This chic Paris district is becoming the trendiest spot for a city break in Europe

At Boubale restaurant in Paris, you won’t find steak frites on the menu. But you will find sea bream with Persian sabzi, olives, pine nuts and tahini sauce, or a frisbee-sized schnitzel with a side-serving of fermented cabbage.

Next door at the sexy little Bar Boubale, the cocktail of the day is an unlikely mix of Grand Marnier, croissant syrup and fermented tomato.

“You’re really going to order that?” asks my friend Shelley. But after one sip, she tries to wrestle it from me.

Boubale is part of Hotel Le Grand Mazarin, a fittingly radical newcomer in Le Marais, the central Parisian district that has lived through centuries of radical change.

What started life in the 12th century as marshland – the origin of its name – became’s most fashionable