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Map of Paris
Paris has no grid: it has a spider's web. In the nineteenth century the medieval streets were cut through by Haussmann's straight boulevards, which meet at squares where avenues radiate out like the points of a star. And through the middle, in a curve, runs the Seine.
What you see on the map
The Seine and its islands. The river crosses the map from side to side in a gentle arc. At the centre, the Île de la Cité, with Notre-Dame, and next to it the Île Saint-Louis: the oldest heart of the city.
Wedge-shaped blocks. Where the boulevards cut through the old pattern they leave triangular, pointed blocks. Drawn with their outline, they give Paris its stained-glass texture.
The star squares. Bastille, République and others: knots where several avenues set off at once.
The great open spaces. The Louvre and the Tuileries by the river, Les Invalides, the Luxembourg Gardens; and at the top, the fans of tracks running into the Gare du Nord and the Gare de l'Est, with the Canal Saint-Martin beside them.
Which scale and paper suit it
1:25,000 on a 30 cm square, as in the picture, takes in the historic centre, from Pigalle to Montparnasse and from the 7th arrondissement to the Bastille. At that scale the city is drawn as blocks, with their outline.
1:10,000 on A3 goes down to a single neighbourhood, the Marais or the Latin Quarter, with every building and every courtyard.
In blueprint, as here, it looks like an architect's plan; in black ink, like an engraving.
Make it yours
Open the example and move the centre west so that the Place de l'Étoile and its twelve avenues fit in, or to Montmartre, the one place in Paris where the contour lines show in the streets.
Change all the colours at once with a theme (black ink, sepia, night, blueprint) and download it as PNG. With a free account, also element by element, at 600 dpi, as vector PDF and as SVG.
