La madrileña inglesa: Bonjour Paris

July's instalment of The Year of the City Break whisked us off to Paris to see Devendra Banhart playing live.

Rather lazily, aside from the gig we didn't venture far from our favourite arrondissments, the 3rd and 4th; Le Marais just has too much on offer.

Thanks for letting us know, Paris

One thing that did tear us away from the chic boutiques and scruffy cocktail bars of the 3rd and 4th was a reservation at Michelin-starred Yam'Tcha, one of the city's most exciting restaurants.

Opened by French chef Adeline Grattard when she returned from living in Hong Kong, Yam'Tcha is an exquisite fusion of French and Chinese flavours. The restaurant itself is tiny - seating just 20 diners - as is the open kitchen, but what emerges is innovative, delicate and delicious.

The tasting menus change daily according to the ingredients picked up that day. A creative touch is the choice between wine pairings with every course or tea pairings instead: keeping with the fusion theme, we went for a mix of the two.

After crab spring rolls came carrot and chorizo soup (above left), both bursting with intense flavour. Roasted squid, mussels and sweet potato noodles sprinkled with zingy sesame seeds was my favourite dish (above right), closely followed by a blue lobster, chanterelle mushroom and almond salad.

Steam turbot and black rice in a chicken broth

Chicken, corn and basilic with black rice vinegar

The tea pairings were beautifully matched to each dish, bringing a lightness and a freshness, as well as a welcome booze break in between wine pairings (it was lunchtime, after all).

Before the final sweet course our waitress asked if we'd like cheese as well. What a question - who doesn't want cheese? What arrived was an innovative mix of Chinese and European traditions: a steamed bun, tacky and slightly sticky just like in Hong Kong, filled with hot, oozing Stilton.

I'd go all the way back to Paris just for one more of these gooey parcels of deliciousness.

A fresh, crisp apricot and sorrel tart with almond sorbet woke us up again, ready to face the afternoon.

That evening we skipped off to Le Trianon, a beautiful, crumbling old theatre-turned-gig venue, to hear Devendra Banhart falsetto his way through his latest album (no surviving photos I'm afraid; I was too busy dancing).

On the ramble back to our hotel through the bars of Le Marais we dropped into Candelaria. We'd had a drink with friends earlier in the day at its new sister bar, Le Mary Celeste, and they'd recommended big sister Candelaria for cool cocktails in a cool setting.

So we were slightly fazed not to find a speakeasy-style, dark and intimate cocktail lounge, but a brightly-lit, shabby Mexican taco cantina, so small that just a handful of late night diners were squeezed up at the bar, gulping down margaritas and scooping up guacamole.

Before becoming a madrileña, I had a past life in Mexico City, so a late night Mexican feast posed absolutely no problems. We elbowed our way to the bar and wolfed down some spicy tuna tacos and several plastic tumblers of margaritas, before we noticed our fellow diners sneaking off through an almost-hidden, unmarked door at the back of the cantina.

The penny dropped. Sure enough, there was our speakeasy cocktail lounge, just as promised.

A change from the traditional Parisian café-et-croissant breakfast is Breakfast in America, Le Marais's very own American diner, not unlike our London favourite The Breakfast Club.

Having worked so hard to find our cocktail bar the previous evening, we'd been reluctant to leave once we'd found it. BIA's thick banana shakes, spicy Mexican omelettes and sweet raspberry and blueberry pancakes put us in a much better mood to face the day.

A lazy, sunny Sunday in Paris means one thing: a stroll along laid-back Canal Saint-Martin, which feels like a world away from the rest of the city.

The cobbled pavements and wrought-iron bridges are perfect places for lounging in the shade and people watching; there are plenty of shabby-chic wine bars and bistros along the banks and surrounding streets when it's time for an aperitif.