Beirut

Mar Mikhael is the quarter in which Beirut goes out. Armenia Street runs its length, lined with cafés that open early and bars that close late, small galleries, bakeries and the workshops that gave the district its name. Diar's homes stand on the street itself or a few steps above it in Geitawi: close enough to reach everything on foot, far enough to sleep.

Gemmayzeh and its Ottoman houses are ten minutes' walk; the Sursock Museum a little further; the port and the sea lie below. Downtown and the Beirut Souks are a short taxi ride, and the airport twenty-five minutes by car in ordinary traffic. Mar Mikhael station, at the end of the street, is the terminus from which the old railway once left for Tripoli.

Beirut is a city of neighbourhoods rather than monuments, and this is the one to which visitors return: for the food, from a manoushe at dawn to a long dinner on a terrace; for the galleries and the music; and for the evenings, which spill onto the pavement until late. The homes here are apartments in residential buildings, and recommendations for the evening are available from the Diar team on request.