At the nearby Chapeau Melon (“The Bowler Hat”), chef Olivier Camus’s market menus reveal a similar talent for tweaking favorite bistro dishes with a touch of something foreign—a drizzle of mint-flavored oil to spike a cold asparagus soup with watercress quenelles, for example, or a touch of sumac in the vinaigrette that brightens griddle-seared slices of paleron (beef shoulder) served with a succulent garnish of baby vegetables. Not surprisingly, the dove-gray and barn-red dining room of his popular bistrot à vins is always jammed.
“Aside from a great meal, is there anything to see up there?” people ask when I suggest a day trip to Belleville. I always send them to the rather otherworldly Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, a remarkable example of 19th-century urban and social engineering created from an old quarry during the 1860s by architect Jean-Charles Alphand. The park was intended to civilize the working classes of the area by offering them their own little bit of Eden. Whether that high-mindedness succeeded is debatable, but the park did become much loved for the deep breath of fresh air it provided and for its unfailing ability to inspire daydreams. In addition to open space, Alphand’s fantasyland features Greco-Roman follies, one of which stands proudly on a hilltop looking across to Sacré-Coeur; waterfalls that cascade out of a man-made cave; and a lake with an island reached by a suspension footbridge. In short, the place is enchanting, which is why the apartments that overlook this magical spot are very much in demand. This part of the 19th is visibly gentrifying, as is evidenced by the recent arrival of restaurants like La Pelouse, a stylish bistro, and Quedubon, one of the best wine bars to open in a long time.
Friends from Boston, for whom Paris has always meant the Latin Quarter and Saint-Germain, were skeptical when I suggested they visit Belleville. But after their first afternoon there, they were hooked. They couldn’t get over the energy, which reminded them of New York’s Lower East Side, not to mention the Paris they’d known as students 20 years ago. “It was like discovering a whole new Paris,” they said. And the time to visit Belleville is now, before its delectable edginess, born of a vulnerable equilibrium between past and present, slips away.
19th/20th Arrondissements Address Book
Ateliers D’artistes De Belleville 32 R. de la Mare, 20th (01-46-36-44-09). Small gallery and occasional studio open houses.
Le Baratin 3 R. Jouye-Rouve, 20th (01-43-49-39-70)
La Boulangerie 15 R. des Panoyaux, 20th (01-43-58-45-45). Contemporary bistro cooking in a pretty former bakery.
La Boulangerie Par Véronique Mauclerc 83 R. de Crimée, 19th (01-42-40-64-55). Organic bread and pastries from a wood-burning stove.
Le Chapeau Melon 92 R. Rébeval, 19th (01-42-02-68-60)
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