Paris is a huge cosmopolitan wealthy modern place which is neatly bundled into an exceedingly pretty and historical package. Paris was, in relatively recent history, the centre of the artistic, cultural and political world. Although that centre seems to have moved to America over the last 50 years or so, the city still has enough street-cred behind it to feel like it's the centre of the universe when you're there.

The seemingly uniformed splendour of its streetscapes that blend so easily into their visual environment, the stand-out buildings and monuments that dot the city centre, the booksellers by the banks of the Seine, the sinfully ornate art-deco underground stationsf it's all grist to the mill for the average Parisian who, often loathed by his provincial countrymen, still strolls around the streets with the confidence of someone who knows that they live in special place which could very well bef well, the centre of the universe.

Pinpointing where the 'good' and 'bad' areas are within the city limits can be somewhat more subjective and complex than it initially appears. Paris is divided into 20 numbered political entities called arrondissements. On the face of it, the central swanky arrondissements such as the fourth and fifth (which include the Latin Quarter, Ile de la Cite and the Notre Dame Cathedral) and the 16th (the Arc de Triomphe, Trocadero) present some of the best areas to purchase. While property in the posh areas can fetch up to 10,000 per square metre (and often exceeding it), you can end up paying half that by moving a bit further out. The whole of the city is so well served by the excellent metro system, that the more outlying areas can be equally enticing, especially as many of them have property at a much lower price.

More pointedly still, the property boom of the last six years or so . . . often fuelled by foreign buyers eager for a slice of central swanky Paris . . . has seen more and more people choosing areas further out, thus pushing prices up in these areas while the more chic quartiers remain relatively stable. Rodolphe Le Masne de Chernot of the Guy Hoquet agency in the swish 16th explains: "In the area I serve, property prices have been relatively stagnant over the last year or so, increasing at a rate of about 8% per annum. At the same time, property prices in the 14th and 15th have been increasing at a higher rate. The result is that, although traditionally these areas would have been considerably cheaper than my area, prices are now almost the same as they are in the 16th. A similar phenomenon is happening with places further out as people seek better value."

Over on the opposite side of the city, in the north-eastern 19th arrondissement, local agent Jacques Delage is at the other end of the scale. This is an area that has traditionally been the least sought-after in the city, but which is, according to Delage, "catching up with other areas".

"The closer you get to the peripherique (ring road), the more stubbornly low the prices are, " he points out, but certain new areas such as the upmarket La Mouzaia development are now fetching up to 7,000 per square metre . . . prices that would be more readily associated with his colleagues turf down in the southwest.

So, it would seem that the areas a little further out offer the best scope for growth, while the more central areas are relatively stagnant. What then, is the attraction of purchasing property in a sought-after segment of Paris such as the 16th arrondissement?

"For a start, you have a lot of attractive buildings of the turn of the century with cut-stone exterior, " says Le Masne de Chermont, describing the sort of Belle Epoque buildings that epitomise Paris.

"The area also has a very high concentration of large apartments, which are highly sought-after commodities in the Paris market. It has very good schools and some prestigious addresses close to the Arc de Triomphe, as well as being right beside the Bois de Boulogne (Paris' gentrified answer to the Phoenix Park)."

While agents and notaires (stateappointed conveyance lawyers) remain bullish about the current state of the market, opinion is divided amongst certain analysts. As recently as last year, the respected property publication De Particulier a Particulierwent so far as to predict that a national depreciation in values of between 30% and 40% "appears inescapable over the next five years".

These days, it seems that unless you hunt carefully and selectively, the investment returns . . . which average around 56% - may not be the most exciting around, but on the other hand, Paris is a very stable market. Maybe Humphrey Bogart was thinking about his own pied-a-terre in the third arrondissement when he said, "We'll always have Paris."