My Neighborhood / Mon Quartier (P20)
This neighborhood doesn't really connect with other neighborhoods, and there is no particular reason for tourists to go there. But it's a nice place, one of the last parts of Paris that kept a village aspect to it, and a popular life that goes with it. It is aso an "ethnic" place and you can probably find better mint-tea and couscous than at the Mosquee, and for much cheaper, and many chinese/vietnamese restaurants and stores. Chinatown is around Métro Belleville, and Little Tunis happens between the Métro stations of Belleville and Ménilmontant, along the Boulevard de Belleville. But there is also a growing population of students/artists/alternative/gentrification scene. Shops, of course, are cheap there, with second hand clothes stores for example. The action is also in little parallel and perpendicular streets, on rue Oberkampf, between the Métro stations of Ménilmontant and Parmentier, towards Place Ste Marthe or the Cimetière du Père Lachaise, or up to the parcs (Buttes-Chaumont or Belleville)... You can eat there, brunch, lunch, dinner or have a drink during the day or at night, or just hang out there on summer week-end days, when old people and children are in the streets. Another great moment is the Ramaddan, when Muslims cannot eat or drink during the day and therefore, at night, they go crazy and Ménilmontant goes crazy with them...
This is the area where La Commune de Paris ended in May 1871. The last barricade was on rue de la Fontaine au Roi, M° Goncourt, P11. The last battle was on rue Ramponeau, and a tribute is given to it in the Parc de Belleville, around the 8 rue de la Ferme de Savy, M° Pyrénées, P20. Then the last Communards escaped to the cimetière du Père Lachaise, and 147 of them were killed there, against a wall. You can still see the Mur des Fédérés at the South-East corner of the cemetery, but another monument was built with the original stones of the wall, in the Square Samuel de Champlain, on the North side of the cemetery, 31 avenue Gambetta, M° Gambetta.
Other places are worth seeing, such as:
RESTAURANTS AND BARS:
Métro Jourdain:
Métro Pyrénées:
Métro Belleville:
Métro Couronnes:
Métro Ménilmontant:
Métro Père Lachaise:
MUSIC, PLAYS, EXHIBITIONS:
HOTELS:
TAXIS:
SHOPPING:
Markets:
Tuesday and Friday mornings, on the boulevard, between M° Belleville
and Ménilmontant
Supermarkets:
Biocoop, 62 rue de Belleville, P20, M° Pyrénées
Momo, 31 rue des Couronnes, P20, M°
Couronnes
Casino, 28 rue de Ménilmontant, P20. M°
Ménilmontant
Picard frozen food, 39 rue de
Ménilmontant, P20. M° Ménilmontant
Biocoop,
20 rue de Ménilmontant, P20, M° Pyrénées
Bread:
Maison Marie, 71 rue de la Mare, P20. M° Jourdain
Urban Bakery, 401 rue des Pyrénées, P20. M° Pyrénées
Le Petit Grain, 7 rue Denoyez, P20, M° Belleville
Le Pain du Parc, 32 rue des Couronnes, P20. M° Couronnes
Maison Habhab, 42 rue Etienne Dolet, P20. M° Ménilmontant
Meat:
Boucherie du Marché, 14 bd de Belleville, P20. M° Ménilmontant
Cheese:
Crème, 6 rue Julien Lacroix, P20. M° Ménilmontant
Wine:
La Cave de Belleville, 51 rue de Belleville, P19, M° Belleville, the
best in the area
Cave Ménilmontant, 5 rue Sorbier, P20, M° Ménilmontant
Dilia, la cave, 30 rue Etienne Dolet, P20, M° Ménilmontant, mostly
Italian wines
Raisin Noir, 26 rue Etienne Dolet, P20, M° Ménilmontant, expensive
Arabic grocery stores:
112 bd de Belleville, P20, M° Belleville, upscale
71 bd de Belleville, P11, M° Belleville
125 bd de Ménilmontant, P11, M° Ménilmontant
Independent bookstores:
L'Atelier, 2 bis rue du Jourdain, P20. M° Jourdain.
Le Genre
Urbain, 60 rue de Belleville, P20. M° Pyrénées.
Le Jargon Libre, 22 rue de la Mare, P20. M° Couronnes.
Le Monte en l'Air,
2 rue de la Mare, P20. M° Ménilmontant. The best in the area, great
book launches and political debates
Libre Ere, 111 bd
de Ménilmontant, P11. M° Ménilmontant.
Libralire,
116 rue Saint Maur, P11. M° Parmentier.
Hair:
Mood Coiffure, 3 rue Crespin du Gast, P11. M° Ménilmontant.
0986150292.
HEALTH: