Mansion Global
Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens—three adjacent neighborhoods in Brooklyn—used to be known just by their actual names. Then real estate developers began referring to the area as BoCoCa as a marketing tool for selling new condos to Manhattanites in search of more space for less money. But now, the area southwest of downtown Brooklyn has a new moniker—“Little France,” or “Little Paris,” depending on whom you’re speaking to.
The emergence of several dual-language public schools in the area, followed by French shops and restaurants such as Provence en Boite and Bien Cuit, have over the past few years attracted quite the community of French nationals who have taken up residence in the neighborhood. The number of French vacationers visiting Brooklyn is also on the rise.
While it is true that French-speaking expats in New York City—thought to total around 180,000, when including patois and cajun—live all over, Brooklyn has a particularly large enclave, with around 3,000 French families estimated to be living in Carroll Gardens alone, according to the French Embassy.