Sunday Van Painters
This is the excuse for Porte Walks No.3 and No.4, and it is clearly what they do in Rue d’Aubervilliers of a Sunday, when those in suburban Meudon would merely wash the car! We did Porte d’Aubervilliers and Porte de la Villette as a single loop. We walked some friends to the Gare du Nord, and continued up the right hand side to the Boulevard de la Chapelle, and on up Aubervilliers, past the massive arts centre at 104, full of activity on a Sunday morning, the least of which was probably this little book shed where you could take or exchange a book freely.
The walking became bleaker as we merged with industry and then took a right down Macdonald Boulevard, not Mac-do Boulevard, which it might well have been, but named after someone else.
We arrived at the canal basin, and by a series of right turns found ourselves back on the Avenue de Flandres coming out of the Porte de la Villette, and heading back into the city. We passed through busy Sunday markets, then up the long hill of Rue de Crimée to the Parc des Buttes Chaumont, and on to Rue de Belleville. From there it is downhill all the way to République, and home to the Marais. SC
notes from an urban hibernation 