Left Bank or Right Bank?
The River Seine cuts straight through the centre of Paris, from east to west, dividing the city into two halves. While these halves lie to the north and south of the river, they’ve commonly come to be known as the Left bank and the Right Bank - the Left Bank to the South, the Right Bank to the North.
The Left Bank is traditionally associated with Paris’ intellectual, cafe culture. Comprising six of the city’s twenty arrondissements, it includes the famous Sorbonne University, and the Latin Quarter that surrounds it - several streets of cafes, bookshops and student hang outs. Perhaps because of the weighty student population, the Left Bank has a reputation for bohemian, political revolt: Boulevard St Michel and the surrounding streets were the focus for the famous student demonstrations of May 1968.
Many famous names are linked to the Left Bank. Existential philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and their contemporaries hung out in the cafes of St Germain, debating their ideas over cigarettes and expresso. The Left Bank also became a focus for the large community of anglo-american writers who flooded to Paris during the 20s and 30s; Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, F Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Getrude Stein and Ford Madox Ford are just a few of the expat intellectuals who split their time between the cheap flats of the Latin Quarter and the expensive bars of Montparnasse.
By contrast the Right Bank, by far the larger half of the city, is traditionally considered the smarter, richer side of Paris, and certainly serves as its business centre. The Bourse, France’s national stock exchange, churns out money in the 2nd Arrondissement, and Paris’ shopping hotspots are all close nearby, from the legendary department stores on the Boulevard Hausman to the diamond merchants and jewellers that surround the Ritz in the glitzy Place Vendome.
Many of Paris most impressive monuments sit on the Right Bank - the Louvre, the Opera, and the Champs Elysees are all found here, as are many of Paris’ widest streets and greatest vistas. While much of the Left Bank retains the narrow streets that grew organically as the city developed, the Right Bank has been subject to centuries of redevelopment by Paris ruling elite, from Napoleon onwards, who have carved out the long, grand boulevards for which the city is particularly famous.
While traditions die hard, the economic realities of life in a city as pricy as Paris means that the cultural distinctions between left and righ banks have been diminishing for decades - both sides of the river are equally desirable to those with the money to buy. Much of the ‘bohemian’ atmosphere of the Left Bank has dissolved as the middle classes have poured in - and equally the Right Bank has always hosted pockets of poverty far in excess of anything found on the south side of the river.
Ultimately Paris’ most popular locations are distributed fairly evenly around the centre of the city, ensuring that tourists and short term residents will find much to entertain them on either side of the Seine.
