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Post by Deleted on Sept 23, 2015 12:51:29 GMT
I have long been rather remiss in covering the sights of the Left Bank because frankly I don't spend much time there. The Left Bank and the Right Bank of Paris are a sort of Buda and Pest situation, which it is officially the same city but one feels less affinity for the other side. I will admit that this is considerably attenuated in Paris if only because of the metro system and the huge number of bridges over the Seine, so there is nothing that can be considered an obstacle. But when Parisians get together to talk about where they live and where they spend time, you will nearly always find that they don't cross to the other side if they don't have to. In fact, you will discover they they don't even like to change arrondissement. Nevertheless, most of us get along fine. Anyway, I have made reports about all sorts picturesque little neighbourhoods on the Right Bank but far fewer about the places 'down south' so it is now time to post a few photographs of the Butte aux Cailles, which is one of the most famous alternative areas in the city. La Butte aux Cailles (which can be translated as 'Quail Hill') is actually a misnomer. While it is indeed a hillock rising 62 metres above the surrounding plain and the banks of the (now underground) Bièvre River, there were never any quails involved at all. The land used to belong to a certain Pierre Caille ( sans 's') who bought it in 1543. At the beginning, it was just meadows and woods with a few windmills on the hill, but as the city grew, it became a pretty nasty place with all of the messy industries (leather making, dyeing, slaughtering, fur processing...) using the Bièvre to wash away all of their disgusting sludge. When the Bièvre was put underground at the end of the 19th century, it became more of a residential village, while most of the rest of the 13th arroundissement was still industrial -- and that's why most of the arrondissement was demolished and replaced by all of those high rise apartment blocks in the 1970's.
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Post by mossie on Sept 23, 2015 13:22:53 GMT
Very reminiscent of La Mouzaia area.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 23, 2015 13:24:49 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Sept 23, 2015 14:57:40 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Sept 23, 2015 15:05:19 GMT
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Post by fumobici on Sept 23, 2015 15:54:47 GMT
I found the area charming and untouristy. The next time I visit Paris I will definitely consider staying in the area as the Southern reaches of Paris are still somewhat terra incognita to me and I'd like to get to know it better. I'll just include a very brief video I took last year in a little park there called Jardin Brassaï on a lovely May afternoon, a place I'll bet few tourists ever wander into.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 23, 2015 21:00:31 GMT
Thanks, Fumobici. The Jardin Brassai is definitely part of the Butte aux Cailles, as is the Square de la Montgolfière, where the first hot air balloon ascension took place in 1783. I need to return to see both of those places. That's all for now, but I need to return and explore a bit more.
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Post by lagatta on Sept 23, 2015 21:17:12 GMT
I have friends who live rue de la Glacière; I don't think that is quite the same area. It isn't as hilly.
I remember arriving in la Butte aux Cailles very early in the morning after an overnight trip (by car) from Italy. It sparkled; seemed very pretty (though unassuming).
Edited to add:
They aren't very far. My friends live at the top end (closest to the Saine) of rue de la Glacière and la rue de la Butte aux Cailles is mostly south and a bit east. Getting closer to the edge of Paris, and the Cité universitaire.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 23, 2015 21:38:01 GMT
I forgot to post a picture of Le Temps des Cerises, which has been a communard workers' coop restaurant since it was opened. It is the most iconic establishment in the area, since the area was one of the strongholds of the Commune de Paris. Karl Marx greatly admired the Commune and called it "the first government of the working class." Le Temps des Cerises is the song which is the most associated with the Commune, even though it was written before the events of that time. It is still sung in France at any leftist event.
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Post by lagatta on Sept 23, 2015 23:57:35 GMT
How is Le Temps des Cerises? I've seen another one a couple of decades ago, think it was in the 11th on rue St-Antoine (also famous for its artisan culture). I wouldn't expect "fine dining", but is the food decent?
Les avis sont très partagés...
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Post by Deleted on Sept 24, 2015 4:41:42 GMT
I only ate there once, more than 30 years ago, so the cooks from then have probably died of old age. I would not cross the city to go there. The only restaurants I go to in the 13th are in Chinatown.
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Post by bjd on Sept 24, 2015 5:39:20 GMT
Years ago, my husband and I decided to explore parts of Paris we didn't know so went to the Butte aux Cailles. I don't even remember seeing some of those small cobbled lanes, so perhaps they have been fixed up in the meantime. Anyway, our reaction was "Is this it?" and leaving. I just remember a couple of streets with small houses, as opposed to the surrounding buildings.
My more recent ventures into the 13th have been around Glacière, where my father-in-law was in an old age home, and it's definitely not attractive. Just ugly high-rises which make me not want to venture further.
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Post by whatagain on Sept 24, 2015 15:18:10 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 24, 2015 17:35:31 GMT
Delightful tour of the area, Kerouac. Reading your intro, at first I thought you were lukewarm about it, but then saw your beautiful photos & your comments saying that you'd return. Great history throughout & most surprising to hear about the artesian wells. Did the gleaming stainless steel replaced something ancient on that site? No thanks for the earworm, though. Isn't Le Temps des Cerises set to the same tune as Molly Malone?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 24, 2015 18:46:20 GMT
Did the gleaming stainless steel replaced something ancient on that site? Molly Malone? All of the main water sources of Paris have taken on a completely different look in recent years when the municipality cancelled the private contracts for water. There was one water conglomerate in charge of the right bank and a different water conglomerate in charge of the left bank, and these two companies still control the vast majority of the water systems of France (not to mention quite a bit of Europe and many other places in the world). The companies themselves are quite fine, but a big city can manage its own water more cheaply and efficiently, so now we have Eau de Paris providing all of our needs in piped H 20. I don't really remember what the old outlets looked like, but I know they were not as hygienic. I have one of those wells just two blocks from where I live, but I prefer to turn my faucet to get water -- it's exactly the same water, after all. However, it is good for people who live in decrepit buildings with lead pipes, especially if they have children. I had purposely chosen an old fashioned recording of Le Temps des Cerises to avoid earworms. But just about all of the main singers of France have done their own version of it.
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Post by nycgirl on Sept 27, 2015 3:57:17 GMT
How pretty. I'd love to go for a stroll there. I see you spotted yet another space invader.
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Post by patricklondon on Sept 27, 2015 9:50:30 GMT
I once did a home exchange with someone in the Butte. There was certainly a street full of wouldbe hipster and bobo drinkers and diners and arty graffiti, and it was interesting to see a part of Paris I knew nothing about. But unfortunately, the flat was on a street equally frequented all through the night by noisy motor scooters, and I'm sorry to say I moved to a quiet hotel in the Marais for the rest of my stay (I never told my exchange partners). My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 27, 2015 16:38:42 GMT
You must have gotten high marks as a tidy tenant: "Look, it seems as though he wasn't here at all!"
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Post by patricklondon on Sept 28, 2015 10:34:11 GMT
Oh, I always aim for that on an exchange, bixa, but I'm bound to have moved something to somewhere they find completely incomprehensible, if nothing else. My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by lagatta on Oct 2, 2015 1:18:00 GMT
bjd, the stretch where my friends live is bog-standard Hausmannian, but I've seen ugly institutional housing in the neighbourhood.
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Post by lugg on Oct 4, 2015 18:40:27 GMT
This reminds me why I need to see more of Paris, what a great report and photos. Eau de Paris sounds like a perfume rather than a water provider
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Post by tod2 on Oct 12, 2015 15:36:41 GMT
It was LOVELY to see part of the 13th that I did not get to. Those upright roofed houses all in a row are pictured in my guide book. It describes Square des Peupliers as a curious tri-angular-shaped cul-de-sac. It was built in 1926 as was most of the district between Rue Ernester-Henri-Rousselle and Place de l'Abbe`-Georges-Henoque. Hard to believe this used to be a wasteland with just a few ragmen's sheds dotted here and there. It looks so beautifully tranquille.
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