Whenever I spend the day at the Paris historical archives I always make sure I take a break in the nearby Jardin des Rosiers, and most of the time this includes eating a huge takeaway falafel sandwich from one of the nearby restaurants.

The garden provides an oasis of calm in a busy area, once the heart of Jewish Paris, now more and more geared towards shopping and upmarket chain boutiques. Whilst eating the falafel, sharing some crumbs with the army of sparrows that inevitably appear, I contemplate some of the gardens oddities – a chunk of the ancient city walls, built by Philippe Auguste in the 13th century, a vegetable garden with a crooked fig tree and a tall brick chimney once belonging to a factory that sorted gold from dust.

I have no particular favourite restaurant – they all serve pretty much the same thing at the same price, although all of them will tell you that they are the best!