The Marais is the part of Paris that the great nineteenth-century rebuild forgot, which is exactly why you come. It is three kilometres of the seventeenth century left standing — arcaded squares, hôtels particuliers (private mansions), and the lanes of the Pletzl, the old Jewish quarter, threaded between them.
Start at Place des Vosges and walk it under the arcades rather than across the lawn; the brick-and-stone façades are the show, and the cover is welcome whatever the sky is doing. Cut through the Hôtel de Sully courtyard to rue Saint-Antoine, then up into the Pletzl. Rue des Rosiers is falafel queues and kosher bakeries — eat standing, keep moving north.
The Musée Carnavalet is the middle of the walk and the city's own memory; the permanent collection is free, so go in, even briefly. Then drift down rue Vieille-du-Temple for the doorways, and finish in the Village Saint-Paul, a warren of antique-dealer courtyards most people never find the door to. From there it's a few minutes to Bastille and the Métro home.
