Article of the Week - Sally Nolan

BELLEVILLE
Sally Nolan

Waking at seven am to the sounds of blazing car horns from angry, French drivers soon became music to my ears as it meant that I was in Belleville, Paris - the neighbourhood I have called home for the past six months. The shine of luminescent street lights, the sound of shouting fruit vendors, and the smell of cigarette smoke at almost every corner quickly became my comfort zone after moving to Paris in October. With the neighbourhood always bustling there was never a dull moment. However, as a nineteen year old girl from the British countryside - Belleville was quite a shock to my system.

I am not ashamed to admit that I am a posh girl. I grew up in the home counties, went to a private school and yes, I did wear a horrendous school-girl kilt. So approaching Belleville with my giant rucksack and an eager smile on my face I was not thrown out of my comfort zone - I was catapulted. After trudging down six flights of stairs from my apartment (because many of these old, rickety, Parisian staircases for some reason do not have lifts!), I had to quickly learn the Parisian, Resting Bitch Face. As despite the stigma of Paris as the ‘city of romance’, in my time there it consisted of many slightly pervy street vendors trying to sell broken suitcases to the very English-looking tourist.

However, I soon came to learn the wonderful quirks of living in an alternative area of Paris. Although the city is often generalised by historic architecture and loved up couples at every corner, Belleville is youth-centred hub full of bars, coffee shops and the occasional food market running down the main street. Giving the whole neighbourhood a urban and indie vibe that the French describe as ‘BoBo’. In other words, it is rapidly becoming Hipster. One of the main attractions is the artwork that surrounds the area. For anyone who has stayed in central Paris you may notice there is a real lack of graffiti. This is not because the French don’t “do” spray cans and slightly dodgy-looking respirator masks. They have simply redirected their creativity to a more suited district. Luckily for me, that was Belleville. So every time I went out something surrounding me was slightly different, with walls and buildings being repainted constantly.

This combined with the nightlife, was part of what made me fall in love with my neighbourhood. In comparison to England, the best word I can use to describe Belleville at night is: classy. Whether it be sipping wine at a small bistro or listening to an improvised Jazz band in the basement of a crowded bar, each place had a very relaxed way of surprising you and was always enticing and lively. Although the area can feel very different to central Paris, it is only a 6 minute metro into town and there are a lot of similarities. The perk of having to climb 6 flights of stairs everyday (yes, I am still going on about it), was the view from the top. As the noise of the street vendors starts to soften and the glowing street signs begin to dilute, you are left with the view of looking over the rooftops of Paris, and I could even see the Sacre Coeur from my back window. Leaving Belleville the perfect balance between exploring a new, modern, youthful side to the historic city whilst not leaving behind the romanticisms of beautiful Paris.

So despite being probably the most scared I have been in my life, by moving to a city where I did not even speak the language, I soon found my Parisian love affair to be with where I lived. And if cute coffee shops, splatters of artwork and random jazz nights sounds like your idea of fun, please come and visit my home - Belleville.