Which Paris neighborhoods have the best graffiti?

May 25, 2011 1:11 PM

Which Paris neighborhoods have the best graffiti?

I'm in town for a few days, exploring, and while the entire city is blessed with some really nice handstyles, stickers and throwies, I'm looking for more in the way of huge, colorful pieces, creative wheat-pastes and rooftop burners. Where can I get the most bang for my walking buck?

I've seen this question, but I'm hoping to catch some more concrete answers, in the vein of this blog entry, which really helped me in London.

posted by flod to Grab Bag (10 answers total)

Ride the subway
posted by dripdripdrop at 1:16 PM on May 25, 2011

Fat Cap has some info. Outer banlieus have more than inner arrond.
posted by Ideefixe at 1:19 PM on May 25, 2011

Best answer: Le Marais Is where I've seen the best stuff - but last time I was there (late Feb) it had been cleaned up a lot - to the point that monkey man and myself were kind of nervous putting up some wheat pastes that we we were shooting for wedding announcement photos. We got two up, although one was down about an hour after we walked back, but that was right on the river.

Go off the beaten path around there and the Latin Quarter, and you'll see some nice stuff, including a few space invaders and space invader knock offs.
posted by monkey!knife!fight! at 1:30 PM on May 25, 2011

Best answer: Belleville
posted by judith at 2:11 PM on May 25, 2011

Best answer: The Marais has the *most adorable* graffiti I've ever seen. Like, pastel drawings of cute things on watercolor paper, put up with thumb tacks. Or things like this:

Moi, si j'étais un homme je sarais capitaine d'un bateau vert et blanc.

Awwwwwww.


There's lots of mindless, semi-conceptual stuff everywhere, though.
posted by alex_skazat at 2:11 PM on May 25, 2011

Best answer: Yeah, Bellville. Head to La Forge and wald around. Pretty much every neighbourhood has amazing street art, though. When I was there I did many outings where I went to go find some Space Invader piece (they are well mapped), then just walk around the area seeing what else was around.

More info.. See this free walking tour guide. You might also learn something browsing the Flickr Paris Street Art group. There's a map view of the 10,000 photos, it's also a good place to ask your question.
posted by Nelson at 2:21 PM on May 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

I can't say if it's the best or not, but I really like the graffiti in the Buttes aux Cailles (and while you're there, eat at Chez Gladines; I just got back from eating there tonight).
posted by Dr. Eigenvariable at 2:58 PM on May 25, 2011

Definitely Bobigny which is just outside of Paris. The absolute best way to spend a sunny day in Paris is to rent a bike and pack a picnic and cycle out there along the canal. Have a look at this for a taster.
posted by hazyjane at 1:05 AM on May 26, 2011

You see some pretty good stuff that you'd miss from the street if you look out of the windows of the line 2 metro when it's overhead rather than underground (from Jaurès to Barbès-Rochechouart); probably from the overhead bits of the 6, too, but I didn't used to ride that one to work so I'm not sure.

Some decent stuff if you walk up the canal, too.
posted by lapsangsouchong at 1:36 PM on May 27, 2011

Response by poster: Belleville and Le Marais were both great. I even ran into several writers painting pieces on the street as I walked around Belleville--definitely not a common experience in the U.S...

I wish I had more time to check out the other neighborhoods suggested, but thanks everyone for your help!
posted by flod at 9:12 AM on May 28, 2011