A Walking Tour of Neuilly-sur-Seine

Bienvenue à Neuilly-sur-Seine, a Western suburb directly adjacent to Paris, France.

Neuilly-sur-Seine is very close to Paris. It’s a 10-minute walk to the Paris city line and a 15-minute metro ride/20 minute walk to the Arc de Triomphe. The easy metro commute from Neuilly-sur-Seine to Paris or La Défense, a major business district west of Paris, makes the area desirable for people who work in the city, but prefer to live in a quieter neighborhood—pretty much the same reason why people live in Fairfield County or Westchester County, then commute to New York City.

It’s easier to say that I live in Paris, then clarify later in the conversation that I live in a Parisian suburb. Otherwise, I’d spend too much time coaching each one of my friends and family members how to pronounce Neuilly-sur-Seine (new-yee sewer sen is the best pronunciation I can come up with for American English).

As I continue to adjust to Parisian living, it’s worth pointing out that living in a suburb like Neuilly-sur-Seine makes a major, positive impact. It’s safe, it’s quiet and most people speak English enough so they understand my broken French.  If I do want to go out in Canal St. Martin or Bastille, everything in the city is only a metro ride away.

 

There’s an illustration in Paris vs. New York: A Tally of Two Cities that assigns Parisian arrondissements to their New York counterparts. You can read how some of the neighborhoods matched up, but the author paired Neuilly-sur-Seine and Boulogne-Billancourt with Central Park.

If I had to pair Neuilly-sur-Seine with a town in Connecticut, it would be Greenwich. There’s no beach or ocean in Paris *sigh* so there’s not really an equivalent in Rhode Island.

Neuilly-sur-Seine city centre is basically avenue du Roule—you’ll find pretty much everything you could possibly need there. The pool, Centre Aquatique de Neuilly-sur-Seine, is located on 27-31 boulevard d’Inkermann.

One of the hardest adjustments moving from the United States to Paris was figuring out where to run errands. It’s less expensive to go shopping at La Defense, but it can be a pain to go there from Neuilly-sur-Seine every day to buy groceries. I was left asking myself if I should I go to the Carrefour City down the street or the Monoprix by the metro? How does shopping at the French market work? Where am I supposed to get a bikini wax?!

Où faire les courses ?

Here are some of my favorite recommendations for where to run errands around Neuilly-sur-Seine:

Supermarché (supermarket)

• Monoprix
• Usually the most expensive supermarché, but has superior quality and their generic brands have very reasonable prices; home delivery is available; also sells home goods, beauty, and apparel
• 72-80 avenue Charles de Gaulle
• Metro: Les Sablons, exit Louis Philippe

Marché (market)

• Marché de Neuilly-sur-Seine
• The city’s local market is held Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays from early in the morning until roughly 13h
• Place du Marché
• Metro: Les Sablons, exit Place du Marché

Boulangerie, option 1 (bakery)

• Boulangerie de Sablonville
• All of the amazing French pastries and bread you could want, but the pain au chocolat is special and unlike anywhere else
• 33 rue de Sablonville
• Metro: Les Sablons, exit Place du Marché

Pressing (dry cleaning)

• 5 à Sec
• The commercial chain is pretty straightforward, just like a dry cleaner in the United States. FYI, if you’re taking a suit, they ask if you want a basic pressing or a cleaning and pressing
• 39 rue de Sablonville
• Metro: Les Sablons, exit Place du Marché

Fleuriste (florist)

• Happy
• Beautiful, fresh flower bouquets to bring to parties or brighten up the apartment
• 2 Bis rue du Château
• Metro: Pont de Neuilly, exit rue du Château

Boulangerie, option 2

• Maison Lepareur
• My boyfriend’s coworkers who live in Neuilly-sur-Seine unanimously agreed that this is is the best bakery in the city, the baguette and pastries are even more unreal the typical French bakery
• 25 rue du Château
• Metro: Pont de Neuilly, exit rue du Château

Épilation du Maillot et Ongles (bikini waxing and nails)

• duboutdesongles
• Found this salon through Treatwell, an app that locates deals on spas and hairdressers in Paris and was impressed with the service (FYI French bikini waxes are way less painful than American ones)
• 10 rue Louis Philippe
• Metro: Les Sablons, exit Louis Philippe