Travel: Fine dining and high fashion are top of the menu on a shopping trip to Paris

DEJEUNER en Paris is a leisurely affair; not for us a rushed sandwich at the desk, then nose back to the grindstone. How dreadfully gauche. For though we are slap-bang in the middle of couture week and the French capital is overrun with buyers, photographers and skinny young Eastern European models who look as though they could do with a croque monsieur or deux, Maxime Simoens has downed tools and taken us to his favourite salon de thé, Angelina, on the Rue de Rivoli.

• Ladure featured in Sex and the City

It's a gloriously lavish affair, much like Simoens' intricately embellished designs, where vintage jet beads find dress-space alongside luxurious mille feuille folds of fabric – a determinedly glamorous 1920s style with a thoroughly Tweenies edge.

Salon Angelina is all gilded ironwork, mirrors and trompe l'oeil walls, from which the ghosts of Coco Chanel and Marcel Proust gaze down upon us (probably curling their lips in disapproval at our poorly tailored clothing and shocking table manners). It is famous for its desserts and is said to serve the best hot chocolate in the French capital – rich, thick and impossible to finish – but first I am working my way through the most incredible steak tartare I have ever tasted (truth be told, it's the only steak tartare I've ever tasted, but Simoens insisted, and oh la la!).

"We bring all our favourite people here," says the designer's right-hand man, Tomek Kolarski. "Sometimes it's a comedian or an editrice, other times a writer or an actor..." Today, everyone else must have a prior engagement, because they must make do with me and my broken French, mumbled through mouthfuls of raw beef, raw egg and green bits that get stuck inconveniently between my teeth. Trs chic.

Paris is still the undisputed fashion capital of the world, but young designers struggle to emerge from the elegant shadow of behemoths like Karl Lagerfeld, Givenchy and Dior. Vogue won't use their clothes in fashion shoots unless they advertise, and most of them are far too impoverished to afford the thousands of euros it would take to play the game. Simoens may have trained with Gaultier and Valentino, was voted number one new designer by Japanese Vogue and can sell his divine Show Off cocktail dress for more than 4,000, but he is entirely self-financed and every penny he makes goes back into the business.

Yet, incredibly, and against all the odds, the city's young creatives are making their mark – Simoens recently dressed Diane Kruger in a stunning body-con frock for the premier of Inglourious Basterds, while shoe designer Laurence Dacade (love those studded slouchy biker boots) has decorated the feet of Gwyneth Paltrow and Cheryl Cole. Alexandre Vauthier, meanwhile, does rock-star glamour like no other, recently dressing Rihanna for her appearance on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, in a plunging nude dress with his trademark over-sized shoulders. His summer 2010 couture show featured ever more exaggerated paules and jewelled Swarovski neckpieces as heavy as the accompanying base beat.

You will even find designer fragrances, courtesy of second-generation 'nose' Celine Ellena, whose father designs scents for Herms and whose fans include Dame Judi Dench, Philippe Starck and Catherine Deneuve, who loves Bois d'Iris, my own personal favourite.

But to have any idea of where to go, you must be in the know. Which is where Kristina Gisors comes in. A beautiful Amazonian who combines her roles as personal shopper and stylist with, it seems, the job of confidante to anyone who is anyone in Paris, she whisks us effortlessly around the ultra-cool Marais district.

First stop is the concept store L'Eclaireur, where designs by the likes of Marios Schwab, Lanvin, Christopher Kane and Balmain are displayed more like artworks than items for sale. It's an interactive installation where modern sculptures stand in the entrance, 147 animated video screens hang on the walls and, at the press of a button, partitions glide upwards to reveal yet more rails of fashion as art.

At the other extreme, there is Merci, tucked away in a pristine courtyard, where 100 per cent of the profits go to Madagascan charities. The brainchild of Marie and Bernard Cohen, the owners of Bonpoint children's clothing, it is part perfumerie, part home store, part fashion retailer, part caf, set over three vast and airy floors. The big-hearted owners have persuaded some big-name designers to join forces (and waive their profits), so don't be surprised if you find a one-off little Stella McCartney top or Yves Saint Laurent number hiding among the Vanessa Bruno, APC and Cheap Monday goodies.

We stop off for sustenance at the Ladure tea room in Saint Germain des Prs, where Carrie mournfully munched on macaroons when she first moved to Paris to live with Petrovsky in the final series of Sex and the City, and whose glorious confections are edible fashion – so much so that it has collaborated with Marni, Sonia Rykiel and Christian Louboutin to come up with whimsical cakes and presentation boxes that ooze French style.

This is the district that was once the centre of France's existentialist movement, where Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway and Simone de Beauvoir gathered to discuss big ideas, but our conversation is of a rather more prosaic variety: which flavours of macaroon to order– they range from jasmine and mango to bergamot, bitter chocolate and caramel with salted butter. If you want my advice, go for the lemon – feather-light and with a taste like a burst of Mediterranean summer.

Later, dinner at Derrire (so called because it is hidden "at the back" of Rue des Gravilliers, in the third arrondissement – not because eating there will give you a large behind) is a funky affair. Almost like eating in someone's home, a mix of chairs and tables – including a ping-pong one – and odds and sods of crockery create an eclectic vibe. You can even dine while reclining on a bed if you like. The food has a north African flavour, and we eat roast chicken and the creamiest, yummiest mash before retiring to the den, concealed behind a set of innocent-looking wardrobe doors – which has a surreal Alice Through the Looking Glass mixed with The Old Curiosity Shop feel; a certain je ne sais quoi that is once seen never forgotten. And a boon for smokers in today's anti-cigarette society is that you can puff away in this secret hideaway to your heart's content.

Most surprising of all, though, is how friendly everyone is here. Waiters, taxi drivers, shop assistants, hotel receptionists... all debunk the popular myth that Parisians are snooty, rude and pompous. Without exception, they are a delight, each one attempting to communicate in English and none mocking my feeble attempts to speak back in French. Paris, je t'aime. And I think it loves me too.

Fact file

Air France (0871 663 3777, www.airfrance.co.uk) flies direct from Edinburgh to Paris up to four times a day, with return prices in February starting at 99 including taxes. Check the website to find the best fares. The airline has also launched its Online Paris Shopping Guide – a little black book of this season's hottest trends and hidden shopping gems.

Alexandre Vauthier (www.alexandrevauthier.com)

Celine Ellena, The Different Company (www.thedifferentcompany.com)

Derrire, 69 Rue des Gravilliers (00 33 1 44 61 91 95)

Kristina Gisors (kristinagisors.com)

Ladure, 21 Rue Bonaparte (00 33 1 44 07 64 87, www.laduree.fr)

Laurence Dacade (www.laurence-dacade.com)

L'Eclaireur, 40 Rue des Rosiers (00 33 1 48 87 10 22, www.leclaireur.com)

Maxime Simoens (www.maximesimoens.com)

Merci, 111 Boulevard Beaumarchais (00 33 1 42 77 78 92, www.merci-merci.com)

Salon Angelina, 226 Rue de Rivoli (00 33 1 42 60 82 00)

This article was originally published in Scotland on Sunday on 21 February 2010