Take a nostalgia trip at a newly-opened hotel in the bohemian heart of the French capital

A visit to Paris’s fifth arrondissement can make you feel unusually nostalgic in the current climate. Home to the Sorbonne, student-filled cafés and all-round Rive Gauche cool, it’s a world away from France on the brink of change. Also known as the Latin Quarter, le cinquième has ready supplies of retro charm and specialist shops to browse and lose yourself in.

On an early-evening wander, I come across a shop on rue des Écoles that sells mandolins and a rare bookshop on rue du Cardinal-Lemoine with a window display of ironic protest material, including a copy of the Watergate Cookbook. Near the Seine, you’ll find the Jardin des Plantes botanical gardens and the Natural History Museum, all just a stone’s throw away.

A gloriously vibrant gramiller should be just the ticket for when you’re cooking over coals, though when it comes to rosé, darker, stronger styles work best

One of the things that pops up like clockwork every summer is the focus on barbecues as we approach the Fourth of July. I don’t get it myself. How many of you host a flag-waving all-American barbecue with a stars and stripes cake? Any self-respecting griller has been at it since April, at least – well, maybe not this sodden spring, but on the odd occasion the rains have let up – and will carry on doing so well into the autumn.

As those of you who are enthusiasts will know, cooking over coals lends itself to all sorts of flavours and techniques, far beyond burgers and bangers. It might be a fishy feast with prawns, squid and scallops. It might be cauliflower steaks with a spicy dressing and all manner of grilled veg. It might be Middle Eastern, it might be Thai …

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