East-Side Paris

For several centuries, the west part of Paris has been richer than the east, where workers and immigrants lived. A phenomenon of gentrification has appeared in the sixties but places like Belleville and La Villette remain popular and relatively cheap. Above all, east-side Paris is a place of diversity where people from Africa, Asia and America meet in cafés and shops, making the district a real melting pot.

Even though the higher prices of apartments made many people move to Paris’s notorious suburbs, la Villette is still an affordable district and many people stayed. Tourists usually forget to visit this part of Paris, as, we do admit, it is not really a regular sight-seeing spot, as it is not as shiny as the mostly visited districts of west-Paris. Aware that many people are tired of the paths of mass-tourism, we decided to launch a website in 2006, promoting alternative tourism in the forgotten places of the French capital.

La Villette des Gens, a guide through Eastern Paris and a cultural magazine

Another Paris is the “English light version” of La Villette des Gens, the on-line magazine about northern and eastern districts of the City. This website is a journey through Paris’s popular areas. Our goal is to promote a new form of tourism, enabling visitors to get in touch with locals and experience their everyday life. The idea is to give the chance for tourists to visit things or attend events that they would never have thought of. A play in a small theatre, a concert in a café… You will find here the things that traditional tourist guides will never show you. If you are tired of the monotonous mass tourism buses, stuck in traffic jam, visit the site and meet the real Paris.

The website is also a tribute to local inhabitants: we draw portraits of people who are part of everyday life but to whom one does not pay attention. Portraits of butchers, firemen, artists add spices to the pages of this magazine. Find activities for your children and let them experience cultural diversity from the earliest age on.

Who we are

This website was designed by Réseau 2000, a non profit organization specialized in inclusion to employment for youth through Internet and Communication Technologies. “La Villette des Gens” is one of our inclusion programs. A group of people encountering social difficulties are in charge of designing the website and writing its content. This was a chance for them to experience full-time working, which helped them to find their way to employment. These young people live in the neighbourhood and know the places we write about like the back of their hand, which is an opportunity for tourists to discover “Another Paris”.