PARIS

It’s mid-morning, and Belleville is a giant wrestling match of food. Along its boulevards’ crammed pavements, Malian grocers are flogging sackloads of yam and plantain, muscular Chinese workmen are hauling crates of pak choi and aubergines, and Tunisian vendors are deep-frying sugary bambaloni pastries in quantities great enough to induce diabetes. The pace is relentless. The scent is sweet and the colours are a blur. It’s a cauldron of contemporary Paris — far from the cliches of French cuisine. Here, Breton galettes are cheek-by-jowl with Chinese jianbing pancakes; Provençal stews with Moroccan tagines; and traditional French baguettes with Vietnamese bánh mì.

On the terrace of Aux Folies, a venerable local bar, regulars languidly. “This is a neighbourhood of the people,” says Wally Senhadji, an Algerian who began working here in the 1990s. “It has a beautiful mixture. There’s nowhere else like it.”