60 min
40 min
2 · 5 · 7 · 7bis · 11 · RER E
13.2 / km²
3
17
4,236
−32% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Mixed after dark
Daytime is fine and the parks are busy with families. The Stalingrad and Porte de la Villette ends, and the canal paths, are the parts not to walk alone late - take metro 5 or 7 to the door.
Staying in La Villette & Buttes-Chaumont (19th)
The 19th is a good district to live in and a poor one to visit. The Parc de la Villette holds the Cite des Sciences, the Philharmonie and a summer open-air cinema; the Buttes-Chaumont is the best park in Paris, a quarry rebuilt as cliffs and a lake; and two canals cross the middle of it. With children and a week, this is a reasonable base.
On a short trip it is the wrong side of a long metro ride. Notre-Dame is an hour on foot. Nothing on a first visit's list is inside the boundary. And the hotels that show up cheapest here are chains at Porte de la Villette and Porte de Pantin, which are ring-road junctions with a tram stop, not neighbourhoods - the price is low because the location is bad, and the saving is roughly the cost of the metro tickets you will buy.
Wikivoyage names the 18th, 19th and 20th as the arrondissements widely seen as the least safe in Paris, with the caveat that it varies street by street and that daytime is generally fine. Around Stalingrad and the northern canal that reputation is earned. Book here for the parks, on a repeat visit, with a map open.
What works
- The cheapest beds inside the Peripherique, by a clear margin
- The Buttes-Chaumont and the Parc de la Villette are the best parks in Paris
- The Cite des Sciences and the Philharmonie are both here
- Metro 5 reaches Gare du Nord in about ten minutes
What does not
- An hour on foot to Notre-Dame; the metro is every single trip
- Nothing on a first visit's list is inside the arrondissement
- The cheapest hotels sit on ring-road junctions at Porte de la Villette
- Named among the least safe arrondissements after dark
The 19th arrondissement of Paris is in the north of the city, and is a peaceful, green and family-friendly refuge from the otherwise quite stuffy and/or shabby city.The 18th, 19th, and 20th arrondissements are widely seen as the least safe areas of Paris, but safety levels vary dramatically from street to street. During the day, they're usually fine; you might have to watch out for pickpockets and scammers, but not much more. However, be on your guard at night.