Le Marais is a historic district where medieval street patterns meet aristocratic hôtels particuliers and later cultural institutions. Its survival owes much to preservation policies that began in the 1960s after long periods of neglect.
Quick facts
Paris’s Marais safeguarded heritage sector was created in 1964 and covers 126 hectares across parts of the 3rd and 4th arrondissements.
Place Royale, now Place des Vosges, was begun in 1605 and completed in 1612; a royal carousel celebrating a double marriage marked its inauguration.
Le Village, identified by the City of Paris as the Marais’s first gay bar, opened at 12 rue du Plâtre in December 1978.
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Guide
Le Marais is a lived-in part of central Paris, not a single monument or a district with one universally agreed boundary. In everyday use, the name covers adjoining streets and places in the 3rd and 4th arrondissements. A more precise outline belongs to its protected heritage area: the City of Paris says the Marais’s 1964 safeguarded sector covers 126 hectares across those two arrondissements.
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