Rue du Pelican Paris

This isolated space is where street artist Jordane Saget’s chalk pieces features on a buffed surface which is likely to hold down the ephemeral design more permanently thanks to it being located in this square concealing it from the weather.

I’m a massive fan of Saget’s street art but it wasn’t what drew me into this mysterious little nook – you can’t really see the piece from the Saint Honoré entrance. Originally I’d been lured by a strange little door (pictured). So having some time to kill, I went for a closer inspection, consequently discovering Saget’s piece.

The space’s sober architecture also gives off an air of being a time capsule, a place that's so hidden from view, and historically stripped back from the main gas-lit streets of the time, that one can but build very tall stories of the shady goings-on that might once have gone on here.

Paris’s Ministry of Culture building with its modernist grill is just within eye-shot, making this spot an odd patchwork of textures too. If you’re ambling around Paris’s 1st district this is also a good shortcut to get quickly from Rue du Louvre through to Rue de Rivoli.