Paris is a city of villages. If you haven’t already read this a million times in various guidebooks, Paris is divided into 20 arrondissements, with the 1st arrondissement being Paris’s center.( ‘Municipal arrondissement’ signifies a municipal administrative division formed in 1795. )
The rest of the 19 arrondissements curl round the 1st like a nautilus shell. Okay, so now that we’ve done away with the cliched image . . . Each arrondissement has its own mayor and its own town hall. If you’ve heard of a 21st arrondissement, that’s Deauville in Normandy. It’s not really an arrondissement, but so many Parisians have migrated there for long summer weekends, that, for them, it’s almost like never leaving Paris except they look at the (English) Channel instead of the Seine River.
The longer you spend in Paris, the bigger the city seems, that is, you need a really good reason to leave your neighborhood. You’ve picked out your favorite restaurant, your favorite butcher, your favorite hair stylist. Why go elsewhere? Each neighborhood has its unique flavor and quirks. We tend to grow attached to those quirks and cast a blind eye on the negatives.
As a tourist or a visitor for a few days, you’ll want to stay in the neighborhoods that evoke the Paris of your dreams. You’ll also probably want to be in a neighborhood that’s considered safe and gives easy access to the major sites. If you’re working on a tight budget, choosing a reasonably-priced hotel in the right neighborhood is also important.
Let’s talk about the neighborhoods where you may want to spend the majority of your time. Everyone wants to see and do different things - so don’t accept any of these suggestions as the ‘Rules’. But here’s an outline. From there you can find your own path.
Ile de la Cite and Ile St. Louis (1st & 4th arrondissements) The romantic neighborhood. This is where it all started when Paris’s earliest settlers chose the islands situated in the middle of the Seine River as the ideal location for trade and for defense. If you want to spend your days walking along the Seine or searching for the best camera angles of Notre Dame de Paris’s gothic facade (this shot was actually taken from the Left Bank), you’ll want to start your days on the islands. Ile St. Louis is especially romantic at night. The amount of car traffic slows down to a trickle - some obscure bars and clubs can be found here which I’ll let you discover for yourself . . . call it my sixth sense - but I think the Ile St. Louis is bewitched - or bewitching. One thing is certain, if you spend enough time on the island, the most unusual things will happen.
Right Bank Shopping & Museum-Going (1,2, & 8th arrondissements)
The Splurge Neighborhood. Spending the afternoon at the Louvre, or being able to walk to the Louvre from your hotel on a Friday evening might be just what you have in mind. Any spare time, you’ll want to spend exploring the haute couture shops and perfumeries dotting Rue St. Honore and Avenue Montaigne (just off the Rond Point- Champs Elysees). If the weather is sunny, you can linger over a cafe in the Tuileries Gardens. I would recommend this neighborhood for anyone who refuses to worry about expense. This is your one big trip of a lifetime - so you’ll splurge. You just want to have enough time to squeeze as much as possible into a short trip. (This is one of the neighborhoods where I stayed before becoming an apartment dweller) I would recommend Hotel Regina, and of course, the Ritz Hotel - is simply the best. This is also a good neighborhood for people who get easily lost. Baron Haussmann’s straight avenues and boulevards won’t let you get too far off track.
Grands Boulevards 2, 8 & 9th arrondissements
We almost moved to the 9th. I decided having so many huge department stores within walking distance was a big mistake. Galleries Lafayettes and Au Printemps are both located in this district on Blvd. Haussmann. If you’re only staying in town for a week or two weeks, there’s not much harm in being here, but the Grand Boulevards have much more to offer than shopping. Denizens of the night will gravitate toward Rue Faubourg Montmartre - the nightclubs are in constant flux but turn-of-century Restaurant Chartier remains a familiar neighborhood fixture.
The Marais neighborhood (1st arrondissement)
is considered the heartbeat of Paris’s gay community. Its boutiques are trendsetters, but underneath its trendy veneer, you’ll find a few staunch ‘old Parisian’ conservatives - behind the shuttered Place des Vosges townhouses, those few remaining royalists wishing all the newcomers might go away and leave the Place the way it was . . . half in ruins like a movie set for Great Expectations. There’s no better square to while away a Sunday afternoon in Paris and imagine the jousting tournaments that robbed a Medici queen of her ill-fated husband. This has always been my favorite square in Paris since the days back in the 1970s when the decrepit townhouses looked still haunted by their long-dead former residents.
Beaubourg & Les Halles
Centre Pompidou is the focal point of this Right Bank neighborhood that comes to life at dusk. With the industrial pipe facade of Pompidou juxtaposed to the medieval surrounding passages and pedestrian walkways, you can’t help but feel caught in a time warp. What I like about this neighborhood - you’re bound to stumble into a pub sooner or later where you can drink a Guinness beer. Or find a cafe/bar with the traditional zinc bar. Centre Pompidou attracts plenty of students - and as I’ve mentioned in past posts the Pompidou library is considered an ideal place for trawling. The negatives? Because the the area attracts a young crowd, drug trafficking and the subsequent petty crimes could be an concern.
Montmartre (18th arrondissement)- re-energized by the hit film ‘Amelie’ - still has its picturesque nooks and crannies. I love going to Montmartre - trekking crosstown from the Left Bank always gives me the sense of going on a major expedition. Montmartre has plenty of bed & breakfasts and hostels - so it’s another place to consider for inexpensive lodging. However, I’d say that on a ’safe neighborhood’ quotient, I’d probably opt for Montparnasse over Montmartre.
The Latin Quarter - Ah the life of a student in Paris! Here, you can still find reasonably priced meals in the vicinity of Boulevard St. Michel amid the honeycomb of restaurants between St. Andre-des-Arts and Odeon. Movie theaters run all the films that you thought you’d never be able to see again on a big screen. The domes of La Sorbonne and Pantheon hover above the constant ebb and flow of pedestrians lugging notebooks, portfolios, and now laptops and cellphones. Students huddle in cafes probably complaining about the same world problems that have yet to be resolved by the last generation that sat complaining before them. There are vestiges of Paris’s medieval past most often hidden by restaurant signs selling Greek souvlaki or North-African cous-cous. No great efforts have been made to exalt what is ‘old’ about the Latin quarter. In one, corner tucked away from the larger thoroughfares, the Arenes de Lutece or the Roman Arena has been preserved, but without much ado. Kids play games in the arena center. This is the kind of place you can go and lose yourself in Paris’s past. Go there to think about what Paris must have been as a Roman outpost. So long ago.
St. Germain-des-Pres (6th arrondissement)
So you’re a fashion addict, an antique lover, or just a browser. St. Germain-des-Pres is where you want to be. Park yourself in one of the cafes on Blvd. St. Germain and watch the passing parade. Hang out at Armani Emporium Cafe. I usually find some excuse to stop off in St. Germain-des-Pres. There’s the Village Voice English language bookstore on Rue Princesse - or we’ll start at Rue Canette and look for a friendly bar or cafe to catch an apero at dusk. From there we’ll cross the boulevard to Rue de Buci and happily lose ourselves in the maze of streets between Boulevard St. Germain and the Seine River. This is the part of town where I really don’t mind getting lost at all. Jazz clubs, retro clothing stores, antique shops, you should never come to this neighborhood with a specific agenda. St. Germain-des-Pres is the ideal neighborhood for ‘flanerie’, i.e. ‘flitting about’.
Bastille/ Bercy (11th and 12th arrondissement)
Trends. You want to see the other Paris? You may want to consider setting up headquarters in the east or northeastern section of Paris. The focal point for the Bastille neighborhood is Francois Mitterand’s new opera house which is diametrically opposed to the 19th century Garnier opera house. The opera house has generated a beehive of activity in the neighboring streets, from art galleries to music shops.
The new #14 Metro line connects Bercy Village to Mitterand’s new Bibliotheque Nationale in the 13th arrondissement. Bercy Village is the place where Parisians go for a stroll on a sunny weekend. The old wine storage area has been brilliantly converted to shops and restaurants. It has succeeded in the way that the Forum at ‘Les Halles’ never will - having started with the title ‘Village’, a nomenclature near and dear to Parisians. This is also the new home for La Cinematheque Francaise. So, if you’re a film buff, you may want to consider positioning yourself with in walking distance of 51 Rue de Bercy for night and day access to film screenings in the Frank Gehry designed Cinematheque.
You can while away your summer afternoons in the Bercy park, then head over to Cour St. Emilion at Bercy Village for a little wine tasting. I could get used to this neighborhood if I weren’t already a faithful denizen of . . .
Oberkampf (11th arrondissement) Metro: Oberkampf Located in Paris’s eastern sector, rue du Oberkampf has always been considered a blue-color neighborhood. In recent years, the stirrings of artistic souls migrating from Bastille and the 20th have placed Oberkampf in the ‘circuit’ especially if you are interested in finding less predictable Paris night life. Parisgirl recommends the Satellit Cafe for world music fans.
Montparnasse (14th arrondissement) Is there anything that is left to be said about the Montparnasse neighborhood? Frequented by Hemingway, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Modigliani, Lenin, the model Kiki, Josephine Baker, Cocteau. Like Montmartre, it was a hot spot, particularly in between World War I and World War II. A hangout for writers, artists, philosophers, models and rabble rousers. It’s quieted down since those days, but students still frequent its cafes. I hear English spoken in the streets often enough to know that tourists like this neighborhood for its inexpensive hotels and lack of pretension. Montparnasse has been called ‘dead’, dreary, and all sorts of derogative terms in recent years. It’s where I live - so I’m biased. Montparnasse just ‘is’, ‘was’, and will continue to be ‘what it is’ (and in my opinion, - a cool place to hang out). The neighborhood has gone through some major ‘upgrading’ in the past few years, partcularly around Rue de la Gaite. There are still some sex paraphernalia and video shops mixed in amongst the legitimate theaters. You might compare Gaite to a mini- ‘Times Square’. However, the ambiance is completely neutral. Single men may be discreetly directed toward one of the few ‘establishments’.
Eiffel Tower/Invalides (15, 7th arrondissement)
Rick Steves recommends staying on Rue Cler which can be found in this neighborhood. Rue Cler is a lovely street, but given the fact that everyone and his sister has probably read Rick Steves suggestion, it may be time to think of other locales. The 15th has been described in recent years as ‘up-and-coming’. Just like Paris’s northeastern sector is being called the new settlement for young artists and designers. All this is great for those looking for inexpensive places to live in a city that’s becoming more and more out of feasible price range. However, as a visitor, you may find some of these neighborhoods a bit on the quiet side - especially the 7th arrondissement. I lived for a month a few blocks from Les Invalides - and believe me, Napoleon is a very quiet neighbor. There are other streets in the 15th which tend to be more local trade and less tourist-oriented like Rue Vaugirard (the longest street in Paris) particularly around the busy intersection of at the Metro: Convention, but once again, this is a neighborhood for people who really want to get away from the touristy parts of town. It is also a good neighborhood if you plan on taking cooking classes at the Cordon Bleu.
Trocadero/Arc de Triomphe (16th arrondissement)
You’re a diplomat, ambassador or the ambassador’s spouse. This is the neighborhood of the ‘ladies who lunch’. Because I don’t run in these circles (even though I do lunch in the 16th), I can only tell you this about the 16th arrondissement, if you say you’re staying in the 16th, you are making a statement. The 16th has ‘cache’. It always will. I lunch with a friend who’s a lawyer. When you walk into this law firm’s office, you know that the furniture in the waiting room has been on this planet much longer than you. You are simply passing through. The 16th has some lovely parks - like Ranelagh. From there you can skip over to the Bois de Boulogne and jog forever through forested paths (but come home before dusk, unless you should be mistaken for one of the ‘dames de nuit’). The 16th wouldn’t be my first choice for a place to stay in Paris simply because it’s too far removed from many of the major attractions. However, if all your friends live in the 16th, then you too should find a hotel convenient to your friends - because as you know, Parisians prefer to stay in their own arrondissement. Making a resident of the 16th go crosstown is a big inconvenience, so don’t get off to on the wrong foot.
Paris’s Northeast (10th, 19th & 20th arrondissements)
For trendsetters and the insatiably curious. If you come to Paris, via Eurostar, you’ll be coming into Gare du Nord in Paris’s 10th arrondissement. This is not the first neighborhood I’d recommend for finding a hotel. The Gare du Nord & Gare de l’Est surroundings have been described by hotel reviewers as ‘dicey’. Gare du Nord was the scene of 2005 riots. However if you’re working with a small budget, you may find a place to meet your needs. The St. Martin canal passes through the 10th (canal tours are possible). The 20th is home to indie rock club La Fleche d’Or. If you’re a cemetery buff, you can spend an afternoon at the Pere Lachaise cemetery. The Belleville area abounds with inexpensive Asian restaurants. Paris’s 10th arrondissement, nicknamed ‘La Goutte d’Or’ or drop of gold, is primarily an immigrant neighborhood with great hairweaving salons. I checked out the salons when my hair had been braided - and needed to be ‘unwoven’. The prices are a lot more expensive than they were in Kampala (but probably a lot less expensive than NYC).
The ‘Insolite’ 13th The unusual 13th arrondissment
There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to the 13th. The first thing that hits you smack in the forehead is the wall of highrises at Porte de Choisey, on Boulevard Massena, and Porte d’Ivry, Paris’s Chinatown. It all began in the mid-1970s when waves of Vietnamese, Cambodian and Chinese refugees arrived in France. Go to the 13th for a good Peking duck meal, or traditional Cambodian soups at the Tricotin restaurant. There are the harder to find neighborhoods of the 13th like the Cite Fleurie artists’ ateliers (a private residence) or the complex of streets named for flowers where France’s movie crowd likes to live in peaceful separation from the city’s usually frenetic pace. I would recommend the 13th arrondissement only for return visitors looking for a totally different Paris experience (which is best appreciated on a bike or walking tour). Otherwise, the 13th is just too far from the major sites.
Which leads me to a little summary. Most of the ‘major’ attractions can be easily accessed from the first eight arrondissements. As a first time visitor, I’d suggest looking for a hotel in one of the first six arrondissements, with an emphasis on Ile Saint Louis (the island right next to Notre Dame), the Marais (Place des Vosges), St. Germain des Pres, or Rue de Rivoli (near the Louvre).
The only two major monuments not within walking distance from these first six arrondissements would be the Eiffel Tower and Sacre Choeur. The Eiffel Tower is located in the 15th arrondissement. Sacre Choeur is located in Montmartre, in the 18th arrondissement. The St. Ouen/Porte de Clignancourt flea market can be reached quickly from the Montmartre neighborhood which borders St. Ouen (but you can just as easily hop on the #4 Metro line from as far away as the Left Bank). Pere Lachaise Cemetery is located in the last arrondissement, the 20th, completely to the east of the city center.
No matter where you choose to stay, the Metro does an excellent job of getting you to any parts of Paris. If you don’t feel like taking the Metro and you enjoy walking, you’ll be able to walk to many of the major sites (except Montmartre and Pere Lachaise). The bus system is almost as good as the Metro (during the day). And now, there’s Velib bike rentals that adds a new dimension to city transport.
You’ll notice one arrondissements are missing from this summary - the 17th arrondissement in Paris’s northwest. This is a residential neighborhood which is very Parisian. I am sure of this because our friend named France grew up here. She thinks this is the most Parisian part of Paris. It must be because you will rarely find it a guide book. So we will respect the 17th’s privacy - until I find something that I can’ resist sharing.
More about Paris neighborhoods:
Where to find beautiful Parisians
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