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Mouzaia-Picturesque village in heart Paris

Paris-19th arr -The Mouzaia - A picturesque village in the heart of Paris!

A picturesque village in Paris, completely unexpected surges suddenly if you leave the area of the Buttes Chaumont in the 19th arrondissement. It's a curious environment, where 19th century streets clash with small villas and skirt high-rise buildings. Around the buttes Chaumont, its' the entire story of recent Parisian architecture that is at stake. Here the city is another city, wearing another skin. Maybe it hurts sometimes and it is not painless. But don't forget a city is never immutable, is in perpetual evolution, and that's what we can learn in the part of the 19th arrondissement, called LA MOUZAIA. 
The name comes for a battle fought in Algeria in 1839 and is formed by a few streets (beginning 20th century), between the rues Mouzaia, General Brunet and Miguel Hidalgo. 
An extremely charming quarter, full of houses with cute gardens in small passages. No grand and spectacular monuments or sites, but opportunities to seize colours of local life.
Let's start at the buttes Chaumont, described in another article. Take the rue Mouzaia that starts at the exit of the Botzaris metro station. You will soon observe you enter a zone of small villas, hidden in small alleys you should zigzag between the rue Mouzaia and the rue de Belleville. These small alleys, encumbered by glycines, lilacs, syringes and rose bushes. Grandma's odours all along your walk! And such cute old style street lamps. Not ONE of the houses look like the next one, brick, lime, bond-stone change from house to house. Some houses are covered with ivy, others with Provencal pastel colours. And all have their small garden in front. It's really a privileged area, a way to live in the countryside and being in the heart of Paris. Just go at random, pass he luxuriant villa de Bellevue, villa Amalia lined with old street laps and trees, a maze of superb little gardens. The villa Fontenay, where rose bushes could block your passage. In the villa du Progres, progress shows it hideous face: concrete and cranes. A total contrast! Villa Loubet, villa Bellevue with its charming colored roofs, villa des Lilas, and so many more. Of course, the inhabitants are proud of their quarter and defend themselves with ferocity against each plan to build more of these high-rise buildings. You have a perfect example of what crimes real estate promoter s can commit by seeing the place des Fetes: this place, only bordered by villas until 1970 was completely razed and rebuilt with anonymous towers, transforming the daily life of this area. Insecurity, loss of green spaces, absence of conviviality and solitude.
Cross the rue Mouzaia to continue your stroll in the middle of the villas to the rue de l'Egalité. Return to the rue Mouzaia taking the rue Liberté and pass the carrefour with the church of Saint François d'Assise, recross the parc des Buttes Chaumont and exit through the rue Manin. Make a right along the park and notice the beautiful Haussman facades, take the rue Meynadier and turn right into the rue de Crimée where you turn immediately in a little blind alley at no.93, continue until the end. That's it, what a choc! You are facing a small Orthodox Church, pointed roof, with engraved motives in the wood, icons. This is the Eglise Saint-Serge. A miracle of unseemliness. A meagre vegetation completes the illusion we are somewhere lost in Siberia!
End this walk by retaking the rue de Crimée, where modern high-rise skirt buildings of the 19th, old one storied houses, like nos.120-122.