Thursday, April 12, 2012

paris subdivisions - i don't understand

i know that paris is divided into district called the 1st, 2nd etc.



there is also the latin quarter etc.





can someone please understand the divisions to me. i don%26#39;t understand them and it is making booking a hotel difficult bc may say what districts they are in. is there a good website?




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These sites may help:





sidestep.com/travel-info-g3061357-t21374-ori…



(scroll down to %26quot;City Layout%26quot;)





sidestep.com/travel-info-g3061357-t21382-nei…




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I also recommend the Paris Inside Pages - can be accessed by clicking the %26quot;Know Before You Go%26quot; to the left of the forum. Click %26quot;View more traveler articles%26quot; for the complete list of articles.




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Arrondissements are like zip codes or postal codes... there are some %26#39;flavors%26#39; from one to another. Otherwise, there are %26#39;neighborhoods%26#39; or regions that have a name based usually on something historical that may overlap one or two arrondissements and not necessarily cover any one full arrondissement. So %26quot;Latin Quarter%26quot; stems from being a university area when Latin was the language of education, and it is roughly around the Sorbonne/Luxembourg/St Michel area, a little overlap into the 6th arr. %26quot;Saint Germain%26quot; stems from the historic church of St Germain-des-Pres (I%26#39;m guessing) and covers the 6th arr from the Seine to Luxembourg roughly. %26quot;Montparnasse%26quot; covers parts of te 6th, 14th and 15th.





Hotels sometimes take a bit of %26#39;license%26#39; with their location descriptions so find the actual address on a map, don%26#39;t just go by %26quot;Opera district%26quot; only to find out you%26#39;re next to the train station Gare du Nord.




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This map is more like the %26#39;areas%26#39; of Paris, not the actual arrondissements:



www.magicparis.com/Graphics/plan_paris2.GIF





This map is the arrondissements: (1-20)



paris-hotel-resa.com/images/plan_paris.png




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The twenty %26quot;arrondissements%26quot; of Paris are numbered in a clockwise spiral pattern, starting from the central 1st arrondissement, and ending with the 20th in the east. You can see the number of the arrondissement you%26#39;re in on most street signs in Paris. You can also see the arrondissement of any address in Paris by looking at the postal code: 75001 is in the first, 75020 is in the 20th arrondissement.





Sometimes these arrondissements are also given names, but that%26#39;s where it becomes tricky - the old, official names are not often used nowadays (like %26quot;Enclos Saint-Laurent%26quot; for the 10th, %26quot;Gobelins%26quot; for the 13th, or %26quot;Temple%26quot; for the 3rd).



People tend to refer more often to neighbourhoods (%26quot;quartiers%26quot;), like the Marais, Saint-Germain, Montparnasse, Quartier Latin. These are not as exactly defined as the arrondissements; the Marais is in the 3rd and 4th, the Quartier Latin is in the 5th and part of the 6th, Montparnasse is mainly in the 14th, and Saint-Germain (or Saint-Germain-des-Prés) is in the 6th and 7th. Where they start and end exactly is open to debate.





By the way (and to add to the confusion), the word %26quot;quartier%26quot; is also used for the 80 official subdivisions of the 20 arrondissements of Paris. These official quartiers (with their own number, name and police station) are probably only important if you%26#39;re dealing with government officials, real estate, etc.





www.forbeginners.info/paris/neighborhoods/




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