Bas-Belleville, the beautiful unknown 2010/ 2022

Belleville has long been known as a welcoming place for people of all cultures. This district located in the east of Paris is both a place of remembrance of immigration and a territory that still welcomes many foreigners and their families today. It is an emblematic place of French multi-ethnic neighborhoods. During my teenage years, I spent a lot of time in Belleville ; my grandmother lived onRébeval street. My grandmother was very stylish, she was inspired by the beautiful shop windows of department stores and reproduced Chanel clothes at her tailor in Belleville. She was very beautiful. Often, when sadness overwhelms me, I take my Leica and go for a walk in today's Bas-Belleville where nothing has really changed. In Bas-Belleville, everyone talks to each other; it is the district of solidarity and resourcefulness, you can find everything there : a bakery that gives credit, a pharmacist who gives medicines to the poorest when they cannot be treated, a Tunisian restaurant where we come to eat a good grilled sea bream like there, with prices that vary depending on the waiter's mood. At the metro exit, we find the corn vendors and a whole crowd of people waiting for who knows what. There is even a bookstore and an organic store, where the "bobos" from the upper Belleville come. I often meet kids, the Gavroche of today, running down the stairs used as slides, wearing their panties as in the old days.
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