Paris for Paris Lovers : Not many tourists know what chic Parisians have discovered-that the Right Bank’s Marais district is one of the city’s best-preserved, most intriguing neighborhoods.

ARIS — Old-timers still remember the picturesque back streets of the Latin Quarter before they were taken over by Greek restaurants with grease-dripping lamb carcasses and bouzouki music. Likewise, Hemingway would be hard-pressed to write even one good sentence in what has become of his beloved Montparnasse. His favorite cafe, the formerly quaint Closerie des Lilas, now serves “Hemingway Steak” with a side of fries.

These quartiers have become Paris cliches, particularly during summer, when visitors from around the world fill their streets.

But still relatively unknown to the tourist hordes is the charming Marais district, a compact neighborhood on the Right Bank of the Seine River that is wedged between two of Paris’ dominant architectural statements, the Pompidou Centre in Beaubourg and the new Bastille Opera at the Place de la Bastille.

Hip Parisians rediscovered the Marais about 10 years ago, when the area was invaded by the first wave of bargain-seeking French yuppies, known here as les branches (“the plugged in”). Today it is one of the choicest places in Paris to live.

And now the time is ripe for discriminating travelers to strike. The 17th-Century Place des Vosges, the oldest--and one of the most beautiful--squares in Paris, has been recently restored, making it a stately and symmetrical centerpiece of an ongoing neighborhood face lift.

And with a selection of unusual museums (including one dedicated to locksmiths and another to hunters) in beautifully restored French Renaissance mansions , an ever-increasing array of boutiques and many inviting parks and alleys, the Marais seems perfectly built for the confident, insouciant traveler, particularly one who has been to Paris before and who has already exhausted the usual tourist haunts.

It takes a few afternoons of what the French call flanerie --a kind of unhurried, aimless wandering--to truly appreciate one of Paris’ most intriguing and satisfying neighborhoods. A visitor should be prepared to be sidetracked, diverted and blissfully lost. The maze of streets is confusing enough that the latter isalmost certain to happen. The trick is not to care.

Hidden within the Marais, for example, visitors will find an exquisite, seldom-crowded museum devoted to the history of the City of Light. Although the Carnavalet Museum, on the Rue de Sevigne , is Paris’ official city museum, it is also one of Paris’ best-kept secrets. It is mainly a collection of art works depicting Paris from its earliest days to modern times. Walking the chronologically arranged corridors, a visitor has the impression of witnessing the birth and development of Paris as a great city.

The museum has a fascinating collection of early scenes on the Seine, when it still had sandy beaches and a lively shore population. One painting by Victor Damgaud depicts the ornate Paris city hall under construction. Works by Jean Benaud (1849-1935) capture the turn-of-the-century Belle Epoque in all its glory, including a stunning portrait of a woman with a defiant smile--the embodiment of the age’s new-found freedoms, set at the Place de la Concorde in 1890.

A painting by Auguste Charpentier in 1871 shows a dead rat hanging by its tail from a nail. It was painted during the siege of Paris by the Prussians in 1870-71, and the caption says it all: “Sewer Rat Served as Food during the Siege of Paris.”

It also houses such interesting items as the furniture from Marcel Proust’s bedroom, including the very bed upon which he wrote “ A la Recherche du Temps Perdu .”

The museum building in the former Hotel de Sevigne (in the old French meaning, hotel means private residence) is one of the finest examples of 17th-Century French Renaissance architecture in Paris, with a beautifully landscaped central garden. Although the main dwelling portion of the building was constructed about 1544, it was remodeled in 1655 by the great architect Francois Mansart. From 1677 to 1696 it was occupied by Marquise de Sevigne, writer and hostess to one of the early literary salons in Paris.

Unlike the equally old neighborhoods on the Left Bank, where government ministries snatched up the most beautiful old residences, the Marais has benefited from its relatively late rediscovery and restoration. Since 1965, when it was declared a historical preservation area by the late Culture Minister Andre Malraux, the Marais has been protected from politicians and demolition crews. Under current Culture Minister Jack Lang, a resident of the area who lives in one of the splendid mansard-roofed town houses on the Place des Vosges, the Marais has become the beneficiary of the government’s most enlightened programs of restoration.

It has been an impressive comeback for a classy old Paris neighborhood.

Before it was eclipsed in the mid-18th Century by Versailles, the Marais was the royally decreed best address in Paris. The identical town houses surrounding a serene park in the Place des Vosges were, in fact, one of the world’s first real estate developments, completed in 1612 by order of King Henri IV.

The French king first thought of putting a silkworm factory in the former swampland ( marais means swamp). Then, irritated that members of his court were spending too much time at their country estates, he decided to make in into a luxury residential area and ordered the nobles to buy shares.

The neighborhood’s decline began at the time of the French Revolution, after the July 14, 1789, storming of the nearby Bastille Prison. After the cycles of revolution, terror and restoration of the monarchy, the Marais slowly slipped into a role as marshaling quarter for newly arrived immigrants. For years it was the main Jewish neighborhood of Paris, and the quarter is still filled with synagogues and kosher restaurants.

By the end of World War I, it was one of the places that taxi drivers refused to go because it was considered too poor and too rough. And if the early Marais spawned an important French literary salon culture, during World War II and the German occupation it became the site of one of France’s greatest shames: the deportation of thousands of French Jews to Nazi extermination camps.

A plaque on the wall of the Jewish Boys’ Primary School on the Rue des Hospitaliers bears the following inscription:

“165 Jewish children from this school, deported to Germany during the second world war, were exterminated in the Nazi camps. Don’t forget them!”

Today the Marais is again in transition. The hippest fashion designers fight for shop space. After desingers Lolita Lempicka and Azzedine Alaia set up their ateliers six years ago, the Marais has become the most interesting boutique clusters in Paris. The famous fashion houses on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore and Avenue Montaigne are for the rich Japanese and American tourists. Stylish young French men and women shop in the Marais.

At the same time, some of the older institutions that give the place character are being pushed out by the trendoids. The neighborhood’s old Jewish bathhouse, Hammam, has been purchased by a clothing business entrepreneur who plans to make it into a multistory boutique selling jeans, Navajo rugs and American theme trinkets.

“That’s such a shame,” said Jo Goldenberg, 68, owner of the popular Goldenberg’s delicatessen on the Rue des Rosiers. “For us that steam bath was like a synagogue. It was the place we all went for the traditional purification bath before marriage.”

The trendiness has also taken the lid off the housing market as the Marais becomes the preferred address for people in the arts. Film director Bertrand Tavernier has an elegant apartment near the Picasso Museum. Once inexpensive apartments now sell for more than $500 a square foot.

Phil Estep, an American free-lance writer lives with his wife Claire, a former Yves Saint Laurent model, and their two small children in a large multilevel apartment on one of the Marais’ main thoroughfares, the Rue de Turenne.

On a sunny afternoon recently, Estep took a visitor on a rewarding insider’s walking tour that began with his favorite erotic sculptures on the facade of one old hotel particulier on the Rue de Parc Royal and ended with a lunch over a lightly chilled Loire Valley red at the Domarais, a good restaurant with 25 tables under a stained-glass dome on the Rue des Francs-Bourgeois.

There are plenty of interesting places to eat in the Marais, including the splendid but expensive (count on at least $80 per person) L’Ambroisie on the Place des Vosges. Chef Bernard Pacaud’s small restaurant is one of only five in Paris to hold the coveted three-star rating given by the Guide Michelin. Pacaud is known for his pastries and for an unusual dish, jambonnette de grenouilles, composed of frog thighs in a sauce of watercress and morel mushrooms. His sommelier, Pierre Lemoullac, is one of the best in Paris.

The main problem with the Marais is that it has very few high-quality hotels, which are booked nearly year-round by those desperately seeking to avoid the St.Germain-des-Pres/Montparnasse/Champs Elysees scene.

One of the best is the 50-room Pavillion de la Reine, ideally situated in a quiet courtyard just off the Place des Vosges. However, it costs $200 a night for an unspectacular double room. Also, its management suffers from the hubris engendered from the knowledge that it is the only good hotel in the entire quarter.

But a few other hotels, such as the Hotel Saint Paul on Rue de Sevigne, are considerably cheaper and perfectly acceptable accommodation.

Travelers are well advised to stay in one of the many small hotels in the nearby Ile Saint-Louis and spend waking hours wandering in the Marais.

A recent such afternoon, for example, began with a casual jaunt along the Rue des Rosiers where it intersects with the Rue Vielle du Temple. This is one of the best street-food spots in Paris, with dozens of Middle Eastern delicatessens. One of them, Chez Marianne, has a renowned falafel sandwich as well as notable blinis and cheesecake. It was near enough lunch to indulge in the falafel, overflowing with garnishes, then walk a bit down the adjacent Rue des Hospitaliers.

A good place to eat is on the park benches in front of the nearby Jewish Primary School. On this day, it was also a good place to take in a scene filled with the essence of this old Paris neighborhood.

Two men, one in the full sun, the other in the shade, played cards and argued at a small table set up in the square of the school.

“You are a liar and a thief,” said one, standing up in mock outrage.

“Sit down and finish the game you old fool,” said the other man, the one in the shade. The card game continued in this hostile manner for nearly an hour until the two old men walked away together to have lunch, trading invectives the whole way.

GUIDEBOOK

Marais District

Getting there: Take Paris’ metro subway to either the St. Paul, Chemin Vert or Bastille stops. A good map of the area is recommended for those who feel uncomfortable simply wandering.

Where to stay: Hotel Pavillion de la Reine, 28 Place des Vosges, local telephone 4277-9640. Double or single rooms are $200, suites $465. Hotel Saint Paul, 8 Rue Sevigne, phone 4804-9727. Double with bathroom, $100.

Where to eat: L’Ambroisie, 9 Place des Vosges, phone 4278-5145, is a three-star gastronomic tour-de-force, with astronomical prices. For good but cheaper food, Domarais, 53 bis Rue des Francs Bourgeois, phone 4274-5417, has a $25 fixed-price menu. Ma Bourgogne, 19 Place des Vosges, is a pleasant, inexpensive cafe/bistro in which to sip drinks and people-watch and enjoy the ambience of Paris’ oldest square.

Where to shop: Most of the Marais’ trendy boutiques are along the Rue des Francs-Bourgeois or Rue des Rosiers. There are also many antique and other interesting shops in the area, including many under the colonnades surrounding the Place des Vosges park.

Museums:

Musee Carnavalet, 23 Rue de Sevigne, phone 4272-2113, set in an exquisitely restored mansion, chronicles the history of Paris. Open 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Thursday until 6. Closed Mondays/holidays. Admission $2.50, students $1.50.

Musee Picasso, 5 Rue Thorigney, phone 4271-2521, is housed in the restored 16th-Century Hotel Sale and contains Picasso’s private collection of art, donated to the state at his death. Open 9:15-5:15, Wednesday until 2 p.m. Closed Tuesdays. Admission $4.75, students $2.50.

Maison de Victor Hugo, 6 Place des Vosges, phone 4272-1016, is the former residence of the Rohan-Guemenee family, where the writer lived from 1832-1848. Rooms Hugo decorated have been reconstructed, and more than 400 drawings by Hugo are on display. Open 10-5. Closed Mondays/holidays. Admission $2.50.

Hotel de Soubise, 60 Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, phone 4027-6218, has French historical archives dating from King Dagobert to Jean Moulin, hero of the French Resistance. Two rooms are dedicated to the French Revolution. Open 1:45-5:45. Closed Tuesdays/holidays. Admission $2, students $1.50.

Musee Cognaco-Jay, 8 Rue Elzevir, contains the art collection--including paintings by Fragonard, Chardin, Boucher, Greuze, Tiepolo and Canaletto--donated to the city of Paris by Ernest Cognaco and his wife Louise Jay, founders of the department store La Samaritaine. Open 10-5:40. Closed Mondays/holidays. Admission $2, students $1.25.

Musee de la Chasse et Nature, 60 Rue des Archives (metro Hotel de Ville, phone 4272--8643), contains art objects with hunting and nature themes from the 17th Century to present, including paitings by Rubens and Bruegel, tapestries, firearms and porcelain furniture. Open 10-12:30, 1:30-5:30. Closed Tuesdays/holidays. Admission $4.25, students $2.25.

Musee Bricard-Musee de la Serrure, 1 Rue de la Perle, phone 4277-7962, chronicles the history of the lock, from Roman times to present. Open 10-12, 2-5. Closed Mondays, Sundays and during August.