Rue de Belleville

The Rue de Belleville is a long, steep artery that climbs one of the highest hills in Paris. You can identify this street by the constant hum of its bustling, multicultural shops and the way the pavement stretches upward, separating the nineteenth and twentieth arrondissements. Once an independent village known for its gypsum quarries and vineyards, it was annexed by the city in eighteen sixty. The area gained a reputation as a center of working-class radicalism during the Paris Commune of eighteen seventy-one, and its rugged history remains a part of the local identity.