Upvote:6
You should be careful with what people are telling you about Paris :)
From one street to another, the situation can be drastically different. So if you stay in the 9th arrondiss*m*nt, you will find tourist places but you will also mostly find residential and office areas. People probably tell you that this is a big tourist place because of the retail stores around the Opera but you can stay away from these.
Upvote:6
Paris is expensive; Paris is full of tourists.
The 9th arrondiss*m*nt, like every other arrondiss*m*nt (except maybe the 1st) offer a wide assortment of dwellers, lot of families, lot of office workers.
There are schools in the area (my way of knowing if it is locals or tourists) , so you know there are families; if there are families, there are proximity stores ( food, clothing...) and restaurants and cafés.
IMO, the area between Métro Saint-Georges and Métro Poissonière is nice.
(crap, now I want to go back to Paris !!)