Someone who is familiar with Paris, can you tell me - is this a decent area to stay ? 50 Bis Rue Jean Pierre Timbaud - 11th arrondissement

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Hi M,

You are not far from Pere Lachaise Cemetery and the Place Republique - about 3 blocks from Metro stops.

You can take a virtual tour of the neighborhood at www.pagesjaunes.fr.

I know the area - even the block - very well. Jean Pierre Timbaud is on the edge of the now trendy and still shabby rue Oberkampf area. Loads of good restaurants, including Astier on J.P. Timbaud and Estaminet on rue Oberkampf. It's a lively area, people of the street at night, but not as overrun as the warren of small streets around St. Michel or on the rue de Lappe near Place de la Bastille. There's an ethnic flavor, as well as a sense of family life, with less of an urban edge than in some of the "popular" neighborhoods of Paris. Overall, the population is young. This is part of the "living" city. And the Metro links to all of Paris is good. Whether it's for you, only you know.

How far away from the center is it then? You'd need to use the Metro each day if the trip is tourist for sight-seeing?

My son is taking pre-AP French III and they were each assigned an arrondissment on which to report. He got the 11th and I'll tell you, from a tourist's stand point, there's not a lot there.

I stay with a friend who lives in the 11th, although a bit closer to Pere Lachaise than your location (roughly halfway between rue Oberkampf and Pere Lachaise). It's a nice area, IMO, but definitely not a tourist area. There are plenty of restaurants, cafes, bakeries. It's an easy metro ride to the center of Paris and walkable to the Marais.

I like it and enjoy staying in that area.

I like Dave's description, that's sort of my feel for the area (a bit shabby). It is not near Pere Lachaise IMO. Well, once I walked from Pere Lachaise up to Menilmontant which is an interesting area and over to Oberkampf and it's a couple miles. There are some trendy young bars and stuff along there (too trendy for me, like Cithea). Here's a description on Wikipedia which may give you some idea

http://wikitravel.org/en/Paris/11th_arrondissement

I'd say it is certainly a decent area to stay, but some people might prefer a different area who didn't know Paris at all for a variety of reasons. If I had to vote on whether a tourist should stay there who didn't know Paris at all, I'd vote they would probably prefer elsewhere, but it would be okay.

Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud is indeed in a lively area near Oberkampf with good transportation. I would enjoy staying around there if I didn't already live in Paris. One end of the street is a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalists, and you might prefer the other end more.

The Washington Post ran an article on the 11th arrondissement of Paris a few months back that got it just right, I thought. Pretty sure it was written by a local. Just too much detail to have been done in a quick visit. The title of the travel article was: "In Paris, 11th Heaven." Maybe you can find it in a search of the Post's Web site. The neighborhood that includes 50 bis rue Jean Pierre Timbaud was singled out as a good one. By the way, the Islamists are concentrated a bit farther east on Jean Peirre Timbaud, not that I ever encountered a problem meandering through the thick of their fervor.