Heading north from the Tuileries takes you through some of the classiest and most timeless parts of Paris, where echoes of Belle Époque grandeur mingle with the unmistakable scent of contemporary wealth. Jewellers, furriers and luxury hotels cluster around the Place Vendôme, itself just a short walk from the Palais Garnier, Paris's world-famous opera house. Chic crowds mill outside the Comédie Francaise theatre and the Olympia concert venue, and duck out of the street for a drink or a meal in one of the 19th-century covered arcades. The shops, meanwhile, are works of art in their own right, from the glittering stained-glass domes above Galeries Lafayette and Printemps to the mouthwatering displays of fine food in the windows of Fauchon and Hédiard. This is Paris dreaming itself, a city of ageless culture, luxury and elegance that rises above the concerns of the present day. Why not dream along?