You may (or may not) have noticed that Paris is split in small areas, twenty of them. An area is called an “arrondissement”.
They are numbered from 1 to 20. They spiral around Paris, exactly like a snail’s shell. The small numbers are in the center.
The arrondissements in the center are smaller. There are 6 arrondissements on the left bank and 14 arrondissements on the right bank.
Each arrondissement has it own hall and mayor. At each election (every 6 years, coming up next year), the mayors, deputies and other officials are elected, then vote for a super-mayor. This one goes to rule and represent Paris for the next 6 years. At the moment, it’s a woman: Mrs Anne Hidalgo.
The wealthiest arrondissements have right-wing mayors and deputies, while the poorest ones have left-wing mayors and deputies. Here’s a map of the arrondissements regarding the political color of their elected officials. Beware, in France, red is fow left-wing and blue is for right-wing.
As you can see, the wealthiest arrondissements, who vote blue, are in the West of the city. The red ones are in the East. There’s almost a line between them, a vertical line going North to South and splitting Paris in two.
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