Portraits of Belleville: Seen at the Parc des Buttes Chaumont

Throughout this series of "portraits," we've tried to give you a glimpse not just of Belleville, but of our Belleville. And no picture of our daily experience would be complete without a survey of the Bellevillois we tend to run into at the Parc des Buttes Chaumont. 

It's easy to see why, more than its location, physical features or history, we have our friends and neighbors to thank for making Belleville a truly "beautiful city."

Portraits of Belleville: Mme. la Boulangère

We have two favorite boulangeries on the Rue de Belleville: the "Moulin de Pierre," close to Métro Belleville; and the "green one" (it doesn't really have a name) about a block up the hill from our apartment. There is no question that the Moulin de Pierre offers slightly higher quality bread products, pastries, and cakes. But the boulangère who seems to run the "green one" exudes such warmth, such enthusiasm, such positive vibes, that we're more than happy to sacrifice a little quality for the experience. This picture doesn't really do her justice, but if you imagine someone sending you out of a shop with the sincere wish, "I hope you have an absolutely wonderful day!" you'll start to get the idea.

Portraits of Belleville: Juan, Sofìa, and Emma

Belleville would be much a lonelier place were it not for our incredibly warm neighbors. Originally from Spain, Juan and Sofia have been in Paris for more than a decade, and their daughter Emma will turn four in early May. (Happy Birthday, Emma!) We're honored that Juan and Sofia entrusted us with being the first non-family members to babysit Emma, and we've tried to repay the distinction by entrusting Emma with the secret to baking excellent chocolate-peanut butter cookies.

Emma and Panda don't get along as well as we'd like, mostly since Panda hasn't done a great job of exercising self-restraint around Emma. Still, Emma's favorite animal is Panda (the "bear," not the dog), and Panda's favorite animal is anyone she can snuggle with, so there's at least a chance that these two little girls can put aside their differences and become as friendly as their respective parents.

Portraits of Belleville: The Barber of Belleville

Enough already, you get it: Belleville is all about diversity. And I know I mentioned how that diversity extends to the place where I get my hair cut, where all the barbers are Sri Lankan. So mostly this portrait is an excuse to tell you about my most recent adventure at that barbershop, where (like in many Chinese-owned stores) conversation occurs through a mix of grammatically suspect French, somewhat more intelligible English, and wild gesticulation. We're getting really good at wild gesticulation, if not the other two.

You can't really tell from the picture above, but my barber wasn't actually working on my hair - he was working on my eyebrows. Now, this was a big moment for everyone concerned. Maggie's been on my case to trim my eyebrows for - well, ever since I turned 26 and apparently entered old age. So here I am, finally taking the plunge so the family portrait we take on the cruise looks nice. Meanwhile, my barber had clearly never trimmed an eyebrow before. I know this because when I asked him to do it, he looked to one of the other barbers, asked a question in either Tamil or Sinhala (my Dravidian languages are not so good), and looked back at me somewhat forlornly. I asked the other barber if maybe he wanted to do it, but no, he gestured towards the first guy, so I sat down. What happened next? See for yourself . . .

All better!

Portraits of Belleville: The Marché

Every Tuesday and Friday morning, the extra-wide median of the Boulevard de Belleville welcomes a raucous, teeming market. The two rows of stalls - and the crush of shoppers packed in between them - extend as far as the eye can see.

Your body is pressed on all sides as you move at a snail's pace, but at least you have plenty of time to ogle the incredible quantity of foods, fabrics, and flowers.


Your ears are assailed by the cries of marchands hawking their wares. And then your ears are soothed by the pleasant songs many of the marchands sing as an alternative technique to entice customers.

Still, in the midst of this overwhelming experience, it's surprisingly easy to find a moment of calm and comfort. All it takes is one friendly face. 

Portraits of Belleville: Jono, Claire, and Lilia (Kiwizine)

Our favorite restaurant in Paris is not one you'll find in the Michelin guide, on Chowhound, or in any food magazine (at least, not yet). It's a tiny place just around the corner called Kiwizine, and technically it's a non-profit "association" with two goals: bring people together around food and drink, and provide the chef, Jonathan Bevan, a chance to experiment in the kitchen. Jono hails from New Zealand (thus the punny restaurant name - say it with a French accent and it sounds like "cuisine"), his wife Claire is French, and their almost-1-year-old daughter, Lilia, is just unbearably cute.

We mostly see Jono, Claire, and Lilia on the weekends, since Kiwizine is only open Fridays and Saturdays. Hopefully someday it'll be open all week, because there's nothing we like more than stopping in with Panda on our way home from the park to make a reservation, to talk about food, or just to say hi.

Portraits of Belleville: Mme. la Bouchère

Meet our local butcher, whom we consistently choose over all the other options. We're not on a first-name basis yet (we're still at the "ça va?" "oui, et vous?" phase) but hopefully someday we will be, because this woman is kind of amazing. She has many children - we've heard 5 - and works pretty much non-stop at her boucherie. Until a few weeks ago, her husband ran a small grocery specializing in Middle Eastern ingredients (called Épicerie Le Caire) right across the street. That store had to close because rent was going up, and our butcher organized a petition drive among locals to try to reverse the rent hike.

Sure, we could go elsewhere, but this bouchère has us hooked. Reasonable prices, a good selection, everything is halal (no pork!), and best of all, service with a great big heartwarming smile.

Portraits of Belleville: Mo, Hélo & Co.

We've taken turns babysitting the kids, we've had the whole family over for a goûter, and we've been over there for coffee and for dinner: Mohamed (père), Héloise (mère), Nahel, Tilal, and Mehdi (kids, left to right) are the Bellevillois we've gotten to know best over the last 7 months. The family shares a beautiful (and spacious) apartment directly across the courtyard from ours, and we run into each other almost every day in the courtyard or at the Parc des Buttes Chaumont. 

Left to right: Nahel (3), Mo, Tilal (1), Mehdi (7), Héloise

Mo wins the award for most prolific commenter at Panda-à-Paris, and Héloise wins for putting us in touch with various people looking for clarinetists and English teachers. The boys win because, according to Mo, they recently asked their parents, "When are Maggie and Louis coming over to babysit again?"

Portraits of Belleville: Little Wen Zhou

We spend a lot of time on this blog gushing about Belleville - how much we love it, why we love it, all the great/cool/weird things we notice on a daily basis. For the most part, by "Belleville," we've meant the geographical entity in northwest Paris (composed of the adjacent parts of the 19th and 20th arrondissements), a place with a certain social and multi-cultural identity, a place whose history overlaps with that of the rest of Paris but remains somewhat distinct, even today.

What we haven't gushed about enough is the one thing that defines Belleville more than physical boundaries, more than historical roots, more than any other aspect - its residents. So for the next week, we're going to try something different, devoting each day to a different person, family, or group that makes Belleville such a meaningful and rewarding place to live.

We dedicate our first portrait to the community that seems most closely identified with Belleville in the Parisian imagination: the Chinese.

As a portrait goes, this shot is not so hot - although the reflection in the restaurant window is kind of neat. What this picture does really well, however, is hit you over the head with the Chineseness of Belleville. Here's something closer to an actual portrait:

The main "Chinatown" of Paris, in the 13th arrondissement, was created by Teochew and Cantonese immigrants, whereas Belleville's Chinese population is the result of a more recent wave of immigration from the Wenzhou region of China. (The third and smallest Parisian enclave of Chinese is in the 3rd arrondissement, near Métro Arts et Métier.) If we originally expected to get a lot better at French from talking with people in our neighborhood, all the bilingual storefronts quickly suggested otherwise.

But no hard feelings - we love being surrounded by an unfamiliar language, we love seeing tantalizing food in shop and restaurant windows, we love learning new customs and facing new challenges. After all, that's why we came to Paris in the first place. Little did we know that we'd be immersing ourselves in two new cultures for the price of one!