blog d'europe: belleville

with the name a bit of a give-away - la bellevilloise can be found just off rue de ménilmontant in (you guessed it) belleville. i've been discovering the hidden treasures of belleville (eastern paris) over the past few weeks and this place is definitely one of them.

it's a cultural hub where café/restaurant meets art gallery, meets beer garden, meets live music venue. la bellevilloise has been growing & changing since it was reopened in 2005. we climbed up the stairs to the terrace to kick back on colourful ironware tables & chairs and catch up over a few beers. from up here you get a really impressive view out across eastern paris - tiled rooftops of varying heights, ceramic chimney pots & old meets new with splashes of graffiti.

there's such a relaxed feel about the place...and its vibe & atmosphere reminds me of the abbotsford convent in melbourne. i'd love to come back here to see some acoustic shows, or some of the temporary art exhibitions that are held inside.

we also visited la miroiterie, just around the corner from la bellevilloise. it has a similar purpose, but is less established, more edgy & has more of a focus on live music & graffiti art. statement art lines the entrance walls & a hodge-bodge selection of armchairs, couches and stools are set around for people to sit, chat & soak up the culture.

we lost track of time in belleville, and by the time we metro'd back to my apartment it was already dark. on the walk up to montmartre, there was a really heavy fog that was beginning to settle over the hill. this cast sacré coeur in a really beautiful light, illuminating it against the deep blue-grey evening sky...

i love montmartre. i love paris.

bises,

very happy motorbike...

beautiful montmartre

the quartier known as belleville (literally translates as 'beautiful town') sits in eastern paris - a kind of melange of the 19th, 20th, 10th & 11th arrondissements. during the 80s, belleville was a working class region of paris where rent was cheap. this attracted immigrants, so this quartier has a strong multi-ethnic culture & is home to paris' second largest chinatown (the other is in the 13th arrondissement).

these days though, the area is being recognised for its modern, funky appeal and so the bobo (bourgeois/bohemian) parisian's are shifting from saint-germain-des-près (rive gauche) up to belleville. this means the area is becoming more expensive, with multitudes of small galleries & artist squats popping up left, right & centre- as well as a thriving restaurant & café culture.

in my opinion, this is a positive change for belleville - because let's face it, belleville used to be creepy & generally not a safe place to walk around by yourself. this reminded me of the changes western melbourne (where i live back home) have gone through over the past 10 years.

aidee (one of my best friends here in paris) & i explored belleville on a gorgeous sunny day. we walked through rue dénoyez - a mostly pedestrian street that's famous for its colourful explosions of graffiti that cover its brick walls. here we found café tables spilling out along the street & op-shops where you choose how much you want to pay - amazing concept. there was a tonne of public street art & we met some people who told us about gallery openings & music events that are held in the street from time to time. i loved this street because it almost felt as though i'd left paris for an hour - it had a completely different ambiance too it that i can't quite explain...

before starting her uni course here, aidee was working for a couple who owned one of the many galleries in belleville - the cosmic galerie. such a cool concept, they transformed & created the space themselves from an old garage. the gallery was exhibiting a contemporary french artist named julio le parc who produced an incredible body of works during the 60s.

belleville is also known as being the birthplace of the famous french chanteuse edith piaf, back in 1915. there is some disagreement of whether she was born under a lampost at 72, rue de belleville - or whether it was in a hospital nearby... personally i prefer the dramatic version, it makes for a good story.

i'm so happy i made it out to belleville during my time here in paris. i hadn't thought much of it before talking to aidee (who knows the area well), but it was definitely worth the time i spent wandering its streets over the past week. definitely a breath of fresh air compared to the more historic parts of paris where i live & work.

a++,

rue dénoyez

poetic mosaïc's embedded into the walls

à l'école, étais-tu déguisé en enfant?

plaque marking the disputed birthplace of edith piaf:
"on the steps of this house, born 19 december 1915, in a state of utter destitution - edith piaf whose voice would later take the world by storm"