Recommended Apartments in the 13th Arrondissement of Paris (Chinatown, Place d’Italie, Butte-aux-Cailles)

At 18 Place d’Italie, inside the Italie Deux shopping center. There are 130 studios of 18 to 20 square meters (about 195 to 215 square feet) and 39 one-bedroom apartments of 38 square meters (about 410 square feet) for up to four, all air-conditioned, with a separate kitchen (stovetop, microwave, fridge and dishwasher) and a bathroom with a tub. Seven of the units are fully adapted for accessibility. The transportation here is exceptional: the Place d’Italie station is fifty meters away, where lines 5, 6 and 7 meet. The picturesque Butte-aux-Cailles neighborhood is a five-minute walk away, and the Latin Quarter fifteen minutes. Note that the building is part of a shopping center, not a Parisian building with character, and that breakfast costs extra. I recommend it for families who value convenience and transportation more than atmosphere.

A ground-floor apartment with a separate bedroom and a fully equipped kitchen: oven, stovetop, microwave, fridge and washing machine. That equipment list isn’t there by chance, it’s the difference between an apartment you can live in for a week and a room with a kettle. Getting around from here is easier than it seems: the Les Gobelins station on line 7 is four minutes away, Glacière on line 6 seven minutes, and the Port-Royal RER station eleven. The Jardin du Luxembourg is about a seventeen-minute walk, and I collected the rest of the area on my page of attractions in the 13th arrondissement. Note that a ground-floor apartment means less light and less privacy. I recommend it for a family that plans to cook and doesn’t insist on a view.

A spacious apartment in the Glacière area, one of the quiet residential neighborhoods of southern Paris. The station’s name comes from the ponds where ice was harvested and stored before the age of refrigeration, a reminder that this area was once a rural suburb outside the city. Today it’s a neighborhood of Parisian families with local bakeries and sane prices, and that’s exactly the advantage: the same money buys you a lot more square meters here than in the Marais or Saint-Germain. From here line 6 takes you straight to Montparnasse and Passy, and the Catacombs of Paris are within walking distance. Note that you’re far from the historic center and will need the metro for almost every outing. I recommend it for a family coming for a week or more that prefers space over being steps from Notre-Dame.