The Great Parisian Plate Debate

2, Rue de Belleville, 75020
Tel. 01.43.58.06.38?

On our return to the 20th we were once again going blind. None of our friends knew any good bars and we couldn’t find anything too interesting online. We decided to just bike around until we found something of interest. While there were some busy cafes on rue de Belleville, none of them had any open outdoor seating, and we had our minds fixed on smoking a cigar with our wine.

After struggling halfway up a particularly daunting hill, we dumped the bikes and continued on foot. We settled on Vielleuse pretty much because there was a spot covered from the hot sun. Situated on a corner adjacent to a Belleville metro entrance, there was a diverse flow of people walking by.

Often called Paris’s second Chinatown, Belleville certainly has quite a different crowd from central Paris.
There was some fun people watching to be had, one particularly louche example being a well dressed man in his fifties that leaned against the metro entrance for a good 45 minutes leering, singing and bumming cigarettes from people. He looked like he’d been drinking for a while and some fresh scars across his temple definitely added an air of mystery.

The place itself wasn’t too distinguishable from its neighbors, and despite a pay toilette, it was cheap and a good place for a cigar.