There is a Paris that isn't in an Audrey Hepburn movie. It's the Paris that eats pho for €11, speaks Arabic at the bakery, sleeps in a building without an elevator built in 1890, and still calls the police "les flics" with working-class disdain. This Paris is in the 20th arrondissement, in a neighborhood called Belleville, climbing the hill between the Belleville and Pyrénées metro stations. I arrived there in 2017 looking for a Vietnamese restaurant that an Algerian friend had sworn by. I've returned twelve times since. It's the only part of Paris where you can still eat well for €15, see master street art without paying an entrance fee, and sit on a bench in Parc des Buttes-Chaumont overlooking the entire city without hearing a word of English. This is the guide for those tired of Île Saint-Louis.
10 min de leitura
Paris sells itself very well. It has 200 years of practice. You leave home, having heard of the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre-Dame, the Champs-Élysées, and when you arrive in Paris, you find exactly that — on an industrial scale, with queues, with coffee at €7, with a waiter pretending not to speak English because it's more profitable. It's a city that delivers what it promises. The problem is that it promises little.
Belleville promises nothing. That's why it delivers everything.
The neighborhood is in the 20th arrondissement, northeast of Paris, climbing a hill that was a vineyard in the 18th century. It was annexed to the city in 1860, became a working-class neighborhood, received waves of Armenians fleeing genocide in 1915, Polish Jews in the 1920s, Moroccan and Tunisian Sephardic Jews in the 1950s-60s, Vietnamese and Cambodians after 1975, Wenzhou Chinese in the 1980s, Mali and Senegal Africans in the 1990s, and in the last 15 years, a wave of artists and young Franco-Parisians who can no longer afford the Marais.
The result is the most São Paulo-like city Paris has ever produced. Belleville resembles more the mix of Liberdade with Bom Retiro and Pinheiros than any Parisian cliché. And yet it is Paris, with its characteristic look, its adapted Haussmannian architecture, its insufferable French bureaucrat.
How to get there and where to stay
Useful metros: Belleville (lines 2 and 11), Pyrénées (line 11), Couronnes (line 2), Ménilmontant (line 2), Jourdain (line 11). From Châtelet, it's 12 minutes. From Charles de Gaulle airport, take RER B to Gare du Nord, then metro 2 to Belleville. 50 minutes, €11.80.
Accommodation in Belleville is the best value in Paris. Honestly:
- Mama Shelter Paris East (109 Rue de Bagnolet, 20th) — technically closer to Père Lachaise but still in the 20th. Modern design, huge terrace, €130-190 per night. Decent restaurant.
- Hotel Garance (164 Rue Saint-Maur, 11th) — border between 11th and 20th, near Belleville. Boutique, €150-220. Good breakfast.
- Apartment via Airbnb on Rue de Ménilmontant or Rue des Pyrénées — €90-150 per night. Look for a late 19th-century building with a mansard. Confirm if it has a decent shower — old Parisian apartments have improvised bathrooms.
- Generator Paris (9-11 Place du Colonel Fabien, 10th) — hostel/hotel hybrid, 20 min walk from Belleville. €40-90 dormitory, €120-180 private.
Avoid the 1st, 4th (Marais), and 7th (Eiffel) for sleeping if your goal is to see Belleville. You'll spend 40 min on the metro going back and forth every day.
Morning 1 — Belleville Market and Tunisian café
If it's Tuesday or Friday, start at Marché de Belleville (Boulevard de Belleville, 7am-2:30pm). It goes from Belleville metro to Ménilmontant metro along the boulevard's central strip. 350 stalls. It's the largest open-air market in Paris.
It's not a pretty market like Marché des Enfants Rouges in the Marais. It's a popular market, loud, dirty at the end of the day, with an Algerian vendor arguing price with a Chinese customer in heavily accented French. Fruits at €1/kg, greens at €0.80, whole fish at €8/kg, bulk spices, fresh herbs in €1 bunches, Tunisian dates at €4/kg, homemade harissa at €5 a jar.
Buy:
- Medjool dates from the stall at the end — €6/kg
- Fresh pita bread — €1.50 a pack
- Moroccan olives with lemon seasoning — €4/250g
- Fresh mint — €0.80 a bunch
Go home if you rented an apartment. It becomes an afternoon snack.
Breakfast: Café des Anges (Rue de Belleville, 78). Tunisian bakery with counter coffee. Order cafe au lait (€2.20) and brik à l'oeuf (pastry with egg inside, €3.50). Sit at the counter. Watch the movement.
If it's not a market day, start directly at the café and head to the Parc.
Morning 1 (continued) — Parc des Buttes-Chaumont
Walk from Rue de Belleville to the southern entrance of Parc des Buttes-Chaumont (Rue Botzaris). 15 min uphill.
This park is Paris's worst-kept secret. Built in 1867 by Adolphe Alphand at Haussmann's request in an abandoned quarry. It has an artificial lake, an island with a Sibyl temple atop a 30-meter cliff, a suspension bridge (the Pont des Suicidés — don't ask why it's called that), a grotto with fake cement stalactites, a waterfall. It's baroque, dramatic, completely over-the-top, yet it works.
And it's empty. Even on a June Saturday, you can find a bench. Local Parisians go. Tourists don't get there.
Walk to the top of the temple. View of the entire city: Montmartre to the left, Sacré-Coeur highlighted, La Défense in the distance to the right, and in the center the bluish-gray of Paris. Sit. Stay for 40 minutes.
Restaurant inside the park: Rosa Bonheur (Allée de la Cascade). Bar-restaurant with an outdoor dance floor on weekend nights. Expensive for lunch (€18-24 dish). Good for a beer at 5pm after the park (€6 a pint).
Lunch 1 — pho on Rue de Belleville
Belleville has over 40 Vietnamese restaurants on the same kilometer of street. It's Paris's Vietnamese Chinatown (despite the name). Most were opened by refugees who arrived between 1975 and 1985.
The three that matter:
Pho Banh Cuon 14 (129 Rue de Belleville). Silly name, serious place. Pho bo (beef soup) €11, pho ga (chicken soup) €10. 12-hour broth, thin meat strips, fresh herbs on a separate plate (Thai basil, bean sprouts, lime, chili). You assemble it on the spot. No queue if you go before 12:30pm.
Hoa Nam (3 Rue Cailliéé) — shortcut via Rue des Pyrénées. Bun bo Hue (spicy Hue soup) €13. Old place, red plastic on the chair, small table. Owner still serves.
Le Président (120 Rue du Faubourg du Temple, 11th) — technically outside Belleville but 5 min from Belleville metro. Large Sino-Vietnamese restaurant, specialty canard laqué (lacquered duck, €18 half duck). Go with 4 people.
Tip: always order pho with gan (liver) and sach (stomach) if you like. If you don't say anything, it comes with just meat. Vietnamese iced coffee for dessert, €3.
Afternoon 1 — Graffiti, La Bellevilloise, café
Belleville has world-class street art. It's not silly tag graffiti; it's master murals. The neighborhood was adopted by the M.U.R (Modulable Urbain Réactif) collective and artists like Seth Globepainter, Jérôme Mesnager (who's been painting the "hommes blancs" since 1983 — walk attentively and you'll find one), Nemo (black silhouettes with umbrellas), and Mosko (colorful animals by stencil).
Graffiti walk: start at Belleville metro, go up Rue Dénoyez (the most graffitied street in Paris, entire walls repainted every 2 weeks), then Rue de Belleville to the intersection with Rue Piat, climb the steps of Parc de Belleville (small park above the neighborhood, view of the Eiffel Tower), descend via Rue Julien Lacroix. 1 hour.
Midway, coffee at Aux Folies (8 Rue de Belleville). Historic Belleville brasserie, founded in 1885, frequented by Édith Piaf (who grew up on the corner — plaque at Rue de Belleville 72 indicates where she was born). Coffee €1.80 at the counter, €3.50 at the table outside. Beer €4. PMU (horse betting) atmosphere with regulars from the 1970s.
Afternoon at La Bellevilloise (19-21 Rue Boyer). Cultural center founded in 1877 as a workers' cooperative. Today it has 4 rooms: restaurant (expensive), bar (medium), concert hall (€10-30 entry), gallery (free). Programming includes jazz, electronic music, philosophy lectures, Iranian cinema cycle, artisan market on Sundays. Check the website bellevilloise.com beforehand. There's something good every week.
Coffee on the Bellevilloise terrace. €4 for a beer, view of the neighborhood.
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Night 1 — Sephardic Jewish dinner
Belleville has a strong Moroccan and Tunisian Sephardic Jewish community. Honest kosher restaurant.
Chez Marianne — no, that's in the Marais. In Belleville, go to Le Pèlerin (135 Rue de Ménilmontant). Family-run, kosher-friendly, Tunisian-Jewish food. Couscous royal (vegetables + chicken + lamb + merguez) €22. Pastilla (pastry with pigeon, almond, and cinnamon sugar) €14. Brick à l'oeuf €6.
Alternative: Le Baratin (3 Rue Jouye-Rouve). Modern French bistro, Argentine owner (Raquel Carena, cult chef among Parisian chefs), small daily menu written on a board. €30-40 main course. Reserve 2 weeks in advance. Open only for dinner, closed Sunday and Monday.
For drinks afterward: La Cave de Belleville (Rue de Belleville, 51). Wine shop with bar, natural wine by the glass €5-9, cheese + ham €12. Open until 1am.
Morning 2 — Père Lachaise from the Belleville side
Père Lachaise Cemetery has 3 entrances. The main entrance (Boulevard de Ménilmontant) is the tourist one. You want the Porte du Repos entrance (Rue des Rondeaux), from the Belleville side, 15 min walk from Pyrénées.
This cemetery is an open-air park of 44 hectares, 70,000 graves, wild cats. Jim Morrison (division 6), Édith Piaf (division 97), Oscar Wilde (division 89, tomb full of lipstick despite the glass protection), Chopin (division 11), Proust (division 85), Maria Callas (ashes scattered, no physical grave).
Tip: get a map at the entrance (€2) or download the "Père Lachaise" app. Without it, you'll get lost.
Go on a weekday, morning, without rain. Walk for 2 hours. Don't try to see everything — you'll hate Oscar Wilde by the end.
Exit through Porte Gambetta, lunch at Place Gambetta.
Lunch 2 — food from Mali or Senegal
Belleville has a Sub-Saharan African wave between Couronnes and Ménilmontant. Small restaurants, no photo on Google, heavy and cheap food.
Le Petit Dakar (6 Rue Elzévir) — wait, that's in the Marais. In Belleville: Au Village (98 Rue de Ménilmontant). Senegalese cuisine, thieboudienne (fish with yellow rice, €12), yassa poulet (chicken with onion and lemon, €11). Family restaurant, no card (cash only), slow service. But the food.
Alternative: Restaurant Waly Fay (6 Rue Godefroy Cavaignac, 11th) — 10 min from Belleville, Ivorian. Mafé (lamb in peanut sauce, €14).
Afternoon 2 — Canal de l'Ourcq and Rosa Bonheur sur Seine
Walk from Place Gambetta to the Canal de l'Ourcq (40 min) or take metro 11 to Jaurès. This canal goes from Paris to La Villette and on the other side has become a boulevard of bars and bistros.
Don't confuse with Canal Saint-Martin, which is in the 10th and became Instagram since 2015. Canal de l'Ourcq is rougher, more north, more industrial.
Walk along the bank to Parc de la Villette (50 hectares, created in 1987 where Paris's largest slaughterhouse once was). It has Cité des Sciences (science museum, €12), Géode (spherical cinema), Philharmonie de Paris (concerts €25-80). Also has grass.
Free outdoor cinema in July-August (Cinéma en Plein Air). Film starts at 10:30pm. Bring a blanket.
Night 2 — neighborhood bar
Last night, follow the route a Belleville Parisian takes.
Start at Aux Folies again. Beer at 7pm.
Then: Le Café de la Cité (22 Rue Pradier). Small bar, owner is a musician, serves and plays when he can. Wine €4 a glass. Easy conversation.
Late dinner: Le Galopin (34 Rue Sainte-Marthe, 10th) — border with Belleville. Chef Romain Tischenko (ex-Top Chef France). Tasting menu €55, 7 courses, Franco-fermented-experimental cuisine. Reserve 1 month in advance. Worth the one-time trip expense.
If you want cheap: Le Mary Celeste (1 Rue Commines, 3rd) — yes, it's Marais, but for serious cocktails (€14) without a banker clientele, it's worth the detour.
Walk back to Belleville via Canal Saint-Martin. 35 min. You'll see the nighttime Paris that Parisians love.
What NOT to do in Belleville (and in Paris)
- Don't go to Sacré-Coeur after 11am. Crowds, queue to climb, aggressive vendors. 7am-9am is early but worth it.
- Don't have lunch at the Louvre. Horrible food for €18. Leave, walk 10 min, have lunch in the Marais or return to the Louvre in the morning only.
- Don't buy crepe at Champ de Mars. Industrial, cold, €8. Go to a real crêperie in the 14th.
- Don't ignore the metro before 6am. Theft increases at start and end times. Lines 2 and 4 are the tensest. Attention, not paranoia.
- Don't start with English. Begin with "bonjour" and "parlez-vous anglais?". The attendant's mood changes by 30%.
- Don't buy Paris Pass. Expensive, forces you to museums, and Paris is not a museum city — it's a street city. Buy Navigo Easy (€2) and recharge.
- Don't try to see Versailles on the same day as Belleville. Versailles takes the whole day. Reserve an exclusive day.
Practical appendix
Flights: Brazil → Paris direct by Air France (GRU-CDG), LATAM (GRU-CDG), or TAP (GRU-LIS-CDG). 11h40 direct flight Air France, €4,500-6,500 economy round trip high season, €3,000-3,800 low. Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) 50 min from the center by RER B (€11.80) or 35 min by Roissybus (€16.60).
Language: French. In Belleville, you hear Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Wolof, Ladino Hebrew, French, and more French. Not English. Learn 20 basic phrases, it saves your entire trip.
Payment: Card almost everywhere. Small restaurant in Belleville and Market require cash. €150 in cash covers 5 days.
Weather:
- Spring (Mar-May): 10-18°C, rainy, ideal.
- Summer (Jun-Aug): 18-26°C, crowded, but long days until 10pm. June is better.
- Autumn (Sep-Nov): 12-18°C, intermittent rain, yellow leaves in Buttes-Chaumont.
- Winter (Dec-Feb): 3-8°C, gray. Empty city, museum without queue, authentic melancholic feeling.
Average daily cost in Belleville (without hotel):
- Breakfast at bakery: €4
- Vietnamese pho lunch: €11
- Afternoon coffee: €2
- Bistro dinner: €30-45 with wine
- Metro transport: €4
- Total: €50-70/day
Don't forget:
- Truly comfortable shoes. Paris has 130 km of cobblestone sidewalks.
- Thin coat even in June — night drops 8°C.
- Water bottle. Wallace fountains (green, 19th century) work throughout the neighborhood.
- Apps: Citymapper, Bonjour RATP, Too Good To Go (bakery leftovers at €3 at the end of the day).
- Beware of pickpockets on metro 1, 4, 9, and around Sacré-Coeur. Belleville is calm, but use a crossbody bag at night after 11pm.
Paris has become expensive, crowded, tired of itself. But in Belleville, Paris still exists. Climbing the hill, smelling Vietnamese pho mixed with fresh Tunisian bread and Mediterranean marijuana, with master graffiti on the wall and an old Algerian playing dominoes on the sidewalk at 4pm on a Thursday. This Paris is worth the entire trip.
Pontos-chave
Belleville is the most multicultural neighborhood in Paris — Chinese, Vietnamese, Tunisians, Moroccan Sephardic Jews, and Sub-Saharan Africans share three blocks.
The best pho in Paris is on Rue de Belleville, costs €11, and comes with boiling soup at the table.
Parc des Buttes-Chaumont is the most beautiful park in Paris that no tourist visits.
Perguntas frequentes
Yes, with common sense. It's an active working-class neighborhood, not a dangerous one. During the day, it's normal like any other. At night after 1am, avoid empty streets between Couronnes and Ménilmontant, and beware of pickpockets on the metro. A woman alone at night might get some catcalls — annoying, not dangerous. Comparable to Bom Retiro in São Paulo.
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Curadoria Voyspark
2 anos no editorial Voyspark
Time editorial da Voyspark — escritores, repórteres, fotógrafos e fixers em Lisboa, Tóquio, Nova York, Cidade do México e Marrakech. Coletivo. Sem voz corporativa. Cada peça com checagem cruzada por um editor regional e um chef ou curador local.
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