The French Quarter is a beautiful part of Bangkok, presently being renovated after years of neglect. This blog site brings you a recent cycle in July 2024, during renovation, and what the area looked like back in October 2021 when I first decided to walk around it.

The site itself was the original commercial district for the Portuguese and later the French in the 19th century. Both Embassies are within walking distance of each other.

Concentrating on my cycling, the roads around the area are narrow, with the old-style French architecture present all around, although, it is presently been renovated with giant screens protecting it, but I will show you what it looked like back in 2021.

I started my adventure at the French Embassy, a beautiful and well-maintained building. When I wrote this, the French were hosting the Olympic Games in Paris.

Back in 2021, most of the streets were accessible, although preliminary work had already begun on the old riverfront warehouses.

There were many murals and artwork on the surrounding walls, and my wife and I came across a group of enthusiastic French students who, like myself, were fascinated by the artwork. It all looked amazing.

The biggest problem in October 2021 was the risk of flooding. In some areas, groundwater was gurgling from below onto the road. Sandbags had been distributed to protect the fragile areas.

The area then and now has a large Muslim community, who were and still are very friendly.

In 2021, we were slowly coming out of Covid-19. We had taken it upon ourselves to go for a walk before the tourists arrived back in their droves.

In 2024, we were there purely to piece together this and to see how far the contractors had got with what I am sure is a complex renovation job. Much of what we wanted to see was out of bounds to us, but we made the most of what we could. Both in 2021 and today, we saw a few cycle excursions passing us, proving that the area is of significant importance to both Bangkok’s history and present-day tourism.