Sign up to Simon Calder's free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calder's Travel email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Simon Calder's Travel email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} At Boubale restaurant in Paris, you won't find steak frites on the menu.
But you will find sea bream with Persian sabzi, olives, pine nuts and tahini sauce, or a frisbee-sized schnitzel with a side-serving of fermented cabbage. Next door at the sexy little Bar Boubale, the cocktail of the day is an unlikely mix of Grand Marnier, croissant syrup and fermented tomato. "You're really going to order that?" asks my friend Shelley.
But after one sip, she tries to wrestle it from me. Boubale is part of Hotel Le Grand Mazarin, a fittingly radical newcomer in Le Marais, the central Parisian district that has lived through centuries of radical change. What started life in the 12th century as marshland – the origin of its name – became Paris's most fashionable district in the 16th and 17th centuries, when the bogs were drained and grand villas were built for the Parisian bourgeoisie.
Bar Boubale at Le Marais's Le Grand Mazarin attracts a trendy yet laidback crowd ( Vincent Leroux/Le Grand Ma.