Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
depend on the length of your stay, or if you have family in
tow. A residential neighbourhood may not be important if you
are single and your stay is only a few months, but a home
near your workplace may be less important if your children
need a park and proximity to a bilingual school. Much will
also depend on your personal preferences: will you prefer
living in the
banlieue
(suburbs) even if it requires the use of
an automobile? Or would you prefer a lively area in the
centre
ville
(city centre), where you can walk to work? Perhaps living
in a dense
quartier
is acceptable if it is close to restaurants
and exciting cultural activities? Remember that not all areas
look residential, but Parisians and newcomers alike live
in them.
After deciding on your priorities, given the ever-present
need for compromise, look carefully at each
quartier
you
are considering. Are there open spaces in which to stroll,
sidewalk cafés in which to relax, the kinds of shops you use,
a park for children? Is there a
métro
stop nearby, and even
better, a
correspondance
, meaning a junction of two different
lines? Is there a major street artery nearby, but not too near?
If you look at an apartment on a weekend, come back during
the rush hour to get a realistic gauge of the traffic and noise.
Look at the mix of people walking on the street, do some
window-shopping... do everything you can to understand if
this is the best place for you.
The River Islands
The Île-de-la-Cité, the oldest part of Paris, remains the
sentimental heart of the city.
Kilomètre zéro
, the point from
which French distances are measured, is a dial embedded
in the square in front of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. From
its beginnings 2,000 years ago as home to the Celtic Parisii,
the island has been an area of constant activity. Today,
tourists congregate at Notre-Dame and Sainte-Chapelle,
the Conciergerie and a memorial to the deported French
of World War II. Parisians come to the Préfecture de Police,
the Hôpital Hôtel Dieu and the Palais de Justice, built on the
site where Roman governors and later the kings of France,
once resided. Hardly a residential neighbourhood, there are
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