Stehli's Paris Picks

This is our Best of Paris. Feel free to send us your own and we'll post it up.

Best places to kiss:

Adam and Eve themselves surely would have chosen the Jardin Sauvage St-Vincent over Eden. This "wild" garden is the last enclave in Paris where all the plants that once grew in the city can still be found. But you might want to wait until spring or summer to kiss. 17, rue St-Vincent, 18e. Open Apr-Oct, Mon-Sat, 2 p.m.-6 p.m.

Try under the giant catalpa of the Place de Furstenberg, in the heart of St-Germain-des-Prés. This little square, set apart from traffic, is the most romantic in the capital. 6e.

Backup: the Pont des Arts.

Best places to be seen:

The latest child of the Costes brothers, emperors of the "café society," is Le Café Ruc. Come at 11 p.m., when the actors of the nearby Comédie Française dine after their play. The seafood linguine has become a classic. 159, rue St-Honoré, 1er.

Backup: Don't miss the purée à l'huile d'olive at the Hôtel Costes. 239, rue St-Honoré, 1er.

The newest place for lunch is L'Alcazar. Sir Terence Conran, the Pope of design, has turned this former cabaret into a beautiful restaurant. His revolutionary contribution to French culinary tradition is that patrons can observe what goes on in the kitchen.

Best places for tea:

Le Robinet Mélangeur is a lovely, family run bar-restaurant. The fruit tartelettes with crème fraîche are delicious. You can also buy work by the "artist of the month." 123, blvd de Ménilmontant. 11e.

Of course, there is always the temple of tea, Mariage Frères. 30, rue du Bourg-Tibourg, 4e, Tel: 01.42.72.28.11. But it is too zen for the current taste.

The Café de la Mosquée, with its cedar wood from Algeria, its green tiles from Morocco and its fa•ences (earthenware) from Tunisia, opens onto the refreshing little garden of the Paris Mosque. It serves colorful pastries and a delicious mint tea that comes straight from Morocco. 39, rue Geoffroy St-Hilaire, 5e, Tel: 01.43.31.18.14. Open 10 a.m.-11 p.m.

Best place to feel like you're having lunch on a pier on the Atlantic:

La Marine, right on the Canal St-Martin, with its red and blue, looks like an urban lighthouse. Its raviolis d'escargots or its profiteroles aux ris de veau are to die for (probably the reason reservations are needed well ahead of time). 55, quai de Valmy, 10e. Tel: 01.42.39.69.81

Best place to meet the Picassos, Balmains and de Beauvoirs of the late twentieth century:

La Pause Café, located on the street that's becoming what St-Germain-des-Prés was after the war, is a refuge for the up-and-coming models, art critics and experimental

musicians. 41, rue de Charonne, 11e.

Best new cafés:

Le Soleil, 136, blvd de Ménilmontant, 20e.
Le Zorba, 137, rue du Faubourg du Temple, 10e.

Best place to get drunk on words:

La Belle Hortense is a unique concept: a wine cellar, a bar à vin and a bookstore. Play the game of what wine best complements which book. Stay and read, have a glass of wine or just come for the conversation. 31, rue Vieille du Temple, 4e. Tel: 01.48.04.71.60. Open until 2 a.m. daily.

La Maroquinerie is an old leather-goods store transformed into a bookstore-café-restaurant. Some authors even leave their unpublished manuscripts for everyone to read. 23, rue Boyer, 20e. Tel: 01.40.33.30.60

Best places to have lunch with the establishment:

The location of Chez Françoise (under the Invalides) is not exactly attractive, but because of its proximity to the National Assembly and the Quai d'Orsay (the French State Department), this cafeteria has become the unofficial lunch stop of the many stars of French politics. Aérogare des Invalides, 7e. Tel: 01.47.05.49.03

The Art Déco seafood restaurant Prunier-Traktir has become the headquarters of the movie industry. Gérard Depardieu often has his seafood platter at the bar on the ground floor, but Jean-Paul Belmondo and Yves Saint Laurent's partner, Pierre Bergé, prefer the second floor. The Basque chef is very talented.

Best tables for enjoying the sun:

The luxury Bristol Hotel is one of the most wonderful Parisian oases, with its quiet patio where you can have lunch or a lemonade. 112, Faubourg St-Honoré, 8e. Tel: 01.42.66.91.45

Le Pavillon Montsouris is the closest you'll come to a déjeuner sur l'herbe. It overlooks the lovely Parc Montsouris. The new chef is trying to improve the cuisine, but the setting is still more appealing to the senses than the food. 20, rue Gazan, 14e. Tel: 01.45.88.38.52

The name Quai Ouest is meant to evoke Key West, but this vast warehouse-type space has a great view of the Seine and of the Bois de Boulogne. In the summer, half the walls lift up, giving you the feeling that you are eating outside. 1200, quai Marcel Dassault, St-Cloud. Tel: 01.46.02.35.54

Best walk:

Follow the Paris Meridian, which guided sailors for centuries before the Greenwich meridian. To celebrate Arago, the man who mapped it, Paris has commissionned a subtle land art project. A series of thousands of brass nails engraved with Aragao's name and planted in the ground will lead you on a new discovery of the city, from north to south. The mairies can usually provide maps.

Best new street for art lovers:

In the shadow of the Bibliothèque de France, far from the Marais and Beaubourg, traditional enclaves of the art world, the Rue Louise Weiss is one of the best surprises

of this new neighborhood. Between number 20 and number 34, there are seven galleries. When your legs are a little tired, rest at L'Audierne, the café that is the anchor of the street. Tel: 01.45.86.72.72

Best unknown neighborhood:

The inhabitants of La Butte au Cailles (Quail Hill) have successfully preserved their neighborhood, an arean off-off-St-Germain des Prés. The Rue de la Butte aux Cailles is lined with terraced restaurants. The picturesque Passage Boiton and Passage Barrault with their small houses and gardens are still untouched by urban development.

Best places for a croissant:

The debate will never stop raging, but these belong at the top of any list:

President François Mitterrand, who was a lover of good things, liked the croissants made by Jean-Luc Poujauran in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. Every morning, the baker would personally bake a batch for the president. If you are hungry, try the sandwiches, like the sandwich au saucisson de montagne. 20, rue Jean-Nicot, 7e. Tel: 01.47.05.80.88

Marcello Mastroianni was often among the people standing in line at Gérard Mulot's. In the sparse white decor, the croissants shine like jewels. 76, rue de Seine. 6e. Tel: 01.43.26.85.77

On the Place de la Madeine (the church, not Proust's cake), Ladurée, with its waitresses in white ruffled aprons, remains a classic. 16, rue Royale, 8e. Tel: 01.42.60.21.70

Best Place to read Marcel Proust:

The restored mansion that houses the Musée Nissim de Camondo is a jewel of 18th-century decorative arts. Here, you will find a letter to the Count from Proust, who manages to bemoan his own fate while ostensibly consoling the Count for the death of his son. 63, rue de Monceau. Open 10 a.m.-noon and 2 p.m.-5 p.m. Closed Mon, Tues and holidays.

Best place to have tea in the company of a Tiepolo:

The newly renovated Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris's version of New York's Frick collection, includes a fine cafeteria, as well as paintings by Canaletto, Rembrandt, Reynolds, Montagna, Tintoretto and Titian.

Best hotels to make you feel you are in the country:

Push a door in the high wall of the Hôtel des Grandes Ecoles and you enter another universe. The hotel is a bourgeois house surrounded by a big garden where you can read or have breakfast. Reservations months ahead are suggested. 75, rue du Cardinal Lemoine, 5e. Tel: 01.43.26.79.23

Nouvel Hotel: Push an unremarkable door a few yards from the Place de la Nation, in the unexplored 12th arrondissement, and you are in Italy. The hotel is surrounded by a lovely little garden and the rooms are sweet. 24, avenue du Bel-Air, 12e. Tel: 01.43.43.01.81

Best place for public psychoanalysis:

Maud Lehanne, a psychotherapist and transfuge from the Café des Phares, the original philosophy café, leads about 50 people at La Chope des Vosges. "Patients" talk about themselves and explore themes such as guilt, bulimia and suicide. 22, place des Vosges, 6e. Tel: 01.42.72.64.04. Usually Thurs at 7 p.m. (Call in advance to confirm.)

Most peaceful journey around France and the world:

Banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn bankrupted himself building the Musée et Jardins Albert Kahn, his own mini-utopia designed to promote world peace through the understanding of other cultures.

The gardens are a miniature global paradise where you can walk from a French Alacian pine forest to a Japanese garden, from a rose garden to an English lawn. There is also a tea salon where you can enjoy the soothing quiet and beauty of this little corner of paradise. 14, rue du Port, Boulogne Billancourt. Tel: 01.46.04.52.80.

Best bike ride:

Take the train at the gare Montparnasse and get off at Versailles-Chantiers. Rent a bike in the station, at Mountain Biker (Tel: 01.30.21.23.32, rental costs 80 F for the day) and you are on your way. Ask for direction to the Porte de la Reine, one of the entrances to Versilles' gardens. On the way back, stop at the wonderful Trianon Palace, designed in 1911 by the same architect who designed the Plaza Athénée hotel in Paris. Have a cup of tea where Proust, Colette and Paul Valéry came before you. 1, blvd de la Reine, Versailles. Tel: 01.30.84.38.00.

Best view of Paris:

The top floor of the Pompidou Center has its fans, with its poetic view of the grey rooves of the city. But the Parc de Belleville, higher than the Butte Montmartre, offers a gorgeous view on the whole capital. With its linden trees, catalpas,

plane trees and its fountains, the park is one of the city's best-kept secrets. It is also a good starting point to explore this neighborhood. 20e.

Best view for lunch:

Atop the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA), a block from the world-famous restaurant Tour d'Argent, you can lunch at Le Zyriab, with a spectacular view of Notre-Dame and the Ile St-Louis, for a fraction of the price. Dining on the couscous with red wine from the Maghreb is a perfectly civilized way to take a break in the middle of the day. 1, rue des Fossés St-Bernard, 5e. Tel: 01.40.46.84.62.

Best walk in the city:

La traversée du 12e: Walk the 4 km between the Bastille Opéra and Vincennes, on what used to be the track of the train going to La Varenne St-Maur. As you walk above the city on the viaduct, you'll come across four gardens with different personalities. My favorite is the Jardin Charles Péguy, named after the poet, with its contrasts of minerals, pine trees and American oaks. But you might feel more in the mood for the Jardin de Reuilly, with its lawns just inviting walkers to sunbathe.

Best place to escape the city:

Have lunch at Pangalene and escape to the "Red Island" (the nickname for the former French colony of Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean). The restaurant is simple but the food is excellent. I recommend the bouillon de poulet au gingembre. 101, rue de Ménilmontant, 20e. Tel: 01.46.36.75.96. Open daily except Sun, noon-3 p.m. and 7 p.m.-10 p.m.

Backup: L'Epicier Créole is a lovely grocery store that sells all the wonderful products of Madagascar (from the rarely found red rice to vanilla tea and anamalao - the "warm herbs" used for romazova, the national dish). 11, rue Tholozé, 18e. Tel: 01.42.52.64.24

A random list of restaurants we like:

La Connivence, 1, rue de Cotte, 12e. Near the place d'Aligre (daily open air and flea markets). Lovely, imaginative food cooked by an opera lover and a former professor of economics at HEC, the French equivalent of the Harvard business school. Tel: 01 46 28 46 17.

Casa Olympe, 48, rue St-George. Tel: 01 42 85 26 01. Fabulous cuisine at reasonable prices. Director Milos (One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest) Forman's favorite.

Chen, 15, rue du Théatre, 15e. 01 45 79 34 34. Some consider it the most inventive Chinese restaurant in Paris, blending French and Chinese cuisines.

Bistrot de l'Etoile, 13, rue Troyon, 8e. This minuscule bistrot (25 seats) is one of the best in Paris. Owned by three star chef Guy Savoy. Japanese feel. Tel: 01 42 67 25 95.

Chez Michel, 10, rue de Belzunce, 15e. Tel: 01 44 53 06 20. One of the most amazing restaurants of new regional cuisine by an exciting young chef. Very affordable.