So I just told her that Paris is a thousand little neighborhoods, each with their own charm, personality, and verve. One that’s been tackled by writers much more familiar and famous than I. Describing Paris, even after a few weeks here, is a heavy task. The truth is that I’m really not qualified to answer the question. And that the locals really really wish the tourists would stop zig-zagging across the sidewalks in awe and just walk in a straight damn line. It’s also like New York in that it’s walkable and massive and charming. It’s like New York that way…with each neighborhood having its own style, drawing a certain type of person (from the posh families of the Upper West Side to the hipsters in Williamsburg). Like from Harry Potter.) And walk just across the river and you’ll find yourself surrounded by tourists at Notre Dame.
It’s the hilly part of the city, the part with the views of the rest of Paris. But you need only cross a few blocks to go from Montmartre into Pigalle, home of the Moulin Rouge, the crazy, wild sex shops, the street-corner prostitutes, and these little glue-sniffer things called poppers which are, apparently, legal.įrom there, it’s just a short metro ride to Le Marais, home of distinct Jewish, Chinese, and gay communities, as well as spectacular art galleries, hilarious pastry shops, and the house of Nicholas Flamel.
You can make your home in charming Montmartre, where the artists all lived. Why? Because Paris isn’t just one city. It’s made up of a thousand little communities and neighborhoods, each with their own distinct flavor, but all cobbled together and all benefiting from the amenities and diversity that come with being part of a big city. Someone asked me to describe it recently, which is a terribly hard thing to do. The city had accommodated itself to winter…” – Earnest Hemingway “When we came back to Paris it was clear and cold and lovely.
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