I've arranged Paris weekends for people who've never been, and for people who've been fifteen times. The second group often returns saying something unexpected — that this was the first time they really saw it. Not the Eiffel Tower, not the Louvre — those are wonderful, but they are not the point.

The point is a Left Bank morning. A café where the waiter remembers you from yesterday. A short walk with no destination, ending somewhere you didn't expect — a bookshop, a garden, a hidden courtyard with a fountain.

“The best Paris itinerary is a very short one. The rest is just walking.”

We arrange three nights, staying in a boutique hotel on the quieter side of the river. Breakfast is at a café down the street. We include one private morning at the Louvre before the doors open, and one sunset cruise on the Seine — because those moments are worth the organisation. The rest, you fill yourselves.

And if you happen to come back saying you did nothing at all, I'll take that as the highest compliment.