Romance in Paris--As Recommended by The Times

There is a permanent air of Valentine’s Day about Paris. The tables are too close together, the portions are a touch dainty, and everywhere you look there are couples trying gamely to stare into each other’s limpid pools, ignoring the nagging sensation that they’re being smoothly, elegantly ripped off. The £4 café crème, the £200-a-night broom cupboard... the crimes passionels go on.

The situation, though, is far from insoluble – love, like cigarette smoke, still hangs liberally in the air here and, if you choose your extravagances wisely, Paris can confer more than enough magic to launch a honeymoon, an engagement or just a memorable fling in unimprovable style.

The perfect day: let’s avoid the most common mistake, overambition, which risks quashing the romance with sore feet and too many Métro journeys. Paris rewards the lazy and punishes the industrious, and it’s important to choose the most famously indolent part of town, the Latin Quarter and St-Germain-des-Prés, as the epicentre of your lovers’ break. So instead of charging to Montmartre at dawn, begin with a stroll in the loveliest garden in town, at the Rodin Museum (Rue de Varenne; admission £4, be there for 9.30am), where you can contemplate the fiery affair with a younger woman that inspired the great man’s work.

Next, as food is obviously the food of love round here, potter to Rue Mouffetard’s morning market, where regional delicacies wait to be nibbled – Cave La Bourgogne, at the bottom end of the hill, is a lovely time-wasting cafe.

Nearby is the park that best captures the civility of the city: the Jardin du Luxembourg, where the citoyens simply pull up chairs and chat. After a turn around there, it’ll be lunchtime. Rue de Buci’s parade of eateries somehow retains the artsy pretension of the Latin Quarter’s low-rent past, and Parisians adore them. The choice is excellent, but the Bar du Marché (mains from £8) wins the popular vote.

Now, stroll the Seine. The Jardin des Plantes isn’t much cop as a horticultural endeavour, but it makes the ideal quiet route to the start of the riverside path, offering perfect views of the islands as you follow the Left Bank. And if the mood really takes you, consider a brief foray to the other side, and the astonishing jewellery boutiques of Place Vendôme. But remember, ladies, when a man is tired of Paris, he is tired of shops.

The perfect evening: now’s the time to be extravagant. The dim dining room at Lapérouse (51 Quai des Grands-Augustins; 00 33-1 43 26 68 04, booking essential) is sultry enough, but book one of its private chambers – wood-panelled boudoirs with an air of prerevolutionary petticoat-rustling – and frankly, chaps, you’re either married already, carrying the ring, or you’re doomed. Dinner is set at £80 a head plus wine, plus that fat diamond.

If that’s too steep, Le Reminet (3 Rue des Grands-Degrés; 01 44 07 04 24) is a cosy, shamelessly traditional and sanely priced bistro, with mains from £14.

After dinner, Paris’s revived jazz scene offers yet more treats. Just done up, Le Bilboquet (13 Rue St-Benoit; 01 45 48 81 84, jazzclub.bilboquet.free.fr) is all bordello-burgundy velvet and silk, with tables outside or (better still) on a balcony above the band, which strikes up at 9ish.

And so to bed? Not a chance – sleep tomorrow. The midnight stroll is a Parisian speciality, all echoing footsteps and loosened ties.

The perfect night: to live your bohemian fantasies for a weekend, you’ll need a Parisian roof terrace. The finest belong to the decadent split-level suites at the outstanding Hôtel de l’Abbaye (01 45 44 38 11, www.hotelabbayeparis.com; £280 a night), but the Hôtel Duc de Saint-Simon (01 44 39 20 20, www.hotelducdesaint simon.com; from £150 a night) has lovely doubles with private patios for those dream breakfasts.

For tighter budgets, the Hôtel des Grandes Ecoles (01 43 26 79 23, www.hotel-grandes-ecoles.com; doubles from £75) has a lovely quiet courtyard and equally lovely people. Travel details: Eurostar (0870 518 6186, www.eurostar.com) has weekend returns from Waterloo from £59, but love is... stumping up the £149 for the Leisure Select fare, securing her the legroom and the meal. Alternatively, airlines flying to Paris include Air France (0870 142 4343, www.airfrance.co.uk), BA (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com) and Flybe (0871 522 6100, www.flybe.com).

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