By Sophie Nellis

Chinatown: A taste of modern Paris…

High-rise buildings are so unusual in Paris that getting off the metro at Olympiades often feels like stepping into a different city. Welcome to the 13th arrondissement, where sixties architecture meets Paris’ main Chinatown.

During the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, the area south of Place d’Italie was home to a number of large factories and this was a predominantly working-class neighbourhood. After the Second World War, Paris’s urban planners decided to give this area a face-lift, and over the following decades the factories moved out into the suburbs and the slums were replaced by high-rise tower blocks.

The name of the Olympiades metro station comes from a particular group of residential towers, known as Les Olympiades, which were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s along a large concrete esplanade. Eight of the tallest towers are named after cities that have hosted the Olympic games, and at the centre of the esplanade there are a number of pagoda-style pavilions which houses a shopping centre.

You may not find it beautiful but visiting the 13th reveals a side of Parisian architecture that you don’t see in the central arrondissements. Plus, it’s the best place to go in Paris if you like asian food. Since the 1980s, waves of immigrants from China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos have transformed the 13th, specifically the area between Rue de Tolbiac, Avenue de Choisy and Boulevard Massena, into a vibrant and exotic Chinatown.

There are over 150 restaurants in this quartier, serving food from across Asia. Favourites include Pho 14 (129 Avenue de Choisy), a simple Vietnamese bistro that specializes in pho soups, and Lao-Thai (128 Rue Tolbiac), which serves Thai and Laotian food. And if you fancy cooking something yourself there’s the enormous Tang Frères supermarket on Avenue d’Ivry. On Sunday 1st February, to celebrate Chinese New Year, there will be a parade starting here at 1:30pm. Search here for more information.

Other highlights of the 13th include the huge Bibliothèque Nationale de France, commissioned under President Mitterand in the late 1980s and located on the River Seine, and the picturesque neighbourhood known as the Butte-aux-Cailles. The literal translation of this name is the hill of the quails, and whilst there aren’t any quails anymore this area has retained a somewhat village-like atmosphere and is now home to a number of delightful bars and cafes. After the hustle and bustle of Chinatown, this is the perfect place for a quiet apero.