The Chinatown in the 13th arrondissement, also known as “Le Triangle de Choisy,” is easily recognized by the huge apartment blocs that were built between 1968 and 1975. This was the result of an ambitious postwar urban renewal project called Italie 13.
Initially, these towers were meant to be home to young professionals. However, as the towers were viewed as ugly and undesirable by most Parisians, the area never managed to attract young professionals. Instead, they were slowly occupied by some refugees from the newly independent Indochinese countries (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos), many of whom were of ethnic Chinese background. And the rest is history.
For more on the fascinating history of the Italie 13 project, I recommend checking out the article:
Jacqueline Feldman (on CityLab)
The area is full of Vietnamese sandwich shops, but my favourite is Khai Tri on Avenue d’Ivry.
What I really appreciate about the Chinatown in the 13th arrondissement is its authenticity. Some Chinatowns around the world have become major tourist attractions. But Paris’ biggest Chinatown continues to be where the Asian communities live, eat, socialise, pray, study and shop. There is almost no tourist around, just curious Parisians browsing through exotic foodstuff in the massive Chinese supermarkets like Tang Frères and Paris Store. You can go for blocs without crossing a non-Asian person and find plenty of tea rooms that have 100% Asian clientele. But this being Paris, you will find a lot of interactions across different identities as well: Muslim families dining in a Thai restaurant; an African man working in a Chinese-owned butchery; an elderly Jewish woman shopping in an Asian grocery store. Far away from the tourist attractions and the priviledged neighbourhoods of Paris, one finds a surprisingly peaceful coexistence in this Chinatown.
My visit to “Le Triangle de Choisy” is not complete without a stop at the tea room L’Empire des Thés, which sells a wide variety of Chinese tea.
Les Flâneries 
My younger son lived in this quarter when he was a student in Paris, and he took me to some interesting Vietnamese restaurants in this neighborhood.
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Excellent ! It feels like a little piece of southeast Asia in the middle of Paris. The French writer, Michel Houellebecq, lives in one of those high-rise towers in the area as well.
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