Up to the 20 districts |
Up to the map of the buildings and sites in
Paris
Around its large boulevards and train stations, the 10th district
is African and Indian. But it's also typically French on the
so-romantic Canal Saint-Martin.
It's located outside the Middle Ages Paris wall (notice the word
Faubourg, i.e suburb, in street names) and inside the 18th
century limit of Paris. You can see them in the map below:
18th
_______________________________ Pl
|\Boulevard Chapelle /Stal
| \ | / \
| \ Gare| / \
| \ Nord| /C \
| \ | /a \ 19th
F| \ F| /n \
b| \ b| Gare /a \
g| \g| Est /l \
9th | \| | | \
P| S\ |B \S \
o| a|\|d \t \
i| i| | \. \
s| n| |\ \M \ Belleville
s| t| |S\ \a /
o| -| |t \ \r /
n| D| |r \ \t /
i| e| |a \ \i /
è| n| |s \ \n/
r| i| |b \ /
e| s| |. \ /
___|_________|_|________\_/
2nd 3rd
Everything in italics is outside the district. The 10th
district is the 10th most populated district in Paris with 89,612
inhabitants in 1990. It's the 6th smallest district (2.89
km2).
Like a postcard
If you want to see Paris as you have seen in on your television,
go to Canal Saint-Martin. The canal enters the district at Place
Stalingrad and strolls gently to the south. It becomes underground
just before leaving the district. You can cross it on a number of
Venice-like bridges. The most famous cue in French cinema was
pronounced by Arletty on one of these bridges in Marcel Carné's
Hôtel du Nord 1. The hotel still exists on Quai
de Jemmapes, but the one you can see in the movie is not the real
one: it has been rebuilt in a studio, as well as the canal.
African hairdressers and the Indian town.
The rest of the district is very different. Many cars bring their
noise and pollution through Boulevard de Strasbourg and Boulevard
Magenta. The district hosts two major train stations. Gare de l'Est
sends travelers to the suburbs and to East of France. Gare du Nord
is one of the most important stations in France. Eurostar trains,
which go to England and northern Europe, arrive there.
Boulevard de Strasbourg is the home of African
hairdressers. You can have your hair cut for half the price you
would pay everywhere else in Paris. Hotels are very cheap, too (and
very gloomy).
Here you can also find a mini-Indian quarter in colourful Passage
Brady, well worth a visit and a dinner. However, the real Indian
town stands in the northern part of the district. It starts in rue du
Faubourg Saint-Denis near Gare du Nord, and goes on well into the
18th district. There you will find more Indian
food, sarees, jewels and videos than you could ever think of. Unless
you have been to India, of course.
So the 10th district is a working (or unemployed) class
district. Maybe that's one of the reason why President Chirac has installed his headquarters for the 2002
Presidential Campaign in rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin.
1: her man (Louis Jouvet) just said he needed a new
atmosphere, which is correctly interpreted by Arletty as an
attempt at leaving her. So she says: : "Atmosphère, atmosphère,
est-ce que j'ai une gueule d'atmosphère ?" (Do I look like an
atmosphere?)