Paris Rive Gauche - Travelling through a business district in the making

They'll discover a setting that looks like it's been lifted straight out of a 3-D project, an urban planner's dream of new-generation buildings, large mineral masses and green spaces. "Paris Left Bank This is the name of the major project stretching from the Gare d'Austerlitz to the Paris ring road. Launched in 1994 in the wake of the "Very Large LibraryAlthough the development project is not yet fully complete, it has already succeeded in one of its major challenges: to establish itself as a business district of the future.

Accenture, Natixis, Sanofi-Aventis, Accor, BPCE and the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations are just some of the major players, most of them French, who have already set up shop on the Avenue de France. The area will also be home to a number of big names in publishing, such as Flammarion, and the French press, including Télérama and Courrier International, all within a stone's throw of the new headquarters of the newspaper Le Monde.

Paris Rive Gauche received a major boost last November with the revision of the Local Town Planning Plan authorising the "localised de-capping of building heights".. In other words: a green light for the erection of these "new towers of the 13th arrondissement", which will be rising from the ground within the next five years and should contribute to the renown of one of the most spectacular development projects to have taken place in Paris since the death of Baron Haussmann.

How to get there
Metro line 6 (Nation - Charles de Gaulle Étoile), "Quai de la gare" station
Metro line 14 (Saint Lazare - Olympiades), "Bibliothèque François Mitterrand" station
RER line CBibliothèque François Mitterrand" station
T3 tramwayPorte d'Ivry" station
VoguéoBibliothèque François Mitterrand" station

Main buses
Bus 89 (Gare de Vanves - Malakoff), "Bibliothèque François Mitterrand" station
Bus 64 (Gambetta - place d'Italie), "Bibliothèque François Mitterrand" station
Bus 27 (Gare Saint-Lazareporte d'Ivry), "Patay - Tolbiac" station

Paris rive gauche in figures
The project covers 130 hectares - including 26 hectares covering the railway tracks - spread between Place Valhubert (opposite the Jardin des Plantes) and Porte d'Ivry. It involves the construction of almost 2.5 million m2 of net floor area, distributed as follows:
- 745,000 m2 of office space for 60,000 employees announced.
- 665,000 m2 of public facilities Bibliothèque nationale de France, universities, crèches, schools...
- 585,000 m2 of housing 7,500 units per 15,000 inhabitants.
- 405,000 m2 of "shops, activities and services.
- 100,000 m2 of green spaces.

While the district is expanding to the east with the towers planned for the Masséna-Bruneseau area, it is also continuing to the west with the renovation of Austerlitz station and the area around it, entrusted to the AREP - Ateliers Jean Nouvel team. Spread over almost 13 hectares, this development project will create 115,000 m2 of new offices and a 3,000 m2 SNCF business centre. It should enable the station to handle 40 million passengers by 2020, compared with just 17 million in 2010.

Last but not least, Paris Rive Gauche is a business and residential district that also aims to become the "new Left Bank". With the Université Paris Diderot, the Pôle des Langues et Civilisations du Monde, the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture Paris - Val de Seine and the new headquarters of the Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, the district should eventually be home to almost 18,000 students.

Get out
Who would have thought it: moribund twenty years ago, the north of the 13th arrondissement has come back to life - even after closing time. It all started with the emergence of alternative venues, whether on the quays (the "Frigos") or on the Seine (the Batofar). Today, the riverside is home to party barges, while new venues are springing up in the very heart of the business district.

The most spectacular so far: the Djoonrestaurant and "soulful club with DJs at weekends, at 22, boulevard Vincent Auriol. Even more surprising: White NightsRussian cabaret-restaurant opened last December at 50 avenue Pierre Mendès France. This is the forerunner of what will soon become the "Russian Village with grocery shop and sauna-spa.
For further information, please contact www.villagerusse.com

If you have...
One hour
After a glance at the French National Library (BnF), its gardens and its impressive esplanade, the walk continues around the industrial remains of the district: the Fridges (transformed into more or less organised artistic squats), the Grands Moulins de Paris (part of Paris Diderot University) and the SUDAC (now the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture Paris - Val de Seine).

More generally, Paris Rive Gauche can be visited like an open-air architectural gallery. It's true that the fairies who have bent over its cradle have been hand-picked. As you stroll around, you'll come across buildings by Jean-Marie Duthilleul, Norman Foster, Yves Lion, Jean Nouvel, Dominique Perrault, Christian de Portzamparc, Jean-Michel Wilmotte and others.

One afternoon
There are two options: extend the investigation in situ by visiting the current exhibition at the BnF and counting the barges on the banks of the Seine, or cross the bridge - or rather the "Simone de Beauvoir footbridge - to discover the new Bercy, its gardens, its film library and all the pretty boutiques of the Cour Saint-Emilion.

There's even a third option: going to the cinema. Between MK2 Bibliothèque, UGC de Bercy and Pathé d'Ivry, there are three multiplex cinemas in the immediate vicinity. The district can thus lay claim to the title of "Paris's leading film centre".with almost 4 million admissions a year.

Services
Business centre - Regus Paris national library > 118-122, avenue de France (13th arrondissement)
- Tel: 01 46 46 10 10
- Internet : www.regus.fr

Printing/Infography – Newworks > 18, rue des Frigos (13th arrondissement)
- Tel: 01 70 37 24 00
- Internet : www.newworks.com

Copytop > 16, rue Neuve Tolbiac (XIIIe)
- Tel: 01 82 53 60 78
- Internet : www.copytop.com

Fitness and relaxation - Inaugurated in 2006, the Joséphine Baker swimming pool is the latest swimming pool in Paris. And not the least aesthetically pleasing, since it's a 25-metre floating pool set up opposite the Bibliothèque nationale. Solarium in summer and "SHAPE SPACE with fitness room, sauna, hammam and whirlpool.