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You are here: Home Housing Where to Live Where to live in Paris

Where to Live

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15/02/2012Where to live in Paris

Where to live in Paris Here's our guide on which of the 20 arrondissements is most likely to fit your lifestyle - and your budget when living in Paris.

To understand Paris estate-agent speak, it is important to understand the Paris arrondissements, or districts.

There are 20 arrondissements, and each arrondissement is attributed with its own number, according to the pattern of a spiral, beginning with the 1st  arrondissement in the heart of the capital and ending with the 20th on the outer northwest.

Parisians describe their neighbourhood by the arrondissement number instead of place names. So, more often than not, you'll find yourself being offered a home in le 1er or le 10ème. A broader division is applied by Rive Gauche (meaning the Left Bank, the south side of the river Seine) or Rive Droite (meaning the Right Bank, north side of the Seine).

There are very few townhouses in Paris, and therefore they sell or rent at a premium. Most inhabitable property is made up of apartments in the six or seven storey 19th century apartment buildings.

When hunting for a home, you are likely to be asked if you're looking for ancien - meaning any building more than 60 years old, and usually more expensive - or neuf, meaning modern constructions, mostly sky rise buildings.

Most Parisian apartments are made up of between one and four rooms. A studio is a bachelor-sized sitting-room-cum-bedroom, an adjoining kitchen, tiny bathroom and toilet. More than four rooms (pièces) can be found without difficulty, if you can pay the steep prices!

Some of the arrondissements are big enough to contain neighbourhoods which vary in social character - like the 13th, 17th, 10th and 20th - but, on the whole, the mere mention of the arrondissement number on a postcode is a social statement.

The 16th is synonymous with the old and very wealthy, the 18th with working class and ethnic populations, and the 6th with the fashionable and chic.

The 1st and 2nd arrondissements are essentially daytime quarters for business offices and institutions (including the
stock exchange and the Louvre). There are bargain flats close to the Bourse, but on the whole, there is little feeling of local community in the area, witnessed by the lack of shops and empty streets at night.

The oldest and quaintest quarters, centrally placed and which offer a rich street life, are the 3rd and 4th on the Right Bank, covering the Marais, and the 5th and 6th on the opposite Left Bank, which make up the Latin Quarter.

The Marais is a young, trendy area, with an eclectic mix of everything from gay bars to art galleries, but it lacks any real green spaces. Generally high-priced, the area has superb public transport links and is within walking of the centre.

The picturesque Latin Quarter, traditionally a student neighbourhood, has the widest choice of restaurants and cinemas of any Paris neighbourhood. Its universities (including the Sorbonne) make it a centre for culture, especially bookstores.

Generally expensive but not unaffordable, its population ranges from the bourgeois to the bohemian. It is more family friendly, with a few parks, notably the Luxembourg gardens and the Jardin des Plantes.

living in Paris

A diluted taste of both these areas is found with cheaper rents in the 10th, 11th and 12th arrondissements, close to the Marais, and the 13th and 14th arrondissements around the Latin Quarter.

The 10th, 11th and 12th are more working-class, with the exception of trendy pockets around the lively Bastille and République squares. The joining limits of the 3rd and 10th are home to the teeming rag-trade. The meeting points of the 3rd, 10th and 11th can be worth a look for those looking for a large centrally located apartment, above all at comparatively low cost.

In the outer arrondissements, with their mix of modern and old residential buildings, there is a stronger community feel but they include shabby pockets.

The 12th is a comparatively large arrondissement, which offers cheaper rents and a wide offer of middle to large apartments. It leads to the Vincennes park, one of the two largest around Paris (along with the Bois de Boulogne to the west).

The 13th covers the city's outer southeast, and contains a large Vietnamese community. It is a relatively old and quiet "suburb" of the Latin Quarter at its closest to the 5th. But it rapidly changes to a huge area of modern sky-rise buildings further east which, while they have none of the charm of old Paris, do offer sensational views and - not to be sniffed at - parking spaces.

The 14th is attached to the Latin Quarter at Montparnasse and stretches down to the southern city limits. It has fewer modern buildings and has a lively community feel in most areas, bustling with shops, traders, cafés and quite a few small restaurants.

Rents are, in the main, reasonable. It has the large and pleasant Montsouris park and quick access onto the southbound motorway and Orly airport.

Staying south and moving west is the 15th, a highly residential arrondissement, with a rent range from the fairly cheap (especially for large apartments) to a minority of very expensive. It lacks big green spaces, although there are the André Citroën and Georges Brassens parks on its southern limits.

The bourgeois 7th is one of Paris' chicest postcodes and there is no cheap housing here. It stretches from the 6th, to its east, across to the Eiffel Tower, and is home to Unesco and most government ministry buildings.

The 16th, lying north of the river and on the west of the capital is something of a ghetto for the seriously rich. It runs from the Arc de Triomphe, spreading west out to the Bois de Boulogne at the city edge.

The neighbouring 17th is a chic, high-rent area, but more accessible than the 16th. Its outlying areas are more populaire. It shares the pleasant Monceau park with the 8th. Overall, this is a quiet area at the end of the day when the offices close up.

The 9th is a central arrondissement, dedicated to banks, insurance companies and lawyers, as well as department stores and small businesses. There some office-renovation apartments at comparatively reasonable prices, but this is one of Paris' least-residential areas.

The 8th is the élite part of the city centre, with the presidential Elysée Palace, the Champs-Elysées, the haute couture boutiques of the rue St Honoré and hotel palaces like the George V, the Plaza Athénée and the Crillon.

Most of the 18th is a lively, residential working-class area with a colourful ethnic mix. The buildings are mostly old, barring splashes of the new. The less salubrious parts notably include Clichy and the vulgar sin 'city' Pigalle. But there are pleasant enough areas, as well as shabby ones, and apartment space is generally pretty low-priced.

The 19th is close to the gare du Nord with its Eurostar and Thalys train links. It is a less lively continuation of the 18th with many modern buildings and cheap rents. It has its own hill and park, the Buttes Chaumont.

The outer west of Paris is gobbled up by the sprawling 20th. Rents are generally cheaper, particularly for large apartments, and there is a mix of old and new. At its heart is the legendary Père Lachaise cemetry (a sort of graveyard for stars).

The wider, leafier areas are just off Nation square (in the neighbouring 12th arrondissement) and out towards the peripheral Porte de Vincennes. 


1 reaction to this article

April Milliken posted: 2010-12-01 13:22:01

Very well written and very true. Great job!

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1 reaction to this article

April Milliken posted: 2010-12-01 13:22:01

Very well written and very true. Great job!

Add a comment
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