Up to the 20 districts |
Up to the map of the buildings and sites in
Paris
The 20th district not only has the highest district number in
Paris, it also contains the highest point in the capital. And it
hosts a fine collection of French dead people at the Père-Lachaise cemetery, which the tourists
seem to enjoy greatly, and a foreign dead man who causes a lot of trouble. Let's start with the map:
19th
_______________\
_______---------- Belleville /\
\ rue de / ` Les Lilas
\ # \ / |
\ ## \ Cim / |
\ #### \ BelleV / | ### Parc de Belleville
\ #### . / |
\ | / | +++ Père-Lachaise
\ . / |
\ | / |
\ | / |
\ \ / |
\ +++ Pl. | Bagnolet
\++++++ Gambetta-----------|
\++++++++ | |
\++++++++ | |
\ ++++++++ | |
\ ++++++++ | |
\ ++++ ` |
\ ++ \ |
\ \ |
\ \ | Montreuil
11th \ . |
\ | |
\ | |
\ Cours de Vincennes |
`---------------------| Saint-Mandé
Nation 12th |
Everything in italics is outside the district. The 20th
district is the 3rd most populated district in Paris with 182,952
inhabitants in 1990. It's the 7th largest district (5.98
km2).
Top of the hill
When you stand on boulevard de
Belleville, in the north-east end of
the
district, you can see steep streets that go up the hill. From
the
métro Belleville, you may take the very lively rue de
Belleville, the heart of the second most Chinese quarter of Paris (the
other one is in the
13th district).
Or, from métro Couronnes, take rue des Couronnes, which leads to
Parc
de Belleville. There is something special about this park: its steep
slope attracts you, and you don't want to stop until you get to the
top of the park because you guess that you will have a beautiful
view from up there. You will not be disappointed: it provides you
with one of the largest
panorama over Paris you can find.
If you continue along rue de Belleville, which marks the limit between
the
19th district and the 20th district, you'll
get to the cemetery of Belleville at métro
Télégraphe. The name of
the metro station, which is also the name of a street, tells you that
this place is the highest point in Paris, but this requires some
explanation.
Chappe's telegraph
In the late
18th century, during the
French revolution,
Chappe
invented the first long-distance communication system. Chappe's system
consisted in wooden
semaphore signals; stations needed to be
installed on every hill all along the road, and transmitted messages
with a kind of alphabetical code. In
Paris, the first station was
naturally installed in the highest place, i.e here. Chappe's invention
was called
telegraph, hence the name of the street.
The Ghost of Père-Lachaise
Coming down to the south, you get to the
Père-Lachaise
cemetery. It's the largest cemetery inside Paris, and the one that
hosts the greatest number of famous people. A list of them is
available on noticeboards near the entrance. However, if you are
looking for someone whose name starts with an 'M', you may find that
his name has been erased. The reason is that thousands of illiterate
people had to put their finger onto the noticeboard in order to find
the name "Morrison".
Jim Morrison was the singer in an old music band named
"
Windows" or something like that. He had a very
bad idea: he
came to Paris, and died. His
ghost has been haunting the most
beautiful cemetery in Paris ever since, writing
graffiti and even
damaging tombs. Or maybe his fans, not being able of writing more than
their initials, are responsible for that. Fans have also been caught
making love on
Handsome Jim's tomb. Now, policemen stand near the
tomb, watching dozens of
college students on their 8-day Europe Tour
who believe that
Oliver Stone's
movie was the greatest movie
since
Star Wars.
(In short, Morrison's tomb is a major nuisance, and it should have
been moved long ago to the suburbs.)
Don't forget to see the rest of the cemetery: the steep alleys, the
tombs of Abélard and Héloïse, the forest of trees and stones, and
half of the most famous French historical characters. Although you may
not recognize many names if you are not familiar with French
history. Read le cimetière du Père Lachaise for more information about the cemetery.