Paris Rive Gauche is an urban zone extending from the Gare d'Austerlitz to Boulevard Général Jean-Simon, running along the Seine on one side and Rue du Chevaleret on the other. Around its flagship building of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, new districts are springing up featuring all the usual amenities for everyday life. Housing, offices and activities, commercial outlets, services, schools, universities, public and cultural amenities are all gradually being created: little by little, everything which makes a city truly liveable is being established and integrated.

However, only a few years ago, this part of the 13th arrondissement was no more than a series of ailing industrial facilities. It was the creation of a ZAC (mixed development zone) in 1991 which enabled the launch of an operation conducted by SEMAPA and named Paris Rive Gauche. It is now hard to imagine just how much the landscape has changed: soon, Paris Rive Gauche will host almost 15,000 residents, 30,000 students and professors and 50,000 employees day in and day out. Ten hectares of green spaces will be created and 2,000 trees planted.