An ethnic walking tour from Gare du Nord to Montmartre
Dec 18th, 2007, 01:20 PM
#24
Original Poster
Okay, this is last section of this ethnic stroll towards Montmartre. I know that all of this is of interest to only a small minority of the users here, but I hope that they will appreciate that attention is being paid to “niche” travelers.
<b>Africa in Paris</b>
Most people know that France had enormous colonial territories in North Africa and West Africa until the early 1960’s. Whether or not it was horrible or beneficial is currently the subject of a big debate in France, but no matter what, France had a profound influence in this part of the world, and now it’s payback time.
Illegal African immigration is currently the largest source of new inhabitants to France, and people take tremendous risks to come to Europe, and many of them choose France because they have learned the language and have family here. Hundreds (more likely thousands) die every year making the trip – many of them drown on rickety boats, other asphyxiate hidden in trucks, innumerable ones die just trying to cross the desert to the Mediterranean coast. And don’t forget the ones who are found frozen in the landing gear of commercial airliners. Quite a few more fall out of the landing gear before arrival, but nobody ever knows.
That was a depressing paragraph, but the African district of Paris is a generally happy place. Most residents have arrived legally by using the “family unification” options (even if that is becoming more difficult), and probably at least half of the people you can see in the northern “Goutte d’Or” are French citizens, not to mention nearly all of the French-born children.
Perhaps the best place to “cross over” is <b>rue Doudeauville</b> which starts from rue Marx Dormoy. All of the major streets (rue de Jessaint, rue Jean-François Lepine, rue Ordener) start by crossing the Gare du Nord railroad tracks, and the moment you have finished crossing, Africa begins.
As you progress west, rue Doudeauville rapidly becomes more and more African – restaurants, groceries, and textile shops which all display the word <b>WAX</b> to attract customers. What is <i>wax</i>? Quite simply, it is African tie-dye fabric, and some of it is quite lovely. (For those who don’t know, tie-dyed fabric is made using wax – you put wax on the cotton and then you scrape designs into the wax before dying it. Only the scraped sections are dyed. You put the dyed fabric in hot water to remove the wax, and then you put on wax again, scrape another design and dye again – as many times as necessary.)
Many of the local merchants like to display the flags of their origins – Senegal, Togo, Mali, Guinea, Mauritania, etc. A walk in this neighborhood is a geography lesson. But although African things are what you will see the most, don’t think of it as a ghetto. Every neighborhood in Paris is quite mixed, and one of the places that may catch your eye is a picture framer, <b>Cadres Exquis</b> at 31 rue Doudeauville, a young French artisan who displays beautifully framed b&w photos of Paris to draw you in. If you have bought any prints, posters or photographs during your trip to Paris and want them framed before you leave, this is an excellent place to go. A similar framing establishment can be found nearby at 13 rue Stéphenson.
If you have visited the flea markets of Paris, you have probably seen interesting African artifacts for sale. Some of them may indeed come from Africa, but most of them are probably made in Paris (which, one must admit, is better than learning that they are made in China). You can see them being carved in the neighborhood – masks, statuettes, tree trunk chairs, etc. – and if you like what you see, you can get them at <b>Sunu-Art</b> at 10 rue Doudeauville or at another shop (forgot to note the name) at 45 rue Stéphenson. Next door to that one is an artisan who makes traditional North African furniture, almost all designed for reclining, and if I were decorating an Arabian themed bordello, I would certainly visit <b>47 rue Stéphenson</b> as well.
Even though the neighborhood is being permeated by African arrivals, this is an area where the old Paris of Toulouse Lautrec and others is still visible. There is an absolutely ancient restaurant at 12 rue Doudeauville which looks like it has not been renovated since 1920 (and the curtains not washed since 1950). You can read <b>A la Ville de Macon</b> over the door, but if you look at the window display, it is now <b>Chez Arsène</b>, <i> restaurant antillais</i> (but why can’t he wash the curtains?).
Walking up rue Stéphenson to our, errr, prime destination, you will pass the café <b>Le Steph’</b> on the corner of rue de Laghouat. It is a distinctly unassuming place, but I think it is worthy of note for those visitors who think that Paris cafés are expensive. This place (which is, I admit, directly across from the “C.F.A. Stéphenson,” a lower class business school) proposes at lunch time, for 5.50€, <i>sandwich + beverage (beer or soda) + plate of french fries</i>. So much for the $8 Coke!
While walking on this street or the surrounding streets, you are likely to see orange plastic traffic cones trying to prevent parking for large swaths of the neighborhood. That’s because this is perhaps the area that is most often used for shooting Parisian street scenes in French movies and TV crime series. It is old, it is rundown, it looks like it could be crawling with lowlife – but it is quite indisputably Paris. Particularly for period movies (<i>La Vie en Rose</i>, etc.) it is quite easy to transform to 1930, 1940 or 1950. A few signs on buildings are changed, the Vélib stations are hidden, and period cars are parked in the place of the plastic cones. I am in this neighborhood every day, and I would say that it is used for movies an average of twice a week.
Oh, as you were walking up rue Stéphenson, did you notice the African grocery next to the bordello furniture store? I am completely fascinated by the <i>“frozen plantain banana french fries” </i> on display in the window. A smiling African woman holds a big platter with a wonderful roast chicken on it, surrounded by these fries. I am going to have to buy some sooner or later. Want to see them? Here they are : www.tuistino.com/en/
<b> Rue Myrha</b> is, in my opinion, the street that must absolutely be seen, if only as an exorcism from the concept that all of Paris is beautiful and wonderful. Paris is a normal city, and I have long called rue Myrha <i>the worst street in all of Paris. This is perhaps not true anymore, because I am not the only one who holds that opinion, so vast segments of it have been torn down and are being rebuilt. It’s doesn’t look nearly as awful as it did 2 or 3 years ago.
I must stress that rue Myrha is totally safe at any “reasonable” hour of the day or evening, but I would still urge visitors to be somewhat discreet on this street. I have taken many pictures on the street, but I always look around to see if anyone is staring at me, particularly with a scowl. It is not at all a street of thieves, but it <b> is</b> a hotbed of fundamentalist Islam, and the locals can be suspicious of your motives (police spies taking photos?). At worst, you will be insulted in a strange language, but nothing will happen to you. Please do visit the street, even if you don’t take out your camera. It is a truly remarkable place:
(coming from rue Stéphenson)
The local mosque is one of the first things you will see at #28. It is quite friendly, as the truly devout generally have warm hearts. Friday evening – prayer time – is a fascinating time to go, because the mosque is too small and hundreds of people prostrate themselves in the street. You’ve seen it on television – here you can see it live.
39 rue Myrha has one of many Islamic bookstores on the street. Most of the books are in French (or bilingual) and the titles absolutely fascinate me. I was intrigued by such titles as <i>Don’t be sad, Protecting Man from Djinns and Satan, Secrets and Benefits of Koranic Invocation, The Spouses of the Messenger Mohamed.</i>
36 rue Myrha will be a big surprise for everyone. It is a very large <b>Church of the Nazarene</b>.
At 34 rue Myrha, and also at #51 and #64 you will find that the standard price for couscous is 6€. This is most certainly not gourmet eating, but if you are an African immigrant who just risked death crossing the Mediterranean, it is probably one of the best meals that you have had in Europe.
At <b>44 and 46 rue Myrha</b> you can see some fabric (?), junk(?), sundry(?) shops beyond belief. These places are beyond clutter and remind you of those articles about people who are discovered not to have taken out the trash in 35 years. I am not at all exaggerating: the only access in these shops is a narrow tunnel starting at the door with a narrow passage (most people would have to turn sideways to progress into the shop) leading towards the back. I am completely aghast about the security of these places and can only assume that the fire department has better things to do.
Also at #44, I was delighted by the window display of one of the most horrible cafés on earth -- <b>Au Tonneau</b> (Harrison Ford would go there but only if here were Indiana Jones or Han Solo). In spite of the grime and sleaze, they have the real Christmas spirit with a wonderful painting on the window of about the same quality they would have got if they had paid me to do it. It shows Santa playing cards with a gypsy woman while both are drinking. Ho ho ho.
#42 has always been one of my favorite places on the street. A big hand-painted sign on the store proclaims <b>POULETS VIVANTS</b> (live chickens). And that is indeed what they sell – and eggs. I imagine that the clientele is threefold: 1. People who cannot imagine not killing and plucking a chicken themselves. 2. People who are actually raising chickens in their apartments, just like in the village huts, running around loose. 3. <i>Marabouts</i> -- African witch doctors. In the neighborhood, at metro exits, one receives their calling cards, usually along the lines of <i>guaranteed return of affection, virility, business success, your wife is cheating she will come back crawling on all fours, love potions, protection from the evil eye, lotto numbers revealed, success in school.</i> The sacrifice of a chicken is often required to fully benefit from their services.
As you approach <b>Boulevard Barbès</b> you will see that the neighborhood nevertheless lives in complete tolerance of other groups, because at #76 is <b>Djerba Cacher</b>, a Tunisian kosher restaurant for the ultra poor.
If your turn right at Boulevard Barbès, you can also visit the <b>Marché Dejean</b> just past the KFC. This was the traditional market street of the <i>Château Rouge</i> area (metro station is right there), but it has become the African market of Paris. One of the things that you will notice there that one does not spontaneously know about the African community is that the #1 food item on sale is <b>fish</b> -- all sorts of African fish, fish that you have never seen or heard of. And if you wander around the surrounding streets, you will see countless frozen fish stores. <i>Rue Poulet</i> branches off the Dejean market and during the day it becomes an African village market, with the women selling their wares on the sidewalk – plastic junk, hair oils and bunches of unknown plants.
The African market is delightful to see once, but it is a major aggravation for a lot of the residents of the neighborhood. Africans come from the entire Paris metropolitan area every weekend to buy all of their favorite products (the African grocery stores are all run by the Chinese, by the way), and it creates a permanent traffic jam on Saturday. The City of Paris has a plan, at least 4 or 5 years off, to create the <b>Market of the 5 Continents</b> (In France, there are only 5 continents – Australia is an island and Antarctica doesn’t count.) at Porte d’Aubervilliers. There is plenty of space there, and there will be a new tramway line and a new RER station is penciled in. It is a fantastic idea, if it is properly designed (and the French are pretty good at this).
Anyway, if you have walked as far as Boulevard Barbès, all you have to do is cross the street for the beginning of Montmartre. You can continue to the end of rue Myrha, or walk up rue Custine – you can’t go wrong, because it’s all uphill from there. Or else you can turn right (north) at Barbès and go to rue Ordener, which you would follow to Jules Joffrin metro, where you will find the wonderful <b>Montmartrobus</b> -- not to mention metro line 12 which will take you to <b>Abbesses</b>
Thank you for pour patience.
</i>
<b>Africa in Paris</b>
Most people know that France had enormous colonial territories in North Africa and West Africa until the early 1960’s. Whether or not it was horrible or beneficial is currently the subject of a big debate in France, but no matter what, France had a profound influence in this part of the world, and now it’s payback time.
Illegal African immigration is currently the largest source of new inhabitants to France, and people take tremendous risks to come to Europe, and many of them choose France because they have learned the language and have family here. Hundreds (more likely thousands) die every year making the trip – many of them drown on rickety boats, other asphyxiate hidden in trucks, innumerable ones die just trying to cross the desert to the Mediterranean coast. And don’t forget the ones who are found frozen in the landing gear of commercial airliners. Quite a few more fall out of the landing gear before arrival, but nobody ever knows.
That was a depressing paragraph, but the African district of Paris is a generally happy place. Most residents have arrived legally by using the “family unification” options (even if that is becoming more difficult), and probably at least half of the people you can see in the northern “Goutte d’Or” are French citizens, not to mention nearly all of the French-born children.
Perhaps the best place to “cross over” is <b>rue Doudeauville</b> which starts from rue Marx Dormoy. All of the major streets (rue de Jessaint, rue Jean-François Lepine, rue Ordener) start by crossing the Gare du Nord railroad tracks, and the moment you have finished crossing, Africa begins.
As you progress west, rue Doudeauville rapidly becomes more and more African – restaurants, groceries, and textile shops which all display the word <b>WAX</b> to attract customers. What is <i>wax</i>? Quite simply, it is African tie-dye fabric, and some of it is quite lovely. (For those who don’t know, tie-dyed fabric is made using wax – you put wax on the cotton and then you scrape designs into the wax before dying it. Only the scraped sections are dyed. You put the dyed fabric in hot water to remove the wax, and then you put on wax again, scrape another design and dye again – as many times as necessary.)
Many of the local merchants like to display the flags of their origins – Senegal, Togo, Mali, Guinea, Mauritania, etc. A walk in this neighborhood is a geography lesson. But although African things are what you will see the most, don’t think of it as a ghetto. Every neighborhood in Paris is quite mixed, and one of the places that may catch your eye is a picture framer, <b>Cadres Exquis</b> at 31 rue Doudeauville, a young French artisan who displays beautifully framed b&w photos of Paris to draw you in. If you have bought any prints, posters or photographs during your trip to Paris and want them framed before you leave, this is an excellent place to go. A similar framing establishment can be found nearby at 13 rue Stéphenson.
If you have visited the flea markets of Paris, you have probably seen interesting African artifacts for sale. Some of them may indeed come from Africa, but most of them are probably made in Paris (which, one must admit, is better than learning that they are made in China). You can see them being carved in the neighborhood – masks, statuettes, tree trunk chairs, etc. – and if you like what you see, you can get them at <b>Sunu-Art</b> at 10 rue Doudeauville or at another shop (forgot to note the name) at 45 rue Stéphenson. Next door to that one is an artisan who makes traditional North African furniture, almost all designed for reclining, and if I were decorating an Arabian themed bordello, I would certainly visit <b>47 rue Stéphenson</b> as well.
Even though the neighborhood is being permeated by African arrivals, this is an area where the old Paris of Toulouse Lautrec and others is still visible. There is an absolutely ancient restaurant at 12 rue Doudeauville which looks like it has not been renovated since 1920 (and the curtains not washed since 1950). You can read <b>A la Ville de Macon</b> over the door, but if you look at the window display, it is now <b>Chez Arsène</b>, <i> restaurant antillais</i> (but why can’t he wash the curtains?).
Walking up rue Stéphenson to our, errr, prime destination, you will pass the café <b>Le Steph’</b> on the corner of rue de Laghouat. It is a distinctly unassuming place, but I think it is worthy of note for those visitors who think that Paris cafés are expensive. This place (which is, I admit, directly across from the “C.F.A. Stéphenson,” a lower class business school) proposes at lunch time, for 5.50€, <i>sandwich + beverage (beer or soda) + plate of french fries</i>. So much for the $8 Coke!
While walking on this street or the surrounding streets, you are likely to see orange plastic traffic cones trying to prevent parking for large swaths of the neighborhood. That’s because this is perhaps the area that is most often used for shooting Parisian street scenes in French movies and TV crime series. It is old, it is rundown, it looks like it could be crawling with lowlife – but it is quite indisputably Paris. Particularly for period movies (<i>La Vie en Rose</i>, etc.) it is quite easy to transform to 1930, 1940 or 1950. A few signs on buildings are changed, the Vélib stations are hidden, and period cars are parked in the place of the plastic cones. I am in this neighborhood every day, and I would say that it is used for movies an average of twice a week.
Oh, as you were walking up rue Stéphenson, did you notice the African grocery next to the bordello furniture store? I am completely fascinated by the <i>“frozen plantain banana french fries” </i> on display in the window. A smiling African woman holds a big platter with a wonderful roast chicken on it, surrounded by these fries. I am going to have to buy some sooner or later. Want to see them? Here they are : www.tuistino.com/en/
<b> Rue Myrha</b> is, in my opinion, the street that must absolutely be seen, if only as an exorcism from the concept that all of Paris is beautiful and wonderful. Paris is a normal city, and I have long called rue Myrha <i>the worst street in all of Paris. This is perhaps not true anymore, because I am not the only one who holds that opinion, so vast segments of it have been torn down and are being rebuilt. It’s doesn’t look nearly as awful as it did 2 or 3 years ago.
I must stress that rue Myrha is totally safe at any “reasonable” hour of the day or evening, but I would still urge visitors to be somewhat discreet on this street. I have taken many pictures on the street, but I always look around to see if anyone is staring at me, particularly with a scowl. It is not at all a street of thieves, but it <b> is</b> a hotbed of fundamentalist Islam, and the locals can be suspicious of your motives (police spies taking photos?). At worst, you will be insulted in a strange language, but nothing will happen to you. Please do visit the street, even if you don’t take out your camera. It is a truly remarkable place:
(coming from rue Stéphenson)
The local mosque is one of the first things you will see at #28. It is quite friendly, as the truly devout generally have warm hearts. Friday evening – prayer time – is a fascinating time to go, because the mosque is too small and hundreds of people prostrate themselves in the street. You’ve seen it on television – here you can see it live.
39 rue Myrha has one of many Islamic bookstores on the street. Most of the books are in French (or bilingual) and the titles absolutely fascinate me. I was intrigued by such titles as <i>Don’t be sad, Protecting Man from Djinns and Satan, Secrets and Benefits of Koranic Invocation, The Spouses of the Messenger Mohamed.</i>
36 rue Myrha will be a big surprise for everyone. It is a very large <b>Church of the Nazarene</b>.
At 34 rue Myrha, and also at #51 and #64 you will find that the standard price for couscous is 6€. This is most certainly not gourmet eating, but if you are an African immigrant who just risked death crossing the Mediterranean, it is probably one of the best meals that you have had in Europe.
At <b>44 and 46 rue Myrha</b> you can see some fabric (?), junk(?), sundry(?) shops beyond belief. These places are beyond clutter and remind you of those articles about people who are discovered not to have taken out the trash in 35 years. I am not at all exaggerating: the only access in these shops is a narrow tunnel starting at the door with a narrow passage (most people would have to turn sideways to progress into the shop) leading towards the back. I am completely aghast about the security of these places and can only assume that the fire department has better things to do.
Also at #44, I was delighted by the window display of one of the most horrible cafés on earth -- <b>Au Tonneau</b> (Harrison Ford would go there but only if here were Indiana Jones or Han Solo). In spite of the grime and sleaze, they have the real Christmas spirit with a wonderful painting on the window of about the same quality they would have got if they had paid me to do it. It shows Santa playing cards with a gypsy woman while both are drinking. Ho ho ho.
#42 has always been one of my favorite places on the street. A big hand-painted sign on the store proclaims <b>POULETS VIVANTS</b> (live chickens). And that is indeed what they sell – and eggs. I imagine that the clientele is threefold: 1. People who cannot imagine not killing and plucking a chicken themselves. 2. People who are actually raising chickens in their apartments, just like in the village huts, running around loose. 3. <i>Marabouts</i> -- African witch doctors. In the neighborhood, at metro exits, one receives their calling cards, usually along the lines of <i>guaranteed return of affection, virility, business success, your wife is cheating she will come back crawling on all fours, love potions, protection from the evil eye, lotto numbers revealed, success in school.</i> The sacrifice of a chicken is often required to fully benefit from their services.
As you approach <b>Boulevard Barbès</b> you will see that the neighborhood nevertheless lives in complete tolerance of other groups, because at #76 is <b>Djerba Cacher</b>, a Tunisian kosher restaurant for the ultra poor.
If your turn right at Boulevard Barbès, you can also visit the <b>Marché Dejean</b> just past the KFC. This was the traditional market street of the <i>Château Rouge</i> area (metro station is right there), but it has become the African market of Paris. One of the things that you will notice there that one does not spontaneously know about the African community is that the #1 food item on sale is <b>fish</b> -- all sorts of African fish, fish that you have never seen or heard of. And if you wander around the surrounding streets, you will see countless frozen fish stores. <i>Rue Poulet</i> branches off the Dejean market and during the day it becomes an African village market, with the women selling their wares on the sidewalk – plastic junk, hair oils and bunches of unknown plants.
The African market is delightful to see once, but it is a major aggravation for a lot of the residents of the neighborhood. Africans come from the entire Paris metropolitan area every weekend to buy all of their favorite products (the African grocery stores are all run by the Chinese, by the way), and it creates a permanent traffic jam on Saturday. The City of Paris has a plan, at least 4 or 5 years off, to create the <b>Market of the 5 Continents</b> (In France, there are only 5 continents – Australia is an island and Antarctica doesn’t count.) at Porte d’Aubervilliers. There is plenty of space there, and there will be a new tramway line and a new RER station is penciled in. It is a fantastic idea, if it is properly designed (and the French are pretty good at this).
Anyway, if you have walked as far as Boulevard Barbès, all you have to do is cross the street for the beginning of Montmartre. You can continue to the end of rue Myrha, or walk up rue Custine – you can’t go wrong, because it’s all uphill from there. Or else you can turn right (north) at Barbès and go to rue Ordener, which you would follow to Jules Joffrin metro, where you will find the wonderful <b>Montmartrobus</b> -- not to mention metro line 12 which will take you to <b>Abbesses</b>
Thank you for pour patience.
</i>
Dec 18th, 2007, 01:37 PM
#26
Join Date: May 2005
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Kerouac..this is awesome! Top notch!
ps. I think you are referring to batik in the section about wax fabrics...no matter..it is all great!
Curious about the West African restaurants..do any of them attract "outsiders?"
ps. I think you are referring to batik in the section about wax fabrics...no matter..it is all great!
Curious about the West African restaurants..do any of them attract "outsiders?"
Dec 18th, 2007, 01:42 PM
#27
Don't be so sure that this great information is appreciated by only a small minority of the users here. Whether or not many people end up going on this walk in person, it has been fascinating and educational reading about it.
Dec 18th, 2007, 04:19 PM
#30
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Great tour, Kerouac, and one which brings back a little adventure we had in October. A foodie friend had organized a little party not far from her place in Montmartre.
We had been told to get off the metro at Chateau Rouge and when we did we got turned around and couldn't find rue Myrha. It was pouring rain and we must have looked pitiful, because nearly everyone we stopped on the street tried to help us, whether they knew the right direction or not.
"Oh, yes, cross here and go left." Wrong. "Oh, it's over there but be careful on that street. Drugs, you understand?" Wrong street, no apparent drugs. The only person who refused to help was an elderly Islamic man who wasn't about to talk to a blond female foreigner.
After an unwanted but perversely interesting tour of the neighborhood around Chateau Rouge we finally found the resto and entered dripping wet. It turned out to be a gentrified hamburger joint on rue Myrha at rue Stephenson. (Yes, real American style hamburgers, and very good ones too, but not what we had in mind for dinner in Paris)
We had been told to get off the metro at Chateau Rouge and when we did we got turned around and couldn't find rue Myrha. It was pouring rain and we must have looked pitiful, because nearly everyone we stopped on the street tried to help us, whether they knew the right direction or not.
"Oh, yes, cross here and go left." Wrong. "Oh, it's over there but be careful on that street. Drugs, you understand?" Wrong street, no apparent drugs. The only person who refused to help was an elderly Islamic man who wasn't about to talk to a blond female foreigner.
After an unwanted but perversely interesting tour of the neighborhood around Chateau Rouge we finally found the resto and entered dripping wet. It turned out to be a gentrified hamburger joint on rue Myrha at rue Stephenson. (Yes, real American style hamburgers, and very good ones too, but not what we had in mind for dinner in Paris)
Dec 18th, 2007, 11:32 PM
#34
Original Poster
Yes, I sometimes take the 302 from the Doudeauville-Stéphenson stop to Gare du Nord. But since it is a suburban bus line (number over 100), it doesn't run as often as the Paris buses.
Dec 19th, 2007, 05:14 AM
#35
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You certainly would have no problem finding a publisher. Perhaps (ahem) you may want to use an illustrator so that you don't overburden youself with the artwork as well...haha. Best of all, use your photos, your Gannesha shots were great. Your writing works on several levels, unusual for travel writing...un plaisir, merci.
