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market street; or west, near rue Damrémont. Farther up
the hill, rue Caulaincourt is interesting and avenue Junot has
been nicely restored. Although tourists may wander here, the
touristic atmosphere is kept at a distance. The small, green
Place Casadesus is frequented by locals and Villa Léandre,
one of a few charming alleys of small houses, feels like a quiet
country lane, as does the nearby Hameau des Artistes.
Unfortunately, claiming the southeastern edge of the
arrondissement
are Pigalle and Barbès, home to both dubious
nightlife and crowded clubs. This unsettling ambiance
stretches to rue de la Goutte-d'Or, just off boulevard Barbès,
long a poor, cramped workers'
quartier
and now an area of
immigrants. The crowded, bargain department store Tati can
be fun, as can the exotic shops and inexpensive markets and
restaurants, but this area has the worst crime rate in the city
and may not be one to frequent at night.
On the back slope of Sacré-Cœur is the rest of the
18
e
, deeply cut into by railroad yards coming up from
the rue du Poteau of the 10
e
. North of the
butte
is a good
market street and there are some oases around Square de
Clignancourt. Nonetheless, along its top, the
arrondissement
is fairly charmless and drab, despite the presence of Paris'
most famous flea market, jammed every weekend with
bargain hunters.
Belleville and Ménilmontant (19
e
and 20
e
)
The 19th
arrondissement
is the 1860 addition into the city
system, comprising the slaughterhouse town of La Villette and
part of Belleville, then an industrial, working-class town. The
rest of Belleville sits to the south, entwined with its neighbour
Ménilmontant and belongs to the 20th
arrondissement
. Once
a slum of radical politics and protest, Belleville was split apart
in the final expansion of the
arrondissements
—an attempt
by the government to quell the zone's rebellious spirit.
But these areas, along with the former villages of Bagnolet
and Charonne, remain inextricably linked and retain an
atmosphere of their own.
At the northeastern tip, above avenue Jean-Jaurès, is the
ultra-modern La Villette, a 55-hectare green expanse, science
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