Near the beltway is the Cimetière de Montrouge, notable for its eight ossuaries. Actually it is not in Montrouge, a suburb located just across the Périphérique. This cemetery is the final resting place of Michel Colucci, popularly known as “Coluche”, a comedian whose humor is still in vogue almost 20 years after his death.

If you take the names of some of the important arteries, Porte d’Orleans appears to have a distinctly military provenance: Boulevard Brune (named for one of Napoleon’s marshals) and the Ave. du General Leclerc bisect and quarter the area, crossing at the post office on the Place du 25 Août 1944, the day Leclerc’s forces liberated Paris. The Avenue is also the street used by Leclerc's Division when he liberated the city. The Rue de la Légion Etrangère (Foreign Legion Street) continues as an extension south to the town of Montrouge, and to the east is the Avenue Jean Moulin, named for the founder of France’s World War II resistance movement.

However, the militaria stops off the Boulevard Brune along the streets parallel to the beltway leading up the Cité Universitaire, a residential area for international students that is reminiscent of an American college campus. Here, these streets are named for the opera composer Ernest Reyer, and Paul Appel, a mathematician and rector of the Academy of Paris.

This is a busy part of Paris, as many companies have their offices in Montrouge and the adjoining nearby suburbs, and the commuter traffic is infamous. The northern section has a busy, New York-like feel to it, which tapers off to the east and west. Close to where it abuts the Cité Universitaire, it becomes quite human: there is a skate-park in the Square de Serment du Koufra, where frequent events for children and the community are planned, and very elegant, if somewhat austere apartments line the Avenue Paul Appell, facing the greenery of the Stade Elizabeth (Elisabeth Stadium).

Shopping is abundant on the main avenues, with a wide variety of shops and super markets lining both sides of Ave Le Clerc. Parking, however, is at a premium owing to the dense traffic. There are also a great number of restaurants and numerous small one and two star hotels.