Cité Leroy (Paris, 20th Arrondissement)
A cité usually refers to a unified group of buildings, with some variations. A villa is often a little private or semi-private street or alley. Some are really elegant and exclusive, and some are just old housing projects. Many date back well over a century.
When you can get in (some are locked or marked private), please be quiet and tidy.
This part of Paris is very hilly and has some steep streets with camelbacks as challenging as San Francisco. This is a huge Coptic Christian church right near here and this community is extremely mixed, both as far as race and wealth goes. You will find Africans here squatting and you will find million-euro renovations going on. This is right in Paris so is fully served by public transportation -- a métro choice for where I made this clip could be Pyrenées.
This is truly authentic Paris. You will hardly ever see tourists around here. The gorgeous Parc de Belleville has terraces, fountains, gardens, a vineyard and picnic and sunbathing areas, in addition to majestic views of Paris below. Like Montmartre, you get a spectacular panorama here and a variety of quaint sights, but as I've said, there are few tourists and so of course if you want to eat, drink, buy or do something, it is cheaper in these parts.
Europe and Scandinavia are expensive and hot during July and August, but this was a balmy late August Wednesday afternoon, so I rescheduled my appointments and went looking for a place to buy, again. I can't decide among authentic Paris proper, a near-area such as Saint-Ouen, or the Côte d'Azur on the Mediterranean. I can't have all three.
There are several clips of my visit to Belleville up on this channel, my other channel here on YouTube (CUTECATFAITH) and over on Dailymotion under LisaFalour.
I am an artist and writer and some of my works will appear in the next FREAK WAVE.
Thank you for watching, and your comments and video responses are welcome.
copyright 2013 Lisa B. Falour, B.S., M.B.A. all rights reserved
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