Its pleasures are eternal, but the particulars of where to stay, eat, and play are ever in flux. Natasha Edwards and Cristina Nehring break out their little black books.

The best way to discover Paris is on foot: Browse outdoor markets, observe life from café terraces, and poke your nose into doorways that reveal hidden courtyards and gardens. For a vision of how the city continues to evolve outside the historic center, go to the Paris Rive Gauche development zone in the thirteenth arrondissement, where new housing, offices, parks, and university buildings are sprouting up alongside rehabilitated industrial spaces and riverside barges. The vast Bibliothèque Nationale François Mitterrand (more successful inside than out) forms a focus for the area (Quai François Mauriac).

The country and city code for Paris is 33-1. Prices quoted are for April 2009.

LODGING
Overlooking the Tuileries near the Louvre, Le Meurice is the most relaxed of the palace hotels. The ground floor was recently made over by Philippe Starck, and dining options include the haute-cuisine Le Meurice restaurant and the recently opened Le Dalí, which pays tribute to Surrealist painter and erstwhile habitué Salvador Dalí with a witty modern menu (44-58-10-10; doubles, $486-$1,032; entrées, $37-$64).

Off the Champs-élysées, the intimate Hôtel Lancaster has beautifully decorated rooms and an innovative contemporary restaurant overseen by Michel Troisgros (40-76-40-76; doubles, $674-$868; entrées, $38-$87). In the Marais, neo-Gothic has been taken to excessive new heights at the jewel box-like Le Bourg Tibourg (42-78-47-39; doubles, $298-$336).

Much more exclusive is the Hôtel Particulier Montmartre, where there are just five rooms (each conceived by a contemporary artist) in a white-stucco house hidden behind its own garden on Montmartre Hill (53-41-81-40; doubles, $375-$634). For sweeping city views of Montmartre without high luxury, try the Timhotel Montmartre, next to Picasso's erstwhile studio, the Bateau-Lavoir (42-55-74-79; doubles, $128-$186).

Over on the Left Bank, the Relais Christine is housed in a gorgeous St-Germain mansion where antique furnishings and beamed ceilings meet a contemporary gym and spa (40-51-60-80; doubles, $380-$486). Le Clos Médicis, in a 17th-century building near Luxembourg Garden, has a warm minimalist design and a pleasant staff (43-29-10-80; doubles, $275-$346). Fashion designer Christian Lacroix's Le Bellechasse, up the street from the Musée d'Orsay, confirms his flair for color and pattern with its compact yet comfortable rooms done in brilliant graphic prints (45-50-22-31; doubles, $435-$557).