Belleville is a
neighbourhoodA neighbourhood or neighborhood is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town or suburb. Neighbourhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members....
of
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, parts of which lie in four different arrondissements. The major portion of Belleville straddles the borderline between the 20th arrondissement and the 19th; the remainder lies in the 10th and 11th arrondissements.
It was once the independent commune (municipality) of
BellevilleBelleville was a French commune in the Seine département lying immediately east of Paris, France. It was one of four communes entirely annexed by the city of Paris in 1860. Its territory is now shared by the XIXe arrondissement and XXe arrondissement, but a neighborhood has retained its name: the...
which was annexed by the City of Paris in 1860 and divided between two
arrondissementsThe City of Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements municipaux administrative districts, more simply referred to as arrondissements . These are not to be confused with departmental arrondissements, which subdivide the one hundred French départements...
along its main street, the
Rue de Belleville. Geographically, the neighborhood is situated on and around a hill, the highest of the French capital. The name Belleville (literally "beautiful town") is most likely derived from
belle vue (beautiful view).
History
Historically, Belleville was a working class neighborhood. The independent village of Belleville had played a large part in establishing the Second French Republic in 1848. Some 20 years later, residents of the incorporated neighborhood of Belleville comprised some of the strongest supporters of the
Paris CommuneThe Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris, from March 28 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and socialists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class...
in 1871. When the Versailles Army came to reconquer Paris in May of that year, it faced the toughest resistance in both Belleville and
MénilmontantMénilmontant is a neighborhood of Paris, situated in the city's 20th arrondissement. It is affectionately known to locals as "Ménilmuche".-History:...
. The bloody street fighting persisted in the two eastern districts, and the last barricade is said to have been in the
Rue Ramponeau in Belleville.
During the first half of the 20th century, many immigrants settled there: Ottoman Armenians fleeing
systematic massacres around 1918The Armenian Genocide , also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Calamity , was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
,
Ottoman GreeksGreek refugees is a collective term used to refer to the Greeks from Asia Minor who were evacuated or relocated in Greece following the Treaty of Lausanne and the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey...
fleeing persecution in Anatolia around 1920, German Jews fleeing the
systematic persecution around 1938Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass was an anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany and Austria on 9 to 10 November 1938. It is often called Novemberpogrome or Reichspogromnacht in German....
, and Spaniards fleeing
civil war in 1939The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict that devastated Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. It began after an attempted coup d'état by a group of Spanish Army generals against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of president Manuel Azaña...
. Many Algerians and Tunisian Jews arrived in the early 1960s.
Belleville is home to one of the largest congregations of the
Reformed Church of FranceThe Reformed Church of France is a denomination in France . It is the original, and largest, Protestant denomination in France....
in Paris. The Église Réformée de Belleville has been in the area about a century.
http://www.chez.com/erfbelleville/
Culture
Today, Belleville is a colorful, multi-ethnic neighborhood and also home to one of the city's two Chinatowns, the other located in the
XIIIe arrondissementThe 13th arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France.Situated on the Left Bank of the River Seine, it is home to Paris's main Chinatown, which is located in the southeast of the arrondissement in an area that contains many high-rise apartment buildings...
near the
Place d'ItalieThe Place d'Italie is a public space in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. The square has a diameter of 200 metres , and the following streets meet there:*Boulevard Vincent-Auriol*Boulevard de l'Hôpital*Boulevard Auguste-Blanqui...
. Since the 1980s, an important Chinese community has been established there. There are many restaurants and associations as well as stores offering Chinese products. A fairly large and popular outdoor market is held there every Tuesday and Friday along the
Boulevard de Belleville, where many local
Île-de-FranceÎle-de-France is one of the twenty-six administrative regions of France, composed mostly of the Paris metropolitan area. Its name literally means "Island of France", maybe from ancient Frankish Liddle Franke, "little France"....
farmers sell their produce.
http://paris.evous.fr/paris-guide/marche/courses-paris-11e/belleville.htm
During the 1980s Parisian artists and musicians, attracted by the cheaper rents, the numerous vacant large spaces, as well as the old Paris charm of its smaller streets (Belleville was ignored, perhaps spared, during much of the architectural modernization efforts and reparations of the 1960s and 1970s, the greatest exception being the area around the Place des Fêtes), started moving there. Many artists now live and work in Belleville and studios are scattered throughout the
quartier. Some abandoned factories have been transformed into art
squatsSquatting is the act of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use. Squatting is significantly more common in urban areas than rural areas, especially when urban decay occurs...
, where several alternative artists and musicians, such as the band
Les Rita MitsoukoLes Rita Mitsouko was a French pop rock group formed by guitarist Fred Chichin and singer Catherine Ringer. The duo first performed as Rita Mitsouko at Gibus Club, Paris in 1980...
began their careers.
The demographics of the neighborhood have undergone many changes throughout the decades. While Armenians, Greeks, and Ashkenazi Jews were once the predominant ethnic groups, North Africans, and more recently, sub-Saharan Africans have been displacing these others.
Within the neighborhood there is a cemetery and park, the
Parc de BellevilleThe Parc de Belleville, one of the parks and gardens of the 20th arrondissement of Paris, is situated between the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont and the Père Lachaise Cemetery.-Description:...
, which ascends the western slope of the hill and offers, in addition to a panoramic view of the Paris skyline, a strikingly modern contrast to the classical gardens of the city center and the eccentric nineteenth century romanticism of the nearby Parc des Buttes Chaumont. A
School of ArchitectureThe École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris-Belleville is a French school in architecture.Created in 1969, the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris-Belleville melts its teaching since the beginning on a principle: a base of knowledge related to an authentic culture of the...
is also located in Belleville.
http://www.paris-belleville.archi.fr/
The iconic French singer
Édith PiafÉdith Piaf, born Édith Giovanna Gassion , was a French singer and cultural icon who "is almost universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer." Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads...
grew up there and, according to legend, was born under a lamppost on the steps of the
Rue de Belleville. A
commemorative plaqueA commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other vertical surface, and bearing text in memory of an important figure or event....
can be found at number 72. A true
Bellevilloise, Piaf sang and spoke the
French languageFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
in a way that epitomized the
accent de Belleville, which has been compared to the
CockneyThe term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
accent of
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, although the Parisian dialect is nowadays rarely heard. Belleville is prominently featured in the 2007 biographical film of her life,
La Vie En RoseLa Vie en Rose is a 2007 French cinema film directed by Cesar Award nominee Olivier Dahan, about the life of the legendary French chanteuse Édith Piaf, and is named after her signature song...
.
Other famous
Bellevillois include film director
Maurice TourneurMaurice Tourneur, born February 2, 1873 – died August 4, 1961, was an important international film director and screenwriter.Born Maurice Thomas in the Belleville district of Paris, France, his father was a jeweler. As a young man, Maurice Thomas first trained as a graphic designer and a...
, legendary French
can-canThe can-can is regarded today primarily as a physically demanding music hall dance, performed by a chorus line of female dancers who wear costumes with long skirts, petticoats, and black stockings, that hearkens back to the fashions of the 1890s...
dancer
Jane AvrilJane Avril was a French can-can dancer made famous by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec through his paintings.-Biography:She was born Jeanne Beaudon in the Belleville section of Paris, France...
and popular singer and actor
Eddy MitchellEddy Mitchell is a French singer and actor. He began his career in the late 1950s, with the group Les Chaussettes Noires , taking his name from the American expatriate tough-guy actor Eddie Constantine...
.
Popular culture
Belleville has featured in several films including director
Jacques BeckerJacques Becker was a French screenwriter and film director.Becker was born in Paris, in an upper class background. During the 1930s he worked as an assistant to director Jean Renoir...
's 1951 "
Casque d'orCasque d'or is a 1952 French film directed by Jacques Becker. It is a Belle Époque tragedy, the story of an ill-fated love affair between characters played by Simone Signoret and Serge Reggiani.-Synopsis:...
", starring
Simone SignoretSimone Signoret was a French cinema actress often hailed as one of France's greatest movie stars. She became the first French person to win an Academy Award, for her role in Room at the Top...
and
Serge ReggianiSerge Reggiani was an Italian-born French singer, painter and actor. He was born in Reggio Emilia, Italy and moved to France with his parents at the age of eight...
.
Albert LamorisseAlbert Lamorisse was a French award-winning filmmaker, film producer, and writer, who is best known for his award winning short films which he began making in the late 1940s, and also for inventing the famous strategic board game Risk in 1957...
set the 1956 Oscar Winning short film
"Le Ballon Rouge" also known as
The Red BalloonThe Red Balloon is a 1956 fantasy short film, directed by French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse.The thirty-four minute short, which follows the adventures of a young boy who one day finds a sentient, mute, red balloon, was filmed in the Ménilmontant neighborhood of Paris, France.It won numerous...
http://imdb.com/title/tt0048980/ in Belleville and featured many parts of the region which were subsequently demolished in the 1960s.
In terms of books the
Malaussène Saga, a series of crime novels written by contemporary author
Daniel PennacDaniel Pennac is a French writer. He received the Prix Renaudot in 2007 for his essay Chagrin d'école.After studying in Nice he became a teacher...
, is set in Belleville. Belleville is the subject of several French songs, including Eddy Mitchell's
Belleville ou Nashville? and
Claude NougaroClaude Nougaro was a French songwriter and singer.Claude Nougaro was born in Toulouse to a respected French opera singer, Pierre Nougaro, and an Italian piano teacher, Liette Tellini. He was raised by his grandparents in Toulouse where he heard Glenn Miller, Édith Piaf and Louis Armstrong on the...
's
Le Barbier de Belleville.
Politics
Traditionally, Belleville is leftist and votes accordingly for either the
Parti SocialisteThe Socialist Party is the largest left-wing political party in France. It replaced the French Section of the Workers' International in 1969....
(the French Socialist Party), the Parti Communiste Français (the French Communist Party) or the Lutte Ouvrière (Workers' Struggle). Communist Party headquarters is just outside
Colonel FabienColonel Fabien is a station of the Paris Métro, serving Line 2 on the border of the 10th and 19th arrondissements under the Boulevard de la Vilette....
station, between Belleville and its northern neighbor La Villette.
Transportation
Belleville is served by the
MetroThe Paris Métro or Métropolitain is the rapid transit system in Paris. It is a symbol of the city, notable for its station architecture, influenced by Art Nouveau. It has 16 lines, mostly underground, and a total length of 214 km . There are 300 stations...
stations
BellevilleBelleville is a station of the Paris Métro, serving Line 2 and Line 11. The station is in the district of Belleville at the corner of the 10th, 11th, 19th and 20th arrondissements....
,
PyrénéesPyrénées is a station on line 11 of the Paris Métro in the 19th and 20th arrondissements.The station opened as part of the original section of the line from Châtelet to Porte des Lilas on 28 April 1935. It is named after the Rue des Pyrénées, which is named after the Pyrénées mountains....
and
JourdainJourdain is a station on line 11 of the Paris Métro in the 19th and 20th arrondissements.The station opened as part of the original section of the line from Châtelet to Porte des Lilas on 28 April 1935...
.
Films shot in Belleville
- 2007 Comme les autres directed by Vincent Garenq
- Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran directed by
- La Vie devant soi directed by Moshe Mizrahi
Moshé Mizrahi is an Israeli film director.He has directed 14 films in both Israel and France. Three of his films were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, I Love You Rosa, The House on Chelouche Street and Madame Rosa, with the latter winning the award...
- 1956 Le Ballon rouge directed by Albert Lamorisse
External links