"We Were Deliberate About Not Going Fully Open-Plan" — This 1930s Apartment Just Outside Paris Balances a Search for Light With a Sense of Progression

A modern apartment with a cream modular sofa, acid green tufted rug, a sculptural chair in lacquered ceramic and black leather, a standing lamp, minimal shelving, and white curtains.

I speak from experience: Paris can be a beautiful kind of chaos, each arrondissement reading as its own story. Move west, beyond the périphérique, past Neuilly-sur-Seine and into Les Sablons, and the city begins to open up: more sky, more greenery, more space, and a sometimes welcome slower pace.

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, is currently overseeing a vast transformation, with the ambition of becoming one of Europe's greenest capitals by 2030. With 50 per cent of the city's surface set to be planted or permeable, over 170,000 trees introduced, and four new 'urban forests' created, that sounds like a breath of fresh air. And yet, when your home is set in one of the buzzier central neighborhoods, the city doesn't always feel particularly leafy. Even now, that promise can feel just out of reach.