la bellevilloise

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,

S.

very happy  motorbike...

beautiful montmartre

techno parade de paris

craaazy weekend in paris, as thousands met at place de la république to kick off the annual "techno parade" (cue heavy french accent). it's been happening for the past thirteen years and is a huge event that parisians looove to celebrate. we had no idea it was even happening until the night before when the words david guetta, bob sinclar and free (!!) were shouted around...

we joined the crowds - walking, dancing, jumping, singing & laughing behind dozens of huge bus-floats that were blasting techno, electronic, dubstep and drum & bass out onto the street. such a crazy vibe with everyone dressed up, people not only on the ground - but also dancing on top of bus stops or climbing up traffic light poles. confetti, streamers & flares brought some of paris' oldest roads to life for the  festival.

the parade made its way through place de la bastille, where we saw hundreds of people sitting, dancing & climbing all over the colonne de juillet - the huge statue in the middle of the square. was so strange to see the place buzzing with so much life. i wonder if the people who inaugurated the column 170 years ago ever envisaged hundreds of people raving on it...was an awesome sight to see - unforgettable!

after the parade we made a beeline for the creperie, where we all ordered the best possible crêpe combination: nutella-banane. yum! i dread to think how many of these badboys i've consumed over the past five months... you only live once, right??? the same goes for baguettes, pain au chocolat's, cheese...

another day of new memories to lock away in my paris safe,

a+,

S.

♥

jeu de paume

another one of the hundred's of galleries paris has to offer, jeu de paume sits in a somewhat overlooked corner of the jardin des tuileries. the building (although completely renovated on the inside) is the former home of the indoor tennis courts of the royal palace - hence the name 'jeu de paume'.

we went along to check out what is now a contemporary art museum with a focus on photographic expositions. however, typical us - we didn't bother to check up opening times before we got there. on discovering that we still had an hour before we could enter, we had to think of something to kill the time. what a dilemma: being stuck in the centre of paris with nothing to do for an hour. hard life, i know.

we wandered off to rue de rivoli, on the north side of the jardin des tuileries. one of my favourite streets (for good reason! 59 rivoli, one of my fav places in paris, as well as endless shopping opportunities...) and also conveniently home to the unofficial best hot chocolate of paris....angelina's! imagine a little pot of mouthwatering hot chocolate, made by actually melting hunks of delicious dark chocolate. all this in a room that resembles something out of a dining room on the titanic...suffice to say that only at angelina's would i pay 8€ for a hot chocolate. worth every cent and apparently a perfect way to while away the time...

midday rolled over all too quickly, so we made our short way back to jeu de paume to check out two expositions: claude cahun's series of autobiographical photographs that questioned gender & identity; and santu mofokeng's photographic journey through africa, continental europe & the middle east. the first was strange, with alot of experimental photography; the second very eye-opening and the photos tempted to me to go to africa..

a day of hot chocolates & gallery visits is becoming all to familiar to me, here in paris. i still need to pinch myself now & then - after five months of living here, i still can't quite believe all of this is really happening!

à la prochaine,

S.