Tour Saint Blaise

You are standing in a neighborhood that long ago functioned as the independent village of Charonne. While the broader area eventually succumbed to the rapid expansion of Paris, this specific pocket around the church of Saint Germain de Charonne survived the massive urban demolitions of the twentieth century. The local street, Rue Saint Blaise, remains one of the last places in the capital where you can walk on original cobblestones surrounded by low, quiet houses that mirror the rural character of a nineteenth-century French village.