Neighborhood Guide

Belleville

Hilltop, artsy, experimental cocktail and natural wine.

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goodBelleville, Ménilmontant, Pyrénées métro

Belleville climbs a hill and rewards the effort with a skyline view from Parc de Belleville. Street art is everywhere—murals climb staircases, shutters carry messages, and alleyways feel like open-air galleries. The neighborhood’s culinary mix is wide: Chinese bakeries, pho spots, Algerian grocers, natural wine bars, and bistros where the menu changes with the weather.

Evenings bring small venues with experimental music and bars that feel assembled, not curated. Rue Denoyez, once a graffiti haven, still has that scrappy energy. Markets along Boulevard de Belleville are loud and practical, selling fresh herbs and mountains of citrus.

It is a place to wander without itinerary, to sit on a stoop with a takeaway coffee, to catch conversations in multiple languages, and to feel a Paris that resists polishing.

Daytime

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Parc de Belleville panorama, street art walks, Chinese/Vietnamese lunch on Rue de Belleville

Cimetière du Père-Lachaise

44-hectare hilltop cemetery in the 20th arrondissement, opened in 1804 as Paris's first garden cemetery. Now the resting place of Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Édith Piaf, Jim Morrison, Balzac, and 300,000 others. Part necropolis, part sculpture park, part peaceful woodland walk.

Editor's Pick$
Order: Pick up a map at the entrance and wander the cobblestone paths without an agenda. The tombs are architectural monuments — Gothic chapels, Art Nouveau sculptures, overgrown family vaults. Oscar Wilde's tomb (lipstick kisses behind glass), Chopin's monument, and Jim Morrison's grave (perpetually surrounded by tourists) are the big draws, but the anonymous 19th-century sepulchres are more interesting.Best: Weekday morning for solitude. Autumn when fallen leaves cover the paths. Open daily 8am-6pm (5:30pm winter). Avoid rainy days when paths become muddy.

La Bellevilloise

Historic multi-level cultural venue with jazz brunches, concerts, and open, airy volumes.

Editor's Pick$$
Order: Wine at the bar, jazz brunch with food on Sundays. Drink depends on the event.Best: Sunday brunch with live jazz is legendary. Or check their concert schedule.

Le Baratin

The restaurant where Paris chefs eat on their nights off, hidden on a Belleville side street where Raquel Carena cooks whatever the market delivered that morning and the late Arlette Hugon's wine philosophy — natural, personal, chosen with the conviction that wine should taste like the place it came from — continues to define the list. Le Baratin has no website, no social media presence, no reservations system beyond a telephone, and no interest in being anything other than what it has been for decades: a canteen for people who care about honest cooking and honest wine in a room that feels like a friend's kitchen that happens to be open to the public. The menu changes daily, sometimes between lunch and dinner, because Carena cooks from instinct and from what looks best at the market that morning. The room is small, the tables are close, and the natural wine flows with the generosity of a place that understands wine as food rather than luxury. The Belleville neighbourhood surrounds you with the multicultural energy that makes the 20th arrondissement one of the most interesting parts of Paris.

Editor's Pick$$
Order: Whatever Raquel Carena is cooking that day. The menu is written on a board and changes based on the market — there is no standard order because there is no standard menu. Trust completely. The wine is chosen by the glass with the same instinct that governs the kitchen — ask for a recommendation and you will receive something personal and probably unfamiliar. The cooking is French in its bones but free in its expression: expect clean, direct flavours with the occasional surprise.Best: Late lunch or dinner. Call ahead — the phone is the only reservation system and it works in French. Dinner is when the chef crowd arrives and the room reaches its full energy. Lunch is calmer and gives you daylight for a Belleville walk afterwards. The neighbourhood rewards exploration: the Parc de Belleville panorama is a ten-minute walk uphill.

Evening & Night

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Natural wine caves, experimental cocktails, rooftop sunsets. Real neighbourhood feel.

Combat

Woman-owned Belleville lab known for inventive seasonal cocktails and clean, contemporary space.

Inked$$
Order: Trust the seasonal menu - Margot Lecarpentier's drinks are always innovative. Ask what's new.Best: Early evening when the Belleville light fills the clean space.

La Maroquinerie

500-capacity former leather workshop with courtyard and a great indie/electro concert slate.

Inked$$
Order: Beer between sets. The courtyard is the social space.Best: When there's a band you want to see. Check the programming.
Map