[Map is from http://www.parisnet.com/parismap.html: visit there for detailed descriptions of each neighborhood]
We stayed in the 5th arr., or the Latin Quarter, home of the Sorbonne, the Pantheon (lots of famous people are buried inside), and the rue Mouffetard (below), near where Hemingway lived with his wife and son in the 1920s. I loved this neighborhood: it has the old medieval streets with many cafes and shops.
The above is the Pantheon: the dome is under construction, and since it had to be covered during construction, an artist had the brilliant idea to collect selfies from 4000 people.
rue Mouffetard. In the rain.
Crowds watching the July 4th World Cup match. I think that was the France vs. Germany game. Let's just say, the Dutch were MUCH MORE visibly into soccer than the Parisians, but there were many cafes with crowds on the streets looking in.
Our hotel was also on the border of the 6th arrondissement, Saint Germain. This area has many more cafes and shops, and includes the fabulous Cluny Museum. That is also where the Luxembourg Gardens is, as well as our favorite church, St. Etienne du Mont.
We also visited the 7th arr (the Eiffel Tower area), and the 14th arr., or Montparnasse, all on the Left Bank of the Seine. If we ever get to visit Paris again, I'd say we'd still choose the 5th, or maybe the 6th arr: both neighborhoods felt the most "Paris" to me. Rick Steves, in his travel books, promotes the 7th, closer to the Eiffel Tower, specifically the rue Cler neighborhood, but while there are a few streets that look medieval, and rue Cler, a pedestrian street with restaurants and shops, is lovely, as is the ritzy area around the Rodin Museum (it's where Edith Wharton lived), the neighborhood is too Upper East Side, and not enough like Brooklyn. I'm a Brooklyn girl at heart. It's beautiful, though.
We also, of course, visited neighborhoods on the right bank: arr. 1 is called the Louvre, for obvious reasons, and only a prince could live there; arr. 3 is the Marais area, which was a little seedy, but also charming: it reminded me of the Lower East Side. We got the best falafel sandwich there (it's the Jewish, and gay, neighborhood), and we saw the Shoah or Holocaust memorial. The Picasso Museum was sadly still under renovation. The Ile de Cite (where Notre Dame is) and Ile de St. Louis are also in the Marais area, though they are literally separate island in the Seine, and have a very different feel. Ile St. Louis is charming: old, dignified apartment buildings, and a rather upscale shop area. We walked through it a few times, but couldn't find the famous ice cream shop (we had passed it one night, but it was too cold for ice cream; trying to find it again was impossible).
We walked through the Pigalle, or the northern part of the 9th arr, and took a picture of the famous Moulin Rouge windmill, but that section, at night, was a little too 42nd Street.
The 18th arr., or Montmartre, is beautiful: high up on a hill, with Sacre Couer as its main tourist site, it's charming, with winding streets. It looked very much like some towns in Italy. It's a bit far from many of the tourist sights, and the restaurants were a little pricey, but it's a lovely neighborhood. We did have dinner in the busier street in Montmartre, I didn't write down the name, but it was yummy. We sat outside next to a family from Tennessee who had rented an apartment in the area. It would be a beautiful, and quiet, apartment no doubt. I'd consider it if we visit again: it felt like a locals neighborhood: I'm fairly certain that the Tennesseans and us were the only tourists there considering all the lovely French conversations I tried to listen to.
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