20 min
35 min
1 · 4 · 7 · 11 · 14 · RER A · RER B · RER D
59.4 / km²
24
9
1,860
+43% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Staying in Louvre & Les Halles (1st)
This is the literal centre: the arrondissement numbering starts here and spirals outward, and Notre-Dame, the Musee d'Orsay, the Marais and Saint-Germain are all inside a 25-minute walk. Chatelet-Les Halles sits under the eastern end with metro 1, 4, 7, 11 and 14 and RER A, B and D, which means Charles de Gaulle in about 35 minutes without changing trains. Nowhere else in Paris is this well connected.
The district changes completely across its own length. The western end around place Vendome and the Tuileries is expensive and quiet and closes early. East of the Palais-Royal it turns into Les Halles, a shopping mall with a park on the roof that the city says takes 800,000 visitors a day, and the streets around it are chains, fast food and the least Parisian blocks in the centre.
Fewer than 18,000 people live in the whole arrondissement, the lowest of the twenty, so evenings are quiet in a slightly emptied-out way rather than a residential one. Book between the Louvre and place Vendome if you want that quiet, or accept the noise closer to Chatelet. Either way the room will be small: 12 to 16 square metres is the central Paris norm at every star rating, and here you are paying the highest rate per square metre in the city.
What works
- Notre-Dame, the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay are all inside a 25-minute walk
- Chatelet-Les Halles carries metro 1, 4, 7, 11, 14 and RER A, B and D
- RER B reaches Charles de Gaulle in about 35 minutes with no change
- The Tuileries and the Palais-Royal gardens are both inside the district
What does not
- The highest room rate per square metre in Paris, and the rooms are small
- The blocks around the Forum des Halles are chain shops and a mall roof
- Under 18,000 residents, so the streets empty when the shops close
- Pickpocket gangs work the Louvre approaches in organised groups
For occupying such a compact space, the 1st feels remarkably different from one end to the other. The almost incredibly upscale western end of the arrondissement gives way to the hustle and bustle of the big city east of the Palais RoyalRooms of 12-16 square metres (which is roughly half of standard hotels rooms e.g. in the USA) are the norm in central Paris, regardless of hotel standards.