Here's an interesting article on the onzième: http://tinyurl.com/nuz7c

How long will it be now until Rick is directing people away from rue Cler to this "authentic" Paris?

Favorable recommendation on the board recently for the restaurant L'Aiguiere on rue Montrueil. They have a web site.

laverendrye, I was just reading that article in my copy of the Globe a few minutes ago.

I walked around the 11th when I was in Paris in February and noticed the transformation that has been going on. However, I found this sentence rather odd: "Unlike the chic nearby Marais neighbourhood, however, the 11ème is still an attitude-free arrondissement where halting schoolbook French won't make you a pariah." Judging by the experience of many on this board, "schoolbook French" hardly makes one a pariah anywhere in Paris.

On a related note, the 12th arrondissement is also one to watch in the coming years. Parts of it are worn and dejected, but it will enjoy increasing attention as well. Starbucks has opened on rue de Faubourg-St-Antoîne. They usually have a good sense of which direction a neighbourhood is going.

Anselm

That article was way too breathless for my taste. Anyway we "discovered" the 11th a dozen years ago when our Ottawa next door neighbours rented us their studio on the r. du Fbg St Antoine, righ by the Square Trousseau. We've trekked all over the place -- savoured the Marche Aligre, wandered the Coulee Verte (sp.?) etc.

Favourite places to eat: the bistro Square Trousseau and the Bistrot du Peintre....also the Galoche, with its decor of Auvergnat galoshes....

I visited David of Paris who lives in the 11th and he's very happy there.
It seemed very lively and lots of good eating places.

Successful travel writers are good at making the ordinary seem extraordinary; no matter what they describe, it's always the latest happening place, the nexus of local culture. Just take whatever you read, divide it by ten or a hundred, and keep in mind that some things will be wildly overemphasized and other things of equivalent real import will not be mentioned at all, and you'll be fine.