| martytravels |
Nov 17th, 2008 07:18 PM |
The coolest quartier in Paris
Amy Raphael
guardian.co.uk, Sunday November 16 2008 00.01 GMT
The Observer, Sunday November 16 2008
An American friend of mine recently reminded me that when we first met, a good decade ago, I was very down on Paris. He remembers me clearly informing him before his first visit to the city that 'it's always raining and the streets smell of dog shit'. I am now deeply ashamed of such a banal statement. What was I thinking? Perhaps part of my youthful indignation arose from not wanting to appear a tourist in a city swarming with visitors. Or maybe I was grumpy after too many attempts to impress haughty Parisians with my A-level French. Whatever, I didn't have particularly fond memories of the capital.
Until, that is, I went back last month. This time I stayed not on the Left Bank of the Seine but in the 20th arrondissement, east of the Marais and Bastille. The 20th is variously described as racially mixed, poor, rebellious, authentic and out of the way. With its cheaper rents and neighbourhood feel, it certainly attracts a cosmopolitan crowd of affluent young bourgeois-bohèmes known simply as 'bobos'. The area is what guide books refer to as 'up and coming', which can be read either as challenging or exciting. It might even be comparable to New York's Lower East Side 10 years ago: edgy but going upmarket, fast. And where better to stay than in a multistorey car park converted into a hotel? .........
......more at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/200...-shelter-hotel
|
