Paris buildings and sites | Paris streets | the 20 districts of Paris

Cartography of Paris, part 1: Buildings and Sites

You have already heard about the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame or Montmartre, but maybe you don't know or don't remember their exact location in Paris. This series of writeups will try to explain how Paris looks like through ASCII maps and text descriptions. Here I'm dealing with the most important buildings and sites.

In this map, every building or site is represented by an abbreviation. Read the hardlinks to see the full name. If the building has not been noded yet, click on the star (*), which links to the corresponding district. An index is also available below. Total distance from North to South is approximately 10 kilometers. The large curve corresponds to the Seine.

                                   Pg*                   B-Ch*

(Déf)                 Bat*                               Bel*
            AdT*                                Rép*      Mén*
                        Cc*         Hl*Be*                 PL*
                  ___,--.___    Lo* Ch*Hv*  Ma*
Boul*         ,-''  Inv*    ````----.._ND*_      Bast*
             /             Ors*      SM*    `--__        
            /ET*               S-G*             -_
           /                      Lux*   Pa*     -_      Nat*
       Pa*/                                        \             Vinc*
         /                                          \
    Aut*/                 Mtp*                 BNF*  \
       /                       D-R*      It*          \
      /                                      Chi*      \       


List of all abbreviations used in the map, with the district number:

AdT: Arc de Triomphe and Place de l'Etoile (8th, 16th, 17th)
Aut: Auteuil (16th)
B-ch: Parc des Buttes-Chaumont (19th)
BNF: Bibliothèque Nationale de France François-Mitterrand (the new National Library), in the middle of one of the largest building sites in France (13th)
Bast: Place de la Bastille (4th, 11th, 12th)
Bat: Batignolles (17th)
Be: Pompidou Center, or Museum of Modern Art, commonly called Beaubourg (3rd)
Bel: Belleville, a popular area (20th)
Boul: Bois de Boulogne, a wood (12th)
Cc: Place de la Concorde and Eglise de la Madeleine (1st, 8th)
Ch: Châtelet (1st, 4th)
ChE: Champs-Elysées (from Place de la Concorde to Arc de Triomphe). Also the Palais de l'Elysée, the President's residence. (8th)
Chi: Paris Chinatown (13th)
D-R: Place Denfert-Rochereau (14th)
(Déf): direction of La Défense (business center in the suburbs)
ET: Eiffel Tower (7th)
GdO: Goutte d'Or, the African quarter (18th)
Hl: Halles (1st, 2nd)
Hv: Hôtel de Ville (4th)
Inv: Hôtel des Invalides (7th)
It: Place d'Italie (13th)
Lo: Louvre and Garden of the Tuileries (1st)
Lux: Palace and Garden of Luxembourg (6th)
Ma: Marais (Renaissance buildings, Place des Vosges, Gay and Jewish quarters) (3rd, 4th)
Mtm: Montmartre (18th)
Mtp: Montparnasse (6th, 14th, 15th)
Mén: Ménilmontant, a popular area (20th)
ND: Notre-Dame and Ile de la Cité (1st, 4th)
Nat: Place de la Nation (12th)
Opé: Opéra (Palais-Garnier, the Opera House). Most department stores are located in this area. (2nd, 9th)
Ors: Musée d'Orsay (7th)
Pa: Panthéon, on the top of the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève (a small hill).
PL: Le Cimetière du Père Lachaise cemetary (20th)
Pa: Passy (16th)
Pg: Pigalle (9th, 18th)
Rép: Place de la République (3rd, 10th, 11th)
S-G: Saint-Germain-des-Prés (ex-intellectual quarter, now a shopping quarter) (6th)
SM: Saint-Michel (a boulevard and a place), and the Latin Quarter. (5th, 6th)
Vinc: Bois de Vincennes, a wood (16th)

For a real map of Paris, see for example (at the time of this writing) or (with photographs)
The best paper map is the Paris Michelin map.
