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Any Port in a Storm :: Compass Points :: Europe :: Paris :: Paris: Parc de Belleville (75020)

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kerouac2
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Paris: Parc de Belleville (75020)
« Thread Started on Nov 9, 2010, 10:48pm »

I was just walking around today with no real objective. It all started out by walking to the Labor Relations Tribunal, to get information for my upcoming activities (but that's another story

), and then I just kept walking in the rain, along the Canal Saint Martin, and then the Hôpital Saint Louis (more about this coming up soon), on to Belleville, and then I found myself at the foot of one corner of the park. (That's my excuse for not having a photo of the main entrance.)

I started climbing, but the impulse is always to look behind to see how much you can see. Not much yet.

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Then I was in the park and following the paths going up. Along the with Parc de Buttes Chaumont, the Parc de Belleville is the steepest.

[image]

The benches were very nice but perhaps not so inviting in the November rain.

[image]

Ever since I started hanging out on travel forums, I realize how much of Paris that visitors are missing, just because they want to stick to the center. This of course should not surprise me, because that is pretty much what I do in most cities that I visit if I am not renting a car.

But what brought it to mind was that here I was in an integral part of Paris that tourists would never find, because a lot of them were in sight of where I was, but it seems so far away.

[image]

Can you see what I'm talking about? Maybe a little zoom will help.

[image]

It was an absolutely perfectly atmospheric day to be where I was, but anybody at the Eiffel Tower would find it dismal, misty and disappointing. Knowing that lots of people have only one day when they can visit the Eiffel Tower, even if the weather is totally shitty, is a bit depressing. They couldn't even see the Parc de Belleville from where they were, just a grey blur in the distance. And even if they saw it, so what? Why would anybody want to go there?

So I just forgot those people and continued with my own agenda. There was a cat going about its cat business, on patrol.

[image]

Meanwhile, I was alert to the autumn vegetation. This and other sites have taught me to pay more attention to the plants.

[image]

I did not require a wifi connection while walking around, but it is good to know that all municipal parks in Paris have free wifi.

[image]

I reached the top of the park and looked at the panorama below.

[image]

Sometimes framing is important with these pictures, because if you see the whole vista, it isn't always as charming.

[image]

I do know something about that church in Ménilmontant, though. Even though the church itself is pretty much abandoned, it has a very active mosque in its basement.

One thing I was happy to see was the municipal gardening activity. Actually, I did not see the "activity" so much as the planned activity. It was lunchtime, and the workers had clearly abandoned all of the things they had to do with the flower beds until after lunch.

As you can see, pansies will get us through the winter in most of the parks of Paris. Rugged little things that they are! We don't really find them very interesting but they are better than an empty bed of dirt.

[image]

The Parc de Belleville is one of the newest parks in Paris, created in 1988. The big pictogram is to tell you not to lie on the grass before April 15th. The grass is "resting." Yeah, like I really have plans on sunbathing in January.

[image]

There is a small vineyard at the top of the park.

[image]

Then I was back on the city streets, with a very nice Wallace fountain as one of the first things on my path.

[image]

Upper Belleville still has quite a few old shops, because it is not chic -- a bit too inconvenient for modern Parisians.

[image]

Belleville being a major Jewish neighborhood, one can always encounter plaques to bring you back to earth about unpleasant realities.

[image]

Nevertheless, it was a very nice walk in the rain, and it suited me perfectly.

« Last Edit: Nov 10, 2010, 12:26am by kerouac2 »

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bixaorellana
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Re: Paris: Parc de Belleville (75020)
« Reply #1 on Nov 10, 2010, 1:07am »

Gadzooks!

So much beauty in one thread ....... your contemplative day paid big dividends to the rest of us with these wonderful photographs.

It's a great example, too, of how much nature can be found in a big city if one knows and loves that city.

For too much great stuff to be able to pick a favorite, but I can tell you how much pleasure the 2nd pic gave me, along with the 3rd & 4th ones of the pansies, and ........... aaagghh, they're all good. But hey, the Wallace fountain one ~~ oooooooo!

« Last Edit: Nov 10, 2010, 1:07am by bixaorellana »

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lola
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Re: Paris: Parc de Belleville (75020)
« Reply #2 on Nov 10, 2010, 2:18am »

So beautiful, Kerouac. I'd almost have to go with the wallace fountain/ginko one, too, but there's that rose hip one, and the one where the paths diverge, and, and...

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hwinpp
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Re: Paris: Parc de Belleville (75020)
« Reply #3 on Nov 10, 2010, 6:17am »

Nice. Do you ever go into the brasseries for a drink or a meal?

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bjd
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Re: Paris: Parc de Belleville (75020)
« Reply #4 on Nov 10, 2010, 9:18am »

Nice, Kerouac. I too have gone up there to look at the view. It's often a bit emptier that Buttes-Chaumont. Obviously, on rainy days, it's really empty.

I plant pansies at this time of year too. They survive the winter,even if they don't look great, but by spring, they look nicer and bushier than the one planted in spring.

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tod2
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Re: Paris: Parc de Belleville (75020)
« Reply #5 on Nov 10, 2010, 9:51am »

Superb photos Kerouac! I remember sitting under that 'yellow at the moment' tree with the wallace fountain in front of it. At that time it was 29+C and a cold beer from the little bistrot went down very well

I think the park looks even more beautiful than in Summer.

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kerouac2
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Re: Paris: Parc de Belleville (75020)
« Reply #6 on Nov 10, 2010, 3:31pm »

Nov 10, 2010, 6:17am, hwinpp wrote:

Nice. Do you ever go into the brasseries for a drink or a meal?

Exceedingly rarely, HW. In my own city, I do just about all of my eating and drinking at home when I am not with other people.

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lagatta
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Re: Paris: Parc de Belleville (75020)
« Reply #7 on Nov 10, 2010, 4:25pm »

Kerouac, occasionally I do like to have a touristic café-crème (a macchiato in Italian) at a nearby café, but I most often work at home, so I need a small change of scene even in the wintertime. I like the fact that there are still old merceries, and places that do "retouches".

I was very glad to see this thread because I haven't been back to Parc de Belleville since I visited with a friend who lives close by soon after it opened. People will imagine that it was pretty bare and uninteresting back then, except of course for the spectacular views down onto the city.

One thing I do appreciate is that the more recent plaques in memory of victims of Nazism now acknowledge the complicity and active role of the Vichy government. The older plaques just speak about the German invaders or something to that effect.

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kerouac2
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Re: Paris: Parc de Belleville (75020)
« Reply #8 on Sept 14, 2012, 12:41pm »

Looking at this thread again made me realise how I'm very much looking forward to autumn with its light rain and empty parks.

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lagatta
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Re: Paris: Parc de Belleville (75020)
« Reply #9 on Sept 14, 2012, 1:18pm »

Even now, at the end of summer, I think there will be far fewer people in the parks than in high summer. I'd love a view of Parc de Belleville around the Equinox.

It was a bit sad when I was first there with a friend who lives in the area (though now he has moved a bit, halfway between les Buttes-Chaumont and Parc de la Villette, near the street with the Jewish shops you featured on another thread). I'm so happy to see that now it has proper foliage and park features.

Are there any gazebos or other structures where people can shelter and sit for a while, when there is a bit of rain?

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tod2
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Re: Paris: Parc de Belleville (75020)
« Reply #10 on Sept 14, 2012, 2:31pm »

It was these exact photos that led me to decide my next trip to Paris will be in late October. The autumn colours are too beautiful for words!

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ssander
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At the Belleville Arts Open Doors in Paris in 2007

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Re: Paris: Parc de Belleville (75020)
« Reply #11 on Sept 15, 2012, 2:10pm »

Just noticed this 2-year-old thread -- wonderful!

My wife and I have only been to Paris 4 times, but we've been to the Belleville Arts Open Door festival twice, so this was fun to view.

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