One of the unexpected pleasures of my blog is that I sometimes get to meet some of my readers face to face. A filmmaker named MA Shumin, made a comment about how I described Belleville on the Zoe Bouillon soup post the other day and I emailed her to thank her. We discovered that we were both native New Yorkers and a few emails later after we discovered some mutual interests, we decided to meet for coffee. One of the other reasons I wanted to meet her is that she has lived in Belleville for a few years and I wanted her to show me the neighborhood. I had been in Belleville last week at night for some art openings and wanted to explore the area more.
She told me to meet her at La Vielleuse Café, right by the Belleville metro stop. In a comedy of errors, I assumed Shumin was a man, not knowing the distinction of Asian male/female names. I spent 10 minutes, talking to mistaken strangers, obviously not finding “him”, and then decided to call. My pay as you go phone was out of time, so I was stuck. Then I noticed a young Asian girl with a journal and then it hit me that Shumin was probably a “girl”. I introduced myself, then explained my mishap, and we laughed about my blunder.
She was warm and curious and we talked about the pros and cons of Paris and New York, each explaining our stories of how we landed here. Shumin is Chinese from the lower east side of New York and has been living in Paris working as a filmmaker for 5 years. After coffee, we went to a hardware store and while we were picking out screwdrivers, she gave me a history of the neighborhood. A brief summary: the intersection of the Belleville metro borders on 4 Arrondissements, 10,11,19, and 20. It is the second Chinatown after the 13th. The Chinese population migrated here in the 1980’s and is mostly from the Wenzhou province of China, just south of Shanghai, speaking Mandarin. Many of them have prospered, setting up solid retail businesses and stores catering to their own. Belleville is the densest area in Paris for artists and crafts ateliers. However like in most other big cities, it is being gentrified by the minute, driving up rents, and many artists have moved to Mentilmontant. There is a large food market every Tuesday & Friday morning on Boulevard de Belleville and is the cheapest market in Paris. This peaked my interest, since I am tired of paying 8 euros a kilo for tomatoes at other Hermes priced markets.
Unfortunately, Shumin ran out of time as she had another appointment, but she pointed out different streets of interest. It was cold and rainy, as I roamed the streets of this gritty, unfamiliar and unusual neighborhood. I realized it was a true melting pot with Turkish, Chinese, African, Arab, and Russian populace. Being Caucasian, I felt like a minority. It was an odd mix of burnt out buildings and lots with graffiti, large, indescript modern buildings, cheap takeout ethnic restaurants and run down turn of the century buildings. Although architecturally nothing stood out, I was surprised when I came across a stark, modern Mies van de Rohe style structure with a glass brick façade, which was the local city gym. There was an inordinate amount of hair salons catering to black women. I didn’t see too many ateliers or artists as I think they were in a different part of the area.
Shades of Mies van de Rohe
Culturally, it didn’t look like there was too much happening in this particular section of Belleville but will return to explore the area with the galleries and young artist’s ateliers along with some restaurants I’ve read about.
Madame Curie
Eye Prefer Paris was written up as the blog of the month on the prestigious website France Today.
Click here to read.
I went last Sunday to visit the Saint-Etienne-du-Mont church that Louis LaVache had recommended I visit as one of his insider suggestions. There happened to be a St. Patrick’s Day sermon in English being given, Unfortunately I couldn’t see many of the e details of this architecturally fascinating church or the rood screen, but will comeback another time to see.
I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about including small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.
I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com
I found Rue de la Roquette a fascinating area of Paris - that's almost Belleville, isn't it?
Great post, Richard! As usual!
Posted by: Mimi | March 29, 2007 at 05:11 AM