China town

You should go to Place d'Italie(metro 5,6,7), the border of Chinatown are
Av. d'Ivry, Av. de Choisy and Blvd. Massena. On mondays most places are
closed.

There are 4 Chinatowns in Paris -- 2 big ones and 2 small ones. The biggest one is in the 13th arrondissement. The closest metro station is Olympiades. The second largest one is at Belleville (metro Belleville, 19th/20th arrondissement). It's true that a lot of places are closed on Monday because most shops are open on Sunday (by law, shops with employees -- as opposed to family-run shops -- must close at least one day a week).

The two smaller Chinatowns are at metro Marx Dormoy (18th) and metro Arts-et-Métiers (3rd). The Chinese area at Arts-et-Métiers is actually the oldest Chinese settlement in Paris. The reason that the main Chinatowns are in the 13th and 19th/20th are simply because gigantic housing projects were completed in those areas exactly in 1975 when hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese left South Vietnam (most of whom were of Chinese origin). The apartments were available in those areas, and they moved in. Over the years, the Indochinese population has been completed with "real" Chinese from China, as well as Hong Kongese, Thais, and other populations from Southeast Asia.

There are also some enormous Chinatowns in the suburbs, notably in Torcy.

bonjour,

Place d'Italie in the south? I thought it's in Belleville?

The 13th arrondissement (biggest Chinatown) is in the south. The 19th/20th (Belleville) are in the northeast.

Thank you Kerouac2, your reply is so helpful.
I shared it with my friend who is interested in the history of France :)