Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The 20 arrondissements of Paris.
The Layout
Since the time of Napoléon in the early 19th century, Paris has
been divided into administrative zones called
arrondissements
.
Originally there were 12, but in 1860 Napoléon III annexed
outlying villages, doubling the population and creating
more
arrondissements
, finally reaching the current 20. Each
arrondissement
has its
mairie
(town hall), its mayor and its
conseil d'administration d'arrondissement
(district council),
which elects the mayor of Paris. Most of the bureaucratic
business for residents is done at their local
mairie
and it is
the best source for information about all public functions
in the city.
The
arrondissements
begin at the core of Paris, the Île-
de-la-Cité and move in an outward spiral, enlarging toward
the periphery. City maps are arranged and numbered
by
arrondissement
, from the 1
er
(
le premier
) to the 20
e
(
le
vingtième
). Historically, the eastern parts of Paris were the
factories and the workers' neighbourhoods, shabby and dense.
The western parts—upwind from the unsanitary conditions
and stench of industry—were the most aristocratic. Thus it was
to the west that the nobles removed themselves after the 1789
revolution, and the west remains the most luxurious today.
Nonetheless, the ambitious
Grands Projets
of the 1980s have
upgraded the eastern
arrondissements
with modern public
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