Just rented an apartment for October on the Rue Keller, near the Bastille. Anybody know the area well enough to recommend good restaurants, interesting little shops, nearby attractions? Merci.

I am sure it will all work out.

Do NOT venture into the bar of the same (street) name..TRUST ME on this one.

Hi RJ,

Enter Rue Keller at www.pagesjaunes.fr.

It will give you a list of all of the establishments on the street.

Rue Keller has an interesting Moroccan restaurant where you lounge on cushions in a tentlike environment. It is has lot of art galleries. It also has a famous leather bar, "Le Keller". A gay friend insisted that I go there with him once, and I was terrified the entire time (I have been to other gay places since then and have learned to relax -- people do not attack you.) Checking to see if the place still existed, it most certainly does: www.kellers.fr. Does "punishment party every Thursday" sound attractive to you?

Thanks Ira. I had forgotten about that site.

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Au plaisir de vous lire, j'espère.

Our apartement is not far from rue Keller. You will find, nice affordable restaurant on nearby rue Charonne, for example Le Pause Café Bastille at 41, rue de Charonne. The bar à soupes also have nice fresh ideas and little prices.

The marché Aligre is fun of interesting shops and a fun place to spent a morning.

Here are two good restaurants near you, both of which are reasonable.

Chez Paul, 13 rue Charonne (11th). Loved the steak with béarnaise sauce, no prix-fixe, 51 Euros for two with wine.

Le Grand Bleu, Port de l’Arsenal, Blvd. de la Bastille (12th arr). Right on St. Martin's Canal and lovely to eat outside. Seems to be a favorite for Sunday lunch, great seafood and salads. 32 Euros for two plus wine.

Don't be alarmed at the reference to Keller's bar (it's the kind of place people with the relevant kit have to ring a bell at anyway, and it really isn't obvious from the outside).

It's an ordinary Paris street, in itself not particularly charming, but perfectly OK. There are one or two cafés at either end of the street, and plenty of cafés and restaurants along the main cross streets that it runs between.

For basic shopping, go down ave. Ledru-Rollin and you come to a Monoprix at the corner of rue du Faubourg St Antoine - lots of cafés and restaurants along there as well. Marché Aligre and the covered Marché Beauvau within it are about ten minutes' walk away (some pictures of mine at http://tinyurl.com/ytsj8l - pictures 24-26).

Oh, and you're not that far from Bastille, the Promenade Plantée, the Canal St Martin, the place des Vosges and the Marais (which I'd suggest approaching down rue du Pas de la Mule, for interesting shops). Weekend markets on Blvd Richard Lenoir by Bastille.

I'm resurrecting this to report on my stay on Rue Keller. I appreciate the advice and information.
For all the fuss about the leather bar it was a non-event. We looked for it but it was inconspicuous and did not operate when we were up and about. Ther is incidentally at least one other gay bar on the street. Neither represents any kind of threat to the tourist.
Ate at Le Petit Keller which is in the Great Eats book. It's under new management, an interesting woman born in the USA and her boyfriend, but the food is still quite ordinary. Nothing special, but fairly cheap.
There was one of the new rent-a-bike stands outside our front door.
They were used a great deal, but no helmets and the Parisian traffic make them a dangerous bet for local transportation.
The street, which has a large elementary school at one end, is kind of ugly. I will opt for sonmewhere else the next time.

Bars that cater to homosexuals don't represent any more threat to tourists than any other type of bars, apart from tarnishing the atmosphere of the neighborhood if one doesn't like homosexuals. Of course, some neighborhoods consider their homosexual population and the businesses catering to them to be a tourist attraction (not in Paris, though, as far as I know).

RJD..I never said, or meant in any way to imply, that the presence of the bars on that street is/are a "threat."

Remember I told you not to venture INSIDE..that's where the "threat" was and remains.

Glad you enjoyed your stay.

Thanks for reporting back, RJD. It is quite true that rue Keller is not a very picturesque street. Rue de la Roquette is a lot more interesting and quirky.

My favorite in the Bastille area for quirky and interesting is the Rue du Lappe.

Rue de Lappe used to be good, but now it is just carbon copy bobo bars, whereas rue de la Roquette goes all the way to the front entrance of Père Lachaise with lots of variety.