The Rue Dénoyez – An Open Air Gallery

Paris may not be at the forefront of an international street art movement, but if you are interested in street art and graffiti it does have several interesting sites to visit. Probably the most impressive of all is the Rue Dénoyez, which has the added advantage of forming a corner with the popular Aux Folies bar (check out Aux Folies bar article)!

For a long time this street was a run down corner of the city, but it is now undergoing complete renovation, including a new swimming pool (which is amusing, as Dénoyez in French sounds like ‘the drowning’!). Fortunately, this clean up has not touched the graffiti which has become the focal point of the street. A row of brightly coloured galleries and bars, once squats but now with officially installed tennants, faces on to a monumental wall with a constantly changing selection of excellent murals.

The result is Belleville in a very colourful nutshell. Young artists, Tunisian men playing cards, cool bars, hotels for the homeless, children playing football, and bloggers stopping to take photographs!