Statues in the elegant Tuileries gardens, next to the Louvre museum. The ferris wheel in the background is part of the annual funfair, held in July. Photos by Mark Graham / For China Daily

The column in Place Vendome is to celebrate Napoleon's military exploits.

The Academy of Music is one of the many stunning buildings in central Paris.

Fashionable Paris is always tres chic, Mark Graham discovers.

Many visit for the gourmet food and fine wine. Some spend their time marveling at the magnificent buildings. And others are happy to spend their entire visit in a relatively small patch of Paris where the prime boutiques are housed. For fashionistas, it is not just about the clothes but rather the delightful experience of popping into tiny, characterful boutiques housed in buildings that can boast real history. For people raised on the Asian mall experience, which even in its classiest incarnation can't claim to offer much in the way of ambience, it is a blissful, even culturally enriching experience.

The boutiques along the main shopping drag, Saint Honore-Rue du Fabourg, just away from Place Vendome, have a creaking-floorboard kind of historical aura that multimillion dollar malls, with their marble floors and Kenny G music, simply can't replicate. Sure it means burning more shoe leather - and this can indeed be a problem when trying to totter along on Christian Louboutin high heels - but the rewards are plentiful. It offers a feeling that these are the places where, in days gone by, artisans practiced their crafts in a backroom and simply put the finished goods on display in the shop window.

The lack of space and observance of tradition mean there are few multilevel stores along this drag. The big names stick with the spirit by spreading their wares among several smaller outlets.

As well as the main fashion brands - le tout Paris is naturally represented here - there are luggage stores selling handcrafted bags, stationery outlets selling proper notepaper from the days before dashed-off e-mails and Post-its became so all pervasive, and the kind of pharmacy found only in Paris, which stocks everything from headache tablets to tortoiseshell hairbrushes.

This being Paris, there are plenty of pastry shops, small bars and delicatessens along the way. Despite the upmarket daytime clientele, it is a real neighborhood, where people buy fresh produce from the local charcuterie and fromagerie, walk their French poodles on the sidewalks and stand around chatting on street corners.

While Saint Honore-Rue du Fabourg is a rather small and intimate zone, the close-by main Place Vendome is grand and imposing, so it is unsurprising to find it was created during the era of Louis XIV, the Sun King. The spacious square is lined by elegant mansions, each with a creme-de-la-creme store at street level. This is the spot to browse for a diamond-encrusted watch, or choose a special occasion ballgown.

For shoppers without a chauffeur, sozzled or sober, there are plenty of classy shopping options nearby, without the quite giddy prices of Place Vendome. The popular Galleries Lafayette lies to the immediate north. To the west is the city's most famous street, Champs Elysee, with a fair amount of tourist tack and tat spread among the fancy frock shops.

Which brings us back to one of the main reasons for visiting Paris whatever the time of year - its magnificent collection of well-preserved buildings, architecture that makes contemporary visitors gasp with the same delight as people in centuries past.

The gothic cathedral of Notre Dame, started in the 12th century and finished 200 years later, is one of the city's most-visited sites. Slightly further west is another of its big-ticket architectural triumphs, the renowned Louvre museum, the setting for a brutal murder in the Hollywood blockbuster The Da Vinci Code, starring Tom Hanks.

Not that the Louvre really needed the publicity: It is already famed as the home of the world's most celebrated painting, the smiling-eyed Mona Lisa, on permanent display and seen daily by thousands of visitors.

Entrance to the cavernous building is via the great triangular edifice designed by China-born architect I.M. Pei. When it was first proposed, traditionalists were horrified at the prospect of a glass-and-steel structure being plonked in the courtyard of the 300-year-old granite palace.

Views have been modified and it is now considered to be a masterstroke, brilliantly juxtaposing the old and new styles. It also fulfils Pei's vision of creating a piece of architecture that is warmly embraced by the public, a living building that, in summer, has people lolling on its low stonewall moat and gazing at the late afternoon reflections in the window panes.

The entire area round here is picture-book Paris. A few strides away from the Louvre itself is Tuileries, a neatly landscaped, flower-filled gem of greenery in the heart of the city. Parisians love to loll around on the park's green metal chairs, eating ice cream, reading the paper, munching a baguette or simply watching the world go by.

Leave by the southern entrance, and the Seine lies immediately ahead with a pedestrian-only bridge, Pont Royal leading to the left bank.

The left bank in general is famed for its bohemian atmosphere, in particular around the start of the Boulevard St. Michel, a popular student hangout. It is home to the Latin Quarter, a series of narrow streets that house scores of Middle Eastern restaurants all selling exactly the same kebab-based fare. To Europeans, it has a whiff of the exotic, but anyone used to the lively and inexpensive street-food culture of Asia's big cities will be hugely underwhelmed.

Partaking of traditional cafe culture is far more of a novelty. It appears that buying a cup of coffee gives the rental of that spot for an unlimited time: The waiters may be renowned for their rudeness but they are not about to start harrumphing if you linger longer. The tradition of leisurely enjoyment is sacrosanct.

Paris street cafe food is simple, stomach-lining stuff such as steak frites or omelettes with salad. The culinary range moves all the way up from that level to the fine-dining palaces of the top hotels, such as Le Meurice where the waiters still wear white gloves, a jacket is de rigeur for monseiur and the bill is likely to be stratospheric. That marvelous snootiness remains intact although the staff does, grudgingly, accept that English has become the international language and volunteers to speak it.

Occasional brusqueness is, perhaps, part of the charm, perhaps induced by the residents' certitude that theirs is the finest city in the world. Like it or lump it is the underlying Parisian message. And what's not to like in a place that does fashion, food, architecture and culture with such inimitable pizzazz?

Contact the writer at sundayed@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/29/2014 page10)