Our Quartier

Having left Paris after 3 months, we feel like we have had a really good taste of life in the city. The fact we enjoyed it so much was largely down to the area we were living in, so here is a bit of a tour of our quartier!

We were living in the 12th arrondissement of the city in the Bastille area, named after the infamous prison that stood here until it was demolished shortly after being taken by the people on 14 July 1789, the start of the first revolution. The prison site is now a busy roundabout with a monument to the 1830 and 1848 revolutions in the center. Incidentally, all three revolutions (1789, 1830 and 1848) occurred in July. Not a good month to be a despotic ruler in Paris.



A canal (Canal St Martin) runs from the Seine, under the Place de la Bastille and up to the north-east of the city. On the way it goes through 8 locks, finishing at a level 24 meters higher than the Seine.



Our street is rue de Charenton, a very old street that runs off the Place de la Bastille.





Since the 1700s this particular area has been a center for furniture making, and there are still a huge number of furniture makers and restorers here. The biggest concentration is in the Passage de Chantiers, which runs between rue de Charenton and rue Faubourg St Antoine.



Across the road from us, we have the National Ophthalmologic Hospital, called "Quinze-Vingts" after a regiment of musketeers that was based there.

Further down is The China Club, a very cool bar in the style of a colonial era gentlemans club.



If you are wondering about the warning sign next to the club, "Aveugles" means "blind people." The combination of ophthalmologic hospital and French driving is a potentially dangerous combination.

Down the road a bit, we have one of our local bakeries. It's not actually very good, but it looks cool so here is a pic!




A couple of blocks from there, we have the Marché d'Aligre, a fantastic market that is open until 1pm every day except Mondays. This market is one of the cheapest in Paris, although the quality can be a little variable. With a bit of effort it is easy to find good quality produce at some excellent prices. We became regulars at one stall during cherry season, and the stall holder always made sure that our "kilograms" of fruit were a little bigger.




Just next to the market is the Baron Rouge, a very old-school wine bar/wine shop where you can buy wine straight out of the barrel, or just have a glass or two up at the bar. Very nice friendly atmosphere and great wine! (For Wellingtonians: the proprietor is a close replica of Rumble)



Across the road from the Baron Rouge is Moisan, an organic bakery. The baguettes are slightly more expensive here (1.10€ instead of 0.80€) but are worth the extra money.

A short distance along that street we have one of Paris's many little urban green spaces, Square Trousseau. On the corner next to the square is a bistro of the same name which is apparently one of the better ones in Paris (bit pricey for us though).





There is also a good example of a typical Parisian apartment building:



Heading north from the market, we come to rue Faubourg St Antoine. This is a busy shopping street with a number of chain stores...



...and our local supermarket:




The reason for the crowd of people standing outside is that they were on strike at the time. The reason? Apparently there was not enough space between the ends of the isles and the checkout counters for customers to queue properly and the customers were taking out their frustration on the staff. Welcome to France!

Back towards the river a bit, we have the "Viaduc des Arts" and the Promenade Plantée. This is an old railway viaduct that has been cleverly converted into a dual purpose space: on the top they have put a planted walkway, and in the arches underneath there are a number of workshops and shops with things like art, jewelry and designer furniture.



Our quartier has a great mixture of society, from working class to bohemian bourgeois (or bobos as they are popularly called), from old people who have always lived in the area to young families, from North African immigrants to Kiwi OErs. It's very easy to live there and if we get the chance to come back and live in Paris, we'll look for a place in the same area.