What Are Paris’ Arrondissements? A Complete Guide to All 20 Districts

Known For: The heart of Paris

If there’s one district you’ll visit, chances are, it will be Paris 1. The core of Paris’ origins, first settled by the sub-Celtic Parisi tribe in the third century B.C., this star-studded area occupies a central portion of the Right Bank and the western tip of Ile-de-la-Cité.

On Ile-de-la-Cité, the kings of France lived at Palais de la Cité between the 10th and 14th centuries before it became a prison; the main vestige is La Conciergerie, one of Paris’s most underrated historic buildings. You can tour the medieval building, including the prison cell of Marie-Antoinette, where she spent her last days before being guillotined in 1793. Also part of the former Palais de la Cité is the jewel-box Sainte-Chapelle, St. Louis’s exquisite stained-glass-walled chapel dating from the 14th century.

Occupying about 90% of the arrondissement, however, is the Louvre, on the Right Bank. Once the palace fortress of French kings between the 14th and 18th centuries, it became a museum in 1793 at the hands of the revolutionary government. In this vast, sprawling space, you’ll find the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, and other famous works of art—though the most astounding sights are the remnants of the original castle kept in the basement.

Just outside, the Jardin des Tuileries unfurl in quintessential French formal garden style, designed by Le Nôtre of Versailles fame. The Musée de l’Orangerie, at the gardens’ base, displays some of Monet’s lilies, while the neighboring Jeu de Paume showcases contemporary photography and art exhibits.

Place de Vendôme, just to the north, displays a column erected by Napoléon I to commemorate his 1805 victory at the Battle of Austerlitz. Understated doors open into the storied Hôtel Ritz Paris, filled with the memories of Coco Chanel, Ernest Hemingway, Marcel Proust, and other luminaries.

Known For: Hôtels-particuliers and covered passages

Paris’s smallest district, this oft-overlooked arrondissement in the heart of Paris, is the city’s historic textile center, called Sentier. Since the 1990s, internet start-ups have moved in, giving it the nickname Silicon Sentier. With few tourist sights, this is a place to wander cobbled lanes past hôtels-particuliers (medieval urban mansions) and pocket parks. The one exception is the stunning contemporary art museum, Collection Pinault Paris, which opened in 2021 in the historic Bourse (former stock exchange); free daily tours leave from the ground-floor level.

Here, too, survive most of the city’s remaining passages couverts (covered passages)—19th-century commercial arcades built to avoid Paris’s dark, muddy streets. Look for Passage des Panoramas, Galerie Vivienne, and Galerie Colbert, among others, filled with chocolatiers, restaurants, wine bars, and curio shops sheltered by magnificent glass-and-iron canopies. Foodies head to rue Montorgueil, lined with iconic restaurants, traditional cafés, bistros, and gourmet shops, including the city’s oldest pastry shop, Stohrer, established in 1730 and legendary for its rum babas.

Known For: The Marais

Marais means “swamp,” and before it was drained and reclaimed in the 10th century, this most fashionable Right Bank neighborhood, with its maze of cobbled lanes, stylish shops, cafés, and trendy restaurants, was marshland. In the Middle Ages, the aristocracy built elegant hôtels-particuliers here. You can get a rare glimpse inside two of them at the district’s main museums. The Musée National Picasso–Paris, occupying Hôtel Salé, is the world’s largest public collection of the master’s works. You can trace Picasso’s entire career from 1895 to his death in 1973, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, and posters. Nearby, the recently renovated Musée Carnavalet, occupying the adjacent Hôtel Le Peletier de St.-Fargeau and the Hôtel Carnavalet, traces Paris’s history from its earliest settlements to modern day. Ancient pirogues, scale models of guillotines, Café de Paris’s original furnishings, and much more tell stories of the past.

Known For: Royal and Jewish history—and Nôtre-Dame

Regal buildings and Jewish history are what you’ll find in this lively neighborhood along the Seine’s Right Bank between Châtelet and Bastille (part of the Marais), along with part of the Ile-de-la-Cité.

Top billing goes to one of Europe’s most beautiful squares, Place des Vosges—originally called Place-Royal, for its royal heritage. Perfectly proportioned hôtels-particuliers edge the 17th-century square in classic French style, with vaulted arcades occupied by elegant cafés, art galleries, and upmarket shops. The former home of Victor Hugo is now a museum, providing the chance to peek inside one of the square’s historic houses (and learn a bit about this esteemed author).

Jewish heritage flourishes on and around rue des Rosiers, where you’ll find kosher shops, bookstores, and falafel joints—try the famous L’As du Fallafel. Nearby, you can’t miss the Lego-looking Centre Georges Pompidou, featuring galleries and a stunning modern art museum.

But that’s not all this gifted district offers. It also includes Ile Saint-Louis, a quiet residential island in the middle of the Seine; seek out Berthillon for artisanal gelato—intense flavors include passionfruit, honey nougat, and chestnut. And, saving the best for last, the formidably Gothic Cathédrale de Notre-Dame occupies the eastern tip of Ile-de-la-Cité, immortalized in Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre-Dame (closed until at least 2024).

Known For: The Latin Quarter

The Roman city of Lutetia spread out along the Seine’s Left Bank in the first century B.C. Ancient remains include a theater (now a park) and baths (now part of the Musée de Cluny). Later, the quarter became the city’s academic heart, centered on the Université de Sorbonne—and that it remains. This is the place to come to sit at a café and people-watch, browse bookshops, check out art houses, and soak in the scholarly vibe. The Panthéon honors France’s greatest men and women (Josephine Baker is the most recent inductee—the first American, the first Black woman, and the first performing artist), while the Musée de Cluny is an outstanding medieval art museum, home to the legendary Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. The pedestrian rue Mouffetard, following an ancient Roman road, provides a touch of authentic Paris, with local restaurants, cafés, and markets.

Known For: The Eiffel Tower and Musée d’Orsay

The bourgeois Paris 7 has a split personality. Half of it comprises a ritzy residential neighborhood, with some private mansions now housing embassies and government buildings. Here, too, you’ll find one of Paris’ most recognized sights, the Eiffel Tower. Built for the 1889 World Exposition, the iron edifice survived demolition by donning a radio tower and becoming useful beyond its original purpose. Today, almost 7 million people a year climb its stairs and elevators to the top for 360-degree views of the City of Light. At night, 20,000 bulbs sparkle for five minutes every hour on the hour in a spectacular show of light.

Here, too, is the Musée d’Orsay, housing some of the world’s most famous Monets, Van Goghs, Pissarros, Gauguins, and more in a spectacular art museum occupying an ornate, turn-of-the-20th-century train station. Nearby, Musée Rodin, the onetime home of the legendary sculptor, now showcasing his works both in the rose-scented garden and inside the house (yes, “The Thinker” is here). Keep an eye out for the graceful works of Camille Claudel, Rodin’s mistress and, according to some, even more talented than he. Next door, Napoléon I lies in eternity beneath the gleaming gold dome of Les Invalides.

Last but not least, explore Paris’s underground at the Musée des Egouts, which surveys centuries of sewer history—an imperative solution to the city’s rampant disease and illness of bygone days.

Known For: Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe

Paris 8, also known as the Golden Triangle (Triangle d’Or), is an elegant district of stately avenues, high-end boutiques, fashion houses, and classical architecture. Deep-pocketed shoppers find the world’s chicest neck scarves, purses, and dresses in boutiques flanking the three edges of the “triangle”: rue Montaigne, avenue George V, and avenue des Champs-Élysées.

On the district’s eastern edge, at the foot of the Champs-Élysées, the Petit and Grand Palais host art exhibitions, while the luxuriant Hôtel de Crillon occupies an 18th-century palace. Just north, the multi-columned La Madeleine, originally built by Napoléon as a Greek-style temple, was converted to a hotel upon his defeat; today, it’s a church and the evocative site of classical concerts.

Perhaps the most famous sight looms at the western end of the Champs-Élysées: the Arc de Triomphe. One of Napoléon’s many additions to the capital city, commissioned in 1806, it celebrates the general’s military successes. You can climb to the attic to visit a small museum and take in breathtaking views from the terrace.

But there are quiet residential streets and smaller sights to behold. One of the best is the Musée Jacquemart-André, an opulent, Beaux-Arts mansion showcasing an exquisite fine arts collection, including Fragonard, David, and Rembrandt paintings. Parc Monceau, toward the Champs-Élysées, is a regal, romantic park steeped in history. The cousin of Louis XVI, Philippe XVI, established it in 1778; statues of Maupassant and Chopin and other famous French luminaries grace its verdant grounds.

Known For: Shopping heaven

In the 19th century, Emperor Napoléon III hired Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann to raze the city’s narrow, medieval streets, replacing them with broad boulevards, harmonious limestone buildings with wrought-iron balconies, shady parks, and flickering gas lamps. Paris 9 is a showplace of his work, starting with the eponymous boulevard Haussmann, one of the world’s great shopping avenues. Here you’ll find the Grands Magasins—Paris’s legendary department stores—interspersed with clothing boutiques, houseware shops, and cafés. The elegant Galeries Lafayette, dating from 1912, is famed for its Belle Époque stained-glass dome; the world’s most famous designers fill its shelves, and a food hall awaits across the street. Nearby, Au Printemps, occupying three adjacent buildings, opened its doors in 1865.

The opulent Palais Garnier rises over this classy district a few blocks away. Built by Charles Garnier beginning in 1860, the opera house is a confection of gold leaf, sculpture, marble, and a whimsical, modern ceiling painted by Russia-French artist Marc Chagall in 1964.

Hidden gems include the sweet Musée de la Vie Romantique, evoking the Romantic period with furniture, paintings, and exhibits; Fragonard Musée du Parfum, a little museum of decorative bottles, gloves, and other perfume-related objects above the parfumier Fragonard’s boutique; and Musée Grévin, a superb wax museum founded in 1882, featuring everyone from Picasso to Queen Elizabeth and every king in France.

Known For: Canal Saint-Martin

One of the city’s hippest districts, Paris 10 features the historic Canal Saint-Martin, a sinuous waterway spanned by iron footbridges. Parisians sit along its banks on warm summer evenings, playing music, picnicking, and sipping apéros. You can also take a boat ride along its peaceful length, taking in the boho (bohemian-bourgeois) district filled with cafés, vintage shops, hopping bars, and trendy restaurants. Better yet, explore the buzzy streets on foot.

Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est, two of Paris’s six major train stations, are here.

Known For: The République neighborhood

In the city’s east, Paris 11 occupies a historic working-class district that became the center of activity of the Paris uprising of 1832, inspiring Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. With 19th-century industrialization, the 11th drew many factories, especially in the fields of metals, textiles, glass, and ceramics. Some of these historic buildings have been converted into shops, fashionable hotels, and apartments, including the Atelier des Lumières, a spectacular all-digital art museum in a former iron foundry space.

Today, as one of Europe’s most densely populated and multicultural districts, Paris 11 has a young and trendy vibe, with innovative restaurants and hip nightlife, especially in the Oberkampf district near the Gare de l’Est and Gare du Nord. Fabled singer Edith Piaf once sang at then-working-class cafés in the area; her tiny apartment is now the Musée Edith Piaf.

At the district’s southern tip, the Bastille prison once stood at present-day Place de la Bastille (shared by the 4th and 12th arrondissements), towered over by the Colonne de Juillet, memorializing the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848. You can make out the fort’s outline on the streets and sidewalks, marked by paving stones. Here, too, is the steel-and-glass Opéra Bastille, which opened in 1989, drawing restaurants, art galleries, and cafés to the neighborhood.

Known For: Authentic Paris and green spaces

The residential Paris 12 in the east of town is home to many Parisians and one of the city’s best markets, the Marché d’Aligre. It’s popular among backpackers, with inexpensive hotels and hostels. Also the greenest district, it showcases several parks, including Parc Floral and Bois de Vincennes, Paris’s second largest green space after Bois de Boulogne. The inspiration for NYC’s High Line, the Promenade Plantée (also called La Coulée Verte), billows with greenery along the old Vincennes railway line, which was active between 1859 and 1969.

Once home to wine warehouses, Bercy Village, near the Gare de Lyon, has lively open-air restaurants and shops. Adjacent Parc de Bercy is another of the district’s green spaces, with lawns, flowers, a duck-graced lake, and walking trails. Here, too, the Cinémathèque Française, in a building designed by Frank Gehry, is the place to go to watch classic films (many in English).

You may recognize Rue Crémieux, a charming street of pastel-painted houses originally built as workers’ housing, from its stardom on social media. The challenge is to get a photo without tons of people trying to do the same.

The Gare de Lyon connects Paris to the south of France.

Known For: Super modern architecture and Butte-aux-Cailles

Once an industrial blight, Paris 13 is a surprise, especially for architectural buffs. Ultracontemporary buildings now rise above the southeastern section of this revitalized district. World-famed architect Le Corbusier designed the Cité de Refuge, a red-black-and-blue building dating from 1933 now serving as a shelter and social reintegration center (guided tours available). A hybrid black block with 12 giant screens serving as a virtual outdoor gallery, L’Ep7 provides a gathering space for concerts, exhibits, and yoga classes, plus a bar and bistronomy restaurant. The Bibliotèque François Mitterand, which opened in 1996 as France’s largest library, presents four angular towers resembling open books that center on a garden.

The street art is fantastic, and this is Paris’s Chinese neighborhood, too. It’s a truly interesting place to stroll, taking in the antithesis to Haussmann’s uniform Paris.

The hilly Butte-aux-Cailles neighborhood provides a down-home, village-like feel, with classic bistros, cafés, boutiques, and cobblestone streets for a more traditional ramble. A historic working-class neighborhood, it’s a favorite place among artists and affluent young Parisians.

The Gare d’Austerlitz is here, serving southwest France (including Bordeaux).

Known For: Literary legacies and the catacombs

To the city’s south, Montparnasse is legendary for its ‘20s literature and arts scene—where Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, and Alberto Giacometti talked shop in classic cafés and bistros. There are still a few old-timey places, including La Coupole, La Rotonde, and La Closerie des Lilas. However, for the most part, Paris 14 is now pretty residential, a place to enjoy quintessential cafés, quirky theaters, and cobbled streets.

The big sights are the Catacombes de Paris, where dark, damp underground passages lead past the skeletons of ancient Parisians, their bones artfully arranged (it also served as a hideout for the French Resistance); and the gorgeous Parc Montsouris, popular among visiting students of the nearby Cité Internationale Universitaire; watch for free summer concerts. Climb the 758-foot Tour Montparnasse—Paris’s tallest building outside of La Défense business district—for breathtaking city views rivaling the Eiffel Tower’s, from a two-level observation deck; a bar on the 56^th floor sells champagne to toast the sunset.

The Musée de la Libération de Paris deep-dives into the liberation of Paris in 1944 during World War II, as well as the crafty ways of the French Resistance.

Known For: Small museums, parks, and local vibe

The city’s largest district is also the most populated, a residential arrondissement in southwest Paris, especially popular with families. Come here to experience the local, neighborhoody vibe: Sip espresso at cafés all day, shop boulangeries and markets (Marché Grenelle is a big one), and experience a taste of daily Parisian life.

While there may be no big, splashy sights here, some low-key ones are worth a stop. Île aux Cignes is a small, man-made island in the middle of the Seine, between the Bir-Hakeim and Grenelle Bridges; it’s best known for its replica of the Statue of Liberty on the southern tip and a long, straight running path; it also offers a spectacular view of the Eiffel Tower. Musée Bourdelle showcases the studio and gardens of one of Rodin’s students, Antoine Bourdelle; admission is free. There’s also the Musée de la Poste, a fascinating museum detailing the history of communication; and the modernistic Parc André Citroën, on the site of Citroën’s massive automobile manufacturing plant.

Walkers adore La Petite Ceinture, an old railroad track that once encircled Paris and now is slowly being converted into a nature-embraced trail; there are access points in the 12th through 20th arrondissements, including the section in the 15th between rue Balard and rue Olivier de Serres.

Known For: Elegant avenues, palace hotels, the village-like Passy neighborhood, and small museums

Posh is the best way to describe Paris 16, built in the west of Paris in the second half of the 19th century with leafy avenues, elegant architecture, and a smorgasbord of museums—interspersed with semi-sleepy, tucked-away residential lanes. Its stunning collection of palace hotels boasts stunning rooftop views (notably the Peninsula and St. James), while its wealth of Michelin-starred restaurants include L’Astrance, Étude, and Kura. No doubt, it’s one of high society’s favorite districts, though a good number of American ex-pats have found their way here, too.

The chic Passy neighborhood, once home to Benjamin Franklin during the Revolutionary War and artists Berthe Morisot and Camille Pissarro, has a village feel, with wide, leafy avenues, 19^th-century Haussmannian buildings, and quiet hidden lanes. Honoré de Balzac lived at what’s now the Maison de Balzac, a museum dedicated to the famous French novelist. The nearby Musée du Vin provides a 411 on the history of wine and winemaking in 15th-century wine cellars. The outstanding Musée Marmottan Monet houses the world’s largest collection of paintings by Claude Monet, including “Impression, Sunrise,” the masterpiece that gave the Impressionist movement its name.

At Trocadéro, just across the river from the Eiffel Tower, are the Palais de Tokyo, dedicated to modern and contemporary art (it closes at midnight); and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, showcasing famous works from the 20th and 21st centuries, including Chagall, Matisse, Rothko, and Modigliani. One of the best views of the Eiffel Tower is found from the Palais de Tokyo’s sprawling terrace; in the evening, the area takes on a festive mood as crowds watch the sparkling tower explode into thousands of lights every hour on the hour.

All this said, if you’re looking for wow-worthy, the most spectacular museum is Fondation Louis Vuitton, in the Bois de Boulogne. Occupying a modern structure designed by Frank Gehry that resembles colorful sails billowing above the tree-covered expanse, it’s an indoor-outdoor experience offering art galleries interspersed with spectacular Paris views. LVMH’s CEO and chairman Bernard Arnault commissioned the project to display his private art collection, inaugurated in 2014.

Known For: Hipster neighborhood with old-time charm

A royal hunting grounds until the French Revolution, this district in NW Paris, filled with Haussmannian architecture, is quiet and residential. For a long time, it felt like an old-time village, with leafy squares and fountains, though it’s drifting away from that vibe as new restaurants and hipster cafés move in—especially to the Quartier de Batignolles, once the artsy domain of Edouard Manet, Emile Zola, and others. That said, the Batignolles covered market and Batignolles farmer’s market are throwbacks to its village days. The Promenade Pereire is a main road bisected by a flourishing rose garden built along a former railway line; Parisians flock here for their Sunday promenades.

Known For: The artsy village of Montmartre

The old hilltop village of Montmartre, one of the quintessential (and most visited) areas in Paris, still retains its age-old feel despite the tourist hordes. Main sights include Basilique du Sacré-Coeur, the Byzantine basilica commissioned in 1873 (making it Paris’s youngest church), with its balcony view over Paris; the historic Place du Tertre, full of artists plying their works; and the Musée de Montmartre, telling the story of Montmartre’s artists. Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir, van Gogh, and Picasso are among the artists who resided in the neighborhood, favoring its cheap rents.

But get off the main touristy streets to wander cobbled lanes, past pocket gardens, under-the-radar shops, and two remaining windmills—one painted most famously by Renoir (“The Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette”) and also van Gogh, “Windmill on Montmartre” in 1886. At the base of the hill, the legendary Moulin Rouge cabaret is open for dinner shows (complete with feathers, sequins, and the French cancan), and, nearby, the Mur des Je T’aime is a wall of enameled squares inscribed with “I Love You” in 250 different languages.

Known For: Authentic Parisian life

Another district to take in local Parisian life, Paris 19, in the city’s northeast, has evolved from an industrial area into a district straddling nature and urban life.

The colorful works of Marko 93 Da Cruz, Banksy, and other street artists cover the walls of the trendy Canal Saint-Denis neighborhood. A boat ride—or a stroll along its banks—is the perfect way to see this scenic canal, which connects Canal de l’Ourcq to the Seine.

There are parks, too, notably the stunning, ultramodern Parc de la Villette, an expansive space with sprawling lawns, themed gardens, and an open-air cinema—there’s always a festival, concert, and/or pick-up soccer going on. The impressive Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie has interactive exhibits about space, technology, and science; the Géode is its iconic shiny geodesic dome that, inside, shows 3-D movies on an enormous, hemispherical screen.

The Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, dating from 1867, was built on old gypsum quarries. It’s expansive, with hilltop views (look for Sacré-Coeur)—and hardly anyone around. There are shady paths, waterfalls, and a mini-Greek temple, perched atop a cliff above the swan-dotted lake. Rosa Bonheur is a fun guinguette (popular drinking establishment), offering food, drink, and lots of dancing on summer Sundays.

Known For: More local Parisian life

Paris 20 is the place to experience Paris like a local—whether it’s strolling in quiet parks or kicking your heels at one of its hipster nightclubs (Mamashelter’s rooftop bar is a favorite). Thanks to low rents, young families, artists, and students have been drawn to the formerly working-class and immigrant neighborhoods. Come here for a dynamic arts scene, thriving open market, Asian markets and eateries, and overall edgy charm.

The big sight is Cimitière du Père Lachaise, Paris’s largest and most visited necropolis. Among the 70,000 burial plots, you’ll find The Doors vocalist Jim Morrison (who mysteriously died in Paris in 1971 at age 27), poet and playwright Oscar Wilde, and singer Edith Piaf.

Lovely Parc de Belleville has some of Paris’s best views from its panoramic terrace.