Batignolles
From Paris Hotels Reviews
Batignolles
West of Montmartre cemetery, in a district bounded by the St-Lazare train lines, marshalling yards and avenue Clichy, lies the "village" of Batignolles - sufficiently conscious of its uniqueness to have formed an association for the preservation of its caractère villageois. Its heart is the attractive place du Dr. F. Lobligeois, framing the elegant Neoclassical church of Ste-Marie-des-Batignolles. On the corners of the place, a handful of modern bars and restaurants attracts the young, bourgeois parents of the neighbourhood while, behind, the green square des Batignolles is filled with prams, pushchairs and handsome old plane trees. The poet Verlaine was brought up on the rue des Batignolles, which runs southeast past the Mairie of the 17e arrondissement to the junction with rue des Dames. This narrow but lively thoroughfare winds its way east from the flamboyant food and clothes market of the rue de Lévis (daily except Mon), beside the Villiers métro stop, to the avenue de Clichy. Just below lies the traffic – and neon-filled roundabout of the place de Clichy, dominated by its Pathé cinema and classic old brasserie, Wepler. Northeast of Ste-Marie-des-Batignolles, the long rue des Moines runs past a bustling and price-conscious covered market, the Marché des Batignolles, into an increasingly working-class area, all small, animated, friendly shops, low apartment blocks in shades of peeling grey and modest, local bars.
