Goutte d'Or and the northern stations
France > Paris > Montmartre > Goutte d'Or and the northern stations

Gare du Nord

Continuing east from Pigalle, boulevard Rochechouart becomes boulevard de la Chapelle, along the north side of which, between boulevard Barbès and the Gare du Nord rail lines, stretches the poetically named, crumbling and squalid quartier of the Goutte d'Or. Its name – the "Drop of Gold" – derives from the vineyard that occupied this site in medieval times. Since World War I, however, when large numbers of North Africans were imported to replenish the ranks of Frenchmen dying in the trenches, it has gradually become an immigrant ghetto.

Many of the buildings in the area remain in a lamentable state of decay. While artists, writers and others have moved in, attracted by the only affordable property left in the city, a major programme of pulling down, rebuilding and cleaning up is underway. As the physical backdrop changes, so inevitably does the character of the quartier. Much of rue de la Goutte-d'Or itself is new, including a lovely nursery school on the corner with rue Islettes. For the moment, however, rue de la Goutte-d'Or and its tributary lanes, especially to the north – rue Myrha, rue Léon, the Marché Dejean, rue Polonceau (with its basement mosque at no. 55) – and the cobbled alley and gardens of Villa Poissonnière remain distinctly North African and poor.

Washing hangs from every balcony and tiny shops sell snazzy cloth and jewellery as well as traditional djellabas. The windows of the pâtisseries are stacked with trays of equally brightly coloured cakes and pastries. Sheeps' heads grin from the slabs of the halal butchers. The grocers shovel their wares from barrels and sacks, and the plangent sounds of Arab music echo evocatively from the record shops. In the playground of square Léon, just to the north of the rue de la Goutte d'Or, you'll find authorized graffiti and three brilliant murals. It's an interesting place to sit, as all sectors of the community come here for recreation. The cafés and bars of the Goutte d'Or tend to be too small and intimate to appeal to outsiders, but you'd certainly be able to find a good mint tea.