Paris streets: rue Oberkampf (75011)

[Deleted]

There was nothing to ever create a predestination for rue Oberkampf to become one of the major streets for night life in Paris; but some reason it happened. The previous area -- Bastille -- had suddenly become too chic due to its major renovation, and it was henceforth unappealing. One of the primary rules for 'authentic' Paris nightlife is that it must take place in areas totally unknown to tourists. It's a sort of ridiculous hide-and-seek game, but I have to confess that even I find it amusing to try to keep one step ahead of 'everybody else' and it is always wonderful to be able to take friends to a place that nobody else has heard of.

In any case, everybody agrees that the very first establishment of interest in the Oberkampf area was "Café Charbon". "Café - Coal" was actually a very traditional sign on the front of many cafés until about 1960, because the people from Auvergne who moved to Paris in the previous hundred years were specialized in those two activities: they operated cafés and they sold coal on the side.

In the year 2010, the Café Charbon is perhaps the last café in Paris which displays the two words next to each other.

Anyway, I road a bike to the area the othe night, and that was already a mistake.

As a Parisian, I should have known this (since I knew already that it is very difficult to return a bike to the Bastille area after dark -- all of the stations are full), but I don't get out much, so I am extemely naïve.

Obviously, the bike stations around Oberkampf were totally full as well. It draws people in like a magnet. I rode to a first station, then a second one, and then a saw a third station with a ray of hope -- a customer standing at the rental machine. So I stopped and waited and was able to return my bike as soon as the other guy removed his bike (I had to fend off two other people, but they accepted that I had arrived first and did not dispute my priority.)

It was only after I had returned my bike that I saw what a big station it was -- there were hitching stations not only on my side of the street but also on the other side.

So anyway, I visited both rue Oberkampf but also its parallel annex, rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud. There are plenty of places to go, and not just these.

     


     


     

     

(to be continued)

[Deleted]

I like all the night colors. Kerouac, I'm just wondering, what happens if people don't return their bikes, is there someone who goes around checking who has brought there's back and who hasn't? And how can they trace a person to see who has not? And what if the bike gets damaged or is in an accident, who pays for the damage or replacement of it?

[bixaorellana]

Wow ~~ great night pictures! Is the area pretty evenly divided among bars, coffee bars, music clubs, & restaurants? What's it like during the day? (I realize you'll probably answer all this in the continuation.)

Dumb question ~~ are the green lights on the bikes snoitcelfer, or actual lights?

[lagatta]

I remember that neighbourhood over 20 years ago - perhaps more like 25 now. It wasn't decrepit, and always had "nice bones" but it was a bit sad and grey. Oberkampf isn't very far from Bastille - it is in one othe arrondissements Bastille straddles.

I hate nightlife and clubbing so while I love those photos, I'd like to see the area now a bit earlier in the day.

The bixi photos are splendid.

[bjd]

Rue Oberkampf is not just a nightlife street. Its trendiness has been building up for quite a while already, so it might be already past and taken over by some street in the 19th. Actually, I know it quite well but in the day. There is a Polish delicatessen near the end, towards Menilmontant metro station, where I occasionally go. And in the day, you see junky stores and cafés with Arab men sitting around in them. Also shops in which you can buy the latest in Islamic fashion.

it's still a bit gray and drab during the day, because the neon signs are not all lit up.

[Deleted]

       

There is live music in about half of these places, ranging from jazz to folk to various Afro or Caribbean rhythms. Things like heavy metal are excluded because, frankly, it would be too expensive and impractical to soundproof all of these old cafés and restaurants.

Some of them of course were not even destined to become restaurants and have kept their old names on the façade.

[Deleted]

[bjd]

Good pics, Kerouac. You should do a report on the rue de Lappe.

[Deleted]

Thanks, bjd. I'm not much of a nightlife person, but I know plenty of people who could not survive if they didn't go regularly to such "entertainment zones".

In the old days, I could never have set foot into most of these places due to the concentration of smoke. Now of course, most of these places have problems with the people living upstairs due to the noise of the smokers outside. And as we all know, the more they drink the louder they get!

[Deleted]

Apr 25, 2010 0:08:57 GMT deyana said:

Kerouac, I'm just wondering, what happens if people don't return their bikes, is there someone who goes around checking who has brought there's back and who hasn't? And how can they trace a person to see who has not? And what if the bike gets damaged or is in an accident, who pays for the damage or replacement of it?

Every hitching post is connected to the central computer, with which you have also entered a bank card guarantee for 150€.

[Deleted]

At the very end of rue Oberkampf, one arrives at the beginning of Menilmontant, one of the funkier old areas of Paris where few tourists venture. It is fully worthy of a report which I might do some day. In any case, tonight’s mission was finished, and I did not succumb to a single café or bar while doing my report, even though I found a number of them particularly appealing.

Time to jump on a new bike and go home.

[ilbonito]

I ate at an (odd) Thai restaurant on Rue Oberkampf. I was wandering around looking for the " Le Batlaclan" theatre!

[Jazz]

This gives a great sense of the area at night. I was there mid afternoon until about midnight and it changes with the night. Some of the music was fantastic! The daytime was relatively quiet and it felt like a completely different area. I saw few signs of the promised ‘edge’. This has, I think, moved on. Loved the cafes with Arab men. Rue de Lappe would be another good street, god knows I walked it a hundred times when I lived on Rue de la Roquette. The great advantage is that it's so short Kerouac! Merci.

[Deleted]

Apr 25, 2010 9:35:04 GMT kerouac2 said:

Apr 25, 2010 0:08:57 GMT deyana said:

Kerouac, I'm just wondering, what happens if people don't return their bikes, is there someone who goes around checking who has brought there's back and who hasn't? And how can they trace a person to see who has not? And what if the bike gets damaged or is in an accident, who pays for the damage or replacement of it?

Every hitching post is connected to the central computer, with which you have also entered a bank card guarantee for 150€.

So, it's almost like you buy the bike each time you rent it. And if you crash it or damage it, I assume you don't get your guarantee back.

[lagatta]

I have stayed quite a bit up in Ménilmontant; the last time I was in a flat lent by someone above rue des Pyrenées (a long street up the hill, perpendicular to rue de Ménilmontant and Belleville, etc that climb the hill. The hill does get a bit steep and I don't think I'd want to ride up it in a heavy Vélib or Bixi (our version). This was after a stay of a couple of months in utterly-flat Amsterdam and it was pleasant being uphill. There is a spectacular view of Paris on the bus going down from rue des Pyrenées "into town".

I know that there is also a discrepancy both in Paris and in Mtl between the bicycles taken on downhill journieys and uphill ones so there are trucks returning bicycles to the uphill "bornes". Despite this, the schemes still cut down on motorized traffic. The Bixi scheme here has the same proviso - you can't just walk off with a bicycle. Oh, some are stolen, but that is more through vandalism I believe. Some have wound up in very faraway countries. They don't have standard replaceable parts - on purpose to discourage a market in stolen ones, but in some poor parts of the world the village smithy is still a reality.

Kerouac, your night pics are wonderful. Indeed, in decades past the smoke discouraged me from going out to clubs - the smoke in Paris cafés never bothered me so much as the door was always opening and there seemed to be a lot of air - here in Mtl in the winter there are double doors so going to a bar or café was difficult, except in summer terrasse season.

[Deleted]

Apr 25, 2010 13:02:48 GMT lagatta said:

Oh, some are stolen, but that is more through vandalism I believe. Some have wound up in very faraway countries. They don't have standard replaceable parts - on purpose to discourage a market in stolen ones, but in some poor parts of the world the village smithy is still a reality.

I thought there must be something about them to deter people from stealing them. It's interesting that they don't have standard parts, but makes sense.

[tod2]

Fantastic insight to lively Paris! Your photo-essay could not have come at a more opportune moment as I make notes of what, where and how we will navigate ourselves around the 11th during our stay in Rue Petition.
I had Cafe` Charbon on my hit-list and have seen restaurant suggestions for Memere Au Piano and L'Estaminet, but as I slowly viewed your photos I was hoping to see a photo of L'Entrepots near Place de Menilmontant. Does it still exist ?

[Deleted]

Hmmm... I know an "Entrepot" on the Faubourg Saint Antoine near Bastille, but I am not aware of the other one. I'll do a quick search and see what I find.

[lola]

Thanks, K. I hope our knowing about it doesn't make it unhappening.

Will there be a cover charge for places with music?

[Deleted]

Generally, there is no cover charge in those places, except perhaps in "l'Alimentation Générale" which is the bright blue place with ropes for a line to form in reply #6.

[tod2]

I saw it on U-Tube.

[Deleted]

I saw another "Entrepôt" in the restaurant listings on rue de Charonne. That might be the place.

[tod2]

Mistake! Not U Tube but GeoBeats..posted link on Fodors.

[gertie]

Very interesting and lovely pictures, but of course now the area is out seeing as we all know about it. ;D

[ilbonito]

Speak for yourself! hahaha

[fumobici]

Nice report, K. Looks like it might be fun pub/club hopping there.

[Deleted]

I wonder if I will have the energy to go here after the fireworks in Montmartre tonight.

[Deleted]

Okay, tonight I took a few more photos to update the establishments on rue Oberkampf.