50 min
50 min
2 · 3 · 9 · 11
15.3 / km²
1
14
4,088
−37% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Mixed after dark
Belleville and the streets round Pere-Lachaise are busy and fine in the evening. The eastern end towards Porte de Bagnolet and Saint-Blaise is where to take the metro rather than walk, late.
Staying in Belleville & Pere-Lachaise (20th)
Pere-Lachaise is inside the 20th and is free, which makes it the best-value morning in Paris - Chopin, Wilde, Piaf and Morrison in seventy thousand graves under old trees. Above it, Belleville and Menilmontant are where the city's Chinese, Tunisian and Algerian kitchens are, and where a full dinner still costs fifteen euros.
This is a working district in the middle of changing, which is Wikivoyage's phrase, not ours: gritty in parts, gentrifying in others, and genuinely good at night if what you want is a small music venue and a beer that is not six euros. Rue de Belleville climbs to one of the two views over the whole city that is not the Sacre-Coeur.
The reasons not to book are practical. Hotel stock is thin and mostly two-star, so the choice is small. Notre-Dame is fifty minutes on foot and the metro is a daily habit - line 2, 3 and 11 all cross it. And the 20th sits with the 18th and 19th on the list of arrondissements Paris itself considers least safe after dark, which in practice means the streets east of Menilmontant rather than the whole district.
What works
- Pere-Lachaise is inside the district and costs nothing
- Belleville and Menilmontant have the cheapest good food in Paris
- Rooms cost about half the Marais, which is thirty minutes' walk away
- Metro 2, 3 and 11 all cross the arrondissement
What does not
- Fifty minutes on foot to Notre-Dame
- Hotel stock is thin and mostly two-star, so choice is limited
- Named among the least safe arrondissements after dark
- Nothing here except the cemetery is on a first visit's list
The 20th arrondissement of Paris lies to the east of the centre and represents an old working-class area now in rapid transformation. The main drawing card here for tourists is the Père-Lachaise Cemetery, though, for travellers who are interested in music and culture, this relatively gritty area is probably going to be one of your main night-crawling areas.The 18th, 19th, and 20th arrondissements are widely seen as the least safe areas of Paris, but safety levels vary dramatically from street to street. During the day, they're usually fine; you might have to watch out for pickpockets and scammers, but not much more. However, be on your guard at night.