At the time of going to press prices ranged from 42 Euros for a two-day pass to 69 Euros for a six-day one, and you get unlimited access to a good number of museums including the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay and Pompidou Centre – and at some the pass enables you to join a shorter queue, which is a massive advantage at the busy Louvre.

Two museums that vintage-lovers will appreciate but usually get overlooked are the Cinémathèque and the Musée des Art Décoratifs. The former is best reached by Metro. Among this Gehry-designed museum’s massive collection of film and film-related paraphernalia are over 2,000 costumes and accessories, and tens of thousands of posters, production sketches and photographs. Not all are on display at once, of course, but it’s a delight for film history fans regardless. At the time of going to press, the major exhibition there was on Martin Scorsese’s work. The Musée des Art Décoratifs is housed in the west wing of the Louvre palace, though is not part of the Louvre Museum. The first two floors house changing exhibitions, and unless the topic is of particular interest to you, I’d recommend heading up a couple of floors to the permanent exhibition. It takes you through French interiors from the middle ages to the present, and couturier Jeanne Lanvin’s private mid-1920s is among the rooms you can see. Art nouveau can look like an extravagant style to 21st-century eyes, but seen as part of a timeline, it’s positively restrained after the ornate, golden French design that preceded it!

More excellent art nouveau, including Mucha’s stunning interior for Georges Fouquet’s jewellery boutique, plus paintings and a great collection of vintage street signs can be found in the Musee Carnavalet, which has the added bonus of being free to get in – a rarity in Paris.

Souvenirs

After all those museums, you’ll probably be hankering after something of your own to take home. Surprisingly, Paris isn’t brilliant for vintage clothes shopping – in the centre, at any rate. You’ll see ‘kilo shops’ scattered around (there seem to be a good number in the Marais district) but they cater more towards the mainstream ‘looking for something interesting and retro’ shopper rather than the customer looking for decent vintage.

The Left Bank was the birthplace of existentialism after the Second World War, and handily the cafés favoured by Camus, Sartre and de Beauvoir (Café de Flore) and that preferred by Hemingway and Picasso (Les Deux Magots) are next to each other. It’s perfectly fine just to have coffee, though you’ll have to bring your own genius to the table.

Paris is a truly memorable city. A weekend won’t be enough – but you might leave it thinking a lifetime wouldn’t be enough either.

What would Audrey do?

In most circumstances that’s a good question to ask oneself, and it’s a good question to ask in Paris too. In Funny Face, Audrey had her photo taken by the Arc de Triomphe in the Tuileries (not the more famous Arc de Triomphe at the top of the Champs-Elysées), by a train at the Gare du Nord (so if you’re coming by Eurostar, grab a selfie when you arrive), fishing by the Pont des Arts, and on the staircase at the Opéra Garnier. She’s also snapped running down the stairs in front of the Winged Victory of Samothrace in the Louvre, but you’ll have no chance of repeating the same shot as that staircase is usually packed with visitors.