Rue des Thermopyles

"I never go to Métro Pernety. It's not a good station, it is very dark. I live in this apartment and work in the same building. So, if I need something I am at Alésia anyway. I find I can walk most places and don't need to travel far.

"They are mostly young people in this street. Lawyers, graphic designers, and artists. You can tell the artists because they keep garbage. There are three residents my age or close. On a sunny day, or in spring, the cats are out and the street has the perfume of lilacs and wisteria. A few people come by every day to take pictures- a few, not many, mostly Asian or French. My neighbors don't mind because people are quiet and respectful. It is nice knowing others think your home is beautiful.

"There are workshops and offices in every building. Each person can plant what they like. Around the bend is a garden and parks. There are many Chinese women with their babies visiting these parks. Maybe you could speak with them. 

"It's a very romantic street. The apartments all have American kitchens." - Mathieu, a resident of Rue des Thermopyles. 

     

You might recognize Rue des Thermopyles from the movie Paris, Je T'aime. The street winds around Graine de Quatorzien, an urban agriculture project preserving ancient varieties of flax, wheat, barley, and buckwheat. The project helps local residents harvest grains to make bread or flours. They also grow tomatoes and have a youth outreach program. A couple weeding told me they compost publicly, but people keep adding inorganic trash :(

Nearby are Jardin Alberto-Giacometti, a hilly lawn punctuated with flowering bud trees, and Square du Chanoine-Viollet, named for the abbé who founded public housing works in the 14ème. Jardin Giacometti is a quiet place where people eat lunch, put babies to sleep in strollers, or cry over ex-boyfriends, judging by the crowd today (side note: Fondation Louis Vuitton acquired a new Giacometti and it's wonderful). Square du Chanoine-Viollet has ping-pong and chess tables surrounded by a bamboo hedge. Students smoke there on lunch breaks, and parents look bored as children play on the climbing walls.

If you want to visit these sites, take Métro Alesia to Avenue du Maine. Turn right onto Rue du Moulin Vert, then follow Rue Didot to Rue des Thermopyles or Cité Bauer. You'll pass cute streets, murals, and quaint houses with broken windows. On the way home from Rue des Thermopyles, a boy drew me in his little sketchbook. When I asked to take a picture, he said bien sûr, c'était vous, and apologized. I deleted the photo somehow, otherwise it would be in this post; it was so pretty I thought it was a drawing of someone else. He even sketched the cats I was looking at on my cell phone.