The Essential Guide to the 13th Arrondissement

6 February 2026 by Elizabeth Cummings    829  
The Essential Guide to the 13th Arrondissement
Elizabeth Cummings
By Elizabeth Cummings
Head to the 13th arrondissement to get a feel for how Parisians actually live. It’s a Left-Bank neighborhood that has a lot packed in — it has quaint art-filled streets and venerated cultural institutions, modern high rises and converted industrial buildings, and it is a melting pot of people, with large Chinese, Vietnamese, and North African populations. The district is made up of four quartiers — Croulebarbe, Salpêtrière, la Gare, and Maison-Blanche — each with its own distinct character. Things to See and Do The Croulebarbe area has traces of some of the oldest layers of Paris. The late-medieval La Manufacture des Gobelins is still active today, producing tapestries while also housing a museum and the Mobilier National, the repository for all the furniture and textiles from the presidential palace and other government buildings. As you wander the neighborhood streets, keep an eye on the ground: small stepping stones mark the former path of the Bièvre River, which once flowed from southeast of Paris through the 13th and into the Seine. Lined with tanneries, slaughterhouses, and dye shops, the river became heavily polluted and was eventually covered over—though recent efforts have explored the possibility of uncovering sections of it again.  Manufacture des Gobelins. Photo: AirForceMoine / Wikimedia commons La Butte-aux-Cailles is a creative enclave tucked into the shadow of the ungainly Italie Deux tower. Its street-art-filled lanes recall Montmartre, but without the crowds and tourist crush. This picturesque pocket is home to the historic Piscine de la Butte-aux-Cailles, as well as the puits artésian (water fountain) just outside, where locals regularly line up to fill bottles with artesian water drawn from an aquifer 600 meters underground.  Water fountain in the Butte aux Cailles. Photo: Elizabeth Cummings In the Maison Blanche southern stretch of the arrondissement, around the Triangle de Choisy — often called La Petite Asie — is home to many Asian immigrants and their descendants. Ho Chi Minh himself lived in the 13th from 1919 to 1921. This area is also known for its modernist high-rises, many of which have entire facades decorated with murals. Riding the elevated Métro Line 6 through this zone is especially fun — it feels a bit like gliding through a cityscape on a Disney monorail. 
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Lead photo credit : Street art - men and fish - in the Butte aux Cailles. Photo: Elizabeth Cummings

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By Elizabeth Cummings

Chicagoan Elizabeth Cummings recently moved back to Paris, 20 years after living there during her Junior Year Abroad Program. She is a culture and museum professional, and in addition to this, Elizabeth is an avid traveler, a voracious reader, and also enjoys bantering with friends. Her favorite places in Paris are its innumerable pharmacies for beauty products, Chocolaterie Illèné in Montmartre, and the Jardin des Plantes in the Veme arrondissement, which has some of the oldest trees in Paris.