13th Arrondissement - Gobelins: Paris

If ever you say when you are in Paris that you are going to the 13th people think you are either going to shop or see a film at the commercial center at Place d'Italie,going to Paris's Chinatown to shop for cheap veggies or to eat out a la Asiatique. This is possibly the least touristy and the least scenic of the 20 arrondissements of Paris, were it not for the Butte-Aux-Cailles, a small quaint village-like neighborhood situated atop one of Paris' nine hills. The Butte-Aux-Cailles, is for some, one of the most interesting Parisian neighborhoods and is where hipsters not of the St. Germain variety have found hangouts at many of the modestly priced restaurants and bars that abound. Spilling off from the 14th , are several artists ateliers and commercial galleries. One the side of art, perhaps the most interesting thing to be found here, aside from the varying, hodge podge architecture, is Les Gobelins, an old tapestry factory of the French aristocracy... that and here in this arrondissement you will get to see how everyday Parisians from almost every social millieu, except of course those at the tippy top, live.