Rive Droite
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La Rive Droite (The Right Bank) is most associated with the river Seine in central Paris. Here the river flows roughly westwards, cutting the city into two: the Rive Droite (Right Bank), to the north and the Rive Gauche (Left Bank), to the south.
Owing to its association with places such as Place Vendôme, the Right Bank can now be used to refer to a level of elegance and sophistication not found in the more bohemian Left Bank. The Right Bank's most famous street is undeniably the Champs-Élysées, but there are others of prominence, such as Rue de la Paix, Rue de Rivoli and Avenue Montaigne.
If the Left Bank used to be more carefree in the past, soaring rents in recent decades have been driving away students, artists and marginal populations, while bookstores and popular bistros were being replaced by luxury boutiques and sushi restaurants. The Right bank is more contrasted. Very affluent neighborhoods in the west of the Right Bank (8th, 16th and the south of the 17th arrondissement) are balanced by the utterly popular and immigrant 18th, 19th and 20th arrondissements in the north-east.
Therefore, if we had to draw a boundary between the Right and Left Bank, instead of luxury vs. bohemia, it would be more between a hectic, functional, commercial and densely populated Right Bank, where lies the heart of the "modern" city, between Gare du Nord and Chatelet and a quieter, greener and more peripheral Left Bank. Whereas most of the top companies and banks are located on the Right Bank, as well as most of the clubs and discos, one finds more public institutions on the Left Bank, universities, ministries, hospitals and the like.
