Together, Paris's arrondissements comprise an urban jigsaw that the novelist Julien Green once compared to a model of the human brain. Each piece has a particular connotation or function.

The 5th arrondissement is academic; the 6th is arty and chic; the 16th is wealthy and dull; while the 18th, 19th and 20th arrondissements are riotously multicultural. Residents are frequently assessed, on first meeting at least, by their postcode, and as a consequence often develop a fierce sense of local pride.

Champs-Elysées & Western Paris

The city’s most famous thoroughfare, the Champs-Elysées has been transformed of late. At its western end, the Arc de Triomphe is also gleaming after a refurb. Western Paris is a civilised mix of important museums and grand residences.

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Opéra to Les Halles

Opéra to Les Halles used to be the centre of royal power in Paris, and you can get a sense of this by taking a stroll around the Palais Royal. Today, it's the city's commercial and cultural powerhouse; it's home to the massive Forum des Halles shopping complex, the jewellers and fashion houses of Place Vendôme, and to the Louvre, Palais Garnier and Musée de l'Orangerie.

The Louvre

The world’s largest museum, the Louvre is home to some 35,000 works of art, from ancient Egypt to the 19th century. Crowds can be oppressive, especially around the Mona Lisa, but there’s also plenty of space for contemplation.

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Montmartre

The picturesque Montmartre is famed for its vertiginous flights of steps, narrow winding streets and the massive bulk of Sacré-Coeur.

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Pigalle

Famous for the Moulin Rouge and its strip clubs and scuzzy bars (though it's a good deal more salubrious today than it once was).

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North-eastern Paris

The drab Gare du Nord is many visitors’ first taste of Paris. But east are Belleville and Ménilmontant, two of the city’s most multicultural areas and now a real nightlife hub. Further north and east of here is the magnificently odd Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, a warren of cliffs and grottoes carved out of a former quarry.

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Bastille & Eastern Paris

Bastille is not so much revolutionary as creative these days; now the area around the iconic place de la Bastille is well stocked with record shops, music venues and lively bars. Further east lies Paris’s biggest park, the Bois de Vincennes.

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Beaubourg & the Marais

Beaubourg is home to the Centre Pompidou, which holds Europe’s largest collection of modern art. The Marais, with ancient buildings and a street plan largely unmolested by Haussmann, is the heartland of Jewish and gay Paris.

The Siene & Islands

Ile de la Cité is the bullseye of the capital, where its history begins – home to the law courts, Notre-Dame and a dinky flower market. East from here, Ile St-Louis is one of the smartest addresses in the capital.

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7th & Southwestern Paris

Undeniably, the main attraction of the affluent (and sometimes stuffily institutional) 7th & Soutwestern Paris area is the Eiffel Tower, a shorthand for the French capital. Its elegant ironwork is most alluring at night, when it is lit up every five minutes by 20,000 shimmering lightbulbs. This is also the best time to climb the tower, because the queues are at their shortest.

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St-Germain-des-Prés

For many years, St-Germain-des-Prés was the intellectual heartland of the city, home to Sartre and de Beauvoir. But these days it's more about fashion than philosophy, and the expensive cafés are no place for starving writers. The city's most beautiful park, the Jardin du Luxembourg, won’t cost you a sou, however; and the Musée d’Orsay, though not free, is still excellent value.

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The Latin Quarter & South

Academic tradition persists in the Latin Quarter, home to the Panthéon and the Sorbonne. Further east, the vast ZAC Rive Gauche development project means the 13th is on the up.

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Montparnasse & South

To the south, you'll find Montparnesse. While it's no longer the artistic stronghold that it was in the 1920s, there’s just enough of a good-time feel at night to recall the area’s artistic heyday, and is home to the resting place of some of France’s most illustrious dead, the Cimetière du Montparnasse. South, Parc Montsouris offers relief from the urban sprawl.

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