We are considering renting an apartment in the 10th and are looking for real life information about this neighborhood. The rental agency of course will extol the virtues, but one in our party has heard that it is not the safest.

Any assistance would be appreciated!

You might find this helpful, if not definitive:

http://www.intransit-international.c...ment_10th.html

http://www.europeupclose.com/france/...where-to-stay/

It is perhaps my favorite arrondissement. I live in the 18th but would move to the 10th in a heartbeat.

If "one in your party" has ethnic fears, the 10th must be avoided. It is a wonderful ethnic mix of many cultures with the corresponding restaurants. It is not a Parisian fantasyland like certain other microscopic neighborhoods.

The 10th is a wonderful arrondissement. It has some lovely parks and squares, a down-home residential feel to it, some of the greatest covered (and uncovered) passages in Paris, the Canal St.-Martin, and an interesting blend of ethnic groups. My best Parisian friend lived there for 17 years and I always enjoyed poking around her neighborhood. I suppose the area right around the Gare du Nord isn't terribly appealing, but that's generally true of the area around large train stations. Anyway, you wouldn't be hanging out there as apartment renters.

It depends street. In the Republic square area, ther're some good street and unsafe street. the Canal St Martin is a lovely area. In summer, it's very nice

What they said. The area contains both the Gare du Nord and the Gare de l'Est, and big stations in any city tend to attract a few chancers as well as lots of traffic on the streets. But that apart, it's both workaday "normal" and interestingly lively in parts. Do you have an address?