If you're arriving in Paris via train from the north (Amsterdam, Copenhagen, London, etc.), there is a chance that the Gare du Nord will be your first impression of Paris. The station itself is located in the 10th arrondissement. It's the grandest of the 19th century train stations, boxed in by major traffic thoroughfares the Boulevard de Magenta and the Boulevard de La Chapelle. The overall impression is a place for people in transit, rather bleak and lacking in character.
Aside from Peter Brook's charmingly dilapidated theatre Les Bouffes du Nord, which sometimes stages plays in English, the area has little to offer on the cultural or historical front. It does, however, boast an abundance of transportation options and budget hotels. Beyond the Boulevard de La Chapelle to the north is the notorious "Goutte D'Or" immigrant ghetto, which is currently in the throes of a major clean-up. New businesses and ahead-of-the curve artists are moving into a neighborhood once known for abject squalor and the drugs trade. The incredible diversity of the neighborhood is reflected in its exotic shops, where anything from plantains to halal meat to organic groceries can be found.
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