While nothing compares with visiting Paris in person, the next best thing might be to take a virtual visit through our Yabla videos and through this lesson. Here, we will focus on the general layout of the city, which will help you find your way around Paris and appreciate its unique features.

Paris is divided into twenty administrative areas or districts known as arrondissements, as our trusty guide Daniel Benchimol explains in his video:

Je ne pense pas vous en avoir déjà parlé

I don't think I have mentioned this to you already,

mais Paris est divisé en vingt arrondissements.

but Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements.

Captions 35-36, Voyage dans Paris - Le Seizième Arrondissement de Paris

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In fact, the numbers of the twenty arrondissements are included in the postal codes. They are such an integral part of Parisian life that most people only mention the number—as in le onzième (the eleventh)—and skip the word arrondissement altogether:

Nous sommes actuellement

We are currently

à l'intersection de la rue Saint-Maur

at the intersection of Rue Saint-Maur [Saint-Maur Street]

et de la rue Oberkampf,

and Rue Oberkampf [Oberkampf Street],

en plein quartier du onzième...

in the heart of the neighborhood of the eleventh [arrondissement]...

Captions 16-18, Lionel L - L'art éphémère à Paris

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The arrondissements are arranged in a unique clockwise spiral or snail-like pattern, as Daniel Benchimol explains: 

Les arrondissements parisiens sont construits comme des escargots:

The Parisian arrondissements are shaped like snails:

on part du numéro un et on progresse jusqu'au numéro vingt.

we start from number one and we progress up to number twenty.

Captions 37-38, Voyage dans Paris - Le Seizième Arrondissement de Paris

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Daniel goes on to mention that the city of Paris is split into two banks, la Rive droite (the Right Bank) and la Rive gauche (the Left Bank), as the river Seine traverses the length of the city:

Nous sommes ici dans le seizième arrondissement.

We are here in the sixteenth arrondissement.

C'est la Rive droite.

It's the Right Bank.

Et si l'on traverse la Seine, on passe donc Rive gauche...

And if we cross the Seine, we then pass then to the Left Bank...

Captions 39-40, Voyage dans Paris - Le Seizième Arrondissement de Paris

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Interestingly, by simply crossing the Seine, you can jump from the 16th arrondissement to the 7th. If that doesn’t seem logical, it’s because of the city's snail-shaped arrangement, as shown on this map.

...et on passe donc dans le septième arrondissement.

...and we arrive then in the seventh arrondissement.

Caption 41, Voyage dans Paris - Le Seizième Arrondissement de Paris

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In any case, the Seine is never far away. Not only is it an important geographical feature but also an integral part of Parisian culture. In her video, Patricia invites you to stroll along les quais de la Seine (the banks of the Seine), among other things:

Et on peut aussi bien naviguer sur la Seine

And one can just as well sail over the Seine

en bateau-mouche

by "bateau-mouche" [tourist boat, literally "fly-boat"]

que flâner au bord de ses quais.

as stroll along its banks.

Captions 44-45, Le saviez-vous? - Le romantisme français

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Indeed, the Seine is a permanent fixture along with its many bridges—thirty-seven of them. In Daniel's opinion, le pont Alexandre Trois (Alexander the Third Bridge) is one of the most beautiful of them:

Et vous aurez... devant vous, bien sûr, la Seine,

And you will have... in front of you, of course, the Seine,

et aussi la vue sur un des plus beaux ponts de la capitale,

as well as the view of one of the most beautiful bridges in the capital,

le pont Alexandre Trois.

the Alexander the Third Bridge.

Captions 6-7, Voyage dans Paris - Le Pont Alexandre III

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But there are many other interesting ponts, such as le Pont-Neuf (New Bridge), which incidentally no longer lives up to its name, as it's the oldest bridge in Paris. You can learn more about le Pont-Neuf and Paris's many other bridges in Daniel's video on the subject:

À quelques centaines de mètres du pont des Arts,

A few hundred meters from the Pont des Arts,

voici le Pont-Neuf,

here is the Pont-Neuf [New Bridge],

qui malgré son nom, est le plus ancien pont de Paris.

which, despite its name, is the oldest bridge in Paris.

Captions 11-12, Voyage dans Paris - Ponts de Paris

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As you stroll along the Seine admiring its bridges, you will come across two islands: l'île Saint-Louis (Saint Louis Island) and l'île de la Cité (City Island). On l'île de la Cité, you will discover the iconic cathédrale Notre-Dame:

Sur l'île de la Cité vous trouverez bien sûr

On the Île de la Cité you will find, of course,

la cathédrale Notre-Dame.

the Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Caption 4, Voyage dans Paris - L'Île Saint-Louis

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Thank you for taking this quick stroll through Paris with us. You can explore many more sites in our Voyage dans Paris series.

Memorizing the gender of nouns referring to things is one of the most difficult parts of learning French, as assigning gender to an object or concept is unfamiliar to native English speakers. Is there any logic to this process? In many cases, it seems arbitrary, and there’s no way of guessing. Fortunately, some categories of nouns do follow logical rules. 

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For example, it is indeed possible to identify the gender of a country based on its ending. La France is a feminine noun because it ends in e. (Note that we say la France even though it’s a proper noun. Unlike in English, all names of countries are preceded by an article in French.)

Le nom de la France vient du mot "Franc"

The name of France comes from the word "Franc" [Frank]

Caption 3, Le saviez-vous? D'où vient le nom de la France?

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That said, there are always exceptions. Even though it also ends in an e, le Mexique (Mexico) is masculine:

Maintenant avec leur aide, partons sur-le-champ conquérir le Mexique!

Now with their aid, let's leave at once to conquer Mexico!

Caption 29, Il était une fois: Les Amériques 9. Cortés et les Aztèques - Part 8

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But as for countries that don’t end in an e, it’s easy! They are automatically masculine: le Canada, le Japon, le Luxembourg (Canada, Japan, Luxembourg).

Pierre Trudeau, Premier Ministre du Canada, a dit que c'était une loi de fou.

Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, said it was a crazy law.

Caption 28, Le Québec parle aux Français - Part 3

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What about cities? Do they follow the same rule as countries? Not exactly. The Académie Française (the official French language watchdog, if you will) doesn’t give a definite answer, noting that people tend to prefer masculine although feminine is often used in literary contexts. 

In the video below, we can tell that Paris is masculine because of the masculine past participle traversé (intersected):

Car Paris était traversé à l'époque par un aqueduc

For Paris was intersected at the time by an aqueduct

Caption 39, Voyage dans Paris Le Treizième arrondissement de Paris - Part 2

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French speakers often get around the gender ambiguity by using the expression c’est (it’s), which always requires a masculine agreement. Instead of saying Paris est belle or Paris est beau (Paris is beautiful), Sophie uses the phrase c’est + masculine to describe Paris:

C'est beau Paris comme ça.

Paris is beautiful like this.

Caption 1, Sophie et Patrice Paris, c'est gris

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The gender of languages is much more clear-cut. All languages are masculine, from le français (French) to le thaï (Thai):

Je crois que le français est une langue géniale.

I believe that French is a great language.

Caption 11, Allons en France Pourquoi apprendre le français?

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Note, however, that if you say "the French language" or "the Thai language" instead of just "French" or "Thai," you have to use the feminine, because the word langue (language) is feminine: la langue française, la langue thaïe.

Most foreign words are also masculine, in particular sports names and terms borrowed from English. It’s a simple matter of putting a masculine article like le (the) in front of the loanword:

Il aime le football.

He likes soccer.

Caption 33, Lionel L Les liaisons et le h aspiré

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On the other hand, native French sports terms are either masculine or feminine. For example, we have two words for “bicycle”: le vélo, which is masculine, and la bicyclette, which is feminine.

Tu peux faire du vélo

You can ride a bike

Caption 31, Amal et Caroline Le Parc de la Villette

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Most inanimate nouns follow no predictable pattern when it comes to gender. When we talk about feelings, for example, we say le bonheur (happiness) but la joie (joy): 

Y a de la joie. On est avec les petits.

There's good cheer. We are with the little ones.

Caption 45, Actu Vingtième Fête du quartier Python-Duvernois

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C'est quand le bonheur?

When is happiness?

Caption 9, Cali C'est quand le bonheur

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To complicate things further, some words take both genders, and their meaning changes depending on whether they're masculine or feminine (we discuss this at length in our lesson One Word, Two Genders). For example, un livre is "a book," but une livre is "a pound": 

L'extérieur d'un livre s'appelle la couverture.

The outside of a book is called the cover.

Caption 4, Manon et Clémentine Vocabulaire du livre

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Une livre équivaut à environ quatre cent cinquante-quatre grammes. 

One pound is equal to around four hundred fifty-four grams.

And there is a small group of noun pairs that have slightly different meanings in the masculine and feminine that aren't conveyed in English. For example, the words an and année both mean "year," but the masculine an emphasizes a point in time or a unit of time, while the feminine année stresses duration: 

Un manuscrit de mille deux cents ans

A one thousand two hundred year old manuscript

Caption 9, Télé Lyon Métropole Un manuscrit vieux de 1200 ans découvert à Lyon

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Ça fait des années et des années qu'ils cherchent à être logés.

For years and years they've sought housing.

Captions 35-36, Actus Quartier Devant la SNCF

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Whether you’ve been studying French pendant des années (for years) or you’ve only just begun, with practice, remembering the gender of nouns will become easier. Thank you for reading the final lesson of this series!