While Paris may lack the street grid system of many US cities, there is logic to the arrangement of its districts, or 'arrondissements'. They start from the center with the 1st arrondissement spreading outwards in a clockwise spiral. Each arrondissement has its own distinct personality.
1st: Home to the Louvre and the adjoining Tuileries gardens. Haute couture designers such as Yves St-Laurent and Dior, are in Rue St-Honoré, close to the magnificent Place Vendôme with its upscale jewelers. This is also where you will find the Forum des Halles, the largest shopping mall in Paris.
2nd: At first sight this seems to be just the business district as it is home to the Bourse de Paris (Stock Exchange). But it is also an area of delightful little back streets lined with typically Parisian galleries, cafés and boutiques. It also contains the theatre district to the west of Rue Richelieu.
3rd: The center of the city's gay nightlife is focused on the Marais district. One of the oldest and best-preserved parts of Paris, it is filled with stylish bars, cafés and funky boutiques.
4th: Perhaps the most picturesque part of city. Opposite the Hôtel de Ville (city hall) are the bridges to the two islands on the Seine. Ile de la Cité is where Paris first began as a settlement. The Ile Saint-Louis is the site of Notre-Dame Cathedral.
5th: This is the academic center of Paris with many of France's most prestigious institutions of learning. Along with the 6th arrondissement it makes up the Quartier Latin (Latin Quarter). The quayside is filled with the second-hand bookstalls familiar to anybody who has seen a movie set in the city. After dark, the Place de la Contrescarpe and Rue Mouffetard are filled with the youth of the city.
6th: Every charm the city has is brought to bear on the Rue de Seine, de Buci, Mazarine and Dauphine and the area between Boulevard St-Germain and the river Seine. Little cafés and boutiques manage to appear both intellectual and glamorous. By night the area hums with bars and nightclubs. The Jardin du Luxembourg is a peaceful place of escape.
7th: The "quartier des ministres" (ministers' quarter) has many of the city's most beautiful monuments including Les Invalides and the Eiffel Tower. If you want to take home something old and different as a souvenir, the Carré Rive Gauche is the center of the antique business with endless little shops to entice you.
8th: The stunning avenue of the Champs-Elysées runs from Place de l'Etoile down to the Place de la Concorde and is the focus of this district. It also contains the lovely neoclassical church La Madeleine, the Grand and Petit Palais and the Palais de la Découverte (the Palace of Discovery), which is a great place to take kids for its accessible science exhibits.
9th: The Opéra (opera house) is exquisite and well worth a visit. More Parisians come here, however, to visit the department stores such as Printemps, and Galeries Lafayette.
10th: The area from Rue de la Temple to Place de Stalingrad has been landscaped by the side of the Seine to create one of the nicest and most romantic walks in Paris.
11th: This is currently the most fashionable part of the city for the young and trendy. Places where craftsmen formerly made furniture are now restaurants and nightclubs.
12th: The Palais Omnisport de Paris-Bercy is a venue for sporting events and major rock tours. Tickets often sell-out fast.
13th: 'Chinatown' makes up the east of this district. In the west is the village of Buttee-aux-Cailles which does not feel anything like the rest of Paris.
14th: Rue Alésia has an almost unlimited variety of clothes shops. The international city university is worth seeing for its architecture, which features styles from all over the world.
15th: Here is where you will find one Statue of Liberty. The other was sent as a gift to the people of the United States.
16th: This is the classiest district of Paris. One of the best views of the city can be seen from the Trocadéro. West of the ring road is the Bois de Boulogne woods, an attractive place for families and couples by day, but the haunt of a somewhat exotic underworld by night. Those South American beauties may have more under their skirts than you expect.
18th: A vital stop on the tourist trail. Here you will find the breathtaking Basilica of Sacré-Coeur. Nearby the Place du Tertre, is real 'old Paris'. The same can be said in a different way of Pigalle, the city's main red light district.
20th: Often the first stop for rock fans coming to Paris is the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise and the tomb of the Doors' Jim Morrison. Many other famous artists and painters are buried here.
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