Paris Guide
The Bastille
A symbol of revolution since the famous toppling of the Bastille prison in 1789, the Bastille quarter used to belong in spirit and in style to the working-class districts of eastern Paris. Since the construction of the new opera house in the 1980s, however, it has become a magnet for artists, fashion folk and young people who have brought with them trendy shops and an energetic nightlife, making this one of Paris's central hot spots. Much of the action takes place on rue de Lappe, continuing a tradition that goes back to the nineteenth century when immigrants from the Auvergne colonized this street and set up dancehalls and music clubs. Cocktail haunts and theme bars now dominate the street and the surrounding area, edging out the old tool shops, cobblers and ironmongers. Some of the working-class flavour lingers on, though, especially along rue de la Roquette and in the furniture workshops off rue du Faubourg St-Antoine, east of the Bastille, testimony to a long tradition of cabinet-making and woodworking in the district. The area was outside the city limits until the 1780s, and so, away from the restrictions of the city guilds, the Faubourg St-Antoine workers enjoyed a measure of independence and free thinking, given full expression during the 1789 Revolution.
South of the Bastille, the relatively unsung twelfth arrondissement offers an authentic slice of Paris, traditionally working-class and full of neighbourhood shops and bars. Much is changing here too, though, and a fashionable crowd is moving in, attracted by new developments, such as the landscaping of a large park in the Bercy riverside area and the conversion of the old Bercy wine warehouses into attractive cafés and shops. One of the most imaginative projects has been the creation of the Promenade Plantée, an ex-railway line turned into an elevated walkway, running from the Bastille right across the twelfth arrondissement to the green expanse of the Bois de Vincennes. Elsewhere, large pockets of the 12e remain resolutely unchanged, such as the traditional place d'Aligre market.