Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Districts In Paris

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Districts In Paris

Based on what I've read in this forum, Paris is split out into districts. Can anyone give me a brief description of the best/safer ones? A website with this info would be great too. Thanks and have a great day!!

gloria, there's the official thing, and the reality. 20 "arrondissements" runs as a snail -or spiral- from Chatelet -1st, the center- to Vincennes -20th, far east. The smallest the number, the smallest the district. mapquest shows the limits between them, but it's not quite clear. Now for reality : from 1 to 6, nothing but great Paris. Beyond, there are nice things, and regular Paris buildings, not always bad, not always great. Still, from mid 14 to mid 18, you'll see the 19th century-type buildings, which are usually nice. The more west, the safest, but this is not exactly true : near boulogne/dauphine is prostitution area, in the middle of nice neighbourhoods -not really unsafe, but you know what I mean. And you won't get into troubbles in most of the others estern arrondissements. Today avoid gare de l'est/gare du nord, that is dangerous. Rest of it is ok. If you see marginal people, don't provocate, don't be impressed. Just keep going.

Gloria - If you are looking to stay somewhere, I would recommend 5th or 6th. Many people on this forum like the 7th but after just visiting it for the 2nd time in March, I think it is too residential and quite. At least, for my taste. The 5th and 6th have lots more life, lots of people and cafes, and activity. Much more interesting on vacation. Have a great day!

Hi If you don't have a map of Paris in front of you it will be hard for you to visualise the arrondissements, and you'll need one for traveling anyway. I recommend Streetwise Paris. Your bookstore can order it. They also have a website www.streetwisemaps.com The maps are compact, laminated, complete, easy to read. Most tourists stay in the 5th, 6th, 7th, 1st, and 8th. These areas are safe, convenient, easily accessible to the metro, and relatively central, the middle core of Paris. These areas also have a vast array of hotels, from hostel-type places to 4 stars. This is not to say that there aren't nice places to stay in more residential or less busy parts of Paris, but if you want convenience and relative safety the above are where you want to be. You want web sites, here is my collection of Paris web sites, many gleaned from this forum: www.ratp.fr/ Paris metro info www.giverny.org/ Giverny http://mercurio.iet.unipi.it/tgv/tgvindex.html/ tgv trains info www.intermusees.com/ this one is for museum pass in Paris www.ticketweb.com Louvre tickets www.louvre.fr Louvre tickets www.paris-hotel.com/ hotels www.frenchexperience.com/ hotels plus www.hotelboulevard.com/ hotels http://mistral.culture.fr/louvre/ The Louvre www.pariscope.fr/ things to do and see www.france-hotel-guide.com/ www.bonjour.com/ www.paris.org/ wonderful site--everything you can think of about Paris. The hotel section includes comments from past hotel guests. Hotels organized alpha and by area It also includes bus maps, etc www.chateauversailles.fr/ Versailles www.top-restaurants.com/ www.123france.com/europe/france/ hotels http://goeurope.miningco.com/travel/europe/ www.pagesjaunes.fr/ the “yellow pages” www.voila.fr web phone directory www.parisfranceguide.com/ www.timeout.com/paris/ Things to do, incl.nightlife www.webmonger.com/travel/paris/ www.paris-touristoffice.com/ what’s going on in Paris www. francetourism.com French Govt Tourist Office Here's another site that helps you plan transportation routes within Paris: Http://metro.ratp.fr:10001/bin/select/ english/france/paris email me with any specific questions

Actually, the whole of Paris is getting more and more gentrified, so the few areas that could seem "risky" within the city are not really likely to have hotels geared to American travelers. I would just avoid the Chateau Rouge area in the 18th arrondissement, and, as Grégoire mentioned it, the sector around gare du Nord and gare de l'Est (not very appealing anyway). Otherwise, don't think that, speaking of districts, it's "the smaller number the better". 2nd arr. is in some places the stronghold of old-fashioned Parisian prostitution, whereas the 16th is very chic. Even in one arrondissement, you can have both sides of the spectrum : in the 18th for instance, you have the above-mentioned Château Rouge or Goutte d'Or, and avenue Junot, a favorite place for renowned artists and movie-stars. Just check one thing when choosing a hotel : that the address ends with : "750something Paris". Otherwise, you'll be in the suburbs.

gloria, I just posted my answer yesterday, then took my car home, and heard about the killing in Colorado. You will never hear something like that in Paris, France, or Europe, for the simple reason that any type of gun is illegal -you have to get a real license, something that only cross country hunters will consider worth the pain. Appart from the muslim fundamentalists when they decide to thrill Paris, which is still an exception, violence in Paris is like kindergarden, but it's possibly more frequent. Well, you might think that a knife threat is not pleasant, but consider that's about the worse you can get, and fist-fight is what happen most of the (bad) times. I'm talking about people harrasing you : riots happen in every country, but even those are probably not as dangerous in the EC, and frenchies just enjoy strikes to avoid work... You won't find many web-site on this theme, not like Dallas Police departement web page, where you compare this year to last year rates for killed policemen, rapes and new thief methods. We don't need a gun to survive there, it's not in the first ammendement of the constitution. So enjoy an other country where life has no price.