In short
- What’s there: the Marché d’Aligre, the Paris Zoo, the Cinémathèque française, Le Train Bleu, Place de la Nation and the Bois de Vincennes.
- Location: the Right Bank, from the Bastille in the west to the Bois de Vincennes in the east.
- Good to know: the Château de Vincennes is outside the Paris border, in the town of Vincennes.
- Food markets: six, among them the Marché d’Aligre, open six days a week, and the Marché Daumesnil, the longest in the city.
- Restaurants: just one recommendation besides Le Train Bleu, so buy at the market and eat in the park.
- Who it suits: families with kids and anyone arriving through the Gare de Lyon.
- Walking itineraries: one, and it takes place entirely in the arrondissement, in the Bois de Vincennes.
The 12th is the largest arrondissement in Paris by area, and the reason is simple: the Bois de Vincennes belongs to it administratively, and the wood alone is bigger than several arrondissements put together. In practice it’s two different arrondissements: a dense urban area around the Bastille and the Gare de Lyon, and east of it a huge green space.
For food, the arrondissement has six food markets, among them both the longest market in the city and an 18th-century covered market open six days a week. When it comes to restaurants, on the other hand, my list is short.
So before we set off, here is what you’ll find on this page: first the hotels and apartments I recommend in the arrondissement, then the attractions one by one, the restaurants I send people to, the six food markets with their days and hours, and finally the walking itinerary.
Recommended Hotels in the 12th Arrondissement of Paris
The 12th is a practical choice if you arrive or leave through the Gare de Lyon, and prices here are lower than in the central arrondissements. If you’re not sure what suits you, answer three questions and I’ll pick from my recommendations:
My personal pick
Which hotel in the 12th arrondissement suits you?
One short question, and I will pick out of the places I already checked and wrote about on the site the ones that fit the trip you are planning.
One moment, I am going over my recommendations to find what fits you…
Prefer to go through all my recommendations yourself, with photos and details on every hotel? Here is my page of recommended hotels in the 12th arrondissement.
Recommended Apartments in the 12th Arrondissement of Paris
With six markets in one arrondissement, an apartment with a kitchen is the obvious choice here. Here too, you can let me choose:
My personal pick
Which apartment in the 12th arrondissement suits you?
One question about the area, and I will filter the apartments I checked and wrote about on the site. The apartments I recommend directly get booked very fast, so I added excellent Booking.com apartments that I hand-picked for my readers.
One moment, I am going over my recommendations to find what fits you…
Want to go through all the apartments I recommend, with photos and details? Here is my page of recommended apartments in the 12th arrondissement.
Attractions and Museums in the 12th Arrondissement of Paris
These are the sites I recommend in the 12th, and two of them mean riding to the eastern end of the metro line.
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My pick
The Marché d’Aligre
To me the liveliest market in Paris, and it runs six days a week.
The market goes back to the 1770s, under Louis XVI (reigned 1774-1792), and it has two parts: a covered hall called the Marché Beauvau, and open stalls along the square and the street. The open part also has secondhand, book and fabric stalls, and the covered hall has cheese and spice shops that are worth the trip. Prices here are noticeably lower than at the markets in the city center.
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Great with kids
The Paris Zoo (Parc zoologique de Paris)
A modern zoo without cages, with an artificial rock dozens of meters high at its center.
The zoo opened in 1934 and went through a complete renovation that ended in 2014, and since then it has been laid out as five biozones by region of the world. The artificial rock in the middle, the Grand Rocher, dates from 1934 and has become the symbol of the place. To me it’s the best place in Paris for a whole day with kids, and it’s a good idea to bring food from home.
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Just outside the city
The Château de Vincennes
A medieval royal fortress with the tallest keep of its kind in Europe.
Note an administrative detail that changes your planning: the château itself isn’t in Paris but in the town of Vincennes, just over the border, although the wood next to it does belong to the 12th arrondissement. The fortress was a royal residence before Versailles, and later a prison that held Denis Diderot (1713-1784) and Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau (1749-1791). The keep has been restored and is open to visitors, and the royal chapel next to it was built on the model of the Sainte-Chapelle.
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Architecture
The Cinémathèque française
The film museum of Paris, in a building designed by Frank Gehry.
The building was originally built as an American cultural center, and it was Frank Gehry’s first building in Paris, long before the Fondation Louis Vuitton. Inside are a huge archive, screening rooms showing classics in restored prints, and a permanent museum with objects from film history, among them the head of Mrs. Bates from Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980).
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Free entry
Place de la Nation and the Picpus Cemetery
The place where more than a thousand people were beheaded in the last weeks of the Terror, and it gets almost no visitors.
In the last weeks of the Reign of Terror the guillotine was moved to what is now Place de la Nation, and about 1,300 people were executed in six weeks. The bodies were buried in two mass graves in a private garden that the victims’ families later bought. The Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834) is buried in the same cemetery, and an American flag flies over his grave. The square is free, while the cemetery has its own opening hours and a small entry fee.
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A food experience
Le Train Bleu
A restaurant from 1901 inside a train station, and its dining room is a listed historic monument.
The restaurant was created for the World’s Fair of 1900, and in 1963 it took the name of the luxury train that left from here for the Riviera. Dozens of paintings on the ceilings and walls show the destinations along the railway line. If the prices put you off, you can just sit at the bar and order one drink, and that’s enough to see the place.
More Attractions in the 12th Arrondissement Worth Knowing
These are places I haven’t written a separate article about yet, but if you’re wandering around the arrondissement, it’s worth knowing they’re there:
| The place | Address | Why stop there |
|---|---|---|
| The Coulée verte René-Dumont | Above avenue Daumesnil | A park almost five kilometers long on an abandoned railway line, and it came some fifteen years before New York’s High Line |
| The Viaduc des Arts | 1-129 avenue Daumesnil | The arches of the old railway viaduct under the Coulée verte, now home to artisans’ workshops |
| Bercy Village | Cour Saint-Émilion | 19th-century wine warehouses turned into a pedestrian street of shops and cafés |
| The Parc de Bercy | 128 quai de Bercy | A modern park on the site of the old wine warehouses, with a rose garden and a small vineyard |
| The Musée des Arts Forains | 53 avenue des Terroirs de France | An original collection of 19th-century carousels and fairground games. By appointment |
| The Bois de Vincennes | East of the arrondissement | The largest green space in Paris, with lakes, a botanical garden and walking paths. I wrote about it separately |
Tours and Activities in the 12th Arrondissement You Might Enjoy
Show me more activities in Paris
And if you’re looking for attractions in the city’s other arrondissements, my Paris attractions page brings them all together in one place.
My Recommended Restaurants in the 12th Arrondissement of Paris
In the 12th my list is short, just one recommendation besides Le Train Bleu. If you’re looking to eat well in the area, you’ll find yourself walking north to the 11th arrondissement, or buying at the Marché d’Aligre and eating in the park.
| The restaurant | Type | Address | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| A la Biche Au Bois | On my radar | 45 Av. Ledru Rollin | A long-standing bistro near the Gare de Lyon, with a line outside and no reservations |
Looking for restaurants in other arrondissements? My page of recommended restaurants is organized by type of cuisine and by arrondissement.
The Food Markets of the 12th Arrondissement of Paris
This arrondissement has six food markets, and two records are set here: the Marché d’Aligre, which runs six days a week, and the Marché Daumesnil, the longest in the city, with close to a kilometer and a half of stalls.
| The market | Address | Days and hours | Metro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marché d’Aligre, the open-air part | Place et rue d’Aligre | Tuesday to Friday 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. | Ledru-Rollin |
| Marché Beauvau (covered) | Place d’Aligre | Tuesday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Saturday 8:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Sunday 8:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. | Ledru-Rollin |
| Marché Daumesnil | Boulevard de Reuilly | Tuesday and Friday 7:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. | Daumesnil or Dugommier |
| Marché Cours de Vincennes | Cours de Vincennes | Wednesday 7:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Saturday 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. | Nation or Porte de Vincennes |
| Marché Ledru-Rollin | Avenue Ledru-Rollin | Thursday 7:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Saturday 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. | Gare de Lyon |
| Marché Bercy | Place Lachambeaudie | Wednesday 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Sunday 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. | Cour Saint-Émilion |
Note that the Marché d’Aligre is really two markets on the same square, covered and open-air, and each has its own hours. Besides these six, the arrondissement also has the Marché Porte Dorée on Thursdays and Sundays. On my markets page you’ll find the recommended markets in the city’s other arrondissements.
Walking Itineraries in the 12th Arrondissement of Paris
I have one itinerary in this arrondissement, and it takes place entirely inside it.
Want all the itineraries I’ve written, by arrondissement and by theme? My Paris walking itineraries page brings them all together.
The Next Step in Your Trip
To the northwest the 12th connects with the Bastille and the 11th arrondissement, and to the east with the Bois de Vincennes. The best way to do it is to start at the Marché d’Aligre in the morning, climb up to the Coulée verte and walk east along it until the city runs out.
And if you want to be ready in advance for every scenario, my complete Paris guide brings together everything I’ve learned over the years. Have a wonderful trip, and don’t forget to buy some cheese (do it for me).
