La Defense is a major business district located on the north west edge of Paris. With the single exceptions of the Eiffel Tower and the shiny black Tour Montparnasse (which is almost universally detested by Parisians) buildings over a very modest height are prohibited within the Paris city limits - hence the small forest of [...]
The 20th arrondissement is a working class but increasingly yuppified district on the eastern-most border of the city. It incorporates the immigrant communities in the district of Belleville - a quarter that now combines it’s North African and Eastern influences into a kind of scruffy urban chic. The Parc de Belleville, a steep, terraced park [...]
The 19th arrondissement is hardly classic Paris - it’s a slightly run-down outer district that can seem relatively hostile to the unfamiliar. There have been regeneration efforts: in the far north the Parc de la Villette, once an abbatoir, is now a bustling new science museum. But on the whole the 19th still feels shabby [...]
All sorts of life exists side by side in the 18th arrondissement, a quarter that combines some of Paris’ finest living with it’s famous sex trade. From the sex shops of Pigalle to the mansions of Montmartre, the eighteenth arrondissement shows up the best and worst of the city.
The eastern half of the district is [...]
Old money in the 17th Arrondissement - the district is a less prestigious, but equally expensive neighbour to the immensely posh 16th arrondissement next door.
The southern quarters, bordering the Arc de Triomphe, are amongst the most desirable - in a stately, moneyed way at least. The quarter’s outer reaches, towards the boulevard peripherique and north [...]
