First-time travelers to Paris will want to know two things right from
the start: Parisians are nowhere near as rude
as legend makes them out to be; and popular opinion to the contrary,
Paris is actually a very affordable city. In fact, if you play your
cards right you can stay in a charming—heck, downright
enchanting—neighborhood and still have enough euros left to experiment
with Paris' renowned cuisine and nightlife.
Before you conclude that you absolutely have to find a
hotel by the Eiffel Tower, Tom suggests you read through this short
page to get a sense of the different neighborhoods you might find
interesting. (Why would you think you need to stay near the Eiffel
Tower? You're only going to go there once, after all, and there's not
much else interesting in that neighborhood.)
Paris is divided into twenty neighborhoods called arrondissements,
and they're arranged in an outward spiral beginning at the city's
center. (In the map below, the arrondissements
are indicated by a numeral, followed by the suffix -er or -ème
and then the abbreviation Arr.) The River Seine
divides the city between north and south—the famous rive gauche
and rive droite (left bank and right bank) romanticized in
so many novels and films. Tradition has it that the left bank is the
bohemian heart of the city, while the right bank hosts high-priced
sophistication and the world's best shopping. The truth, however, is
that you'll find a splendid mix of peculiar charm and posh urbanity
pretty much wherever you go.
The Left Bank
The Latin Quarter: Students and Tourists (5th and 6th arrondissements)
It's pretty hard not to associate Paris first and foremost with the
Latin Quarter, so named because during the Middle Ages students from
around the world actually spoke Latin to one another here as their
only common language.
Scholars have in fact been descending on this part of the city since
the thirteenth century. With the Boulevard St. Michel as its
north-south axis, the Latin Quarter generally offers inexpensive to
moderately priced places to stay. Folks tend to be on the younger side
in this part of town, even if many are somewhat past the age of your
typical student, and one of the things that draws people here is the
neighborhood's reputation for nightlife. Most establishments are open
late here, and revelers will spill out of cafés and bars until the wee
hours of the morning.
Yet, there are calmer neighborhoods here as well, and one can be
centrally located without having to give up a good night's sleep (but
the truth is that, except for a few especially bustling areas, Paris
is a pretty quiet city at night). In addition to the hectic,
densely-packed youthful tourist areas most people associate with the
Latin Quarter—centered at the intersection of Saint Michel and Saint
Germain and radiating out toward the Seine to both the east and
west—there are also the calmer neighborhoods such as those surrounding
the Panthéon and those further south and east, in the area around the
rue des Ecoles, for example, the smaller streets in the vicinity of
the rue Saint Jacques, and the quiet and lovely eastern end of the
boulevard Saint Germain.
This is one of the oldest parts of the city (some of the streets
here date back to the eleventh century).
A rich variety of restaurants,
mostly inexpensive to moderately priced, representing virtually any
ethnicity you can think of complements a host of bars and cafés aimed
at the hip, the rad, the gullible, or the just plain curious. Shopping
is geared for the most part toward the youth market, but what's
especially appealing here is that, since this is one of the oldest
parts of the city (some of the streets here date back to the eleventh
century) there remain a large number of specialty stores and unusual
little boutiques, (including a shop
totally devoted to umbrellas). You'll find enough
bookstores—both general and highly specialized—to please the most
discerning bibliophile, and the Latin Quarter even hosts an absolutely
terrific
open-air food market three days a week at the Place Maubert (the
drawback is that there are very few decent supermarkets in this area,
but plenty of small Mom and Pop food shops). For a change of pace,
check out the Jardin
des Plantes (a gigantic horticultural garden), and go to the
Mosque right nearby for a cup of tea. The Institut
du Monde Arabe is also a must-see. Finally, the Latin Quarter
also happens to be about as centrally located as you can be in Paris,
and it's a relatively easy walk to the vast majority of tourist
destinations from here.
Saint-Germain-des-Prés:
Trendy and Chic (6th arrondissement)
As you move west in the Latin Quarter along the Seine and down the
boulevard Saint Germain, student hip blurs into fashionable chic.
Trendy bars, nightclubs, and restaurants dot this part of town, which
also hosts a great many of the city's best and most outrageously
priced art galleries. Some of the city's best known cafés punctuate
the boulevard Saint Germain here, and the smaller streets between this
busy thoroughfare and the river harbor some truly exceptional small
restaurants and one-of-a-kind jewelry and other specialty shops.
You'll likely pay a bit of a premium for staying in this part of town,
but there are some bargains to be had as you move away from the river.
The gorgeous and expansive Luxembourg Gardens are an easy walk from
most any spot in this district of Paris, and Sunday afternoon strolls
or launching a sailboat in one of the grounds' pools are longstanding
traditions here. The area around Odéon is always hopping, and this
area is particularly rich in movie houses. The very picturesque church
Saint-Germain-des-Prés, built over uneven cobblestones and offering a
kind of fortress-like feeling, towers over the square, which also
hosts one of the city's most famous cafés, the Deux
Magots, frequented by such literary luminaries as Rimbaud,
Verlaine, Hemingway, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir. Also
nearby is Saint Sulpice and its lovely square (and one of France's
most famous actresses lives here). Plus, if someone's suing you, or if
you're going to be in court for some other reason, you're a short hop
to the Ile de la Cité.
Montparnasse
and Alésia: Urban and Urbane (6th and 14th arrondissements)
If you want to be away from the hectic activity of Paris' center, but
don't want to be out in the sticks, you might find the 14th
arrondissement just your cup of café crème. The boulevard du
Montparnasse, on the neighborhood's northern border, is home to some
of the best restaurants and cafés of the alas! gone but certainly not
forgotten existential and literary set (La
Coupole, Le
Select, Le
Dôme, La
Rotonde, La
Closerie des Lilas); and the area around Alésia enjoyed quite a
popular expansion some years back and now has some excellent hangouts.
Even though some consider it a bit off the beaten track, the area
surrounding the Porte d'Orléans is quirky and attractive, too. You'll
get much better prices on places to stay here, you'll find the pace a
little less frantic than in the places described above, but at the
same time you'll still feel the throb of the city. This area hosts
Paris' only skyscraper, the Tour
Montparnasse, which sticks out of the cityscape like some sort
of looming, monolithic alien creature (and yes, you can go to the top
and look out), and it also contains the Observatoire,
which dates back to the time of Louis XIV. If you're a big book and/or
CD fan, you can't do better than the giant FNAC, sort of a Borders
Book Store, only bigger and much better. Fans of graphic novels might
even get their fill here. Some of you might also find the Cité
Internationale Universitaire de Paris (Cité Universitaire)
interesting—students from more than 130 countries live and study here.
Tom's Guide to Paris. Copyright 2024 by Thomas DiPiero. All rights reserved.