Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Living Lifestyle – Apartments in Paris, France


One of the first things you notice when you arrive in Paris is that there are apartments everywhere – over stores, over restaurants, over banks…. It almost seems that there are no houses in the city. Four out of every five Parisians live in rented apartments – and that fifth Parisian probably lives in an apartment, too, but he or she owns it, rather than rents.

Why are there so many apartments? Honestly, there is just no room for individual houses. Besides, apartments have been a part of Parisian life for a long time. Many of today’s apartments have been a part of Parisian life for a long time. Many of today’s apartments date from the mid-nineteenth century, a time when Paris was being almost totally reshaped by Napoleon III and his city planner, Baron Georges Haussmann. In those days, the city was clogged with slums, and streets were narrow. Haussmann cut spacious boulevards and avenues through Paris, tearing down more than 20,000 houses and replacing them with twice as many apartments.

Source: Son et Sens. Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresmen and Company. 3rd Ed. P. 213.

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