The Japanese capital invades Paris’ chicest department store with fashion, accessories, lingerie, photography and design. The inimitable fashion designer Tsumori Chisato is special guest curator, and has invited up-and-coming designers from Japan you won’t find anywhere else in Paris, like Minä Perhonen, mercibeaucoup, Matriochka and Né-net. There’s an exhibition from Japan’s most famous photographer, Kishin Shinoyama. And Magnum photos invite their stable, including Werner Bischof, René Buri, Gueorgui Pinkassov, Bruce Gilden and Martin Parr, to present their vision of Tokyo. And for you design fans, there’s an exhibition of the crazy world of Japanese packaging. Paris-based Japanese chef Hisayuki Takeuchi will present his new gastronomic concept, Kaiseki, and there is, of course, plenty of fans, tea, chopsticks, Hello Kitty and mobile phone accessories too.

Le plus bijou des bijoux, this new hotel near the Bon Marché has only 10 rooms stacked vertically, two per floor, plus a super-stylish ground-floor duplex designed for disabled guests with a second bed upstairs for an able-bodied friend (it could equally well serve a modern-day Jeeves and Wooster). The design, by Philippe Starck collaborator Bruno Borrione, strikes a clever balance between contemporaneity and quirkiness with a nod to St Germain’s past. Serene bespoke wallpaper with a tree bark design, and white and chrome furniture, is jazzed up by desks with colour photos of 60s stars under glass, and random framed pictures of Django Reinhardt. The long, thin rooms all feature large bathrooms with a window, and all have a small salon area with a white leather settee. Downstairs is fun and convivial, as the minimalist seating has been scattered with crazily patterned cushions, and the courtyard forms an outside room complete with mirrors. The manageress also seems to be a real St -Germain character, which can only add to the hotel’s charm.