The world’s most romantic city, Paris, has been named the most expensive city in the world to order a Club Sandwich, according to research released today by Hotels.com.

The classic chicken, bacon, egg, lettuce and mayo sandwich, available in hotels the world over, has been used as a measure of affordability by the hotel expert.

The Club Sandwich Index (CSI) will give holiday-makers an indication of the costs associated with their holiday destination, using one of the most common items on any hotel menu around the world as a barometer.

The title of Paris’s best baguette has, for the fifth time in six years, gone to one of the bakeries situated in the city’s 18th arrondissement.

And while first-time visitors to Paris may delight in any which baguette from any which bakery, not all are created equal.

Here’s primer on how to tell a good baguette from a mediocre one, with tips collected from popular Paris food bloggers David Lebovitz, an American expat and former professional baker, Paris by Mouth and Chocolate and Zucchini.

French construction-to-broadcasting conglomerate Bouygues has won a contract to refurbish the Ritz Hotel in Paris for 140 million euros ($183 million).

The hotel, to close this summer and reopen in 2014, will be completely refitted, Bouygues said, and furnished with a new summer restaurant with a sliding roof, additional suites, an extension of the ballroom and new technology.

The move comes after the five-star hotel in central Paris failed earlier this year to win France’s coveted palace designation marking a top luxury destination.

Luxury and sustainable development may sound like polar opposites, but green pioneers gathered at a Paris show at the weekend were betting on a cleaner, fairer future for the industry.

Created in 2010, the four-day Paris event, dubbed “1.618 Sustainable Luxury”, brought together some 40 firms, inventors and foundations, that aim to reconcile luxury with ethics and environmental good practice.

The Fondation Cartier, the contemporary art museum of the luxury jewelry house, will present its latest expo, Cartier, Jeweler of the Arts, in Paris beginning April 3.

The exhibition brings together four artworks made by artists including David Lynch and Takeshi Kitano using precious and semi-precious stones no longer deemed suitable for the brand’s jewelry. Preview images of what they came up with here.

The wealthiest square in Paris was evacuated last Thursday after a huge fire broke out underneath the French capital’s Ritz hotel.

Dozens of people were treated for smoke inhalation and at least 15 luxury cars were destroyed in the blaze in a five-storey underground car park in Place Vendome.

France’s Ministry of Justice was among buildings evacuated, along with numerous jewellery and designer fashion shops.