11th Arrondissement (Opera Bastille)-- For many years, this quarter seemed to sink lower and lower into decay, overcrowded by working-class immigrants from the far reaches of the former Empire. The opening of the Opera Bastille, however, has given the 11th new hope and new life.

The facility, called the "people's opera house," stands on the landmark place de la Bastille, where on July 14, 1789, 633 Parisians stormed the fortress and seized the ammunition depot, as the French Revolution swept across the city. Over the years, the prison held Voltaire, the Marquis de Sade, and the mysterious "Man in the Iron Mask."

The area between the Marais, Menilmontant, and Republique is now being called "blue-collar chic," as the artistes of Paris have been driven from the costlier sections of the Marais and can now be found walking the gritty sidewalks of rue Oberkampf. Hip Parisians in search of a more cutting-edge experience are now found living and working among the decaying 19th-century apartments and the 1960s public housing with graffiti-splattered walls.

12th Arrondissement (Bois de Vincennes/Gare de Lyon)-- Very few out-of-towners came here until a French chef opened a restaurant called Au Trou Gascon. The 12th's major attraction remains the Bois de Vincennes, sprawling on the eastern periphery of Paris.

This park is a longtime favorite of French families, who enjoy its zoos and museums, its royal chateaux and boating lakes, and its Parc Floral de Paris, a celebrated flower garden boasting springtime rhododendrons and autumn dahlias.

Venture into the dreary Gare de Lyon for Le Train Bleu , in the Gare de Lyon, 12e, a restaurant whose ceiling frescoes and Art Nouveau decor are national artistic treasures; the food's good, too. The 12th, once a depressing urban wasteland, has been singled out for budgetary resuscitation and is beginning to sport new housing, shops, gardens, and restaurants.

Many will occupy the site of the former Reuilly rail tracks. 13th Arrondissement (Gare d'Austerlitz)-- Centered around the grimy Gare d'Austerlitz, the 13th might have its devotees, but we've yet to meet one. British snobs who flitted in and out of the train station were among the first of the district's foreign visitors and wrote the 13th off as a dreary working-class counterpart of London's East End. The 13th is also home to Paris's Chinatown, stretching for 13 square blocks around the Tolbiac Metro stop.