By JEFF JOHN ROBERTS
Perched high on the eastern slopes of Paris, the 20th Arrondissement has historically been a spot for local residents, with an emphasis on raucous music and hard-left politics. The few tourists who do broach the district usually get no farther than the Père Lachaise cemetery. Plentiful graffiti and one or two watch-your-step side streets attest to the area’s still-rough edges, but these are being smoothed over by growing clusters of dining and night life options. Much of the evening action trickles off the Rue de Ménilmontant, a jagged ribbon of a street that peers over the Pompidou Center and the Seine. The neighborhood anchor remains La Bellevilloise (labellevilloise.com), which opened a century ago as an artisan co-op, and today is a multi-room free-for-all of art, dance and dining.
