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The 20 arrondissements of Paris

17th 18th 19th   8th 9th 10th 11th 20th 16th 2nd 3rd 1st 4th 12th Seine river   7th 6th 5th 13th 15th 14th

The city of Paris is divided into 20 arrondissements municipaux (roughly put, "municipal boroughs"), more simply referred to as arrondissements (pronounced IPA: /əˈrɒndɨsmənt/, or as in French: /aʀɔ̃dismɑ̃/). These are not to be confused with departmental arrondissements, which subdivide the 100 French départements. The number of the arrondissement is indicated in Parisian postal codes by the last two digits.

The 20 arrondissements are arranged in the form of a clockwise spiral, starting with the 1st in the middle of the city on the right bank (north bank) of the Seine River.

The list below indicates Right Bank (R) or Left Bank (L) bank:

Notes:
1. With the Bois de Vincennes
2. Without the Bois de Vincennes
3. With the Bois de Boulogne
4. Without the Bois de Boulogne
5. 2005 is the year of the most recent official estimate; population of these arrondissements may still be growing

Each arrondissement is subdivided administratively into four quartiers. Paris thus has 80 quartiers administratifs, each containing a police station. For a table giving the names of the 80 quartiers, see fr:Quartier de Paris#Quartiers administratifs aujourd'hui.

Map showing the 12 old arrondissements. The surrounding grey area shows the size of Paris after the expansion in 1860.

On October 11, 1795, Paris was divided into 12 arrondissements. They were numbered from west to east, with numbers 1-9 situated on the right bank of the Seine, and 10-12 on the left bank.

Each arrondissement was subdivided into 4 quartiers, which corresponded to the 48 original districts created in 1790.

On January 1, 1860, new territory was defined to be within the city by Napoleon III. The previous 12 arrondissements were rearranged with this new territory to become the present 20.

In references to historical records (where it is important to distinguish between the old and new systems), the old arrondissements are indicated by following the number with the term ancienne (e.g. 2ème ancienne or 7ème anc.).

• Arrondissement, for other uses of the term.
• Paris districts
• Paris, je t'aime, movie composed of five-minute sequences on each arrondissement

• Official Paris website
• Diagrams of each arrondissement showing its quartiers administratifs