Paris is the most beautiful city in Europe – but its headline attractions can leave you feeling a little short-changed.

The Eiffel Tower is riveting to look at, but frequently overrun with visitors. The Champs Elysées has sold out to a less than paradisal parade of international brands. And the steps of the Sacré Coeur have been invaded by partying teenagers.

Some of the heart seems to have gone out of it.

The bohemian soul of the city survives, however: you just need a little help finding it. It’s there in the pavement cafes and jazz bars, the hidden gardens and backstreet bistros of neighbourhood Paris. It’s there in the labyrinthine flea markets of Saint-Ouen, the basement theatres of the Marais and the piled-high grocery stands of the Marché des Enfants Rouges.

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If you know where to look, even Montmartre still has its authentic painters’ studios and art-house cinemas. To excavate this real Paris, you’ll need a helping hand. We asked five notable locals, well placed for a neighbourhood steer, for their favourite Parisian tip-offs.

JANE BIRKIN

Singer, actress, film director and “most famous Englishwoman in France”, Birkin has lived in Paris since 1969. Her new album is Enfants d’Hiver

My secret place for contemplation, the place to escape the hustle and sample a scene that hasn’t changed since the 1920s, is theParis Mosque. It’s easy to find, within walking distance of Notre Dame, where I take my grandchildren to play swordfights in the cathedral tower and look at the gargoyles.

Once you step inside the mosque, the modern city closes up behind you. It is arranged around a fairy-tale courtyard and has a tearoom, where you can have mint tea and sticky oriental cakes. I often go for a scrub and rub in the hammam there. It has a series of rooms, cold and hot, and separate sessions are timetabled for men and women – you can even take children in. You sort of loll around and take refreshment.

The ladies are so kind; they’ll take all the skin off your body with black soap. You can keep your knickers on if you really want to. There’s a lovely, old-fashioned feel about it, like something from a Delacroix painting. The mosque even has a little boutique where you can buy all the lovely booty you forgot to pick up in Morocco the last time you were there.

Just across the road is theJardin des Plantes– rather like the museum at the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington, but set in a huge park. I enjoy wandering through the beautiful 19th-century glasshouses, which are full of tropical plants; you can be Tarzan in there. And there’s a charming zoo, founded in 1795 with animals from the Royal Menagerie, at Versailles. Every summer, I go and sketch the newborn orang-utans.

Details:Le Mosquée de Paris (www.mosquee-de-paris.net) offers tours daily except Friday (£2); hammam sessions start at £12 (www.la-mosquee.com). Admission to the menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes (www.mnhn.fr) costs £6.

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