Great Vietnamese labyrinthine restaurant, with huge, filling plates for under €10. My girlfriend has been eating here since she was in the womb.

Very popular in the warm days, deserted at night, frozen in winter. I grew up with canals and long walks along them, so it's nice to do the same here.

The most fantastic selection of old toys and kid's memorabilia, better than a museum. Is there every version of every action figure ever made? I've received gifts of a 1950s Peter Pan penknife and an original ET ring from here, so now some lucky friends get presents from the huge range.

Messy, busy, mangled, cheap, friendly and relaxed bar in Belleville. Unchanged for years, just layered with tags, stickers, laquered beer spillage and cigarette ash; but bright and light at the same time.

Nameless pink shop run by a talkative redheaded Piaf who handpicks and sells allsorts of things from the 1950s - 70s - furniture, clothes, sunglasses, lamps. Unpretentious and priced correctly.

There's a few secondhand clothes stores in Paris, but always immaculately selected, expensive and fashionable. Guerrisol however is a huge, dirt cheap jumble sale. Stock seems to rotate daily in each of their four stores, and prices fluctuate on the hour. Sifting through endless rails of synthetic jackets at €3 can suddenly reveal a hidden gem.

A grubby, ugly and grey crossroads, yet strangely beautiful by the evening sun. It always makes me happy when I pass through because ten minutes walk in any direction leads to some of my favourite places: the best fromager, thrift stores, the best boulangerie for tartes, the canal, bars, my apartment, B.D. (comix) shops, the best butcher, the huge deco Rex cinema, the best veg markets, my band's underground rehearsal room, my part time job, art galleries, etc etc!