La vie parisienne (Parisian Life) has a well known overture and includes a series of characteristic dances. Gabrielle, who finds final satisfaction with the rich Brazilian, enjoys herself by impersonating a colonel's widow, a guest at the supposed hotel at Gardefeu's house. Here she sings Je suis veuve d'un colonel (I am a colonel's widow), a high point in the second act.

Gardefeu is slighted by the courtesan Métella and arranges with a former servant, Joseph, employed at the Grand-Hôtel, to pass his own villa off as a hotel, to entertain an attractive Swedish baroness, with counterfeit guests that include the glove-maker Gabrielle, while providing other distractions for her husband. Gardefeu's friend Bobinet helps to arrange a reception for the countess at his aunt's villa, with servants masquerading as guests, but matters are complicated when Bobinet's aunt returns to Paris and decides to seek accommodation at the hotel where her friend the baroness is staying. General satisfaction is finally restored at a party given by a rich Brazilian. Here Gardefeu is re-united with Métella, allowing the work to end in Parisian gaiety.