Paris 1st Arrondissement

The 1st arrondissement of Paris is historically one of the most central, oldest, one of the smallest by area and one of the least populated arrondissements of Paris. In the official documents it is also called “Arrondissement du Louvre”, as the Museum of Louvre occupies a big part of it and plays a very important role in the life of the arrondissement.

Discover my vision on the 1st arrondissement of Paris on Flickr.

Borderlines of the arrondissement:

South: the Seine (with its quays, bridges and l’Île de la Cité)
North: boulevard de la Madeleine and Jardin des Tuileries
East: rues Etienne Marcel, des Petits Champs and its “Japanese” district of Pyramides
West: boulevard de Sébastopol and the Châtelet area

Places to see:

Île de la Cité, le jardin des Tuileries, Musée du Louvre (la Pyramide du Louvre, la Cour Carrée), Palais-Royal, Les Halles, Place du Châtelet (Théâtre du Châtelet), Place Vendôme, Pont des Arts, Pont Neuf

Streets to walk:

Rue Rivoli, rue Saint Honoré, rue Sainte Anne, rue Saint-Denis, rue des Pyramides

Metro Stations:

Concorde, Tuileries, Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre, Louvre – Rivoli, Châtelet, Châtelet les Halles, Etienne Marcel, Pyramides, Pont Neuf

Inevitable things to do:

Preferably on a sunny day, especially during the April-September period, take a book and go the Jardin des Tuileries and have a seat on one of the green metallic chairs. The best option is to take two chairs for you: one “armchair” with a tilt and a second chair for your legs - you will see, this is just precious to be reading a book, sunbathing and enjoying this place full of tourists, but still calm and relaxing.

Then head to the quays, go along the Seine and have a break at the Pont des Arts: this place is very special, one more time, especially during the April-September period, when Parisians come here to have a picnic, to chat, to play the guitar and simply to relax. On some summer evenings you can hardly advance to the middle of the bridge, as it is full of picnickers.

From the Pont des Arts you can see the end of the Ile de la Cité – the famous island in the heart of Paris. This is another great place to have an “apéro” or a picnic on a sunny day, or simply after a working summer day. Here you are surrounded with the Seine, with people drinking beer/wine, and eating cheese, “charcuterie” with baguettes. So Parisian, so French and so charming!

Cafés to try (My “Péché Mignon” list) :

If you are a fan of Japanese food (by Japanese I don’t mean just “sushi”, but all the other real Japapese “Lamen” dishes) – you should absolutely walk through the rue Saint Anne – full of all kind of Japanese restaurants. The best one, to my mind, is a place called HIGUMA, you will easily recognize it by the queue outside the café. But no worries, the queue moves fast, and the food is really worth waiting! Inside you can see the preparation of the dishes with your own eyes, as the Lamen kitchen is just in the room. The cooking process is just fascinating with its big Wok pans, the fire, the vapour in the air, and the sounds psh-psh-psh. The menu is both in Japanese and in English, except form the walls, where it’s only in Japanese. The inevitable dish is one of the Lamen soups which costs around 7.5- 8.5€ (bear in mind, the portion is so huge, that you will need to eat it with a break to breath J ). But if you want to take the best of this place (and feel full for the rest of the day), take a menu of a Lamen soup with the Gyozas, simply yummy!

After such a lunch break, it’s high time to have a walk, so let’s continue walking down the Rue Saint Anne and discover the 2nd Arrondissement.

Paris and its 20 arrondissements

An important point to know before discovering Paris arrondissement by arrondissement is that sometimes you might be contemplating some building at the crossroads and find out that in fact it is situated in another arrondissement than you are. Or you can start walking down a street in one arrondissement and in the end of the street find out that you are actually already in another one. This has already happened to me at least twice:

·         at the Opera metro station – the Place de l’Opéra – when you stand in the middle of the square, the first thing you see is the Opera building. But be aware, in this case, that you are in the 2nd arrondissement and the Opera is in the 9th ;

·         at the rue Sainte-Anne near the Pyramides metro station – this street links the 1st and the 2nd arrondissements and belongs to both.

And there are many other places like this in Paris (at the crossroads, in the middle of the bridges over the river Seine, at the squares, and so on). The most fascinating point is that often, when being in some certain district, you can still easily identify it by its specific characteristics. And exactly this makes every arrondissement a city within a bigger city.

Paris remains the world's Top tourist destination in 2013. Why Paris?

According to the IDF Regional Tourism Committee statistics published by Le Parisien, Paris remains the world's top tourist destination in 2013 with 32.3 million tourist arrivals in hotels. Nearly 15.5 million of those visitors came from abroad (+8.2%), a record of the decade.

So what makes Paris so attractive? Does it have something that other cities don’t? Is the secret in the famous Eiffel Tower? Or in its 20 mini-cities within 1 city? Or in its quays? Or in its food? Or in Parisians? Or in its opportunities?...Well, actually there are so many things that make Paris so unique and so popular that this “or” list could be very-very long.

The mysterious thing of Paris is that it doesn’t have any precise seasonality – it always stays more or less dynamic and full of people of different nationalities (Parisians, tourists, international students (Erasmus), French students from smaller cities, business-travelers, employees, etc.).

After having felt Paris as a tourist, as an international student, an intern and, finally, an employee, I decided to launch this sort of a “Project” to try to discover Paris from the inside, arrondissement by arrondissement, step-by-step.

Do you want to know what makes Paris so attractive? If so, join me in my exploration and let the journey begin!

Prenez garde à la fermeture automatique des portes, attention au départ: Next stop – Paris, 1st Arrondissement.

Tired of big city life?

Paris, as any capital in the world, has lots of pros and cons.  Some people can't imagine themselves living anywhere smaller and calmer than the capital, some - another way round - can't stand being in the rush of big city life. 

But, of course, even being a real big city life fan, sometimes you can catch yourself on the idea of dreaming of a small trip to some small cosy place where you can have a rest and "se changer les idées". The advantage of France is that you can easily find a destination that is small, really small or even almost deserted - just pick a region and visit a few different places (a smaller one than Paris and even smaller one).

How to choose a region? In my case it was actually simple. In winter the first reaction is to go south - closer to the sun. Another point is that during this period, if you're lucky enough, you can find some really cheap train tickets called "prems" - this will help you choose your final destination.

As the period isn't warm enough to go to the beach, a good option is to visit the Languedoc-Roussillon region situated in the middle between big city life and the Mediterranean Sea.

Only a 3h30 trip from Paris by TGV and you find yourself in Montpellier, one of the fastest growing cities in France with over 1000 newcomers per month. Montpellier is the capital of the Languedoc-Roussillon region. The Mediterranean Sea is just in a 10km way, the air is fresh, the sun is shining with a yearly level of 2 617 sunshine hours (comparing to Paris with only 1 748 hours).  The city is smaller and less touristy than its neighbors Nice and Marseille. So how to resist temptation? Just don't!

If you are staying in Montpellier for a few days, add a quick refreshing trip to Sète to your to do list.

Sète, the so-called Venice of Languedoc, is a wonderful place within a 20min reach by train from Montpellier. Here you don’t need to visit anything and make a tourist plan – just walk and enjoy the Mediterranean Sea!  And don’t forget to stop by for a lunch in one of the restaurants situated just near to the port. Various fish menus accompanied by a glass of white wine on the terrace will absolutely make your day!

Il you want to discover the real life "à la française" - don't stop on just one region - go ahead and discover them all!