ANGELA SWANN finally gets the break in Paris she has always dreamed of...

MY TRACK record for visiting Paris was not good.

The first attempt – on my way back from a holiday in Perpignan – found me so ill I couldn’t get off the coach.

The second, a ‘romantic’ weekend with my boyfriend (now husband), began with a huge row that cast a black pall of resentment over the whole miserable affair.

Still, third time lucky as they say, so I wiped the slate clean and we set off, both of us in good health and amiable spirits, to see the sights.

We were staying at Les Jardins du Marais, the largest boutique hotel in the heart of the city.

Beyond its modest frontage, squeezed in between other hotels and bars on rue Amelot, we were surprised to find a vast complex of 263 rooms and suites overlooking a huge courtyard lush with greenery, inset bottom. It was rather like stumbling into Narnia.

Fully renovated in 2009, the hotel’s lobby and restaurant are a triumph of chic modern design, while the rooms are plush and comfortable.

Although with prices starting at about €170 a night for a single room – and you have to pay extra for breakfast and things like TV and the Internet – you would really expect that.

The hotel’s one big plus point, however, is its location.

A stone’s throw from the Place de la Bastille and not far from Victor Hugo’s house and the Picasso musuem, it is ideal for flitting around the city on the Metro, with a station just yards from the front door.

We marched out, map in hand, hoping to see as much of the city as we could in a day – quite a tall order as, according to the tourism bumpf, Paris has an astonishing 15,984 tourist sites.

Sticking to the big hitters, we went from Place de la Bastille and the gorgeous Place des Vosges, inset top, where Victor Hugo’s house is tucked away, to the Eiffel Tower, Le Louvre and Place de la Republique before stopping for food at a delightful little café in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, stamping ground of the likes of Jean-Paul Satre, and Simone de Beauvoir.

The highlight for me, however, was the fantastical Pompidou Centre, inset centre, with its wonderfully eccentric exterior of exposed coloured scaffolding and tubes.

Before heading inside, we caught a street performance by a mime artist (how French is that?), while in the Spring, miniature carnivals take over the area in front of the centre with bands, caricature and sketch artists, tables are set up for evening dining, and there are even skateboarding competitions.

The centre itself houses a vast public library, the Musée National d’Art Moderne, which is the largest museum for modern art in Europe, and IRCAM, a centre for music and acoustic research.

Although we only had time for a quick look around we’re quite certain we’ll be back to spend a day there in the near future.

Exhausted and foot-sore we headed back to the Mariais district, only to find rue Amelot transformed into a bustling landscape of lively bars and restaurants – which of course it would have been unprofessional of us not to sample.

And without a sniffle or a gripe in sight I can safely say, the ghosts of Paris past have finally been laid to rest.

* For information on everything from hotels and transport to restaurants and musuems see parisinfo.com To find out more about Les Jardins du Marais, including seasonal special offers, see lesjardinsdumarais.

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