Paris/13th arrondissement

The 13th arrondissement of Paris is primarily a residential and business district in the southeast of Paris, on the Left Bank of the Seine.

Although not usually recognised as a natural magnet for tourists, the 13th nonetheless does hold several attractions of interest to the traveller that include the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (national library), completed in 1996, and part of a major new development of the Paris rive gauche district, the second large-scale urbanism project inside the city of Paris.

To the west of the PRG, along avenue de Tolbiac is the first of these urbanism projects, Les Olympiades, with its raised esplanade and the latest of the Paris Meteor (high-speed metro) stops, Les Olympiades. The southern part of the arrondissement is the Chinatown of Paris, perhaps the biggest in Europe.

On foot
The easy walk to the 13th arrondissement from the centre of Paris (Île de la Cité) takes around 40 minutes, either through back streets or along the Seine promenade. It can be a very pleasant walk: you can walk across the Latin Quarter, for example, through the rue Mouffetard in the Paris/5th arrondissement.

By métro
You can get to the 13th arrondissement using 3 metro lines:
 * Line serves Gobelins' near the Manufacture des Gobelins, Place d'Italie, Tolbiac (good entrance point for Chinatown), Maison-Blanche, and Porte d'Italie, Porte de Choisy and Porte d'Ivry. You will get to these three stations only if you take a train that goes in the Mairie d'Ivry direction. Other trains take another direction and leave Paris immediately after Maison-Blanche.
 * Line serves Glacière, Corvisart, Place_d'Italie, Nationale, Chevaleret, near the avant-garde art galleries of rue Louise-Weiss, and Quai de la Gare, near the Bat-O-Far and other.
 * Line serves Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand (near the new Bibliothèque de France), Olympiades, Maison-Blanche, before heading to Orly Airport starting in June of 2024.

By bus

 * Line 27: Orange in colour
 * Line 47: Pink in colour
 * Line 61: Dark green in colour
 * Line 62: Brown in colour.
 * Line 64: goes from Gambetta to Place d'Italie. Turquoise/light green in colour
 * Line 67: Pink in colour
 * Line 83: Dark yellow in colour

All of these lines stop at Place d'Italie.


 * Line 89: Light blue in colour.
 * Line 325: Light blue in colour. Heads to Château de Vincennes via the suburbs.

Do
Stroll across the Seine on the Pont Simone de Beauvoir pedestrian bridge from the Bibliotheque Nationale to the Parc de Bercy (in the 12th arrondissement).

Eat


The south part of the district, in the high-rise Chinatown area, is the good place to go if you like Chinese or Vietnamese food. Many outlets sell Vietnamese sandwiches. The area is not the best for getting cheap, good quality Chinese food. Elsewhere the 13th has some standouts.



Budget
All of the following hotels are near Place d'Italie, where public transportation is excellent.