ART and Paris go together like, well, 'a horse and carriage'; for sure, 'you can't have one without the other'. Last year Paris had 25 million visitors, and two of the most visited sites were the Louvre museum (5.7 million visitors) and Pompidou Centre (4.5 million). But it isn't just these and other high art centres like the elegant Musee d'Orsay that constitute Parisian art; Paris is a city that supports the Left Bank culture of the arts at many levels and styles.

Nothing exemplifies this better than Le Festival Jazz a Saint-Germain-des-Pres. Created five years ago, it is located, as the title suggests, in one of Paris's historic left bank districts. If you are a jazz enthusiast, be sure to visit during the festival, when the entire district comes alive with big gala concerts in atmospheric venues like the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, bijou or jewel concerts in intimate venues, new jazz talents showcased in informal venues like pubs - not to mention swinging street concerts. Throw in a guided tour of the area with an association like De La Suite dans les Idees & Cie for a real flavour of the place.

Even when the festival isn't on, there's a lot to soak in in this area considered the birthplace of jazz in Europe. In its clubs and cafes, it's easy to imagine jazz greats like Miles Davis playing, or Sartre pondering his existentialist theories, or novelists like Hemingway scribbling away. Some establishments still exist in original form, like the Brasserie Lipp, famous for serving Alsatian delights and 'blond' beer since 1880. If possible, visit the area with deep pockets, as the streets are lined with shops selling exquisitely funky jewellery, antiques, artefacts and art.

Technically this is the 'artist's Paris', the area between Saint-Germain-des-Pres and Montparnasse, filled with the aforementioned jazz clubs and bookstores - oh and Montparnasse's yummy creperies - but there is yet more to the artistry of Paris, such as the eastern suburb of Belleville.

Belleville is full of artists and artisans from painters to glassblowers. We visited an eclectic collection from a hat maker with a solo establishment crafting everything from straw hats to beaded operatic delights, to printmakers who run a collective. Ca se visite organises tours using actual residents as guides, and you are taken into the various studios; en route, you get an insight into the changing histories of Belleville. We learn, for example, how the residents think of themselves as belonging to Belleville rather than Paris; how this was once just countryside with vineyards; and how rising expenses are threatening the artistic community.

Mexican printmaker Raoul Velasco worries for the future but admits: 'It is very extraordinary to have a space like this in the city; individually we have no wealth, and this makes us cooperate with other artists without rivalry. I believe Belleville has the highest concentration of artists in Europe.'

Moving on to another art form, film, the very newly inaugurated Cinematheque Francaise is well worth a visit. Housed in a Frank Gehry 'artwork', the building is in his signature style of emerging forms and volumes that configure architectural spaces in non-traditional ways; interesting touches include the signage done in projected lights.

The Cinematheque is the place for screenings of rare and unusual films and retrospectives in its four theatres. It was founded by the famous Henri Langlois in 1936; he was a true film lover who was interested in 'non film' film stuff too - that is, the manuscripts, pre-film apparatus for showing moving pictures (zoetropes, megaletoscopios, praxinoscopes and more) and costumes (Vivien Leigh's gorgeous green-and-white costume from Gone with the Wind). These artefacts are thematically showcased, well lit, with just enough explanation.

A rather cool programme for the Cinematheque's temporary exhibit areas are exhibitions that will illustrate interaction between cinema and the other artforms. If the current show was anything to go by, these exhibitions will be a treat. The show in question is Renoir/Renoir that juxtaposed paintings by the noted Impressionist with film clips by his son Jean Renoir, an important filmmaker in his own right. It was an excellent show that suggested how similar kinds of creative impulses are translated so differently into different media. The entire Renoir family tree is creatively fascinating - surely, that is a biopic just waiting to be made.

What many visitors to Paris may not realise is how much Parisians love the circus - both in traditional and modern form like the Cirque du Soleil. There is a high chance of being able to catch a truly novel circus act as I did: Plic Ploc by Cirque Plume was hilarious, inventive and very whimsical - a play on the 'plic ploc' sound of falling water.

And yes, we love the lady with the mysterious smile (to find her, you just need follow the direction taken by the largest numbers of Louvre tourists). But beyond the Mona Lisa do check out the list of exhibitions/art activities in town - there's always something exciting. During my visit there was FIAC, one of the premier art fairs of the world; Indian Summer, the first important show of contemporary Indian art of this scale in Paris; a fabulous selection of Viennese art titled Klimt, Schiele, Moser, Kokoschka - Vienne 1900 at the Galleries Nationales du Grand Palais, on till January next year. Queues for the Viennese show snaked all around the building, prior reservations are a good idea.

The 32nd FIAC featured 220 galleries from 26 countries and over 3000 artists at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre, with sections on modern and contemporary art, as well as a section titled Future Quake, 25 galleries that were not more than three years old. Overflowing with the arty jetset, FIAC followed the current trend of blurring just a little, the line between biennale and art fair, with a piece, for example such as Cornelia Parker's 30 Pieces of Silver installation. Or, by poking fun at the art establishment: 1,000 monochrome red canvases priced at 100 euros (S$198) each, called 'Made in China'. But the art market emerged victorious after all: within hours of the exhibit opening, every single red canvas had sold. FIAC exhibitor Bjorn Wetterling - who dealt in art for a while in Singapore - put it in perspective, saying: 'We come primarily to sell.'

The rage in Paris is salons, modern style, that is - view art in people's homes. Art Process is a company that does art tours - the art bus for big groups and the art limousine for smaller ones. The tours are tailor-made to your requirements: dinner with artists and art lovers, studio visits, opportunities to buy and view top end art.

Food, of course, should not be forgotten in all this activity. A couple of options that stand out are fusion in the avant garde setting of Djoon; or Italian with a twist of song at the Bel Canto restaurant. At the latter, your table attendants are a quartet of talented young opera singers (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor and baritone); they are either students or in the early stages of their operatic careers. They serve you attentively, and regularly burst into song - so be prepared for a long meal. A three-course Menu Lyrique costs about 68 euros, but the real flavour comes from the musical accompaniments.

Despite the riots, visitors are still flocking to the wonderful city of Paris, judging quite rightly that the unrest is in the outskirts, and the city centre is untouched. And so, finally, touristy as it may be, nothing quite beats the pleasure of a glass of wine or double espresso in a Champs Elysees cafe in the evening, to contemplate your arty day. It's one of those cliches that never disappoints, suggesting as it does, a brief glimpse of la vie en rose.

Le Festival Jazz a Saint-Germain-des-Pres, May 9 to 21, 2006, www.espritjazz.com; Art Process, Tel: 33 (0) 147009085, indo@art-process.com; Bel Canto: infos@lebelcanto.com, www.lebelcanto.com; Klimt, Schiele, Moser, Kokoschka, Vienne1900, Galleries Nationales du Grand Palais, 75008 Paris, till Jan 23, 2006; Cinematheque Francaise, 51 rue de Bercy Paris 12th; Indian Summer, till Dec 31, Ecole Nationale superieure des beaux-arts de Paris, 13 quai Malaquais; Ca se visite,abientotabelleville@yahoo.fr, Tel 0148062741; for more information visit www.franceguide.com, www.parisinfo.com.

The trip was organised by Maison de la France, Paris Tourist Office, and Air France.