THE Grand Hotel Doré, a bijou place in the little-known Parisian district of Daumesnil, is a fantastic find.
Characterful and welcoming, well-priced and beautifully modernised, it's a friendly, family-run, old-established hotel in a lovely tree-lined suburb.
And, despite being slightly off the well-beaten tourist track, the hotel's location only steps fr
om a Metro station means you can be at the centre of anything in 15 minutes.
Descend the steps to the underground, decide where you want to go - the Louvre, madame? the Moulin Rouge? perhaps today the Latin Quarter? - and, minutes later, pop up again at street level at the destination of your choice.
And that means you can complete your entire French getaway, from Sheffield all round Paris and back again, solely by public transport.
We arrived at our hotel, by Metro, from the train station Gare du Nord, where we'd landed aboard the Eurostar from St Pancras in London.
The Eurostar's new base at the restored St Pancreas means, for Sheffielders especially, the fabulous French capital has never been easier to get to. We locked the front door in Sheffield just before 7am UK time and were turning the key in the door to our hotel room at 2pm French time.
Admittedly there were a few transportational troubles along the way. Our Sheffield to London leg was chronically delayed, unbelievably, by the headlights having been attached to the wrong end of the East Midlands Train, and we had to hastily change services in Chesterfield to make sure we got to St Pancreas in time.
As it turned out we needn't have rushed - the Eurostar, too, was delayed!
But all in all it was a pretty easy trip and, after inspecting our en-suite room at the Doré and unpacking our things, we headed out for our first afternoon in Paris, hopping back onto the Metro to the Eiffel Tower.
By the time we arrived daylight was fading and our first glimpse of the tower - illuminated alternately by a golden glow and crazy fast flashing lights - was breathtaking.
We joined the snaking half-hour queue of fellow tourists to take the elevator to the top, and watched the City of Light below us turn from dusky purple to velvety black, the car headlamps swimming beneath us.
Back at the hotel, on and around Avenue Daumesnil, there are lots of places to enjoy a Parisian dinner.
Across the road was a pleasant brasserie and around the corner we found Au Trou Gascon, an elegant place run by one of Paris' most acclaimed Michelin-starred chefs, Alain Dutournier.
The food was magnifique, and with wine worked out at only £40 a head for four courses. Less of a success was our visit to a traditional French restaurant down the road, where the intriguingly-named Andouillette AAAAA caught my eye on the menu.
The restaurant owner told me, in broken English, that it was pork, and he was sort of right.
