If you're
coming up from the RER or Metro its worth following the Rue de Dunkerque
exit signs which will bring you up amongst these hotels and restaurants
rather than having to cross the road.
The restaurant and bar choice covers nearly all requirements from
typical French to steak houses and fast food and pizza outlets. Many
of the restaurants have English menu's and you'll be unlucky if you're
not served by somebody with reasonable English. |
Tourist
Kiosk Gare du Nord |
The
Gare du Nord hotels here are very competitively
priced. If you're on a budget this is an excellent area to stay. Its
not as expensive as the very centre and you can get , with fast access
to the centre and direct transfers to the airports as well as the
long distance rail options.
Once you start to stray too far from the station, the bright lights
and bustling atmosphere soon disappear. This is a great place to stay
if you're on a budget and stay around the station area, but its probably
not a good idea to be wandering the streets away from the station
after dark. Stick to a hotel within 100m of the hotel or on the main
Boulevard Magenta or Rue de la Fayette roads.
There is an indoor market just south of the station on the Boulevard
Magenta. There is also a supermarket here that opens longer hours
than most, including Sundays. There is little of interest otherwise
for the visitor, though see the St Martin Canal feature at the bottom
of this page. |
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Gare de l'Est
The Gare de l'Est area has a less frantic atmosphere
for most of the time than the neighbouring Gare Du Nord. The station
itself is unremarkable with the usual facilities of any train station.
Like the Gare du Nord, the Gare de l'Est sits on the north side
of an east-west road the Rue du 8 Mai 1945. Likewise on the opposite
south side of this is a good choice of restaurants, bars and some
hotels. Things are much more spacious than than the Gare du Nord,
mostly because of the very wide Boulevard de Strasbourg which runs
south from the station.
The
junction between the Boulevard de Strasbourg and Rue du 8 Mai 1945
immediately in front of the station is the hub of everything that
goes on in this area.
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Typical
street In Arrondissement 10 away from stations |
This
area is also used as a major bus terminus area, but there is enough
space available for it not to be unpleasant as a result. The bars,
restaurants and hotels stretch south following the Boulevard de Strasbourg
a short way to where it meets the Boulevard Magenta at a junction
with the landmark Saint Laurent Church.
If you're staying in this area, safety may become an issue south of
the Boulevard Magenta after dark if you stray off the main roads.
Just west of the station where the Rue du 8 Mai 1945 meets Boulevard
Magenta there is an indoor market. There is also a supermarket here
that opens longer hours than most, including Sundays. There is little
of interest otherwise for the visitor.
During the daytime the area south of the station towards the Marais
can be of interest in a low key inner urban kind of way, with faded
architecture of interest and busy urban scenes. Around the Strasbourg
St Denis Metro area, there is perhaps a world record in the density
of Afro beauty parlours! |
St
Martin Canal
Saint-Martin canal is one section of an 81-mile waterway
network commissioned by Napoleon in the early 19th century to provide
Parisians with clean drinking water, the canals also kept the Seine
free of industrial boat traffic.
The canal is just 300m due east of the front of the Gare de l'Est
along the Rue de Recollets. |
St
Martin Canal & Pleasure Boat |
There
is a very pleasant walk along the canal that runs north out of Paris.
We have a walk detailed that is simplicity itself, following the St
Martin Canal through a variety of landscapes to La Villette, home
of the Cite des Sciences, a sprawling modernistic science and industry
museum with lots to see and do. Its about a 45 minute walk along the
canal if you don't make to many stops.
St Martin Canal
Walk Details |
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