Today, Belleville is a colourful, multi-ethnic neighbourhood and also home to one of the city's two
Chinatowns, the other located in the
13th arrondissement near the
Place d'Italie. Since the 1980s, an important Chinese community has been established there. There are many restaurants and associations and stores offering Chinese products. A fairly large and popular outdoor market is held there every Tuesday and Friday along the Boulevard de Belleville, where many local
Île-de-France farmers sell their produce.During the 1980s Parisian artists and musicians, attracted by the cheaper rents, the numerous vacant large spaces, and the old Paris charm of its smaller streets (Belleville was ignored, perhaps spared, during much of the architectural modernisation efforts and reparations of the 1960s and 1970s, the greatest exception being the area around the
Place des Fêtes), started moving there. Many artists now live and work in Belleville and studios are scattered throughout the
quartier. Some abandoned factories have been transformed into art
squats, where several alternative artists and musicians, such as the band
Les Rita Mitsouko began their careers. Belleville is one of the most important neighbourhoods in Paris when it comes to Street Art. For example, Rue Denoyez or Place Frehel are a changing display of wall covering street art. The demographics of the neighbourhood have undergone many changes throughout the decades. While Armenians, Greeks, and Ashkenazi Jews were once the predominant ethnic groups, North Africans, and more recently, sub-Saharan Africans have been displacing these others. Within the neighbourhood there is a cemetery and park, the
Parc de Belleville, which ascends the western slope of the hill and offers, in addition to a panoramic view of the Paris skyline, a strikingly modern contrast to the classical gardens of the city centre and the eccentric nineteenth century romanticism of the nearby
Parc des Buttes Chaumont. A
School of Architecture is also located in Belleville.[http://www.paris-belleville.archi.fr/ The iconic French singer
Édith Piaf grew up there and, according to legend, was born under a lamppost on the steps of the
Rue de Belleville. A
commemorative plaque can be found at number 72. A true
Bellevilloise, Piaf sang and spoke the
French language in a way that epitomised the
accent de Belleville, which has been compared to the
Cockney accent of
London, England, although the Belleville dialect is nowadays rarely heard, and most Bellevillians nowadays speak modern
Parisian, which is synonymic with the spoken
Standard French language heard in the French medias. Belleville is prominently featured in the 2007 biographical film of her life,
La Vie En Rose. Other famous
Bellevillois include film director
Maurice Tourneur, legendary French
can-can dancer
Jane Avril and popular singer and actor
Eddy Mitchell. The filmmaker
Maïwenn grew up in Belleville and lives there now. == In popular culture ==