Rue de Ménilmontant

The street you are walking along, Rue de Ménilmontant, follows the path of an ancient trail that once connected a rural hamlet to the rest of the world. In the thirteenth century, this area was known as Mesnil-Mautemps, a name that medieval residents used to describe a house built in a place of bad weather. By the sixteenth century, the name had evolved into Ménilmontant, which translates roughly to climbing house, a fitting description for a street that dramatically ascends the third-highest hill in Paris. King Louis the Fifteenth ordered trees to be planted along this route in seventeen thirty-four, but its true character was defined by its location outside the city's tax borders. Because it sat beyond the reach of Parisian tax collectors, wine and other spirits were much cheaper here than in the city center. This economic quirk transformed the hilltop village into a sprawling destination for nightlife, filled with dance halls and taverns that drew crowds of Parisians looking to escape the strict regulations and higher prices of the capital. The street maintains a defiant, independent spirit because it was a flashpoint during the Paris Commune of eighteen seventy-one. When the Versailles Army moved to reclaim the city, they met some of their fiercest opposition right here on these slopes. The memory of that resistance is woven into the neighborhood's identity, influencing everything from the local street art to the name and socialist roots of the area's community football club.