Paris area guide

Together, Paris's arrondissements comprise an urban jigsaw that the novelist Julien Green once compared to a model of the human brain. Each piece has a particular connotation or function.

The 5th arrondissement is academic; the 6th is arty and chic; the 16th is wealthy and dull; while the 18th, 19th and 20th arrondissements are riotously multicultural. Residents are frequently assessed, on first meeting at least, by their postcode, and as a consequence often develop a fierce sense of local pride.

Champs-Elysées & Western Paris

The famous avenue is lined with high-end shops and showrooms. It also contains fashion's most glamorous thoroughfare, avenue Montaigne, which is almost matched in lustre and allure by rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré.

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Montmartre

The picturesque Montmartre is famed for its vertiginous flights of steps, narrow winding streets and the massive bulk of Sacré-Coeur.

Pigalle

To the south lies Pigalle, famous for the Moulin Rouge and its strip clubs and scuzzy bars (though it's a good deal more salubrious today than it once was). Opéra to Les Halles used to be the centre of royal power in Paris, and you can get a sense of this by taking a stroll around the Palais Royal. Today, it's the city's commercial and cultural powerhouse; it's home to the massive Forum des Halles shopping complex, the jewellers and fashion houses of Place Vendôme, and to the Louvre, Palais Garnier and Musée de l'Orangerie.

North-eastern Paris

This is the area that visitors from the UK are likely to see first: Eurostar trains terminate at the Gare du Nord in the 10th arrondissement. The area is on the up, with its main artery, the charming Canal St-Martin, now lined with chic boutiques and cafés. Further north and east of here is the magnificently odd Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, a warren of cliffs and grottoes carved out of a former quarry.

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Marais, Bastille & Eastern Paris

This part of Paris is barfly territory, especially along rue Oberkampf, rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud and rue Saint-Maur. The ever-trendy Marais itself, which is packed full of independent galleries and quirky shops of all kinds, is also the centre of gay life in Paris.

The Islands – the Ile de la Cité, the oldest part of the city and home to Notre-Dame cathedral, and the more elegant Ile St-Louis, with its shops and restaurants – are highly distinctive and an essential port of call on any itinerary.

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7th & Southwestern Paris

Undeniably, the main attraction of the affluent (and sometimes stuffily institutional) 7th & Soutwestern Paris area is the Eiffel Tower, a shorthand for the French capital. Its elegant ironwork is most alluring at night, when it is lit up every five minutes by 20,000 shimmering lightbulbs. This is also the best time to climb the tower, because the queues are at their shortest.

St-Germain-des-Prés

For many years, St-Germain-des-Prés was the intellectual heartland of the city, home to Sartre and de Beauvoir. But these days it's more about fashion than philosophy, and the expensive cafés are no place for starving writers. The city's most beautiful park, the Jardin du Luxembourg, won’t cost you a sou, however; and the Musée d’Orsay, though not free, is still excellent value.

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The Latin Quarter

Due east, the Latin Quarter is home to several of Paris’s most august academic institutions, including the Sorbonne.

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Montparnasse

To the south, you'll find Montparnesse. While it's no longer the artistic stronghold that it was in the 1920s, it boasts a number of excellent cafés and restaurants, and is home to the resting place of some of France’s most illustrious dead, the Cimetière du Montparnasse.

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