Paris was born on an island in the middle of the Seine in the first century BC. In the beginning, it was referred to as Lutece. Twenty centuries later, the modern-day “city of light” sprawls over an area of 105 km² and has a population of over 2,125 million inhabitants. The city is divided into 20 administrative districts called arrondissements which coil from the center in the shape of an escargot. Collectively, the 1st through 4th arrondissements are referred to as le centre, or city center/downtown. The majority of our apartments are located within or just beyond these central neighborhoods. Use our pages to become familiar with the different areas of this city, the gay area of Paris, gay Paris events and make the most of your Paris gay vacation.
Conceived by King Phillipe Auguste in 1190, the Louvre first served as a fortress and became the royal residence several centuries later. Through the years, the construction of the palace gradually extended westward to the present day Tuiliries Gardens. Ministers and heads of government were housed around the central Richelieu Palace. [read more]
The urbanization of this neighborhood began in the 11th century when Louis VI built the Châtelet fortress. At this point in time, the area was the center of commercial activity in the capital and the seat of all municipal institutions. [read more]
Ile de la Cité is the historic cradle of Paris. The western portion of the island would house the Gallo-Roman palace which was reconstructed in the 14th century and used as a house of parliament by King Phillipe le Bel. The opposite side of the island was dedicated to religious worship. In 362, a cathedral already occupied the site of Notre Dame. [read more]
Within the triangle formed by the Hotel de Ville, Place de la Bastille and Place de la République is the historic Marais neighborhood. In the 12th century, members of the Temple religious order began to clear these marshy lands under the rule of Phillipe August. In 1385, Charles V began the construction of l’Hotel Saint-Pol. [read more]
Place de la Bastille marks the location of the Bastille Fortress which was constructed by prévôt Hugues Aubriot between 1370 and 1382. It was built to protect the residence of Charles V and defend the capital from invasion from the east. Twenty-four meters high, the structure included eight towers and a moat which was 24 meters deep. [read more]
The Latin Quarter is marked by two traditions, religion and education. In the Fifth century, it was King Clovis who began to build a religious sanctuary, eventually paving the way for creation of the Saint Genevieve Abbey. In 1113, Louis VI founded the abbey of Saint Victor. During the following centuries, a multitude of religious communities would establish themselves around these two monasteries. [read more]
The neighborhoods of Saint-Germain and Saint-Sulpice consistently draw a mixed crowd of residents, tourists, street entertainers, publishing executives and students. Along with the cafés which line Place Saint-André-des-Arts, well-known neighborhood meeting places include the famous caféDeux-Magots and brassiere Lipp. [read more]
One of the unique characteristics of this residential neighborhood is the presence of vast perspectives. The large avenues which traverse the 15thdistrict were formerly broad, empty fields created only for aesthetic purposes. Avenue de Breteuil was created in 1680 but lead absolutely nowhere. Avenue Villars ended at Montparnasse which did not yet exist. [read more]
The axe which connects Place de la Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe was conceived in the 17th century by the royal gardener Le Notre. In 1664, he was given the task of re-designing the Tuileries Garden. In doing so, he placed a special emphasis on the central alley which extended beyond the park to the present day Rond Point du Champs Elysées. [read more]
After an assassination attempt in front of a Paris theatre in 1858, the emperor Napoleon decided to construct a new opera house in a safer neighborhood. He chose an area just northwest and commissioned architect Garnier with designing the new structure. Numerous complexities arose, the most daunting of which was how to build the immense structure on an underground water table. [read more]
Throughout much of time, Paris was a walled city with a fortifications stretching from Bastille to Madeleine. The construction of the wall was started by Charles V and continued through the reign of Louis XIII. It was Louis XIV who decided that the wall was no longer necessary and chose to replace it with a series of tree-lined promenades. [read more]
Near the end of the 18th century, Paris had enlarged to include the area north of the fortress walls torn down by Louis XIV. Private mansions, businesses and new neighborhoods sprouted up from Faubourg Poissionere to St-Lazare. During the Second Empire in 1854, Baron Haussmann was charged with re-designing Paris’ roads and boulevards. [read more]
The Bercy neighborhood stretches from Gare de Lyon train station to the city limits and has two main monuments, the Ministry of Finance and the former wine warehouses of Cour St-Emillion. As early as 1860, wine began arriving from different regions of the country on barges to be stored in these small warehouses. [read more]
The site known as mont Parnasse was part of the city fortifications built by Henri II in the 16th century. The hill was most likely levelled during the creation of Boulevard Montparnasse. This boulevard, designed by Louis XIV would not be created until 1761 and at the end of the 18th century still only contained a few buildings. [read more]
The 16th arrondissement of Paris was born in 1860 when three outlying villages were incorporated to form what is today one of the most elegant residential areas of the capital. A true architectural laboratory, it offers a unique mixture of Art nouveau and Art déco buildings. There are also a few charming farm houses scattered throughout, remnants of a rural past. [read more]
A place of worship for the Gaulois, Montmartre became an important place of pilgrimage dedicated to Saint Denis during the Middle Ages. In 1133, it was under the jurisdiction of the Benedictines, a religious order famous for their mill and vineyards which extended to the present day 9th arrondissement. [read more]
The re-development of this neighborhood was envisioned as early as 1980 and a key element of this effort was the construction of a new National Library. Eventually named in honor of Francois Mitterrand, the structure opened some ten years later along the banks of the Seine on grounds once occupied by factories and warehouses. [read more]
