Neighbourhoods of Paris:
Bastille Canal St Martin – 11th Arondissement
One of Paris’ coolest neighborhood’s to live and party in. Residential on one end and touristy on another, it is especially popular with young urban professionals or upwardly bound members of the creative class — aka hipsters.
It is a decidedly Bo-Bo neighborhood, that is Bourgeoise/ Bohemian with a preference toward the Bohemian. If you want to go out on a Friday night and stay on the Rive Droite, this is the place to be. The 11th has two main camps; the Oberkampf crowd who frequent super ‘chaud’ (hot) concert venues like Bataclan or bars like Chez Justine and who eat at great not-to-pricey places like Le Trou Normand, or the Bastille crowd with its incomparabley cool Rue de la Roquette and fantastic cafés like Café de l’Industrie – a hangout so awesome that they had to open three of them… all on the same street.
Opt for Bastille in the summertime simply because it has the Jardin de l’ Arsenal, a lovely waterfront park where you can sun yourself. The 11th also has, hands down, the best outdoor market in Paris which takes place every Thursday and Sunday on Boulevard Richard Lenoir. Not to mention great café district near Metro Ledru Rollin extendng to Nation where you can find lot of real life Communists artists spaces and strong coffee. ©NileGuide
Nation – 12th Arrondissement
Ironic that probably the oldest neighborhood of Paris has become the city’s most modern, isn’t it? Discovered in the 12th’s neighborhood Bercy, were the remenants of an ancient village dating to 4,000 B.C. This area is now the modern yet quaint Bercy village — a fake medieaval shopping village with a very modern Starbucks and Gaumont Cineplex.
Situated not so far from the village is Palais Omnisports, a modern concert and sports arena for mega stars and gargantuan games, which itself is just a stone’s throw away from the centerpiece of French cinematic life – La Cinématèque Française. These two new, but now-deeply-ingrained-into-the-French-psyche institutions, are situated adjacent the Parc de Bercy, a series of three separate gardens designed by four separate architechts in the 1990s.
The parks lead the way back into the center of the 12th arrondissement and towards the almost unbearabley beautiful Gare de Lyon and its decadent restaurant Le Train Bleu, via les Arcades. The 12th is probably the most residential and liveable arrondissement in Paris, one which most tourists don’t make it to, but it is a faux pas to stop the exploration of Paris at La Bastille. The Bois de Vincennes and its Château — are national treasures. ©NileGuide
Gobelins – 13th Arrondissement
If ever you say when you are in Paris that you are going to the 13th people think you are either going to shop or see a film at the commercial center at Place d’Italie,going to Paris’s Chinatown to shop for cheap veggies or to eat out a la Asiatique. This is possibly the least touristy and the least scenic of the 20 arrondissements of Paris, were it not for the Butte-Aux-Cailles, a small quaint village-like neighborhood situated atop one of Paris’ nine hills.
The Butte-Aux-Cailles, is for some, one of the most interesting Parisian neighborhoods and is where hipsters not of the St. Germain variety have found hangouts at many of the modestly priced restaurants and bars that abound. Spilling off from the 14th , are several artists ateliers and commercial galleries. One the side of art, perhaps the most interesting thing to be found here, aside from the varying, hodge podge architecture, is Les Gobelins, an old tapestry factory of the French aristocracy… that and here in this arrondissement you will get to see how everyday Parisians from almost every social millieu, except of course those at the tippy top, live. ©NileGuide
Montparnasse – 14th Arrondissement
The 14th the spookiest arrondissement in Paris, what with all the dead smart people at the Cemetary of Montparnasse and all the bones of dead ‘Innocents’ stacked in the Catacombs located near Denfert- Rochereau – a place that was once called D’enfer (literally the word means hell).
This neighborhood is Paris at its most Bohemian — a word that is used to describe intellectuals and artists who are almost always very poor. If you can buy yourself a dinner out once a week — you are not Bohemian and probably shouldn’t be living in the 14th. Here are the cafés where Pablo Picasso, Ernst Hemmingway and Max Ernst spent their days – that was not posh neighborhooding neighbor St. Germain des Pres (although they did have some hangouts there too). This is where everyone who was nobody but became somebody after they were dead, lived out their poverty.
It is not uncommon for the neighborhood’s bakers to do midnight open calls for bread giving away their ‘restes’to poor artists or squats. There are endless galleries and cinemas like L’Entrepot. There are quaint cobblestone streets near Metro Pernety and hundreds of artists ateliers and workshops holding vernissages almost nightly. Of course there is the not so spectacular Gare du Montparnasse its Tower. Nothing to see really there — go deeper into this arrondissement, it might be scary but there are treasures to be dug up. ©NileGuide
Vaugirard – 15th Arrondissement
No famous tourist sites in this bourgeois residential neighborhood that’s a great destination for finding restaurants that cater to Parisians or to observe of the indigenous Parisians. The Parc André Citroën is a futuristic park on the Seine, while Beaugrenelle will give you a glimpse of urban planning gone wrong. ©NileGuide
Auteuil Passy – 16th Arrondissement
Well, everyone says this arrondissement is a snooze… well, just everyone in the under-thirty set — you know the sorts…who spend their weekends and a couple of weekday mornings bowing naked to the porcelin gods after waking up in strangers apartments then jumping back into their berets and sneaking out to get a pain chocolate and smoke a fag before making their way home.
For sporty or aesthetic sorts, deep thinkers, shoppers with deep pockets and people who appreciate the highlife without being flashy… this is the arrondissement for you. While the 17th arrondissement, this arrondissement’s neighbor has sedate, undeniably picturesque, Parc Monceau, the 16th has got the wild and sauvage, just downright sexy Bois de Boulogne — the second largest park in Paris if you can really call it a park, it is more like a large wooded area that a girl/or a guy or both can get lost in and not see another person with the exception of the occassional transvestite prostitute or serious jogger for a whole 10 minutes (a rare event in Paris).
And while the 16th ain’t got no club scene like Bastille or Oberkampf… or probably not even a club except for some soothing club soda, it does have Trocadero and fanatstic views onto the Eiffel Tower, it has shopping at Place Victor Hugo and driving down Avenue Foch, it has got the Musee de l’homme, Musée de Chaillot and the Musee Guimet and some very expensive bio and outdoor markets on the weekend. This is the place to be in Paris when you need to chill. ©NileGuide
Etoile Batignoles – 17th Arrondissement
The place where everybody and nobody wants to live. There is nothing really to do in this neighborhood except basque in the glory of the wealth you must have achieved to be able to live here.
A sort of parallel to London’s Hyde Park, this arrondissement and its neighbor the 16th are calm, beautiful albeit slightly boring places to live. It is the heartbreaking home to hundreds of young and eager Swedish or other sorts of au pairs, who come excitedly to Paris year after year, hoping to experience the city, and who instead find themselves shut up in in one of these beautiful apartments six days a week never finding the time or the freedom for the hundreds of French lovers looking around the city for her.
She might get outside from time to time to take a stroll with the kids through Parc Monceau, perhaps the most noble and sophisticated park in Paris and the only really great thing apart from the Arc de Triomphe to see in this neighborhood. ©NileGuide
Montmartre – 18th Arrondissement
Everyone has their opinions about what to see first in Paris, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, blah blah. Forget it. Get off the plane and go to Montmartre –one of the neighborhoods of the 18th arrondissement, an ‘outer’ arrondissements of this little escargot known by the locals as ‘Paname.’ This arrondissement, the center of Bohemian romantic life, the setting for Buz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge and of the Les fabuleux déstin d’Amélie Poulain (Amelie) has everything. Great food at good prices, French Chanson, art, tacky sketch artists, charm, vulgarity, shops, monuments, class, and if you don’t want it — you can find no class.
The 18th is where you will find spectacular Sacre Coeur, the Musee Dali, winding hills, vulgar and cheap souvenirs to take home to people you don’t like so much anyway, Moulin Rouge, Pigalle – everything that is great about Paris. Though it is no longer home to as many artists and bohemians as it once (they have moved to Montreuil a neighborhood to the East of Paris) and even though the bourgeoise and their money has flooded in, there is little that can be done to erase the charm of this neighborhood… gentrified or not. ©NileGuide
Buttes Chaumont – 19th Arondissement
The 19th arrondissement is the place to be in the Summer. When it gets hot Parisians stay as far away from central Paris either leaving the all together and heading to the Riveria or hopping on the metro going north to Parc de la Villette in the 19th where they are privy to a host of free outdoor events. There is something or several things going here on almost every single night — including a wildly popluar outdoor film screening series, that with the wine and cheese spreads spread out on hundreds of picnic blankets, is as close as the French get to going to the drive-in.
In the 19th, what the French call ‘un quartier populaire’ (neighborhood of normal people) you will find the real Paris – convival, energetic, brimming with good food and interesting conversations, great cinema and no frills cafés. There are waterfront picnics and gatherings along Quay de la Seine and Quai de Loire along the water leading to the ever popular Point Ephemere (Ephemeral Point) and crossing over at Stalingrad to the Canal St. Martin which is located in the adjacent 10th.
As if Parc de la Villette weren’t enough, the 19th is also home of Parc Buttes-Chaumont a very well-known, stunning and beautifully-landscaped park situated on one of the nine hills of Paris. There are great vues from Point Suicide looking out onto Montmartre (another one of the nine hills). Word to the wise: watch out for the ‘drageurs’ here… you might not get your pocket book lifted, but if you aren’t careful you will probably get your butt pinched. ©NileGuide
Le Marais – 1st Arrondissement
Paris’ 1st. It is no wonder that this is the arrondissement numero uno, top dog or shall we say, top ‘escargot’ as the residents of ‘Paname’ (Paris) like to call it. The ‘arrondissements’ or neighborhoods in Paris are numbered starting from 1 and going up to 20 — spiraling out from the center and turning and turning in a circle until the city’s inevitable drop off into the infamous ‘banlieu’ (suburbs).
The French as pseudo-socialists, like to pretend there is no hierarchy of anything, arrondissment, social class, etc., but there is, as anyone can tell you and most especially in regards to where one lives in relation to the city’s center. A Parisian’s success or failure in life and his or her social rank is highly dependent on where he or is on the snail.
The arrondissement with the smallest numbers have the highest snob factor, with a few exceptions. The Louvre is in the 1st arrondissement, so is the Jardin des Tuileries and the Palais Royal. Looking for a high-priced tourist apartment rental? Look no further. They are all here on Rue de Richelieu. Is it worth the price to step outside of your place and into the Louvre? Yes. Probably. Stay away from Chatelet/Les Halles one of the city’s major train hubs – there are rats, cheap tacky clothes, menacing teenagers and a KFC where said ‘adols’ stuff their faces. Only venture out here cross over to the Centre Georges Pompidou, or to shop near St. Eustache. ©NileGuide
Ménilmontant – 20th Arrondissement
Now just because the highlight of this arondissement is a cemetary (Père Lachaise) doesn’t mean that this neighborhood is dead. It is in fact one of the up-and-coming neighborhoods of Paris. It is, of the arrondissements, the most recent to be incorporated into the city of Paris and is drawing a younger and younger population to its hip Belleville and Gambetta neighborhoods.
Up until recently it was just the place where you would go to visit the graves of Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Heloise and Abelard, Moliere or Edith Piaf, but now with the lively club and bohemian scenes in Belleville, all that is changing. This is one of Paris’ greenest neighborhoods with dozens of parks including the Park Belleville within its bounds. Place de Jourdain is a local favorite as are the quaint old building of l’Hermitage. It is probably one of the most interesting neighborhoods to to walk around in with hundreds of small quaint stores lining the Rue des Pyreenees from top to bottom and every place in between. It is a quiet and relatively calm arrondissement far from the maddening crowds of Paris but with all the more charm and life because of it. ©NileGuide
Rive Gauche – 6th Arrondissement
Whether or not you like what this arrondissement has become, it is undeniable that what it once was — the center of the intellectual and artistic life in Paris and in Europe. Today it is home to Paris’ richest, the haute bourgeoise and some of Paris’ most expensive stores all of whom and which have all settled in here to ‘en profiter’ from the power this ancient bastion of Bohemian life and cafe society.
Tourists flock here looking for a part of that past, but they are too late as tourists often are — those things have gone underground and slipped away under Montparnasse into the very Bohemian 14th arrondissement and off into other corners of the city and its banlieu. Rue de Rennes is surely the best place to buy shoes in Paris and the neighborhood around St. Michel and the fountain there have loads of bars and places to eat. The hotels here are decadent like the Victoria Palace or l’Hotel des Beaux Arts, as are the restaurants. Decadent is what this quartier is best at. The neighborhood’s past haunts its institutions like the Deux Magots and Cafe Flore, which feel more like memorials than cafes and where a simple espresso costs upwards of three euros.
These cafés on the main streets are filled with people able to pay that price. Gone are the poor writers and poets with nothing but one euro and lifetimes of ideas to spare. This was the home of Serge Gainsbourgh and his unique house still stands amongst the swanky galleries of rue de Verneuil. Jardin de Luxembourg which stradles the 5th and 6th arrondissemnts and the surrounding greenspaces are nothing short of stunning. The past here is often more interesting than the present, but Saint-Germain-de-Prés and the 6th remains one of the most beautiful and vibrant neighborhoods in this fine city, so if you leave Paris without seeing it, certain people will say you can’t say you’ve seen Paris. ©NileGuide
Monceau Madeleine – 8th Arrondissement
The 8th arrondissement is the city’s western most arrondissement connecting it with Paris’ über wealth suburb, Neuilly-sur-Seine, the place where the aristocracy are holed-up. The 8th arrondissement hit the jackpot and got to be home to what some call the most beautiful avenue in the world and the avenue whose name is most often butchered by non-French speakers — the Champs Elysees (pronounced shonce ee-lee-say).
While most Parisians stay away from it these days there are still reasons to go there: The Arc de Triomphe, to see the end of the Tour de France, the scantily-dressed tourists looking for a good time, the Louis Vuitton store, the Publicis drugstore (one of the few places where you can buy cigarettes and magazines after midnight in Paris) and of course the midnight view standing looking down the avenuce towards Place de la Concorde on one side and the view looking toward La Grande Arche de La Defense from the other. In the 8th you can also find Pont d’Alma and Alma Marceau, where Princess Diana met her final fate, and the Palais de l’Elysees, where the president of the French Republic and his lovely first lady supposedly lay their heads each night.
On the other end of the arrondissement veering towards Opera is Place de la Madeline and the beautiful Eglise de la Madeline. And Oh la la Parc de Monceau, the park in Paris to stroll and be seen in your Sunday best. The 8th — just more of what Paris is best at: Beauty, Art, Culture and Passion… (big yawn). It is only in Paris can that a girl can get tired of these things. ©NileGuide
Grands Boulevards – 9th Arrondissement
It is hard to pigeonhole the 9th arrondissement, what with its Grands Boulevards, an inheritance of France’s Sun King, Louis the XIV, and the legacy of the Folies Bergere and Josephine Baker, ‘the Black Pearl’ and situated as it is between the rich residences of 17th arrondissement while leading the way to the 18th flirting as it does with the neighborhoods of Pigalle and Montmartre. At once noble and seedy, as Paris often is, the 9th is the arrondissement which houses the magnificent Opera Garnier as well as Printemps and the Galleries Layfette — Paris’ biggest and best department stores.
Tourists flock here from far and wide to buy expensive things and see the shop windows at Christmastime. The 9th has one of Paris’ little treasures – the Museum of Romantic Life and several other small visit-worthy museums. There are countless other sites to see as well as a hot nightlife along the Boulevard de Cappucines leading towards Bonne Nouvelle and St. Denis. Though widely thought of as a business district, the neighborhood is increasingly an increasingly popular place to live for young people as the prices are neither too ‘cher’ nor too cheap. ©NileGuide
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