Belleville: Commune Hill, Immigrant Hill
One hillside in the twentieth and nineteenth arrondissements. Two pattern-breaks ninety years apart. The last barricade of the Paris Commune fell here on the twenty-eighth of May, eighteen seventy-one. The post-colonial communities of Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal, Mali, Wenzhou China, and post-nineteen-seventy-five Vietnam organised here, on the same slope, beginning a century later. Two kilometres. Seven stops. One park, one square named for a chanteuse, one cobbled climb, one contested last-barricade corner, one Wenzhou commercial strip, one mural street, one wall in Père Lachaise.
Start
Parc de Belleville: The Hillside, Read from Above
Parc de Belleville: The Hillside, Read from Above
Inaugurated nineteen eighty-eight. Architect François Debulois, landscaper Paul Brichet. One hundred and eight metres elevation, the highest park in Paris. Wikidata Q nine five oh four four six. The upper terrace, on rue Piat, is the panoramic deck.
Place Fréhel: The Chanteuse and the Legend
Small triangular plaza at the corner of rue Julien-Lacroix and rue de Belleville. Named for Marguerite Boulc'h, stage name Fréhel, eighteen ninety-one to nineteen fifty-one. Ben Vautier slate piece nineteen ninety-three; Jean Le Gac mural nineteen eighty-six, restored two thousand and seventeen. Reframes the Édith Piaf birth-place legend.
Rue de la Mare: The Cobbled Climb and the Eighteen-Seventy-One Hillside
Steep cobbled street climbing the eastern flank of the Belleville hill, between rue de Belleville and rue des Cascades. Symbolic anchor for the eighteen-seventy-one historical exposition: the kind of street the semaine sanglante barricade chain was built across in May eighteen seventy-one.
Rue Ramponeau Forty to Forty-Two: The Contested Last Barricade
Per Lissagaray, Histoire de la Commune de mille huit cent soixante-onze, eighteen seventy-six, this corner of rue Ramponeau and rue de Tourtille was the site of the last Communard barricade, held about fifteen minutes by a single anonymous fédéré on the afternoon of the twenty-eighth of May, eighteen seventy-one. Contested with rue de la Fontaine-au-Roi in the eleventh per Louise Michel, La Commune, eighteen ninety-eight.
Lower Rue de Belleville: The Wenzhou Strip and the Post-Colonial First Stand
The spine of Paris's second major Chinatown, distinct from the larger thirteenth-arrondissement Triangle de Choisy. Predominantly Wenzhou, eastern Zhejiang province. Three migration arcs: early nineteen-hundreds leather and porcelain trades; First World War French recruitment of Chinese labour; substantial post-nineteen-seventy-eight reform-era wave. The post-colonial first stand reads across this hundred-metre strip.
Rue Dénoyez: The Mural Street and the Persistence
Short street between rue de Belleville and rue Ramponeau. Open-air mural corridor, tolerated since the two thousands, where the contemporary working-class hillside is most visible at street level. Companion-voice grounding for the double-break thesis before the resolution at Père Lachaise.
Mur des Fédérés: The Wall, the Twenty-Eighth of May, the Resolution
Section of the inner east wall of Père Lachaise cemetery, on the Avenue Circulaire. Site of the summary execution of surviving Communards on the twenty-eighth of May, eighteen seventy-one. Plaque: Aux Morts de la Commune, vingt et un - vingt-huit mai mille huit cent soixante et onze. Wikidata Q nine one oh nine two three. Annual montée au mur on the twenty-eighth of May since the late nineteenth century.
Best Time to Visit
Late morning to mid-afternoon on a weekday, ideally Tuesday through Friday. The Parc de Belleville upper terrace at Stop one reads most fully in clear weather, when the Sacré-Cœur and the western Paris skyline are visible across the rooftops. The lower rue de Belleville at Stop five is most legible mid-morning and early evening, when the Wenzhou restaurants and Kabyle cafés are most active. The Mur des Fédérés at Stop seven is quietest on weekday afternoons. The twenty-eighth of May, the anniversary of the wall's executions, draws the annual commemoration and is the one date on which the wall is busy and ceremonial; visit then if you want to see the montée au mur tradition, or avoid it if you prefer the quieter reading.
Pro Tips
- •The audio anchors on the exterior of every stop. You do not need to enter any building, restaurant, or cemetery section to follow the tour. Père Lachaise is free to enter; the cemetery is open daily from eight in the morning, closing time varies by season.
- •Stop seven sits about one and a half kilometres south of Stop six, in Père Lachaise cemetery. Allow twenty to twenty-five minutes for the walk down through Ménilmontant. If you cannot make the cemetery walk, the resolution still works back at the Parc de Belleville upper terrace at Stop one; the lower rue de Belleville at Stop five is the visible second-break artefact, and the wall is the symbolic close. The cemetery version is the primary path.
- •The Père Lachaise entrance closest to the Mur des Fédérés is the Porte Gambetta on Avenue Gambetta. From there, follow the signs along the Avenue Circulaire to the wall. The wall is on the inner east side of the cemetery. Maps at the cemetery gates list the Mur des Fédérés among the principal sites.
- •Stop three on rue de la Mare is a steep cobbled climb of about a hundred metres of elevation. Comfortable shoes recommended. The cobbles are uneven and can be slick after rain.
- •The lower rue de Belleville at Stop five is best read by walking the strip slowly on both sides. The twentieth-arrondissement side, on the south, holds the Wenzhou commercial corridor and the Kabyle cafés. The nineteenth-arrondissement side, on the north, is more Southeast Asian. The contrast is part of what the stop is teaching.
- •Place Fréhel at Stop two is small and easy to miss. The triangular plaza sits at the corner of rue Julien-Lacroix and rue de Belleville, with the Ben Vautier slate piece, in black and white, on the south wall. If you walk past Vautier's slate without seeing it, you have walked past the plaza.
- •The annual commemoration at the Mur des Fédérés on the twenty-eighth of May is held by the Association of Friends of the Paris Commune. Their website at commune-eighteen-seventy-one dot org lists each year's programme. The walk up to the wall typically begins early afternoon and is open to the public.
Safety & Precautions
- Belleville is a working-class neighbourhood with a strong residential character. Photograph buildings and street art; avoid photographing people, especially in restaurants and cafés, without consent. The Wenzhou and Maghrebi communities on the lower rue de Belleville live and work on the strip the tour walks; treat the strip as a neighbourhood, not a backdrop.
- Pickpocketing is documented on the lower rue de Belleville and on the Metro lines two and eleven serving the area. Keep wallets and phones in front pockets or zipped bags, especially around the Belleville Metro station and the market street on Thursday and Saturday mornings.
- The walk includes one steep cobbled climb on rue de la Mare between Stop two and Stop three, and a one and a half kilometre walk down through Ménilmontant to Père Lachaise between Stop six and Stop seven. Wear comfortable closed shoes. Total walking distance is about two and a half kilometres.
- Père Lachaise cemetery is an active burial ground with daily ceremonies and grieving families. The Mur des Fédérés sits on the inner east wall on the Avenue Circulaire. Behave as you would in any cemetery: walk on the paths, speak quietly, photograph the wall and the plaque rather than visitors or ceremonies.
- The Belleville hillside has limited shade between Stop one and Stop five. In summer, carry water and consider an early-morning or late-afternoon start. The Père Lachaise extension at Stop seven runs through tree-lined avenues and is the cooler portion of the route.
- Rue Dénoyez at Stop six and the lower rue de Belleville at Stop five are pavement-narrow and active. Step to the side when stopping to read the murals or look at signage; keep moving on through-traffic stretches.
Gallery
