Questionable neighborhoods in Paris?
 

Two female friends, early 50s, are traveling to Paris next week. When we travel, we like to spend an unplanned day, or two, exploring a random neighborhood. A friend told us we need to be careful in some neighborhoods in Paris, but no specifics. Are there any neighborhoods we should plan to avoid for safety reasons?

For safety reasons during the day, no, not at all. If immigrants, refugees or even just black people make them uncomfortable, they would not want to go to the Goutte d'Or area, which is the area in the rectangle formed by Boulevard Barbès, rue Ordener, rue Marx Dormoy and Boulevard de la Chapelle. Frankly, I find the area fascinating, but my mother was in one of those categories mentioned above so I understand how people can react.

I should also point out that you are completely safe in such areas (let's say before midnight) because you will not encounter much in the way of pickpockets, petition girls, scammers and beggars. All of those people try to concentrate their activities near the tourist sites.

Is your friend a regular Paris visitor, or someone who reads Facebook alot? I think your friend needs to tell you the dangerous areas. With that information, we can maybe respond.

Otherwise, there is nothing different in Paris than any other major world capital or city. You must take ordinary precautions and be sensible in Paris or New York. If you stay inside the peripherique in arrondissements 1-20 you'll be fine.

When someone says, such as myself, that Paris is as safe as anywhere else, we are referring to Pars itself and not specifically to areas which may be outside of Paris. There are neighborhoods in the outlying areas that I would not consider particularly safe; particularly areas to the north.

Yes, agree with sarastro. Plus, There is not Much to see beyond the périph.Apart from les Puces at Clignancourt which is safe

I think there are questionable neighborhoods and certainly areas I wouldn't randomly want to explore alone, especially at night. And some are just really not so amazing that they are worth a special part of my vacation to explore. I was rather uncomfortable alone one day in an immigrant neighborhood in the 20th where I was watched a lot by men hanging around in the streets, I think it was some part of Belleville. I don't want to be a specimen to be examined and watched even if this was supposedly "safe."

But the question is, how are you intending to pick these neighborhoods to explore? I just can't imagine a reason you would even pick an area that is dicey or how you wuld come up with that choice? Can you explain what you are going to base your decisions on?

You are not "completely safe" in some of these areas, that can't be true. Crime does exist in Paris, and I don't just mean scammers or beggars. They don't have all those surveillance cameras for no reason. And the robbery rate and other violent crime rate was increasing in some areas that caused them to put in more cameras and more police on the streets, I know I read about it in Paris press. Some parts of the 10th and 18th-20th had big crime increases, I remember the Saint-Blaise neighborhood in the 20th was declared a Priority Safety Zone a few years ago (a ZSP or Zone de Securite Prioritaire) as well as some others.

I think this was the announcement http://rapport.paris.fr/projects-pha...oritaire-paris

Well, they have a list of them on Wikipedia, there are only 3 ZSPs in Paris proper (plus parts of St Denis and St Ouen), they are:
Chateau Rouge, 19th arr (rue de Cambrai, pl de la Bataille de Stalingrad and rue Curial) and then the St Blaise neighborhood in the 20th.

I just don't understand where you intend to explore and why. You must have a reason to go somewhere I would think, whether it's some park you've read about, something of interest or you've read it's an interesting neighborhood for some reason.

Chateau Rouge is a fascinating area. Full of life, at any time. With lots of police.
Obviously you can get herbs there, but if you just don't look for trouble, you will not get trouble.
But as Ker said, if you don't like black people then avoid this area.
If you don't like Asians, avoid 5th.
If you don't like French who succeed better in the streets than at school, then avoid Aubervilliers in the northern suburbs. But even there, situation has improved a lot over the last 5 years.

Further on to whathello's suggestion, if you don't like Asians, don't go anywhere near Paris tourist central. Or the métro.

We love the "immigrant" neighborhoods in the 20ème. It's always where we stay. Vibrant culture, galleries, great music, cheap good food...

It will become easier to avoid the Goutte d'Or area in just a few days, because the Château Rouge metro station is closing for a year and a half. The station has to be enlarged and have new exits made because it is so popular.

The new multicultural Paris is the wave of the future.

In daylight hours, I never have had a problem at Chateau Rouge or anywhere in the Goutte d'Or but the flocks of prostitutes on the Boulevard de La Villette around the Belleville metro draw many undesirables with less than respectful attitudes toward women.

Eh, when your name is InVirgins, what do you expect ;-)

Whathello

giggles. But I do feel so sorry for those poor working girls having to carry a sack of oranges or something to look like they're actually shopping. Sad, sad article.

http://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-s...dows/c3s20584/

If immigrants, refugees or even just black people make them uncomfortable>

I stayed at a hotel on the Blvd Sebastopol near Gare de l'Est and the area in the daytime looked benign - I had been there lots before but later at night when we came back to our hotel the outside door was locked and the clerk away from his desk for about 15 minutes.

The hotel door was smack dab by a metro entrance/exit and young tough looking black youths were literally hanging out all over the metro exit - maybe looking for friends in days before mobile phones were ubiquitous or whatever - it was a scene out of parts of NYC - having been in Paris many many times I was not afraid or anything but the relatives I were with were squeamish - having to wait for that hotel door to open - I guess with a hotel door that patrons can't use keys to get in is suspect to start with but yes things may not be what you think upon first glance.

Or perhaps I was wrong?

https://translate.google.com/transla...is&prev=search

If you live in a large urban area, or in the suburbs, you might be frightened by the thought of walking around Paris at night. But an empty street is nothing to be afraid of - since there's nobody around and nothing is going on there.

Businesses will have closed, so there won't be anybody looking to pickpocket you or harass you. Somebody might be trying to sleep in a doorway, but won't be interested in bothering you. I walk my dog way before the sun comes up, and also very late at night - never any problems.

The Metro is fine at night - there are families with children going home (often quite late) after a show or dinner, single women, single men, groups of young people. Normally, I would be careful about taking the first or last Metro of the day, since there are usually some late-night-leftovers and people who might try to prey on them. If you like to stay out and party till the wee hours, you should take a taxi home.

I think it's quite doubtful that you will wander into the outer arrondissements, since there's nothing much there which attracts tourists. Apart from a few small bars and restaurants - which are far too much trouble to locate - almost everything will be closed.

The main thing is knowing where you are at any given time, where you are headed, and how to get there. Since there probably won't be many people around to help you with directions, you should have this figured out beforehand. A good map is invaluable, and so is the number for G7 Taxis.

"I think it's quite doubtful that you will wander into the outer arrondissements, since there's nothing much there which attracts tourists."

Buttes Chaumont, Philharmonie, Pere Lachaise, Bassin de la Villette, Cite de la Musique, Mousaia. . . the list goes on.

Just to add to the mix (having just come home from a few days in Paris), armed soldiers and police are rather more in evidence since you-know-when.

Whether that deters the usual street nuisances is another matter - I saw some people still falling for the find-the-lady trick on the Pont des Arts and still a couple of places weighed down with lovelocks, and spivs selling them.

I think it's safe to say that a large percentage of visitors either are not interested in parks, hilltop neighborhoods and overcrowded cemeteries - or wouldn't have enough time to get to them, considering everything else they want to do (including waiting in line).

It was announced today that anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish attacks have diminished 80% so far this year. Part of this is almost certainly due to the increased security presence but part of it is also because some sense was shocked into quite a few people who thought nothing of acting like jerks in the past.

I see nowhere in the posters question they mention color or race etc..why is everyone going down that road? Sure there are less desirable areas that might be uncomtablw walking around. Every city has them. Just stick to central areas or if venturing out to a specific area less central ask your hotel or do a google.. The outer suburbs outside the pereferique are not for tourists.

This sort of thinking is why the Basilica of Saint Denis receives only 215,000 visitors a year compared to 14,300,000 for Notre Dame de Paris even though both buildings are arguably equally impressive.

tourists are probably much more prone to be pickpocketed or scammed in heavily touristed parts of Paris than in any dicey section.

Fuzzbucket

Probably true if you're speaking of first time visitors or 3 day itinerary people. However, I've found that repeaters and longer termers are frequently interested in just these out of center areas. The "sample" visitor population on which you base your generalizations is obviously different from mine.

Or it could be that St Denis just wandered too far out of the mainstream tourist area with his head. I think a lot of tourists don't even know it's an option.

EnV - Obviously. But apparently I have a wider circle of friends.

Many of you probably wander over to TripAdvisor from time to time - if only for the entertainment value.

There is always a mention to watch out for the "big, menacing African men at Sacre Coeur who grabbed my wrist and tried to tie a string on it for money and I had to practically wrestle him to the ground! Where are the police when you need them? Our vacation was totally ruined by these men!"

Or:
"The Roma gypsy girls who push and shove you while trying to make you sign a petition and they lifted my husband's wallet! Why don't the police arrest them? They ruined our dream vacation!"

And:
"Will my wife feel comfortable wearing her hijab in Paris?"
"Are Jewish visitors safe from terrorist attacks in Paris?"
"I'm Chinese - my friends warn me that I will be pickpocketed in Paris because I look Asian."

Not everyone is as open-minded as you might hope.

Yes, Saint Denis was a man a head of his time. One of the highlights of our last trip was the visit to the Basilica of Saint Denis.

((H))

Fuzzbucket

"EnV - Obviously. But apparently I have a wider circle of friends"

Wow!!! I get this for disagreeing with you?? Is disagreement that hard for you to tolerate?

Thank you for all the responses. I never said anything about being afraid of immigrants, Asians or African Americans! We both live in NYC and were surprised by our male friend's comment. Just wanted to see if there was any truth to his comment...guess not. We'll just use our usual "street smarts" and explore! thanks.

We don't have too many African Americans in Paris but we have lots of black people, which is a more appropriate term since there is a wide variety.