Belleville and Ménilmontant, traditional working class and Parisian areas, have seen a long evolution to now welcome some of the most vibrant and trendy districts of Paris. On top of the most beautiful panorama over Paris, discover artists workshops as well countless street art works. Hidden villas and back alleys lead to pretty squares and architectural beauties hidden behind modern buildings.
From the birth place of Edith Piaf to a very colorful food and clothes market, stroll the winding streets of Belleville and encounter a new and true face of Paris.
Belleville
Description
Belleville
Practical Informations
• Meeting Point: Belleville metro station (lines 2 and 11)
• Duration : 2h15
• Walking tour
• Private tour at any date (270€/group)
Walk the steep streets of the Belleville and Ménilmontant hills to discover the charms and secrets of these northern Parisian neighborhoods.
Separated from Paris by the surrounding wall for a long time, the two villages were used for sheltering brigands, smugglers and Parisians who came to get entertained in the many taverns and cabarets located there, the whole surrounded by vast vineyards.
Integrated in the capital in 1860, the two suburbs rapidly got urbanized to house factories, workshops and workers’ residences. This population is at the center of the social riots of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
After the war, the neighborhood changed radically with the arrival of extremely diverse communities making of Belleville one of the most cosmopolitan areas of Paris. At the same time, a large number of old and unhealthy buildings were destroyed to make room for large complexes typical of today’s northeast of Paris.
There are, however, several villas, cottages and passages full of charm, amidst steep streets with local shops, colorful squares, bars and restaurants very popular with Parisians.
It will also be possible to admire the last “water maintenance houses” of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, witnesses of the capture of sources used to feed some religious congregations of Paris, now wedged between modern buildings and small houses with vegetal or colored walls.
