Underground & cool · Self-managed arts centre · € · 12e · Bastille, Bercy & Aligre
Le 100 ECS
1,800 m² of former workshops near Place d'Aligre handed over to studios and stages without a selection committee — visual arts, theatre, photography, video for anyone who turns up. It runs the December 12×12 festival.
Opening hours are office-like (it's a working space); time a visit to a listed exhibition, performance or open day.
Getting there
- Gare de Lyon114RER ARER D440 m · 8 min walk
- Ledru Rollin8450 m · 8 min walk
- Faidherbe Chaligny8590 m · 11 min walk
Around the corner
Rue Crémieux · 190 m away
The Rue Crémieux is a one-block pedestrian street in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, originally built as workers' housing. The street has been widely recommended to tourists for its quaint painted housefronts, and has become a popular destination for filming and for social media photos.
Wikipedia ↗Walks that pass nearby
- Hidden Parisstop 4 of 6 · 190 m
Rue Crémieux
A 144 m pedestrianised street in the 12th, lined with pastel-painted houses (built 1865 as workers' housing). Photographers descended on it after Instagram in 2017; the residents petitioned the city to ban photography. The city said no.
Two blocks south of Gare de Lyon, between Rue de Bercy and Rue de Lyon. Be polite — actual people live here, and several have signs in their windows asking you not to use their stoops as a photo set.
- Markets of Parisstop 3 of 6 · 300 m
Marché d'Aligre
Place d'Aligre. The cheapest market in central Paris and the only one with a brocante (flea market) running daily next to the produce stalls. The covered Marché Beauvau on the same square has the more upmarket cheeses and traiteurs.
Tuesday–Sunday mornings. Closes 13:30. The brocante is good for vintage glass and old kitchenware; haggle hard. Le Baron Rouge wine bar on the corner of Rue Théophile Roussel is the post-shopping local stop — Sundays they shuck oysters at the door.
- Bouillons & Brasseriesstop 3 of 6 · 450 m
Le Train Bleu
Inside Gare de Lyon, opened 1901 for the Exposition Universelle. 41 ceiling and wall paintings depicting destinations served by the station. Coco Chanel, Brigitte Bardot, Jean Cocteau, all regulars. Even if you don't eat, walk in to look up.
Up the grand double staircase from the main concourse, signposted from inside Gare de Lyon. Walk into the main dining room without a reservation just to look up; the staff are used to it. For a bite, the bar (no reservation needed) serves a small menu and is at the front.
- Paris-1900stop 4 of 6 · 450 m
Le Train Bleu
Inside Gare de Lyon, opened 1901. 41 ceiling and wall paintings, gilt mouldings, brass railings — every surface is 1900 original. The food is fine; the room is the reason. Cocteau called it "the only place in Paris where 1900 is still happening."
Up the grand double staircase from the main concourse. Walk into the dining room without a reservation just to look. For coffee, sit at the front bar; you can take in the whole room without the lunch-rush waiter pressure.
Within a few minutes' walk
- Le Baron RougeMarket wine bar€ · 4 minWine straight from the barrel beside the Marché d'Aligre; in oyster season the crowd drinks standing on the pavement off upturned barrels.
- Maison TraversièreBoutique hotel€€ · 6 minA 32-room hotel on a slip of side street off the Gare de Lyon concourse, close enough to wheel a suitcase to the platform but angled away from the noise. The rooms were redone one at a time, each different.
- L'ÉbauchoirFrench bistro€€ · 7 minA genuine quartier bistro behind the Aligre market, working through trout gravlax, slow lamb shoulder and a chocolate torte that regulars treat as non-negotiable. The carte rewrites itself often; the lunch deal is where the value sits.
- Bistrot du PeintreArt Nouveau brasserie€€ · 11 minA 1902 brasserie with a listed Art Nouveau interior of curved wood and etched glass, the kind of room that justifies a plainer plate. Come for the onion soup gratinée and a tarte Tatin, and for the fact that it serves through the day when neighbours have closed.
The district · 12e
Bastille, Bercy & Aligre — Eastern, everydayThe Marché d'Aligre, the Coulée verte's elevated walk, the wine-village of Bercy, and the Bois de Vincennes beyond. Residential and underrated, with the best daily market in central Paris.
Best for: Repeat visitors who want to live like a resident, market bag in hand.
Everything we've verified in the 12e →How we verified this
Confirmed currently operating as of September 2026,cross-checked against 1 source:
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