Restaurants for Valentine’s Day

This speakeasy-style den of sophisticated cocktails, distinguished wines and rare whiskies has a décor inspired by the sensual Joséphine Baker and avant-garde American tattoo artists of the 1940s. The first thing you see when you walk in are the magnificent wooden shelves displaying bottles of wine, Japanese whiskies and apothecaries' phials of strange potions. The big old-fashioned bar is manned by a couple of smiling, relaxed and helpful bar staff, and the front room gives onto a more intimate rear area.

Forget cheap plonk – both drinks and food here are nothing but the best. Behind the big bar of this dimly-lit dive, staff from the Experimental Cocktail Club, the Curio Parlor and Prescription have abandoned their mixers for straightforward bottles of red, white and pink. The result is a lovely, intimate wine bar, dotted with sofas and cosy corners. The wine list has more than 3,000 bottles listed, and to go with the booze, there are some first class things like burrata, prosciutto al tartufo, truffles and fine cheeses.

This unassuming bar in the heart of the Marais wins over romantics every time. Designed over several floors of a town house, you push through the front door into a small reception room with a bar decorated with candles and coloured lanterns, surrounded by comfortable armchairs. There are two further floors, each an intimate small room full of armchairs set in cosy corners, with the electro-pop soundtrack kept at a discreet volume.

Decorated with comfortable armchairs, colourful pattered cushions, coffee tables and low lighting, Le Rosie looks like a stylish ladies' apartment, done out in vintage style by interior architect and set designer Laura Léonard. A magnificent bar in light wood, lit up by designer lighting, is visible from the street.All the young, laid-back waiters are friends of Nicolas Ullmann, a Parisian nightlife guru who had the idea of opening a bar just opposite Maison Muller.