# Staying in Belleville & Pere-Lachaise (20th): Map & Verdict

Verdict: Mixed. Fine for some travellers, wrong for others.

Interactive map: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/belleville-pere-lachaise
Every Paris district: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris.md

Pere-Lachaise, Belleville's kitchens and the cheapest good food in the city. Fifty minutes on foot from anything on the postcard, and thin on hotels.

Facts: 50 min walk to Notre-Dame; 50 min to the airport; price €€; best for budget, food, nightlife, solo travellers; lines 2, 3, 9, 11.
Safety: 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.

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

Hotels in Belleville & Pere-Lachaise (20th): https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D20%26dest_type%3Ddistrict%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1

## Other districts in Paris

- [Louvre & Les Halles (1st)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/louvre-les-halles): Recommended. The Louvre, the Tuileries and the busiest interchange in France, in one arrondissement. You pay for the address in rate and in crowds, and you never need a metro before dinner.
- [Sentier & Grands Boulevards (2nd)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/sentier-grands-boulevards): Recommended. The smallest arrondissement and the best-value central one: covered passages, the Montorgueil food street, and rates under the 1st across the boundary.
- [Upper Marais (3rd)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/upper-marais): Recommended. The Marais without the queue. Same 17th-century streets as the 4th, the Picasso museum, and evenings that stay quiet enough to sleep through.
- [Le Marais (4th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/le-marais): Recommended. Medieval streets, the Pompidou, both islands in the Seine, and more bars per block than anywhere else in central Paris. Ten minutes on foot from Notre-Dame, priced accordingly.
- [Latin Quarter (5th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/latin-quarter): Recommended. The Left Bank answer: the Pantheon, the Sorbonne, the Jardin des Plantes and the cheapest central rooms on this side of the river. Fifteen minutes on foot from Notre-Dame.
- [Saint-Germain (6th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/saint-germain): Recommended. The Jardin du Luxembourg, the galleries, and the most expensive mid-range rooms in Paris. If the budget takes it, nothing else in the city is this easy to stay in.
- [Eiffel Tower & Invalides (7th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/eiffel-tower-invalides): Mixed. The Eiffel Tower, the Musee d'Orsay, the Invalides and most of the French government. Grand, expensive, and short of anywhere to eat once the ministries close.
- [Champs-Elysees (8th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/champs-elysees): Mixed. Luxury hotels, the Arc de Triomphe and the executive branch of the French government. A business district that empties at the weekend, and there is no cheap room in it.
- [Opera & Pigalle (9th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/opera-pigalle): Recommended. The department stores, the Opera Garnier and South Pigalle. The best mid-range value that is still a walk from the centre, with a red-light strip along its northern edge.
- [Gare du Nord & Canal (10th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/gare-du-nord-canal-saint-martin): Mixed. Two districts under one number. The canal Saint-Martin end is one of the best evenings in Paris; the two-station end is where cheap rooms are cheap for a reason.
- [Bastille & Oberkampf (11th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/bastille-oberkampf): Recommended. Where Paris eats and drinks rather than where it poses. The densest arrondissement in Europe, a third cheaper than the Marais, and there is almost nothing to look at.
- [Gare de Lyon & Bercy (12th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/gare-de-lyon-bercy): Mixed. Gare de Lyon, Bercy and half of the Bois de Vincennes. Cheap, well connected and almost entirely residential - the hotels are all at the western end.
- [Place d’Italie & Chinatown (13th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/place-ditalie-chinatown): Mixed. Europe's biggest Chinatown, the national library and 1970s tower blocks. The cheapest safe rooms in Paris, forty minutes on foot from the centre.
- [Montparnasse & Denfert (14th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/montparnasse-denfert): Mixed. The catacombs, the old Montparnasse cafes and the Orly bus. Residential, fairly priced and short of reasons to leave the hotel except to catch something.
- [Vaugirard & Grenelle (15th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/vaugirard-grenelle): Avoid. The largest arrondissement, safe and quiet and residential, whose hotels advertise an Eiffel Tower that most of them are forty minutes from. An hour on foot to Notre-Dame.
- [Trocadero & Passy (16th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/trocadero-passy): Avoid. The best view of the Eiffel Tower and the least reason to sleep near it. Wealthy, residential, and shut by ten - you pay central rates to be nowhere central.
- [Batignolles & Ternes (17th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/batignolles-ternes): Mixed. Three districts under one number: Ternes is an extension of the 8th, Batignolles is a village with a market, and the Epinettes end is closer to the 18th. No sights at all.
- [Montmartre (18th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/montmartre): Mixed. The hill is one of the best things in Paris and the arrondissement is not the hill. Half the room rate of the Marais, fifty-five minutes on foot from Notre-Dame.
- [La Villette & Buttes-Chaumont (19th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/la-villette-buttes-chaumont): Avoid. Parks, canals, the science museum and the cheapest chain rooms inside the ring road. An hour on foot from the centre, and on the city's own least-safe list after dark.
