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Introduction to the place de la Bastille

Bastille area-Rue de Lappe-Rue de la Roqette

Rue de Charonne

Rue du Faubourg Ste Antoine

Paris-11th arr-Bastille area-Rue de Lappe-Rue de la Roquette

The Opera Bastille will be treated in a separate chapter since it lies in the 12th arr.
Start, at the metro station Bastille with the rue de la Roquette, the pulsing vein of this neighbourhood. It’s a very long street, stretching from the place de le Bastille until the Pere Lachaise cemetery. You will see here a great number of small shops held by Tunesians and other immigrants from African countries. Besides that all you can buy Vietnamese products but the area is changing. Since a few years clothing boutiques and commerces with modern concepts settled down.
It’s worth to have a look in the Rue de Lappe, which used to be one of the most picturesque of Paris. Numerous animated little cafes, noisy and  sympathetic. But when I visited it the last time I found it lost much of its charm, especially due to the fact that a lot of back courtyards are inaccessible now because of the new coded locks system. 
Last century, honourable people didn't dare to set a foot here, being sure to get robbed. The area had a disastrous reputation. 
Try to have a look behind the portal of no.34. A courtyard with trees gives you the impression to have entered a village square. Try to push other closed portals, maybe you will be lucky. I as not last time. 
The rue de Lappe was the centre (with the rue de la Roquette) of manufacturers and shops that sold all material for cafes and restaurants. You can still see some shops selling tin counters for cafes and things like that. like old signboards will testify.
Back to the rue de la Roquette with its old houses, restaurants, boutiques, passages are following each other all the way long. Young public, rockers, leathers and motorbikes. A little noisy, but lively.  Try also to visit the courtyards and passages in the rue de la Roquette. It will help you to better discover the area.  At no.40 if you want a tattoo enter “Chez Etienne”. Have a drink in the Passage de la Main d’Or no.10 at “L’Ami Pierre” a nice bistro of the 19th century. At no.70 the “Fontaine de l’Abreuvoir” from the 19th century where a lot of clochards wander around today. At no.74 you can always have a drink at "La Taverne" at night and at no.76 you can inform which avant-garde theatre, music and dance plays are performing. Cite de la Roquette, a guy build the house of his dreams in Renaissance style, mixed with a little gothic. Notice if you are at the corner of the rue Croix-Faubin: look well, don't you se five weird looking stones? It is here that a guillotine functioned during the terror period of the revolution and even until the beginning of the 20th century.

Bibliography

--Vie et histoire des arrondissements de Paris, ed.Hervas (1985-1988--Nouvelle Histoire de Paris, ed.Hachette--Le Pieton de Paris, by L.P.Fargue, ed.Gallimard 1997--Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris, by J.Hillairet, ed.Minuit --Guide du Routard 1998-1999 (Ed.Hachette)--Paris, 2000 d'histoire, by J.Favier, ed.Fayard 1997 --Paris 19eme siecle, l'immeuble et la rue, by F.Loyer, ed.Hazan, 1994- Faubourg Saint-Honore, histoites vraies, J.Dutourdens (ed .Julliard 1992)