Mature Flâneur
Paris’ ‘Lost Village’ of Butte aux Cailles
Outrageous street art blankets this quiet urban hamlet
Plumes of pink and blue seemed to emanate from the trash bags on the sidewalk. The rising swirls of color blended into the black night of deep space (see photo, above). Then, I turned the corner and found an ordinary bicycle, some traffic signs, and wall sprayed with random graffiti. What was art on this quiet street, and what was just urban clutter? I simply could not tell. For I had fallen into one of the most fascinating wormholes in Paris: the ‘lost village’ of Butte aux Cailles.
Two hundred years ago, this neighborhood was a peaceful hamlet on a little hill surrounded by a vineyard belonging to a Monsieur Cailles (“Mr. Quail”). As Paris stretched out and surrounded it, the village kept much of its rural character, even as the city engulfed it like some vast concrete amoeba swallowing its prey.
