The 20e arrondissement is the final area we visit on our spiralling visit of Paris.
The arrondissement is probably best known for the Père Lachaise Cemetery, established in 1804 as the first municipal cemetery of Paris, built outside the city limits of the time in response to the overcrowding and health concerns of the overflowing urban cemeteries. When it first opened, the cemetery was horribly unpopular and attracted few burials: it was far from the city and wasn’t blessed by the church. To address this, the city transferred the remains of a few famous citizens to the cemetery (including Molière) and suddenly everybody wanted to be buried alongside them. Nowadays there are few plots remaining, and there’s a waiting list. Tourists often visit the cemetery to enjoy the gardens, and pay tribute to the many celebrities now buried there, including Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison.
A disappointing lookout
One of the main “attractions” of the area is the Parc de Belleville, which we visited in the evening in hopes of catching the sunset over Paris from the Belvédère de Belleville within the park. The park was nice enough, although missing some magic because its fountains were empty. It had lots of people hanging out, even occupying the dry fountain spaces.
Reaching the belvedere was like walking onto a movie set of a film somewhere between a post-apocalyptic story and a counter-cultural musical. The belvedere building was covered in graffiti with young people occupying benches, staircases and pillar tops. We expected them to burst into song and dance at any moment (in a bit of a Hair moment).
The belvedere faces central Paris, but unfortunately the trees of the park have grown tall enough to block most of the view. While we were never uncomfortable in the park, there was no view to enjoy and we wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to visit.
An unexpected restaurant cabaret
Le Vieux Belleville is a neighbourhood bar and restaurant just around the corner from the belvedere, known for its old-school French cabaret entertainment. We made reservations for an “Edith Piaf evening” with host and accordionist Michel and vocalist Valentine.
We arrived a bit early to enjoy dinner, starting with a St-Germain spritz before our steak frites, which were beautifully prepared. The restaurant started filling up with groups from throughout France, a few from elsewhere in Europe. Besides us, the only person from outside Europe was a solo traveller from Canada.
As the entertainment started, we were quite impressed with Valentine’s interpretation of the first Edith Piaf song… Then they started handing out sheets with lyrics. The bulk of the evening turned into a group singalong. With a few more drinks we started to get into it, although we definitely would have preferred simply listening to Valentine for the evening.
The evening ended with the women performing La Vie en Rose, the men performing Non, je ne regrette rien, and then both coming together for Milord.
So while it was far from what we expected, it was definitely a unique experience to find ourselves in a neighbourhood bar on the outskirts of Paris singing Edith Piaf songs.
Our evening in the 20e arrondissement of Paris was a bit of an unexpected but strangely real and enjoyable finish to our twisting tour of the 20 arrondissements of Paris. Stay tuned for a recap where we share our favourite off-the-beaten-track finds.
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