La Nouvelle Athènes: the Romantic quarter and rue des Martyrs
Chopin and Sand's village, then the best food street in the 9th, all downhill. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Place Saint-Georges
A small round place built around a fountain, ringed by the over-the-top mansions the quarter was made for. Stand in the middle and turn once; this is the whole architectural argument in one view.

2. Musée de la Vie romantique
At the end of a cobbled alley, the house where the painter Ary Scheffer hosted Chopin and George Sand. The collection is free; the garden café behind it is the reason to come — order tea among the roses.

3. Square d'Orléans
Push the gate (it's usually open in daytime) into a private courtyard where Chopin and Sand both kept apartments. A pocket of calm two streets off the traffic; you won't be hurried out.

4. Notre-Dame-de-Lorette
The neoclassical church that gave the quarter its old nickname. Step in for the painted ceilings — full-blown 19th-century colour, almost always empty on a weekday morning.

5. Rue des Martyrs — top
The food street begins here and runs downhill. Work the *fromager* counters and the *chocolatier* windows; this is the stretch Parisians actually shop, not a market got up for visitors.

6. Rue des Martyrs — boulangerie corner
Towards the bottom, the *boulangerie* fronts cluster. Buy something warm and eat it on the move; the street delivers you to the métro with your hands full, which is the correct way to finish.

La Nouvelle Athènes: the Romantic quarter and rue des Martyrs