourselves away from the music and as we drive towards a ‘great little boutique hotel’.

Sébastien tells me that ballet and opera buffs may be interested to know that there is a last minute ticket queue at Opera Garnier, Paris’s sumptuous opera house. Just show up an hour or so before starting time and you are likely to score a seat.

We are only halfway through our morning but already my notebook is a enticing scrawl of wonderful things to do and taste. What this chauffeur extraordinaire does not know about Paris is not worth knowing! It fact, my notebook is so packed with ideas that I will have to bring you the rest in the next post. Stay tuned.

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Yesterday afternoon, Sébastien kindly picked me up at the airport in a very posh black Mercedes…Rather handy having a chauffeur with a limousine service as a friend and my very own, personal concierge! En route to the Marais, with Paris-in-the-springtime flirting out the window, I suddenly didn’t feel tired anymore. Just as well as Sébastien couldn’t help but stop along the way.

Bio yoghurt from Jean-Marie Beaudoin

First stop: Le Marché Bio du Centquatre, a tiny organic market that pops up in the 19th arrondissement on Saturdays (11 am – 2 pm). Produce is direct from regional farms and sold by the farmers themselves who rattle into town with their organic vegetables, bread and cheese. Apparently the hot rotisserie chickens are to-die-for and sell out within an hour! The market is just one of the many activities hosted in this off-the-beaten boulevard space known as Le Centquatre (104). An artistic and cultural complex for the quarter, it houses artists-in-residence and is the venue for a rich and varied arts program, with theatre, dance, exhibitions, music, cinema and culinary ventures.

Sébastien grew up in the quarter. ‘You will find the true spirit of Parisian people here,’ he says. It may be quite off the tourist track, but the reason we stopped in this authentic corner of the city was to buy, according to Sébastien, ‘a tub of the best yoghurt you are likely to taste in Paris.’ (Having sampled it in the middle of the night, he might just be right – although it’s a tough call in a jetlagged state!). Unable to resist, I also snapped up some Tomme cheese. On French soil for just an hour and already I’m buying cheese.

Coffee with Sebastien at Hotel du Nord

We drive along the banks of the Canal St Martin and pass the famous Hôtel du Nord. The 1938 French drama film of the same name follows the comings and goings at the Hôtel du Nord. ‘Why don’t we stop for a coffee?’ says Sébastien. ‘Why not,’ I say as we turn back and park; what’s another hour in a 28-hour journey?  Over coffee, we discuss a million things that he wants to show me when we meet on Friday. Of course we can only manage a fraction of them but a new boulangerie that bakes the best pain aux raisins is a must on the list. Stay tuned!

We pull up at my friends’ character laden pied-à-terre in the Marais and trudge up three flights of stairs with my luggage. I open the French doors to let in the spring breeze. Across the street a family is peering over their flower-filled balcony at the comings and goings on rue St Antoine.

Below, there is colour, noise, a crazy crisscross of motos and velos, and shoppers galore. After all, it is Saturday afternoon. Spring blooms in buckets adorn the footpath at Au Nom de la Rose. A queue snakes from the boulangerie next door. Suddenly I am reconnected with the Paris I know and love, and a delicious month stretches before me.

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