Sunday, March 25, 2007
Paris' arrondissements
In books about Paris or that are set there, mention is invariably made of one or another arrondissement. If one is thoroughly in the know, this is automatically informative because each area has its own persona just as do London's Soho and NYC's Tribeca and all the other named neighborhoods of those great cities. Arrondissments, however, are something of a mystery to non-Parisians. The entire city of Paris is quite walkable (40 square miles total (for perspective: San Francisco=47 sq.mi., Boston=89 and Manhattan=20)) and those cities' neighborhoods are all so distinctive, with their names helping to understand them. Paris' arrondissements' numbers tell nothing, however, so étrangers don't have much to go on. Now comes along the gracious proprietor of ParisDailyPhoto, who by the way does far more more on his blog than display a photo each day, and provides a succinct explanation:
Paris is divided into 20 districts called arrondissements, numbered from 1 to 20 in a clockwise spiral like an escargot (snail) starting from the centre (the île de la Cité and île Saint Louis). Each arrondissement has its own culture... I will come back to that one day!Now I can't wait for his descriptions.
Labels: blogs (others'), france, places
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