Having largely escaped the depredations of modern development, as well as the heavy-handed attentions of Baron Haussmann, the Marais , comprising most of the 3e and 4e arrondissements, remains one of the most seductive districts of Paris - old, secluded, as lively and lighthearted by night as it is by day. Through the middle, dividing it in two, roughly north and south, runs the lengthy rue de Rivoli and its continuation rue St-Antoine, which leads to the Bastille. South of this line is the quartier St-Paul-St-Gervais, the riverside, the Arsenal, and the Île St-Louis. In the more heterogeneous and eclectic north are most of the Marais' shops and museums, the elegant place des Vosges, Jewish quarter, quartier du Temple, and rue des Francs-Bourgeois , the main lateral street of the northern part of the Marais, which also forms the boundary between the 3e and 4e arrondissements.

 

Originally, the area was little more than a riverside swamp ( marais ). However, in the thirteenth century, the Knights Templar settled in its northern section, now known as the quartier du Temple , and began to drain the land. It became a magnet for the aristocracy in the early 1600s after the construction of the place des Vosges - or place Royale, as it was then known - by Henri IV in 1605. This golden era was relatively short-lived, however, as the aristocracy began to move away after the king took his court to Versailles in the latter part of the seventeenth century, leaving their mansions to the trading classes, who were in turn displaced during the Revolution. Thereafter, the masses moved in, the mansions were transformed into decaying multi-occupied slum tenements and the streets degenerated into unserviced squalor - and stayed that way until the 1960s.

Since then, gentrification has proceeded apace, and the quartier is now known for its exclusivity, sophistication, and artsy leanings. It's also the neighbourhood of choice for gay Parisians, who are to be credited with bringing both business and style to the area. Renovated mansions, their intimate cobbled courtyards hidden behind magnificent portes cochères (huge double carriage gates), have become museums, libraries, offices and chic flats, flanked by chichi boutiques, ethnic grocers, and crowded cafés, bars and restaurants.