A day in the next hood 6-8-15

Today Deb wanted to get out for a little recuperation time in the sun so we planned a little trip over to the Parc de Belleville.   It is a small park to the south of the much larger Buttes des Chaumont that lies in our arrondissement.  We wanted a little time to sit in the park and read and let the world go by. We took the tram over to Porte des Lilas, then jumped on the bus which takes us through the heart of Belleville, the working class section in the east of Paris.  It is now home to scores of artists due to the lower rents and each year sponsors an event where one can tour their ateliers, sort of like RINO in Denver but of course Parisian.
On the way we stopped at a Thai restaurant that we have taken a fancy to due to it's really good food and the fact that the location feels as if you are in a small town in the countryside, little traffic and quite laid back.  After lunch it was a 10 minute walk to the park.  Where as we arrived we noticed one of the Phillipe Starck historical markers, stating that this spot at the bottom of the park was the location of a tavern frequented by Cartouche.  In the late 17th century the tavern was the hangout for a notorious highwayman with the alias Cartouche, he would drift into Paris creating trouble by robbing rich aristocrats and then beat it back up into the village at this spot.   He is reputed to have given much of his ill-gotten gains to the poor.  At that time it would have been a few miles outside Paris and pretty remote so he was pretty safe.   Alas they caught him and broke him on the wheel in the early 18th Century, a shattered cartouche if ever there was one.


But into the park we went and I must say it is quite a pretty place, built on the side of a hill it is full of stairs and paths from top to bottom.  They surround little grass enclosures where the locals hang out eating picnics and sunbathing.  The borders in the lower part are rose hedges and they are in full bloom right now so it is both beautiful and fragrant.  The upper part of the park are paths through heavily treed hillside affording many benches where one can sit an read in a pleasant dappled shade.  That's what we did for a few hours, after which we ascended to the top of the park and had a commanding view of Paris from the observation deck renovated in 2013.  

I had read about the view some years ago but had forgotten about it until we were there, it's quite lovely.

Later we started heading home and came across a wall fountain, possibly inspired by the Wallace model, which supplies drinking water to users of the park.   So another 15 minute walk and we were at one of the bus stops that would take us back to our neighborhood and apartment.  Just a quick stop to pick up our daily bread and a quiet evening at home.