Paris east fights back with village tactic

The east was never the fashionable part of the City of Light. Other Parisians showed little interest in visiting, while guidebooks steered tourists to the iconic monuments, grand boulevards and top-end hotels of the north, south and west.

The lack of monuments – and attention – allowed the east to survive as perhaps the least touristic part of the city, packed with affordable street markets aimed at locals, quirky restaurants run by young chefs who couldn't afford more glamorous environs and eccentric galleries in roughly adapted factories and warehouses once used by the garment and machining industries.