Dipping into a French melting pot

Comptoir General. [Photo/Agencies]

Asian Enclaves

East Asian culture and food are found throughout Paris, though, as with New York, certain neighborhoods can be described as "Chinatown" or more broadly, Asian areas, as colonial history means the Vietnamese influence in Paris is as prevalent as the Chinese, or more so. Part of the 13th Arrondissement is variously described as the Quartier Asiatique, Petite Asia or the Quartier Chinois (Chinese).

There's a McDonald's with Chinese-language signs, which wouldn't surprise anyone who's been to New York's Chinatown but is a bit of a novelty in France, and a Buddhist temple in a parking garage on Avenue d'Ivry. This district has the Olympiades Shopping Center and a big Tang Frres supermarket of Asian goods, and it's the center of Lunar New Year celebrations (Feb 19 next year).

Mr Kuznetsov put together a dinner at one of Paris's Vietnamese restaurants, a family-run, wallet-friendly hole-in-the-wall with delicious fare called Dong Phat, in the Seventh on Rue Malar. With eight of us present, we were able to satisfy the palates of vegetarians and carnivores, seafood-lovers and -haters, delighting in dishes like nems au porc (fried spring rolls with a dense ground pork filling) and noodle soup with prawn dumplings.

One of those present was the American author and filmmaker Daryle Conners, who had just wrapped shooting a short in Paris called J'Arrive. She lived in Paris for several years in the 1980s and has spent 25 years going back and forth. Ms Conners points out that many Vietnamese restaurants, sometimes called French-Vietnamese, for the colonial influence that produced the banh mi sandwich on baguette bread, are known for their specialties.

Her list: Best Nem (Au Coin des Gourmets, 5, rue Dante); Best Pho (Pho 14 in the 14th); Best Vietnamese Ravioli (Minh Duc in the Fifth); and Best Bo Bon (Xinh Xinh in the 13th). "Paris has so many good Southeast Asian restaurants, and they're almost all very basic neighborhood places," she said.

So how does multiethnic Paris fit into the national character as a whole?

"France is beset by a contradiction," Professor Newman said.

"Strolling the streets, riding the Mtro, or at work, the observation that France is a culturally diverse, global society is so routine it seems almost too banal to mention," he added. Still, Professor Newman said, politicians across the spectrum often invoke - and capitalize upon - the questionable image of a culturally homogeneous France.

My trip happened to coincide with European Union parliamentary elections, won by the far-right National Front party, which has stood against immigration and recently called for an end to dual citizenship.

The day after the elections, on the flight home, I happened to sit near a woman of black and European heritage who'd grown up in both the United States and France. She said ruefully that this was not the France she knew while growing up. Yet today, in addition to conflict, the tenacity of ethnic cultures-within-cultures adds vitality to modern France. The richness of the city's global culture is one of its greatest assets - and an essential part of a contemporary Parisian adventure.

The New York Times