Paris

This Month in Paris (March):

Shopping: The first Hermès boutique on the Rive Gauche opens later this year in the historic Piscine du Lutetia, but until then fans can visit the label's temporary store, Hermès Ephémère (16 Rue de Grenelle, 6th, tel: 01 5363 0219).

Sightseeing: The 12th annual Printemps des Poètes (8-21 March) will be highlighting the work of female poets, with readings and events taking place throughout the city (printempsdespoetes.com).

Key areas: Bastille is not only the historic rallying point for all public protests since the French Revolution: the neighbourhood is also known for its many bars and nightclubs, the Opéra Bastille, and one of the largest open-air markets in Paris (Thursday and Sunday mornings).

Day trips: The historic town of Beauvais, just 45 minutes' north of Paris by train, is known for its Cathedral St Pierre, which has the tallest vault in the world. Also worth a look is the contemporary tapestry museum (beauvais.fr).

Paris News & Gossip

Coming Up: Île Seguin, Paris

PARIS

Île Seguin, the historic home of Renault car production in the western Parisian suburb of Boulogne, has been an industrial wasteland since the factory closed its doors in 1992. Billionaire businessman François Pinault had big plans to redevelop this abandoned strip of land in the middle of the River Seine, but in 2005 he got fed up with the procrastination and red tape, and shifted his plans for a Foundation of Contemporary Art to Venice. Star French architect Jean Nouvel has taken over the reins and by 2013 will have transformed the site into an "island for all the arts" replete with concert halls, an arts foundation, recording studios, cinemas, gardens, galleries and promenades. Nouvel battled to conserve the Renault factory as a symbol of working-class Paris. Now he plans to shake the island out of its protracted state of industrial slumber, making the 11.5-hectare site a "laboratory" for his urban vision for greater Paris, powered by solar panels and geothermal energy - a place where arts and environmental concerns mix. Says Nouvel: "We will create a hedonistic eco-city, a place of great diversity, where people come day and night. It will be a small city within the city, an eco-city blending into the different silhouettes reflecting on the Seine."

Paris Trivia

• March: The Arc de Triomphe, standing over 51m in height and 45m wide, is so huge that after World War I came to an end, the pilot Charles Godefroy flew his Nieuport biplane through it.

• February: Julia Morgan, the California-born designer of the famous Hearst Castle, was the first woman accepted into the architecture degree program at the famous Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

• January: The French national anthem, Le Marseillaise, was originally called "War Song for the Army of the Rhine" days before the Prussian attack of Strasbourg in 1792. It became the French Revolution rallying cry when volunteer soldiers from Marseilles were heard singing it in the streets.

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