While Paris is still an amazing place to catch historic sites, have world-class cuisine, check out the hautest of coutures, and stay at a number of jaw-dropping luxury hotels, there are quite a few things happening in the city that give it an exciting feel for the upcoming years.

PANTIN, France — I live just outside Paris, beyond the Périphérique, the eternally clogged ring road that separates the City of Light from its suburban areas of darkness. My neighborhood is in Pantin, where the infamous northeastern suburbs — the banlieues — begin. When I told one Parisian where I lived during casual chatter at a dinner party in the chic Marais quarter, he actually stepped away from me and blurted: “Quelle horreur!” But it isn’t a horrible place. And it’s where, for better or worse, a new France is being forged. Read More

To mark the launch of its latest games console, Microsoft France will transform the Hôtel O in Paris into a space dedicated entirely to the Xbox One.

The Xbox One Hotel will open to the public on Nov. 22, the same day that Microsoft launches its new console. The Hôtel O, which belongs to the Elegancia hotel group and was originally designed by Ora Ito, has been entirely redecorated for the occasion. Read More

I read with amusement the essay by Thomas Chatterton Williams on “How hipsters ruined Paris” (Review, Nov. 9-10), and how “organic grocers,” “tasteful bistros” and “upscale cocktail bars” have gradually replaced the seedy, crumbling streets overrun by hookers in which he describes wistfully that he used to feel uncomfortable. Read More