The 20th!
Practicing for the Chinese New Year
Chinatown!
Side street of Belleville
St. John the Baptist in Belleville
Belleville, the remains of a morning market
Belleville Cemetery
Rue Menilmontant
Cemetery Pere Lachaise
I like Paris a lot. I want to get to know it better so I am starting a mission to visit every single arrondissement, district, of Paris. I have begun with the 20th and will spiral my way inwards toward the 1st.
The 20th is comprised of a few different neighborhoods, most notably Belleville and Menilmontant. Its population is very diverse, mostly immigrants from Africa, the Middle East, the Carribean, and Asia. I enjoyed the mix of working class apartments, tourist traps, graffittied alleyways, and big bustling commerical boulevards. This part of Paris felt very real. People live here. They raise kids here. This is not the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. It can be dirty. A bit smelly. People thrive here.
As soon as I exited the Belleville Metro I walked into the middle of a Chinese New Year celebration complete with drums and dragons! I wandered up Rue Belleville and took shelter from the cold in a church, St. Jean le Baptiste. It was a fairly simple church, not impressive when compared to Notre Dame, but certainly older than any church in America. I was not the only one avoiding the below freezing temperatures, several bums were enjoying an early siesta on the pews.
From the church I made my way to the Belleville cemetery, passing a dwindling market. Entering the cemetery I passed an old lady with flowers, the only other living person in a crowded, crumbling, seemingly forgotten corner of Paris. I love cemeteries. I find them very peaceful. A quiet place where people are resting after their burst of busy life on earth.
I lunched at a Lebanese restaurant. Started with a salad and some hummus and pita. Main course was chicken and rice. It wasn't bad but I thought the first bone may have been a clumsy mistake by the cook. After the fifth and sixth bone I realized it was intentional. I won't be ordering it again soon. In typical Parisian style I chose a coffee for my desert.
Next stop was cemetery Pere Lachaise. This was my second visit here but this time I realized just how enormous it is. I literally got lost. It did not feel as touristy this time around. The crowds had left and the frozen earth made it seem like almost harsh. Famous graves I saw this time were Georges Seurat and Oscar Wilde. Unfotunately the batteries in my camera joined the cemetery atmosphere and died. I was most impressed by a corner which was dedicated to victims of the Holocaust. Gruesome yet beautiful statues interpreted the suffering and violence endured by millions.
I zig zagged my way through the rest of the 20th, taking narrow back roads as much as possible, and wound up at the very commercial Place de la Nation.
Mission accomplished. One down, nineteen to go.
