🇫🇷 Paris
Le Marais wander
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Once swampy farmland (the name means "the marsh"), then France's most aristocratic neighbourhood in the 1600s. The original 17th-century mansions are still here.
Spared from Haussmann's reworking, the Marais kept its tight medieval grid and 17th-century mansions. Centre your wander on Place des Vosges (Paris's oldest planned square, with Victor Hugo's house at no. 6), then drift up Rue des Rosiers for falafel at L'As du Fallafel and the Jewish quarter, and finish around Rue Vieille du Temple for boutiques and cafés. Sunday is the one day of the week when most of Paris shuts down but the Marais stays alive.