Quarters of Paris

Most of the Paris we see today is a result of a late-nineteenth-century renovation, but the wide boulevards laid then only bordered and bisected much older quarters of activity created by centuries of Parisian City evolution. For this, Paris has many quarters that are not necessarily mentioned on any administrative Paris map, and many of these spread across several of the city's arrondissements, so it would be useful to describe each independently of any administrative boundaries.

Below are a few quarters that have developed or retained a character of their own, usually identifiable by their commercial or cultural activity, and often named for a neighbourhood landmark.

Paris' islands were once many, but over the centuries have been united or joined to the mainland. Today there are but two adjacent islands forming the centre of Paris, the Île de la Cité and the Île Saint-Louis (plus the artificial Île aux Cygnes).

The westernmost of these two islands, the Île de la Cité, is Paris' heart and origin. Its western end has held a palace since even Roman times, and its eastern end since the same has been consecrated to religion, especially after the construction in the 10th century of the cathedral predecessor to today's Notre-Dame. The land between the two was, until the 1850s, largely residential and commercial, but since has been filled by the city's Prefecture de Police, Palais de Justice, Hôtel-Dieu hospital and Tribunal de Commerce. Only the westernmost and north-eastern extremities of the island remain residential today, and the latter area preserves some vestiges of its 16th-century canonic houses.

Purely residential in nature, this island's first use was for the grazing of market cattle and the stocking of wood. One of France's first examples of urban planning, it was mapped and built from end to end during the 17th-century reigns of Henri IV and Louis XIII. A peaceful oasis of calm in the busy Paris centre, this island has but narrow one-way streets and no metro station.

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Wikipedia