In the immediate vicinity of the Gare de l'Est (Paris Xe), sandwich shops and bazaars remain in the majority.
But a few meters “higher”, in the very commercial rue du Faubourg-Saint-Martin, the “inexpensive” shops give way to more upscale stores - mainly for food.
And between Chateau-Landon and Louis-Blanc, “chic” bakeries, cheese dairies, wine merchants and organic grocery stores are now almost a touch away.
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“Superbières”, a boutique dedicated to craft beers, moved there in 2015. Two years later, the Monoprix brand chose rue Louis-Blanc to set up a new mini-market.
And last spring, the Biocoop chain opened a new store in the middle of rue du Faubourg-Saint-Martin, in premises vacated by a bank a year earlier.
"The district has changed over the past fifteen years"
Enough to give this micro-district in the north of the 10th arrondissement the air of annex of “Boboland”, as some call it, which spreads out a little further south, at the bottom of the Saint-Martin canal.
“The district has changed over the past fifteen years,” admits Emilie Danois, who manages “Mademoiselle Claverie”, the “historic” lingerie-corsetry at 234, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Martin, created by her grandfather… in 1860.
The shopkeeper, who lives above the store and defines herself as the living memory of the "village of the upper Faubourg-Saint-Martin", recalls that some "family affairs" (ready-to-wear or jewelry) have fallen. the curtain in recent years ... But to be very quickly replaced by more upscale brands.
A consequence of the gentrification of a district where real estate prices have increased by 39% in five years - faster than in the rest of the capital - until they exceed the threshold of 10,000 euros per square meter?
“We remain a popular district, in a good sense.
Very mixed!
But it is sure that we undergo
the Canal Saint-Martin effect
.
Everyone anticipates an increase in the attractiveness of the surroundings, ”concludes Emilie Danois, stressing that residents are regularly approached by real estate agents.
A bet (won) to settle there a few years ago
"Commercial rents are soaring," confirms Claude Rey, the president of the local association of traders who is however delighted with the "upmarket" of the sector.
“It was a very popular area,” recalls the shopkeeper who opened the Dodudindon toy store eight years ago on rue Alexandre-Parodi.
At the time, it was a gamble.
"
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On this sunny Saturday in January, the nearby Quai de Valmy, which is now pedestrianized every weekend, hosts an incessant parade of thirty-something and families, on foot or by bike.
The “sidewalk” gas station is abandoned.
Nearby cycle shops fill up with customers.
A hundred yards away, in a glazed room without sign or decoration on rue Varlin, a young man arranges cases of vegetables on pallets.
The collection point of an Amap.
"It is a temporary store, rented in an emergency during the containment of March, when the markets closed," explains the seller.
It had to be temporary.
But the clientele is there, so much so that my boss has decided to extend.
"
High-end clothing stores are coming ...
“There are a lot more stores and the neighborhood is much warmer than when I left it in the 2000s,” notes Sandra, 42, who enters the store, her child in a belly bag.
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The young mother, owner of an apartment in the 10th district for a year, remains skeptical when it comes to the “gentrification” of the neighborhood.
“We bought in the north of the district, on the Stalingrad side
(Editor's note: an area plagued by crack trafficking)
.
We have invested in the future, ”she explains.
“Here, we are still far from
Boboland”,
continues the employee of a shop in the rue du Faubourg-Saint-Martin, who makes the comparison with the Abbesses district in the 18th century where he worked for a long time.
“He has covered himself with high-end clothing brands in a few years.
When we see a Sandro store arriving in the area, we can tell ourselves that the same is happening here.
"
His colleague cuts him off.
“There is already a Sandro in the area,” she says, referring to the store opened a few years ago on the bottom of the Saint-Martin canal, 800 meters from the Louis-Blanc area.
It was another world.
This is no longer quite the case.
