Ménilmontant to the village of Charonne via Père-Lachaise: a walk in Paris

Down the east side of the Belleville hill. It starts at the old spring houses that fed the monks of Saint-Martin-des-Champs and takes the 54 steps of Ménilmontant's huge church, then crosses Père-Lachaise to the Communards' wall. It ends on the main street of the former village of Charonne, around a church that still has its own country churchyard.

Best time: Morning or early afternoon, so you have time in the cemetery; the walk runs mostly downhill from Belleville

The route, stop by stop

1
Regard Saint-Martin, rue des Cascades
A small stone spring house against the retaining wall of rue des Cascades. Its 18th-century Latin inscription (dated 1633 and 1722) tells how the spring fed the monks of Saint-Martin and their neighbours, the Templars. The street, a footpath called sente des Musardes in 1812, is named after these water works; Yann Tiersen, who lived nearby, named a 1997 album after it. 15 min.
2
Église Notre-Dame-de-la-Croix
Place de Ménilmontant. Built 1863-1880 by Louis-Jean-Antoine Héret, 97 m long with a 78 m bell tower and a flight of 54 steps up the slope. One of the largest churches in Paris (fourth by volume), listed monument since 2017. Communards held political meetings here in 1871. 15 min.
3
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Main entrance at 28 ter boulevard de Ménilmontant, facing the end of rue de la Roquette. The largest cemetery inside Paris (70,000 graves) and, with over 3.5 million visitors a year, the most visited in the world. Chopin, Proust, Oscar Wilde, Édith Piaf, Colette, Apollinaire and Jim Morrison are buried here. It is still a working cemetery: keep your voice down near funerals. 60 min.
44-hectare hillside cemetery with the graves of Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf and the Communards' Wall.
4
Mur des Fédérés
The stretch of the cemetery wall where 147 Communards were shot by the Versailles army at the end of the Semaine sanglante in May 1871 and thrown into a common grave at its foot. Since then it has stood as a symbol of the Communards' fight for freedom. 15 min.
5
Saint-Germain-de-Charonne
4 place Saint-Blaise. The parish church of the village of Charonne until it joined Paris in 1860. The tower piers are 12th century, the rest mostly 15th and 18th century. Tradition says Saint Germain of Auxerre met the young Geneviève, the future patron saint of Paris, on these slopes around 430. 15 min.
A village church on a mound above Rue Saint-Blaise, rebuilt in the 15th century and partly again after a fire in 1737, keeping 12th-century pillars in its bell tower. It is one…
6
Rue Saint-Blaise
The main street of the village of Charonne, already shown on the 1672 Jouvin de Rochefort map. The north-west end, from place Saint-Blaise to place des Grès (the old village square at rue Vitruve), keeps low houses and small buildings. 20 min.

Walking directions

Ménilmontant to the village of Charonne via Père-Lachaise

The route, stop by stop

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