The following extracts are from an article that appeared in Financial Times Weekend, 5/November 6 2005
All big cities have some areas that are more popular and sought-after than others – but islands are a special case, writes Gwenda Brophy
Most cities are rich tapestries made up of different neighbourhoods and quarters, each with its own distinct identity reflecting a particular history and culture. But in some cases there is a physical as well as psychological separation. From Guidecca in Venice to Ile St Louis in Paris to Java in Amsterdam, these city islands are very much part of their conurbations but equally places apart.
While Venice’s Guidecca is re-emerging as a coveted locale, Paris’s Ile St Louis has retained an air of exclusivity across the centuries. A third of a mile long and 200 yards wide, facing the Right Bank and Marais to the north and the Left bank’s latin quarter to the south, the island is a microcosm of the wider city, from the street accordionist and streetlamps to the bateaux-mouches glimpsed on each side of the island as they glide along the Seine casting light and shadows on to the quais and sidestreets at night.
Although tourists venture over the footbridge into the western half of Ile St Louis from the Notre Dame and Ile de la Cité end, they dwindle off eastward, leaving residents to enjoy the island’s long-established, family-run patisseries, cheesemongers and bakeries on their own. The island “has a village feel”, says Marie-Pierre Saint-Martin of independent search agent London Paris Dream Home. “Everyone living here knows one another due to its small size.”
Most homes on Ile St Louis are located on the banks of the river, giving views across it. The cobbled quais are lined with the frontages of the substantial stone houses built for the courtiers of Louis XIV, behind which are vast secluded courtyards. “Some old French families still own a few exceptional buildings and apartments, as with the Rothschilds, whose family mansion is on the quai d’Anjou,” says Jean Philippe Roux of Knight Frank’s Paris office. “However, [most] have sold their hôtels particuliers over the years, and they have been divided into various apartments.”
Prices for properties on the island start at 10,000 euros per sq metre, making it one of the most expensive places to live in Paris, according to Saint-Martin, who recently sold a 2.5m euros two-bedroom apartment with a maid’s studio flat and underground garage to Parisian buyers.
Roux estimates that property on the island sells at a 30 per cent premium to Le Marais, which is itself an expensive area located on the other side of the river. “It’s double for apartments located on the quais offering direct views on the river and the latin quarter,” he adds.
Residents of Ile St Louis have always included wealthy intellectuals, artists and politicians; Voltaire, Cézanne, Baudelaire and Chagall, as well as Racine, Hemingway and President Pompidou have all lived there at one time. But, says Roux, non-French buyers now account for half of sales.
Saint-Martin confirms the influx from abroad. “Many foreigners, mainly American and Italian, but also British and Irish, are buying,” she says. “What [they] find is a unique setting. You can live in parts of Paris that offer palaces and haute couture boutiques but Ile St Louis is far more authentic. It really gives you a sense of the Parisian ‘art de vivre’, in an historic environment.”
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