Most of
the Paris
we see today
is a result of a nineteenth-century renovation, but its boulevards
and arrondissements were but a new
grid bisecting quarters built by centuries of Parisian habit; as a
result of this, Paris has many quarters that are not necessarily
mentioned on any administrative map.
Although Paris's origins are in its
Left
Bank, Parisians began to move to the newly-dried swampland of
the
Right bank around the 10th century,
leaving the Left Bank to ecclesiastical and scholastic
institutions.
Commerce was at its highest around the
Châtelet bridge guardhouse and
Place de
Grève
port, a market quarter that would later become
Les Halles, artisans tended to keep to
the east of the city, and the more noble residences and shops were
always near the royal palaces. Although many are split
between several
arrondissements, most of these tendencies
still hold true in Paris today.
Below are a few quarters that have developed or retained a
character of their own, usually identifiable by a grouping of
commercial activity and named for a neighbourhood landmark.
The Central Islands
Paris' islands were once many, but over the centuries have been
united or joined to the mainland.
Today there are but two adjacent islands
forming the centre of Paris, the
Île de la
Cité
and the Île Saint-Louis
(plus the artificial Île des Cygnes
).
The Notre-Dame cathedral
Île de la Cité
- Main article: Île de la
Cité
The westernmost of these two island, Île de la Cité, is Paris'
heart and origin.
Its western end has held a palace since even
Roman times, and its eastern end since the same has been
consecrated to religion, especially after the construction in the
10th century of the cathedral predecessor to today's Notre-Dame
. The land between the two was, until the
1850s, largely residential and commercial, but since has been
filled by the city's Prefecture de Police
, Palais de Justice
, Hôtel-Dieu hospital
and Tribunal de
Commerce. Only the westernmost and north-eastern
extremities of the island remain residential today, and the latter
preserves some vestiges of its 16th-century
canonic houses.
Île Saint-Louis
- Main article: Île
Saint-Louis
Purely residential in nature, this island's first use was for the
grazing of market cattle and the stocking of wood. One of France's
first examples of urban planning, it was mapped and built from end
to end during the 17th-century reigns of
Henri IV and
Louis XIII. A peaceful oasis of calm in
the busy Paris centre, this island has but narrow one-way streets
and no metro station.
La Rive Droite
Paris'
Rive Droite (Lit.
Right Bank),
formerly a marshland between two arms of the Seine
river,
remained largely uninhabited until the early 11th century.
Once growth began there it soon eclipsed that of both the island
and its
Rive Gauche combined, and has
remained Paris' densest area ever since.
Châtelet-Les-Halles / Hôtel de Ville
"Le
Châtelet", a stronghold/gatehouse guarding the northern end of a
bridge from the la Cité island, was the origin of Paris' first real
Rive Droite growth. Where the Les
Halles quarter starts and ends is debatable, but for the average
Parisian, it englobes the former
Les
Halles marketplace, today a shopping mall centre for a highly
commercial district whose many boutiques are of a "trendy" sort
geared to tourism.
As the Les Halles is a Metro and RER
hub for
transport connecting all suburban regions around the capital, the
stores closest to the station reflect the rap and hip-hop trends
common there. Fast-food is the restaurant staple of this
quarter's most central region, but more traditional fare can be
found to its north-west.
One of
the region's most prominent landmarks is the 1976-built Centre
Georges Pompidou
. Built in a hightly colorised modern style
greatly contrasting with its surrounding architecture, it houses a
permanent modern-art museum exposition and has rotating expositions
that keep to a theme of the post-pop art period. Recently
renovated, it also houses the
BPI, one of the
city's largest libraries and places of study. The wide square in
front is a preferred place for
street
performers, as its location is ideal for drawing a mix of both
tourist and student spectators.
Just to
the east of the Place du Châtelet
lies Paris's Hôtel de Ville
(city hall). It stands on the almost exact
location of a 12th-century "house of columns" belonging to the
city's "Prévôt des Marchands" (a city governor of commerce), then a
later version built in 1628 whose shell is still the same today.
Just across the street to the north of la rue de Rivoli is the
large 1870's-built BHV (Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville) household
shopping centre.
Le Louvre / Palais Royal
The
Louvre
, once Paris'
second Royal Palace, is today a museum, garden (Tuileries
), and, more recently, a shopping mall and Fashion
show centre (Le Carrousel du Louvre
). The Palais Royal
just to its north, at its origin a residence of the
Cardinal Richelieu, is a walled
garden behind its rue de
Rivoli
facade, with covered and columned arcade that house boutiques forming what could be considered to be
Paris' first "shopping arcade". This quarter in
general has many 17th and 18th century buildings of large standing,
as well as some of Paris' more grandiose constructions, namely
along the avenue de
l'Opéra
, from the Haussmann era. The
long perspective of massive buildings that make the northern side
of the rue de Rivoli, with their covered and columned arcades, are
a result of Paris' first attempt at reconstruction in a larger
scale in the early 1840s, and today house the quarter's most
tourist-oriented shops, boutiques and night-clubs.
Opéra
Centred
around Paris' Opéra
Garnier
, completed in 1882, this quarter houses at once
central Paris' largest shopping centres (the Galeries
Lafayette
and Printemps
) and is an important banking centre (Crédit Lyonnais, BNP and American
Express just to name a few). The streets behind
both sides of the avenue de l'Opéra have many Japanese restaurants, and most of the
avenues in this area "duty-free" stores
selling luxury brands.
Saint-Honoré / Place Vendôme / Concorde
The
rue Saint
Honoré 
is known for its luxury boutiques selling all
fashion labels of international renown. The Place
Vendôme
, around its famous Hôtel Ritz
, is the centre of the Paris "Triangle d'Or" of jewellers. There are
many major banks and offices in this area as well.
The Place de la
Concorde
, to the western end of the Louvre's Jardin des
Tuileries
, is a major stop for tourists (for its vista,
fountains and Egyptian
obelisk
) and a panoramic introduction to the Champs-Élysées
that begins at its western extremity.
Les Champs-Élysées
Easily
Paris' most touristic avenue, and almost every commerce along its
entire length between the rond-point des Champs-Élysées and its Arc de Triomphe
is geared to nothing else. The buildings
above the street-side boutiques are for the most part Paris offices
or residences for businesses the world over. The streets behind the
Avenue and in the neighbourhood surrounding are filled with
Haussmanian buildings of large standing that host some offices, but
are largely residential.
Montmartre / Bas-de-Montmartre
Montmartre
is Paris' highest hill, and second most-visited
tourist area. Formerly town of wine growers and plaster
miners centred around a 15th-century monastery, it began from the
late 20th century (namely around the time of the construction of
its Sacré-Coeur Basilica
in 1919) to become a tourist attraction.
Much of Montmartre's windmills and "old village" charm had already
been destroyed when Paris' tourist boom began, but investors and
speculators rebuilt it anew. All the same, Montmartre is a very
picturesque place to visit, and has one of the best views of the
capital. Some of its former charm can be found to the rear of the
hill, as well as a
windmill or two, and it
has even the remains of its former
vineyard
topping.
The boulevards below Montmartre, also called "bas-de-Montmartre",
were once highly popular with mid-19th century Parisians for their
cabarets, as at the time they were in an open-air scenery that was
almost countryside.
The Moulin Rouge
is all that remains of the once many such saloons
and dance-halls that lined the north side of the boulevard, but
today this establishment is but a gaudy tourist-tailored mirror of
what it once was. The boulevard surrounding, especially to its
east towards Pigalle
, is filled with establishments offering shows of a
slightly "warmer" nature than can-can.
Gare de l'Est / Gare du Nord
To the north of Paris' textile "sentier" quarter, this area is
fascinating for its myriad of clothing stores and hair salons whose
owners are largely of African origin. These stations mark the
northernmost limits of Paris' "Sentier" textile industry
district.
La Bastille
La Place de la Bastille is named for a former castle/dungeon
guarding Paris' 17th-century eastern gate.
Aside from this
place's central column, its most prominent landmark is its Opéra-Bastille
, an opera-house with a style of architecture and
repertoire more modern than its classical Opéra-Garnier
counterpart. The north-westerly boulevard
Beaumarchais is known for its music and camera stores.
To the north of the
place stretches its narrow rue de la Roquette with its many small
bars, restaurants and night-clubs, a street that ends to the
north-east at the Père Lachaise
cemetery.
Le Marais
To the west of the place de la Bastille extends the
rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine,
a street running through the centre of what was once a village of
furniture-making artisans.
To the north and north-west from there,
across a map of narrow streets remaining unchanged from this
17th-century time, lies Le
Marais
. The rue du faubourg Saint-Antoine still has
many furniture stores.
Today Le
Marais is most known for its square and uniformly-built Place des
Vosges
. Inaugurated as the "Place Royale" in 1612,
much of the land surrounding was built with vast and luxurious
"hotels" by those seeking closer relations to royalty, and many
remain today.
This area fell out of royal favour when the
King's court left for the Louvre then
Versailles, and was in a state of almost
abandon by 19th century. It became a largely Jewish quarter
around then, and has remained so ever since. It is also the heart
of gay Paris, with many gay cafés, bars and clubs.
La Rive Gauche
Paris'
Left Bank was its centre from its
first to 11th centuries, but little evidence remains of this today.
The largest reason for this is that, solidly built from Roman
times, its crumbling constructions in fact served as a quarry for
Rive Droite constructions when its population moved to Paris'
northern shores. Calm even today, the rive Gauche is in its
majority residential.
Saint-Germain-des-Prés / Faubourg Saint-Germain
This central Rive-Gauche quarter is named for its 7th century abbey
of which only a church is still standing. Its commercial growth
began upon the 1886 completion of its Boulevard Saint-Germain and
the opening of its cafés and bistrots namely its "Café de Flore"
and "Deux Magots" terraces. Its fame came with the 1950s post-WW II
student "culture emancipation" movement that had its source in the
nearby University. Many
jazz club
appeared here during those times, and a few still remain
today.
Located near the
École des
Beaux-Arts, this quarter is known for its artistry in general,
and has many galleries along its
rue
Bonaparte and
rue de Seine.
In all,
Saint-Germain-des-Prés
is an upper-class bourgeois residential district,
and its quality clothing and gastronomical street-side commerce is
a direct reflection of this.
Odéon / Saint-Michel
Odéon is named for the 18th-century theatre standing between the
boulevard Saint-Germain and the Luxembourg gardens, but today it is
best known for its cinemas and cafés.
The land
just to the south of the Seine river to the east of the Boulevard
Saint-Michel, around its Sorbonne
university, has been a centre of student activity
since the early 12th century. The surrounding neighbourhood
is filled with many student-oriented commercial establishments such
as bookstores, stationery stores and game shops.
The land
to the north of the boulevard Saint-Germain
, to the east of the Boulevard Saint-Michel, is one
of the Rive Gauche's few tourist oases. Although its narrow
streets are charming, as they have remained unchanged from medieval
times, they are filled with souvenir shops and tourist-trap
restaurants, and it is a quarter where few Parisians ever
stray.
Invalides / École Militaire / Eiffel Tower / Quai d'Orsay
La Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower) seen
from l'Esplanade du Trocadéro.
Paris'
17th-century Hôtel des Invalides and 18th-century École
Militaire
were built where they were in an effort to force
the Rive Gauche's growth westward, to match that to its opposing
Rive Droite. Les Invalides
, a former military hospital and still today a
retirement home for a few former soldiers, became a tourist
attraction after Napoleon
Bonaparte's ashes were interred there in 1840, and a military
museum from 1872 (Artillery).
Just to
the west from there lies the École Militaire (Military school) built from 1751, but it is to the
river end of its former parade ground that lies Paris' foremost
tourist attraction. The Eiffel Tower
, built by Gustave Alexandre Eiffel for the 1889 Universal Exposition,
averages around 6 million visitors a year.
Further east along the bank of the Seine lies the former
Paris-à-Orléans train station built for the 1900 Universal
Exposition.
Closed in 1939, it has been since renovated
into a museum of 19th-century art, the Musée_d'Orsay
, open to the public since December,
1986.
Montparnasse / Denfert-Rochereau
This
quarter owes its artistic reputation to its Montparnasse
cemetery
. Open from 1824, it attracted the ateliers
of sculptors and engravers to the still-inbuilt land nearby, and
these in turn drew painters and other artists looking for calmer
climes than the saturated and expensive
Right Bank.
Many of these today-famous artists met in
the boulevard Montparnasse's many cafés and bistros, one of these
being the world-known Belle Époque
"La
Coupole
". This aspect of Montparnasse
's culture has faded since the second world war, but
many of its artist atelier-residence "Cités" are still there to
see.
The
Gare
Montparnasse
, since its beginning as a railway connection to
Versailles in 1840, has since grown into the Rive Gauche's commuter
hub connection to many destinations in southern France.
The
neighbourhood around it is a thriving business quarter, and houses
Paris' tallest building: the Tour Montparnasse
.
The Catacombs of Paris
To the south-east of the boulevard Montparnasse, to the bottom of
the northward-running Avenue
Denfert-Rochereau
at the square of the same name, is one of Paris' few-remaining
pre-1860's "prolype" gateways.
The westernmost of these twin buildings
holds Paris' most macabre attraction: the Catacombs of
Paris
. Formerly stone mines, abandoned when Paris
annexed the land over them from 1860, the underground hallways
became a new sepulture for the contents of Paris' many overflowing
and unhygienic parish cemeteries. At its origin but a jumbled bone
depository, it was renovated in the early 19th century into uniform
rooms and hallways of neatly (and even artistically) arranged
skulls and tibias, and opened to the public for paid visits from
1868.
Key Suburbs
La Défense business district
As one of
the largest business districts in the world, Paris La
Défense
is a major destination for business travel in
Europe.
Characteristics:
- 3,000,000 m² (32.3 million sq. ft) of offices
- Europe's largest shopping centre with
nearly 3,000 hotel rooms, 600 shops and services, and over 100
restaurants
- daily influx of 160,000 office staff with 2 million tourist
visits annually
- CNIT
congress centre, the largest self-supporting vault
in the world, 43,000 m² (463,000 sq ft), including 29,000 m²
(312,000 sq ft) of modular spaces, 36 meetings rooms and 4
halls
- La Défense stands on Paris's historic East-West axis
(L'Axe historique).
In
December 2005 the new plan for the district of La
Défense was presented. The project is articulated
around a tall skyscraper (more than 400 m/1,300 ft high), a new
symbol for Paris which would be the tallest skyscraper in Europe if
it is built.
This big project will change the skyline of
the capital of France
.
The
project to build the Grande
Arche
was initiated by the French president François Mitterrand.
He wanted
a 20th century Arc de
Triomphe. The
design of the Danish architect
Otto
van Spreckelsen looks more like a cube-shaped building than a
triumphal arch. It is a 110 meter tall white building with the
middle part left open. The sides of the cube contain offices. It is
possible to take a lift to the top of the Grande Arche, from where
there is a scenic view of the historical heart of Paris, which is 6
to 10 km. (4 to 6 miles) from the Grande Arche.
Chart of the eighty quartiers of Paris
References