Daughter will be attending study abroad in Paris. I have been to Paris several times but am not familiar with these arrondissement locations. It seems likely that they will be housed in dorms in the 11th or 12th. Also the possibility of student housing at the Cité Universitaire in the 14th. Any opinions--good or bad-- or info on these locations will be appreciated.

They are some of the cheaper/outer arrondisements, which is why that is where the student housing is located. Of course I would think the 14th most convenient if classes are on the LEft Bank, and probably the "nicest" of those choices. OF course, what I think the preferable location (and I did stay at Cite Universitaire myself and liked it) is not necesarilly the nicest accommodations in quality. And we don't know where she will be studying.

Does she have a choice of location or not? Because if not, she'll have to adapt to any of them and they will probalby be fine. The 11th and 12th do encompass a large area and near Bastille is completely different and more convenient than on the far edges. So, you really can't typify entire arrondisements that easily.

Thanks, Christina.

The classrooms are near the Opera Bastille, that's all she knows so far.

I don't know if they get to choose their accommodations. My daughter is an intrepid traveler and has been to Paris on a shoestring. She does not care if the area is funky, I am just hoping it's safe. I was thinking the 14th would be best, too.

If the classrooms are near Bastille then the 12th would be most desirable as it is the closest. The 11th and 12th both have some very very nice areas. Just depends on where the housing is.

My daughter was a student in Paris last year and stayed at the Cite Universite and loved it. Of course she took the metro a lot, but she came to love the buses too. I visited her there and the neighborhood is fine, very nice actually and the building she stayed in (the US one) was very nice - and she said some of the others were even nicer.

I'm a great partisan of the 11th arrondissement for many reasons -- liveliness, diversity, friendliness, abundance of honest, affordable restaurants, and relatively low visitor wear-and-tear. The 11th close around Bastille is quite trendy, as is rue Oberkampf in the 11th, but 11th arrondissement trendiness is on the "shabby" side. The 12th is several notches more bourgeois than the 11th. Dorms in the arrondissement? Are they telling you exactly where?

Thanks for the comments.

The exact locations are unclear, that is why we have been pondering this. Here is a description of the housing:


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Students in Paris stay in double or single studios within student residences located in the 11th or 12th arrondissements. In summer months many students live in residences at the Cité Universitaire. Located in the 14th arrondissement in the southern part of Paris, the Cité Universitaire is made up of many residences called maisons. Each maison represents a different country and its residents are, for the most part, students from that country.

There are student residences that essentially are private -- that is, apartment buildings specifically constructed to house students, with small living spaces, with the apartments owned by investors. So that could be what's referred to. There also may be university-owned housing for students in the 11th and 12th arrondissements. I think there's a faculty of medicine in the 12th arrondissement. So maybe there? I'm not aware of any large instiution of higher learning in the 11th.

It sounds like this may not be a program run by a university, but a private one, so those are probably modern residences designed for students. Especially since they refer to studios, you wouldn't get studios in the dorms at Cite Universitaire (at least, never heard of one). What school program is this, Accord perhaps? They have residences around Porte de Bagnolet and Porte de Vincennes in the 12th. That is on the very edge of Paris.

If the classes are near Bastille, I think the 11th or 12th would be a fine location. I personally would prefer the 14th to the 12th for convenience to many other things I like to do in Paris and the neighborhood, but a large part of that is probably because I've stayed there a lot so know it better.

If she goes in summer, it sounds like she could get the Cite Universitaire, and might like that. It's kind of fun to be around all the other students from various countries, also. They do have a really cheap cafeteria there for students, on top of that. In the summer, I wouldn't count on necessarily being in the dorm of your native country, as the countries that have excess rooms just rent them out in blocks of rooms to a lot of private programs. Some of them are a lot nicer than others. I stayed in the India House and it was not one of the nice ones.

If it is affiliated with the University of Paris, they could also have some newly built residences in those areas as does Accord (or they could be using some of the same facilities), or just be referring students to those investor-built buildings, as Dave says.