We're preparing for our 4th trip to Paris, and I'm exploring ideas for activities and eating that might be a little different. I can't recall ever reading or hearing if Paris has a Chinese/Asian neighborhood with restaurants, markets, and shops.

We have traveled in parts of SE Asia(Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bali) and we live in an area (Atlanta) that has a large Asian population, so we've come to love quite a few Asian dishes, and we like trying them in different countries. Will I find Asian restaurants in a concentrated area, or are they more spread out? Thanks, Barb

13th arrondissement, around the Metro station of Port d'Ivry (Ligne 7) in SE Paris.

Yes, the 13th arrondissement especially between Avenue d'Ivry, Blvd Masséna and Avenue de Choisy.
There are lots of Asian restaurants in other parts of Paris.

That would be <u>Indo</u>chinatown?

(Historical note - for the MTV generation: <i>Indochine</i> is what the French called Viet Nam when it was their colony. This state of affairs terminated in 1954 at a place called Dien Bien Phu.)

&quot;That would be Indochinatown?
(Historical note - for the MTV generation: Indochine is what the French called Viet Nam when it was their colony. This state of affairs terminated in 1954 at a place called Dien Bien Phu.)&quot;

What the French called &quot;Indochine&quot; was not only Vietnam but also Laos and Cambodia. And BTW it seems to me that the state of affairs terminated in Vietnam in the 70's on the roof of the US embassy in Saigon.

Considering the fact that the 13th arrondissement is also the home of Chinese immigrants (either from China or French Polynesia/New Caledonia/French Guyana/Indonesia) and that the main languages are Teochew and Cantonese, it would be hard to qualify the 13th arrondissement as Indochinatown.

Incidentally, there is also a Chinese district, much less known, in the 3rd arrondissement.

The post before mine, &quot;There are lots of Asian restaurants in other parts of Paris&quot; was the target of my suggestion. So your erudite corrections have no referent.

And Indochina was a French colony in 1975? Who knew?

&quot;The post before mine&quot;


How elegant....



, &quot;There are lots of Asian restaurants in other parts of Paris&quot; was the target of my suggestion. So your erudite corrections have no referent.
Nothing erudite about my &quot;corrections&quot;, just plain facts. Are all Chinese restaurants in NYC located in Chinatown?
And your suggestion was...........???

&quot;And Indochina was a French colony in 1975? Who knew?&quot;
Just as Indochine was &quot;what the French called Vietnam&quot;. Who didn't know???
))

I recall walking through blocks of mostly Chinese storefronts in the 3rd. These were retailers of goods and curios as well as a few restaurants. Not at all what I call a conventional Chinatown (meaning an area that the Chinese business community &quot;markets&quot; to tourists by promoting a certain kind of architecture, decorations, businesses, etc) but this was a business strip of Chinese retailers. The people walking around the area were mostly Asian.

Stuff was closed as it was a Sunday I think and it appeared a bit dead, perhaps it's usually a more lively area.

I think there's also a Chinatown in Belleville.

On our trip to Paris last month, my daughter said she absolutely desperately wanted Chinese food. We were near the Eiffel Tower, and we didn't have anything planned for the time period before an evening play we were attending. So we decided to keep walking until we found something suitable, with no particular destination in mind. We found a Chinese restaurant by the tower quite quickly, but it wasn't open yet. We just kept on walking in a meandering fashion, and found a reasonably priced place, run by a very nice Cantonese-speaking family, near the Emilie Zola metro stop. That said, it wasn't as good as Chinese restaurants in Vancouver, but few places are.

I think a Chinese restaurant is typically called Traiteur Asiatique, as are some other Asian restaurants, but you can tell if the restaurant is Chinese by the characters (not to mention the description on the sign in French).

WillTravel, you're right about Belleville, lots of Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants around the Belleville Metro station. I was just there three weeks ago today.

Anselm

There's also the Avenue Brady in the 10th. This is small concentration of asian restaurants -some of which are excellent.

We will be in the Marais and would like to ask where, more specifically, is the Chinese area you mention in the 3rd???

There are 4 Chinatowns in Paris.
In order of size:
1. 13th arrondissement (Olympiades, Porte de Choisy, Porte d'Ivry, etc.). There is a remarkable McDonald's on avenue d'Ivry with its sign and menu in Chinese.
2. Belleville.
3. Marx Dormoy (rue de Torcy, rue de l'Evangile, etc.)
4. Arts-et-M&eacute;tiers (rue au Maire and envrons -- this is the first neighborhood where Chinese and Southeast Asians settled in the 1950's).

In addition, there are now some large Chinese communities in the suburbs -- Ivry-sur-Seine, which is near the 13th arrondissement, but also Torcy and Lognes. Immense zones of Chinese supermarkets, hairdressers, hardware stores, tailors, etc.

The population of east Asian origin in the Paris metropolitan area is about 200,000. Most of them have French nationality because the Chinese, Indochinese and Thai immigrants are the fastest to request naturalization.

However, most immigration from Asia to France is currently coming from west Asia, notably Sri Lanka and India.