Belleville Park — Attraction in Paris

We arrived to the location of Belleville after checking reviews of how trendy this area was with a lot of street art. This was a fail from the start, the area is super dodgy, lots of dodgy people right when you leave the station. It’s a poor area of the city which doesn’t mean it’s unsafe or dangerous, but this was definitely the case. All streets around the station seemed to have works around it and there was no street art worth looking at, just bad graffitis and tags. We decided to give a go to Belleville park after seeing reviews online and what a mistake it was. I don’t really know if things have changed in recent years, but as soon as we got in we felt super unsafe, lots of groups of (dodgy) men spread around the park, some fighting and shouting, we walked there for 5 minutes and we were actually afraid to leave the park, as there were lots of groups of men all around the exits. I never felt unsafe in any of city breaks I’ve been and I literally was afraid I was going to get robbed or worse in that park. This was at 2pm in the afternoon. This is not the place for a couple, defo not for single women, not a place for families. AVOID AT ALL COSTS, this is a dangerous area and don’t get fooled by the good reviews , it’s astonishing that theres no current info about this park and who frequents it, it’s misleading and dangerous. You can get the same views elsewhere without feeling threatened!!! I actually got out of there shaking , not a...

This is a lovely little park on a hill with the most complete view of the Eiffel Tower anywhere in Paris, but oddly it's not much of a photo because it's too distant. On Sunday afternoons, there seems to be a regular Latin music event, with lots of people dancing and trading partners. At the top, there's a bit of a hipster area growing with a couple of places to sit outside and eat. It's a little seedy with obvious dealer activity from the nearby housing projects, but the two worlds seem to tolerate each other. If you walk back rue des Envierges, you'll discover another neat little square. Take rue des Cascades to the right for yet another nook at the end of the street. In the summer, the little bar there puts out maybe 20 tables all around the intersection. This part of town used to be where the city stored water. All the street names reflect that past. You can follow this back over to rue Ménilmontant or turn around and go back to the square and walk up the stairs to get to...

We visited this park over 15 years ago by happy accident and I shared a Valentine's Day sunset smooch with my honey there overlooking all of Paris. We recently returned and were extremely disappointed that the park had not been maintained. There was graffiti everywhere, the lovely plantings are largely gone and the trees had not been maintained and were mostly blocking the stunning view. This neighborhood has suffered horribly and Paris should be ashamed that such a lovely park has been allowed to deteriorate so badly. However, I still can highly recommend visiting the park for a lofty view of some of Paris, including the Eiffel Tower. I truly hope that effort is made to restore such a...