13th arrondissement (Gobelins)

The 13th arrondissement, officially Gobelins, stretches from the Gare d'Austerlitz and the Place d'Italie to the ring road on the Left Bank. It covers about 7.1 km² and had 181,271 residents in the 2023 legal population (Insee), about 25,400 per km². Its quartiers are Salpêtrière, Gare, Maison-Blanche and Croulebarbe.

Much of the 13th was rebuilt in the second half of the 20th century, and 33% of main residences were social housing in the 2023 census, the highest share in Paris together with the 19th.

Local services such as civil status, identity documents, crèche requests and school enrolment are handled by the district town hall, the Mairie du 13e.

• Paris Rive Gauche (Gare quartier): a large urban development along the Seine around the Bibliothèque nationale de France (François-Mitterrand site), with university buildings, offices, new housing and the Seine riverbank.
• Olympiades and the Asian quarter: the high-rise towers of the Olympiades and the area around avenue de Choisy and avenue d'Ivry, with many Asian shops, supermarkets and restaurants.
• Butte-aux-Cailles and Maison-Blanche: the Butte-aux-Cailles is a small hilltop area of low buildings, cobbled streets and bars. Further south are residential streets of small houses and apartment blocks around Parc Kellermann and the Poterne des Peupliers.
• Salpêtrière and Gobelins: the large Pitié-Salpêtrière university hospital, the Gare d'Austerlitz and the historic Gobelins tapestry manufactory.

• Métro: line 14 (Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand, Olympiades, Maison Blanche) is fully automatic and runs north through the centre to Saint-Lazare and south to Orly airport. Line 7 serves Les Gobelins, Place d'Italie, Tolbiac, Maison Blanche and its southern branches to Porte d'Italie and Porte de Choisy/Porte d'Ivry. Line 6 runs on a viaduct along the boulevards (Quai de la Gare, Chevaleret, Nationale, Place d'Italie, Corvisart, Glacière), and line 5 serves Place d'Italie, Campo-Formio, Saint-Marcel and Gare d'Austerlitz, with line 10 also at Austerlitz.
• RER: RER C at Gare d'Austerlitz and Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand.
• Tram: the T3a along the southern boulevards, and the T9 from Porte de Choisy to the town of Orly (Orly – Gaston Viens).
• Rail: Gare d'Austerlitz for trains to central and south-western France and night trains.

The 13th has the newest housing stock of the central and southern arrondissements: 57% of main residences were in buildings from 1946 to 1990 and only 13% in buildings completed before 1919 (2023 census). Towers and large estates sit beside older streets and recent developments in Paris Rive Gauche.

Of the 108,100 dwellings counted, only 5% were second homes or occasional-use flats and 8% vacant. Among main residences, 70% were rented and 33% were social housing (Paris: 18%). Owner-occupiers made up 25%, one of the lowest shares in Paris.

Private rentals range from older flats to recent buildings with lifts and balconies. Rent control applies: check the reference rent with the City of Paris tool and OLAP's market-rent estimates by quartier for early 2026.

Children under 15 made up 12.8% of residents in 2023, in line with the Paris average. Parks include Parc Kellermann, Parc de Choisy, the Square René-Le Gall, the Jardin du Moulin-de-la-Pointe and a section of the former Petite Ceinture railway converted into a walkway. Parc Montsouris is just across the border in the 14th.

Crèche requests and school enrolment go through the Mairie du 13e. Public schools are allocated by home address.