Neighborhoods to explore for repeat visitors to Paris
 

My husband and I are leaving for Paris next week for two weeks. We are veterans of more than twenty trips to this incredible city. We have stayed in the 5th, 6th, 7th, the Ile St. Louis several times, the 16th, and now we have rented an apartment in the marais. We have an interest in exploring some different neighborhoods. We love to walk, walk, walk and sit at cafes and take things as they come. Actually, we probably should re-examine the 16th because we stayed there long years ago.

I have been researching unusual things to do in Paris, and I have a list, which I would probably need two months or more rather than two weeks to go through. However, we'll do the best we can while keeping our usual way of doing a lot of "hanging out". If anyone has an absolute favorite unusual thing to do in Paris, please feel free to say it here.

Thanks much for your help.
Grandot

Hi Grandot-

On our fourth trip to Paris, we spent a morning walking the Promenade Plantee out through the 12th to the end, had lunch out there, and then walked back to our hotel in the Marais on street level. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promenade_Plantée

Have you done this ethnic walk posted by kerouac?
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...montmartre.cfm

And the Degas walks?
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...es-revised.cfm
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ter-jan-06.cfm
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...is-revised.cfm

Have you visited Père Lachaise Cemetery?

We have visited the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, and we have also walked part of the Promenade Plantee. Thank you for those good suggestions, might do the entire Promenade Plantee, as you, did, BlueSwimmer. We have not done the Degas walks nor have we done the ethnic walk posted by kerouac. (I am a fairly new fodorite, so didn't know about them last trip to Paris.) Will definitely do some of them this time.

We must have driven through this part of town our last trip and I have been fantasizing about owning a sari since. Is this part of town safe for a woman alone?
Rosie Caro

Have you done the <i>passages</i>. For early 1900 architecture, the 15i&egrave;me is interesting. Try to get into the <i>salle des f&ecirc;tes</i> of its <i>mairie</i>.

These photos might give you some ideas:

http://www.photoworks.com/members/sl...amp;key=mksfca

Belleville on market day (which I think is Saturday).

Picpus Cemetery.

Les Buttes de Chaumont.

Oh, wonderful! I'm gathering info for my husband's and my 1-week trip in May - and although it will ONLY be our 4th trip there, we do love the off-the-beaten path places and experiences. I would love to see your list, too.

One area comes to mind; taken from my trip report from 2004:

"The 16th Arrondisement. A stretch of remarkable Art Nouveau building exteriors along one street, Le Corbusier villa (it was closed when we went by, but hey, we got to see it) on another...for anyone with an interest in architecture, this region is a must-see"

Paule

I really enjoyed spending the better part of a day in St Denis. You take metro line 13 in the direction of St Denis-University, and get off at Basilique de St Denis. It only takes about 15-30 minutes from central Paris, depending on where you're starting out from.

The Basilica itself is beautiful. It's one of the first structures ever built in the Gothic style, and every French monarch in history has been interred there.

The little town of St Denis, which is now just a suburb of Paris, is also interesting to explore. It's working class and multi-ethnic and has a very different vibe from central Paris. The area isn't beautiful, but it is interesting and full of character.

Saturday is probably the best day to go, I think that's market day and things were certainly bustling the Saturday I went.

You can find some excellent, detailed promenades through different quartiers [url=http://www.ourparisforum.com/index.cgi?board=quartiers9]here.

Sorry for the slip up above. The url for the quartiers is:http://www.ourparisforum.com/index.cgi?board=quartiers9

bookmark

I would second progol's recommendation: wandering around Auteuil in the 16th lets you see a lot of classy architecture in a "village-type" neighborhood of Paris.

Grandot, have you been to Chateau Vincennes? (metro stop of the same name).

One thing I love doing before a trip is to go to google maps and use the "street view" to prowl around neighborhoods. It always gives me a list of places I must visit in person.

I have so many things that I want to do now that I will have to save some for next trip.
We will choose between all the walks that have been listed and do as many as we can while keeping our preferred method of travel which is to take it slow and easy and go where the wind takes us, never forgetting to stop at cafes!

Progol, as for my list, here is a sampling:

A Sunday concert in a church, as many markets as we can get to, Musee Jacquemart-Andre, Musee Nissim Commondo (Parc Monceau), Musee de Moyen Age for a medieval music concert, a Canal St. Martin boat ride, Bercy, possibly a two or three hour cooking demo class at the Cordon Bleu, wine tasting at Taillevent on Saturday, possibly the Sewer Tour, tea at Mariages Freres or the Plaza Athenee, checking out some of the passages, and walks galore. We are not able to go to the Galerie Lafayette free fashion show on Friday because they will start on April 3 and we leave on March 28th. If you will be there the first or second Saturday of the month and don't mind going overbudget, the Hotel Bristol has a fashion show combined with afternoon tea that I would have loved to do, but not on the day we arrive. (too jetlagged and probably wouldn't enjoy the goodies after a long trip).

I also have a list of places that I'd like to shop at. Although shopping is not my #1 activity, I do enjoy wandering into stores, especially ones that fodorites have recommended.

We might even get to Chateau de Vincennes.

Thank you so much for all your great ideas.

An area you may not have been: get off at Metro Segur. There's a marvellous wood fired patisserie Moulin de la Vierge, just near the intersection of Ave de Suffren and Rue Lecourbe. Superb crosissanct. Then walk down Rue Lecourbe. No tourists, interesting shops and if you can combine it with the market days of Avenue de Breteuil, all the better.

computer is acting crazy..
trying to reply or bookmark...

canal saint martin area
check out foodie froggie for great intineray
Marché d'Aligre
http://afoodiefroggy.canalblog.com/a...1/4081006.html

contact paris greeter this is a partial list of what we did
Here are the main spots were we went :

. The cemetery : ''Cimetière St Vincent'' with graveyards of Marcel Carné, Maurice Utrillo, Steinlein, Eugène Boudin, Marcel Aymé

. Studio of Cathy Deotto, Rue Caulaincourt : it was the 1st time I went at her studio with visitors & she was wonderful

. Avenue Junot : Private courtyard

. Villa Léandre : with little houses & gardens

. We crossed the ''Hameau des Artistes'' (private)

. the windmill ''Moulin de la Galette'' / Rue Lepic (see painting by Renoir)

. Private courtyard named ''Cour aux Juifs'' (the courtyard of the Jews) with 2 flights of stairs

. Rue Lepic : little passage with an artist in her little studio (her painting was in the passage) in front of the house where Van Gogh lived with his brother Theo before going to Auvers-sur-Oise

. Lunch at La Mascotte

. Le ''Castel de l'Escalopier'' : neo-gothic house with wooden gargoyyles ...

. Le Café des 2 Moulins : bar of the film ''Amélie''

. We got a chance to cross the secret ''Villa des Platanes'' with different houses and greenery and arrived in another world : Pigalle and its sexshops

. Place des Abbesses with its brick and concrete church ''St Jean des Abbesses'' and the ''Guimard'' style underground station

. The grocery of the film ''Amélie

. The Bateau-Lavoir, former home of Picasso, Modigliani etc. Place Emile Goudeau

. Statue of the ''Passe-Muraille'' which represents Marcel Aymé who lived nearby

. le Musée de Montmartre : oldest house in Montmartre & former artists studios (Renoir, Utrillo, Valadon ...)

. La Maison Rose (also painting by Maurice Utrillo)

. le Lapin Agile (cabaret with the rabbit)

. Place du Tertre on the top of the hill with painters

. The oldest church Saint-Pierre de Montmartre

I enjoy walking the full length of the Parc de Bercy from the Sports complex where it's fun to watch them cut the grass on the steep slopes, through the tiny vineyard and the lovely gardens, to the end which is a series of former wine storage buildings now renovated to house restaurants and shops.

<progol,
"The 16th Arrondisement. A stretch of remarkable Art Nouveau building exteriors along one street, Le Corbusier villa (it was closed when we went by, but hey, we got to see it) on another...for anyone with an interest in architecture, this region is a must-see">

Thanks for this tip. DH and I are thinking about checking this out in Sept.
Is it walkable from metro or boat stop?

thanks


*****

<pjsparlor536
Rue Lepic : little passage with an artist in her little studio (her painting was in the passage) in front of the house where Van Gogh lived with his brother Theo before going to Auvers-sur-Oise>

PJ,
We would be interested in seeing van Gogh house.
We are going to Amsterdam before Paris and will be visiting Van Gogh Museum. This would be a great follow up.
Do you know what metro stop is it at?

thanks