PARISIAN QUARTERS

 

LE QUARTIER DE LA BASTILLE


Source: www.parisbalades.com
The Bastille Quarter has witnessed the opening of a multitude of boutiques, restaurants, cafés since the opening of the OpĂ©ra. The urban make-up is a mixture of decrepit buildings and old houses in the course of being refurbished. One feature of the quarter worth seeing is the passageways (passage Louis Philippe, passage Thiéré, passage des Taillandiers). The area is home to a lot of art galleries and artisan’s workshops.

Of course, you shouldn’t visit this quarter and miss the OpĂ©ra Bastille for more information, follow this link (OpĂ©ra de Paris). One of the “grand works” of François Mitterand, the opera house was finished in 1989 and adorns this revolutionary square in the east of Paris, helping to rebalance the focus of the city in that direction.

 

LE QUARTIER DE LA DEFENSE


Source: www.parisbalades.com
Metro : Esplanade de la Défense, Grande Arche de la Défense he quarter is divided into ten zones, each one offering a car-park indicated by a signpost along the circular avenue, such as the Grande Arche car-park or the Quatre-Temps (exit n°7).
The 130 hectare area is nowadays home to the headquarters of various French industrial and financial groups, as well as the overseas offices of various large multinationals. Beneath the central paved square, bordered by the CNIT centre and the Grande Arche, is one of the largest shopping centres in Europe.

 

LE QUARTIER LES GRANDS BOULEVARDS


Source:
www.parisbalades.com

(Metro Boulevards des Italiens, Montmartre, Poissonnière, Strasbourg Saint Denis, Les Grands Boulevards, Saint-Martin, between the 2nd, 8th and 9th arrondissements)
After the victories of 1670, when the defence of Paris was judged to have shifted to the national borders, Louis XIV decided to replace the city walls established by Charles V and Louis XIII with a planted pathway (the victories of Louis XIV are commemorated by two arcs de triomphe at the Porte Saint-Martin and the Porte Saint-Denis).

The boulevards then became a place for pleasant walks for Parisians, they attended vaudeville theatre there, as well as the cafés and the great statue-decorated hotels, the covered passageways, then later the first cinemas (the Grand Rex, the Max Linder Panorama). Due to its proximity to the stock exchange, the large banks built financial “cathedrals” there in the late 1800’s. This is especially noticeable on Boulevard des Italiens (which got its name because it was once home to the theatres of the Comédie Italienne, since become the Opéra-Comique).

 

To the north of Grands boulevards

Very close to the Grand Rex cinema, you will come across ACCORD LANGUES, a languages school that welcomes children and adults who wish to learn the French language.

ACCORD LANGUES is a school of languages in co-ordination with the Universities of Paris V, Paris VII and Paris VIII

14 boulevard Poissonnière / 75009 Paris / France
TĂ©l : 33 (0) 1 55 33 52 33 / Fax : 33 (0) 1 55 33 52 34
e-mail : info@french-paris.com / e-mail : info@accord-langues.com

Click below to consult the websites of the Accord School of Languages:

-SCHOOL OF FRENCH LANGUAGE
-STUDY FRENCH IN PARIS
-LEARN FRENCH WHILE HAVING FUN!
-TEACHING FRENCH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
-LEARN FRENCH IN FRANCE

Several accommodation options (youth hostels…) are made available through association with Accord School of Languages.

 

LE QUARTIER DE LA VILLETTE


Source: www.parisbalades.com

A commune on the outskirts of Paris, La Villette was annexed by the capital in 1860. The area became home to the city’s abattoirs, constructed there in 1867. In 1976 a competition was launched to find a new use for the area and the Cité des Sciences came about as a result. In 1983, Bernard Tschumi was named the civil engineer in charge of this vast 50 hectare area.

 

 

Source: www.parisbalades.com
The major recent developments have been the Cité des sciences et de l'industrie (completed with GĂ©ode and the Cinaxe), the parc de la villette, the ZĂ©nith, the CitĂ© de la Musique (and the Holiday Inn hotel facing it). Several old buildings have been restored: the Grande Halle, Paris-Villette theatre, the Rotonde des Vétérinaires, the Fountain of the Lions of Nubia.

 

 

LE QUARTIER DE BARBES ET DE LA GOUTTE D'OR


Source: www.parisbalades.com
between Boulevard Barbès and Rue de la Goutte-d'Or, (metro Barbès-Rochechouart, Château-rouge, La Chapelle). Taking its name from the wine that was produced there until the 19th century, the Goutte d’Or (Drop of Gold), these agricultural lands on the edge of Paris became urbanised from 1840. First inhabited by workers from Belgium, Italy, Poland and Spain, the area began to receive a considerable North African and Sephardic population in the 1950’s (south of Rue de la Charbonnière). In the 1980’s the quarter received further immigration from Africa (on Rue des Poissoniers particularly), but also from Portugal, Yugoslavia, China… The result is a colourful multicultural district where the ethnic diversity and the proximity of the Tati stores has made the Goutte d’Or into a busy commercial centre.

 

LE QUARTIER DE SAINT-GERMAIN-DES-PRES


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Originally the abbey of St Germain was surrounded by nothing but fields, cultivated by the Bendictine monks. Within the church are the tombs of the Merovingians, who were inhumed by Saint Germain himself, the bishop of Paris. Reconstruction of the current church began in 990 following the destruction of the original during the Norman invasions. The abbey gave part of its grounds along the banks of the Seine to the university, which took the name Pré-aux-Clercs. After the revolution the quarter was abandoned and only came back into fashion after the Second World War. It renewed its intellectual tradition as its cellars were frequented by such famous figures as Vian, Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.

The famous quarters are what make up the renown of Paris and are certainly worth exploring. To find out more, we recommend that you follow this link: a walk in Paris.

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