Based on quality of life and culture criteria, Paris is one of the most attractive cities in the world for wealthy buyers looking for a luxury and affordable property.
Each district called “arrondissement” has a character of its own, with cafés, restaurants, shops, and tourist attractions unique to the area. However, keep in mind that when living in Paris, the more centrally your apartment is located, the more easily you will enjoy the city. This is the reason why properties in the heart of the city are highly valued.
The French capital is divided into 20 administrative districts known as arrondissements. They are arranged in a clockwise spiral spreading out from the first arrondissement in the center of the city. Starting right in the center, the first arrondissement is situated on the right bank of the Seine around the Louvre.
Almost all the available lodgings in the center of Paris are apartments because, except for some grand hôtels particuliers (townhouses), the older Parisian houses were all originally designed as apartments – and so are the newer builds. The typical Parisian buildings, with their 19th century Haussmann-type architecture, parquet flooring, iron work balconies, marble fireplaces are of unparalleled elegance.
On the other hand, the newer blocks are often more rationally designed and have underground car parks.
1st arrondissement
This historical area is rich of theatres and museum. Most buildings are from Rococo, renaissance, and empire periods. Apartments near the Place Vendome or Tuileries are of astonishing elegance.
Take time to visit the Louvre and the Tuileries garden. The Place Vendome, is the district of the most prestigious jewelers in the world.
2nd arrondissement
Come to this tiny but diverse area for the Paris Stock Exchange, wholesale shops, hidden bars and some charming properties around the pedestrian Montorgueil area.
It will be an unforgettable experience to walk the glass-roofed passageways such as Galerie Vivienne Passage Verdeau and passage des Panoramas.
3rd and 4th arrondissements
This is where you will find the fashionable, buzzy Marais, and the very sought-after Ile St Louis. Tall wooden gates hide elegant courtyards and mansion apartments.
Walk the Ile de la Cité with Notre-Dame de Paris, wander in the Marais around the Place des Vosges. Learn everything on Paris and the French Revolution at the historical Museum Carnavalet.
5th arrondissement
The Latin Quarter may be full of students, with inexpensive cafes and bars, but chic apartments in beautiful buildings are located around the Sorbonne and Pantheon.
Do not miss the Place du Panthéon and the Church Saint-Etienne du Mont. Have a walk at the Rue Mouffetard.
6th arrondissement
This area, with its lovely narrow streets, cool restaurants, bookshops, fashion houses, prestigious academic institutions, and the Jardin du Luxembourg, is very elegant.
Visit the Saint-Sulpice church highlighted in a popular book and film, see an exhibition at Luxembourg Museum and have a walk in the gardens.
7th arrondissement
A large apartment in a grand Art Nouveau or Art Deco block in this exclusive, aristocratic area may give you a view overlooking the Eiffel Tower or Les Invalides.
Buy your online ticket and avoid long queuing to visit the Eiffel tower.
8th Arrondissement
Literary echoes of 19th century classics play hide and seek around the Gare Saint Lazare, while you will find incredibly luxurious properties in the Golden Triangle of Champs-Elysées, Avenue Montaigne, and Avenue George V.
What about a shopping and luxury walk on the Avenue Montaigne. Also discover the exquisite collections of fine art, furniture and antiques at Jacquemart-André and Nissim de Camondo 19th century residences.
9th Arrondissement
In this area, a bustling mix of business and residential, you will find upmarket Boulevard Haussmann as well as the worldwide famous department store Galeries Lafayette. The 19th century apartment buildings called immeubles de rapport are typical of this arrondissement. Flat-fronted, originally with small rectangular rooms, they boast parquet flooring, brick fireplaces and molding ceilings. Further north, closer to Pigalle, is the red-lights district.
Wander around the Opera in the romantic district of the “Nouvelle Athènes”, intellectual and artistic center of the 19th century elite.
10th Arrondissement
Although the sections around Gare de l’Est and Gare du Nord still belong to a pre-renewal era, the Canal Saint-Martin is one of the trendiest areas, with spacious lofts in repurposed old factories.
See Paris from the water on a cruise of the Canal Saint-Martin and of course of the Seine river.
11th Arrondissement
In this colorful, densely populated area, hipster couples, young artists and retired craftsmen share the farmer markets, trendy cafés, and shops around Place de la Bastille, Rue Oberkampf, or Faubourg Saint-Antoine.
12th Arrondissement
Green spaces as the modern Parc de Bercy and the large Bois de Vincennes attract young families to this area, which has been largely renovated in recent years.
13th Arrondissement
The Parisian Chinatown and especially the calm, almost pastoral Butte-aux-Cailles are a pleasant counterweight to the plain, unimpressive high-rises of the eastern section of this area.
14th Arrondissement
In this large arrondissement you will find streets bustling with activity in the shade of the Tour Montparnasse as well as calmer sections, beautiful artist studios and, utterly unexpected romantic cobbled streets lined with delightful little houses.
Have free time to stroll in Montparnasse district and have a drink at the Coupole café frequented from the thirties by artists such as Picasso, Chagall, Edith Piaf…
15th Arrondissement
Although the main interest of this area, essentially residential, rests in the large variety of daily-life related businesses such as supermarkets, food stores, ironmongers, dry-cleaners and the like, there are also attractive Art Deco, Art Nouveau and Haussmann properties, especially close to the 6th and 7th arrondissements.
16th Arrondissement
Several museums and the large Bois de Boulogne, a park twice the size of Central Park, are amongst the attractions of this leafy, affluent, and conservative area, popular with wealthy residents. Here you will find period and modern apartments, quite a few private hôtels particuliers, some of them still home to one family. Private, gated compounds offer the invaluable feeling of being in a remote country village.
17th Arrondissement
This district, situated in the northeast part of the city, is everything and its opposite! From the truly luxurious, elegant streets surrounding the Parc Monceau, established by a cousin of King Louis XVI, to the working-class area of Epinettes, you will witness a full social and architectural spectrum.
18th Arrondissement
In this arrondissement, perhaps the most iconic and picturesque of the 20, you will find hints of its old rural identity in the vines still growing on the Butte Montmartre slopes and of its belle époque cafés, immortalized by Toulouse-Lautrec. The legacy is strong, and the atmosphere is definitely an artistic one, and although nowadays the visiting tourists probably outnumber painters and sculptors, the beautiful studios are very much sought after. The lovers of noir atmosphere will find a handful of seedy streets in the eastern neighborhoods.
19th Arrondissement
Still largely working-class, this area features nonetheless the science museum, the Cité de la Musique, the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont – the fifth largest park in Paris - and two canals, the Canal Saint-Denis, and the Canal de l’Ourq. Young families are attracted to this area by the relatively inexpensive properties.
20th Arrondissement
A mixed population of young Parisians, students and immigrants newly arrived from all over the world makes of this traditionally working-class area, internationally known for the Père-Lachaise cemetery, a colorful, vibrant place, with relatively inexpensive properties, most of them in modern buildings.