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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2010 21:44:24 GMT
Rue Dénoyez is a street that was more or less abandoned in Belleville, the sort of ruin that is normally torn down as quickly as possible these days, especially since it is just a few steps from the Belleville metro station. Being next to a metro station makes just about any place in Paris prime real estate. But rue Dénoyez decided to take a different twist in its fate. Whew! It can be considered to be quite visually exhausting. But you can always go to one of the old Arab cafés still in operation on the street. Or you can go to the old kosher restaurant that ends the street. Any rubbish can go into one of the municipal bins, slightly redecorated for the occasion. People who live on the street had better not be too recalcitrant to graffiti, because their building will not escape it. For serious drinking, which I have done here with a friend until all hours on occasion, the corner café is "Aux Folies" and it suggests extremely good wine by the glass for an excellent price. If you get hungry, Tang Gourmet, right next door, is the place to go.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2010 22:28:34 GMT
That is truly interesting, Kerouac. A great place of graffiti artists. I'd like to paint one of those walls.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 17, 2010 22:51:23 GMT
Whew -- real artistry in full flight! This is outstanding and so cheerful, besides. So many of the things shown made me say, "I wish I'd thought of that!" The recycled tile and "stuff" on La Maison is zanily beautiful, and I yearn for some of those airbrushed paint-can lids. All that color makes it seems warm, even though the winter clothing indicates some serious cold.
Kerouac, is part of the street mostly closed-up businesses? Are the bars and restaurants shown all at one end of the street, or was it just the time of day the pictures were taken?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2010 22:53:51 GMT
Actually, this was Sunday evening when just about everything was closed.
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Post by lola on Feb 18, 2010 5:33:23 GMT
Oo la. I want to go look at that one for myself.
Nice that people sit outside bundled up, too.
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Post by fumobici on Feb 21, 2010 5:54:08 GMT
Glad to see that street hasn't lost its incredible funk. There was a hookah bar nearby that felt thousands of miles from Paris inside. I don't suppose they allow hookah bars in France any longer.
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Post by bjd on Feb 21, 2010 7:34:00 GMT
The owners of the narguileh cafés thought they should be exempt from the non-smoking law but it didn't happen. You still see some but clients have to smoke outside. Not so pleasant in the Parisian climate.
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Post by lola on Feb 28, 2010 15:20:38 GMT
I'm sending links to these threads to my daughter, whose application deadline for her semester in Paris is coming up.
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Post by Jazz on Feb 28, 2010 16:07:54 GMT
I'd like to spend this afternoon exploring this street. (yet another one that I was totally unaware of), hang out for a while at the cafe...these storefronts are fascinating. distinct, vital character. Lola, is your daughter going to study in Paris?
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Post by lola on Feb 28, 2010 19:25:01 GMT
Hi, Jazz. Yes, studying at a French University is the plan; she's majoring in French, she now thinks. Just for a semester, though, in the fall. She's working out the details now.
I'm too old fashioned to love all the graffiti. The constant visual assault would bother me if I spent much time there. I guess that's the point. Also it seems like an affront to the dignified old buildings. If you had neighborhoods like this to burn it would be different; I guess Paris does.
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Post by bjd on Mar 1, 2010 11:08:10 GMT
Lola, I don't think this neighbourhood is particularly full of "dignified old buildings". They are just old.
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Post by lola on Mar 1, 2010 19:50:19 GMT
Around here and to my eyes they'd qualify as both those things, is what I guess I'm saying. My notions tend towards the hidebound, of course.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2010 21:10:24 GMT
It's true that if those were the traditional "Haussmannian" buildings, they would never have allowed such a thing. But the old flat cement façades are not held in high esteem, so anything goes, once it gets started. I live in a building of similar quality to the buildings of rue Dénoyez, but a bank occupies the ground floor to "protect" us.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 2, 2010 0:39:23 GMT
Well, I for one, and for my own reasons, am simply sticking to the premise that old = dignified. ;D
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Post by lagatta on Mar 2, 2010 8:53:12 GMT
I really like those old buildings of le Paris populaire; for one thing they aren't as uniformily aligned as the Hausmannian districts. I remember a similar destruction in an early-19th century district of Québec City - which is old by most North American standards - to put up a hideous overpass for a highway. That is deeply regretted now, but some other buildings of that vintage are still menaced. And alas rarely are they replaced by stunning modern architecture.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2010 10:11:40 GMT
I just corrected the unforgiveable mistake that I had made in the title -- rue Dénoyez is in the 20th arrondissement, not the 19th!
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Post by lagatta on Mar 2, 2010 10:21:50 GMT
Thanks. There are some streets I distinctly recall as being in one or the other, but Belleville/Ménilmontant just blend together in many areas - where is the dividing line?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2010 10:40:20 GMT
The dividing line is rue de Belleville going up the hill. On the left is the 19th and on the right is the 20th. And below the boulevard de Belleville is the 11th, so Belleville is actually in parts of 3 arrondissements; which makes it hard to place in some guidebooks that go by arrondissement.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 2, 2010 13:56:09 GMT
In everyday life, do people refer to the different areas by name, as in Belleville, or would they say the 20th arrondissement?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2010 14:16:58 GMT
It depends -- some names of neighborhoods are more famous than others, and a few have no real character at all, at least by Paris standards. Belleville* is always called by its name, as are Montmartre, Montparnasse or the Latin Quarter. I generally call my own neighborhood by its name ("La Chapelle") when talking to Parisians, but to outsiders, depending on what they know about Paris, I might say "northeastern Paris," "the 18th arrondissement" or a number of other things.
* at the same time, most people from outside the Paris metropolitan area would have little idea of where to situate Belleville and would only think "gritty neighborhood where Edith Piaf was born"
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 2, 2010 14:30:46 GMT
Thanks. Does any other major city use that system of officially numbered neighborhoods?
It's imperative here to know the names of colonias, as street names are alarmingly duplicated. I used to live on 16 de Septiembre* street. Oaxaca has at least fifteen streets that I know of with the identical name.
*Mexican independence day
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Post by bjd on Mar 2, 2010 14:33:07 GMT
And some of the arrondissements are big and change character from one part to another, so mentioning a specific neighbourhood makes it clearer.
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Post by lagatta on Mar 2, 2010 14:37:57 GMT
yes, the 18th includes Montmartre and Barbès as well as La Chapelle, and some more ill-defined neighbourhoods such as La Fourche (north of Clichy métro, at the other end from La Chapelle - neighbourhood divided between 17th and 18th, and that quiet northern area - Clingancourt?
I know Vienna has numbered districts as Paris does. Some old Italian cities have numbered districts but they also have ancient names.
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Post by bjd on Mar 2, 2010 14:43:27 GMT
I think Marseille has arrondissements too.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2010 15:06:03 GMT
Paris, Marseille and Lyon are the three French cities with arrondissements. And I knew that Vienna has them also from watching "Rex the Police Dog" at the nursing home -- it is an Austrian series.
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Post by lola on Mar 2, 2010 18:53:23 GMT
London has its postal codes like W1 and all, of course.
When I moved to St. Louis, I was annoyed at how people would try to get a socioeconomic fix by asking where you lived. I lived in a rented room in a classier suburb at first, inaccurately impressing people and getting unearned respect.
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Post by Jazz on Mar 3, 2010 3:54:13 GMT
And some of the arrondissements are big and change character from one part to another, so mentioning a specific neighbourhood makes it clearer. When I first began visiting Paris, I found my way around by thinking of the numbered arrondissements. Most people do, given that most guide books write in these terms. The more that I visited, the less I thought of numbers and more of 'neighborhoods' or, quartiers. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_districts#Chart_of_the_eighty_quartiers_of_ParisThe numbered arrondissements and quartiers can cause confusion. The most outstanding seems to be Montmartre and the 18th arrondissement. Most people think of the 18th as Montmartre, and even more narrowly, about 6 square blocks around Sacre Coeur and the artists' square. It is much more diverisified with very defined neighborhoods....Kerouac's is one, another is just over the top of the hill and below, the lovely rue Caulaincourt and tiny streets and squares. There is an excellent guidebook, Parisian's Paris by Bill Gillham that talks of Paris in terms of neighborhoods, children, obscure museums, little known gardens and squares and perhaps the best pragmatic and aesthetic take on hotels that I have yet read.....Of course, you should simply wander and discover your own Paris. This thread, 'rue Sainte Marthe', 'La Compagne a Paris', 'La Mouzaia in autumn', and 'Canal Saint Martin' threads have made me aware of a Paris that I would never have known. I have not yet explored the 19th and 20th very much.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2010 19:48:07 GMT
Rue Dénoyez requires regular return visits because it evolves constantly. So today was the day that I returned to see what had happened since my last excursion into the neighborhood. Obviously, the artwork on the main walls is renewed often. The main new things, however, were the planters that have been installed on the "don't try to park on the sidewalk" posts. Each one was richly decorated, and the plants were fascinating. Frankly, I preferred the ones where 'random weeds' had been cultivated to the more organized plantations. Meanwhile, the municipal swimming pool building in the street remains totally respected and tag free. If you're hungry, the kosher couscous restaurant at the end of the street still awaits you.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2010 19:51:29 GMT
one last one
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Post by denise on Jan 29, 2011 12:06:15 GMT
It would seem I have got to a point in my Paris obsession, where I have become desensitised to the central "perfect, pretty Paris" and I find I am now prefering the grittier outer arrondissements. A couple of years ago I posted a thread entitled "what it is about Belville?" I just did not get the attraction. On my recent January visit I followed a street art walk, gifted to me by my son at christmas for my iphone. parisisinvisible.blogspot.com/2010/01/paris-people-joanna-walsh-aka-la.htmlIt took me from the Telegraph metro through the streets and eventually to Rue Denoyez and the Au Follies cafe. Pointing out street art, architecture and little stories about Belville. I wish I could reproduce it here or somewhere but I don't know if that is allowed. I had a very enjoyable Saturday afternoon, in contrast the following afternoon I was in the throng of tourists on rue Francs Bourgeous looking for the Lois Vitton exhibition, enjoyable in a different way as there were street musicians playing, but I am preferring the quieter non tourist areas now. Feels much more like "Paris" to me. Denise Love from England
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