Épinettes () is a neighborhood of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, a part of the

17th arrondissement The 17th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as ''le dix-septième'' (; "the seventeenth"). The arrondissement, known as Batignoll ...

of the city. The neighborhood is bounded by the Avenue de Clichy, the Avenue de Saint-Ouen and the boundaries of Paris in the North.

History

Epinettes were part of Batignolles, an independent village outside Paris, until 1860 when the

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

annexed it to the capital. An agricultural area until the middle of the 19th century, it then evolved into an industrial district, with several factories such as those of

Ernest Goüin Ernest Goüin (; 22 July 1815 in Tours – 24 March 1885 in Paris) was a French civil engineer and industrialist. In 1846 he founded Ernest Goüin & Cie. (after 1871 ''Société de Construction des Batignolles''); the company initially built ...

. Housings were built in typical Parisian style, with a majority of Haussmannian buildings. The '' Cité des Fleurs'', a picturesque pedestrian street with small houses with gardens in the heart of the city, is also built at that time. Jean Leclaire's statue, 2009-07-31 016

Like the neighbouring Batignolles, Epinettes, especially the south-western part (Brochant & La Fourche) was strongly linked to

impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

. The " groupe des Batignolles" met in Café Guerbois or at ''Chez le père Lathuille'', avenue de Clichy. Famous writer

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...

lived also in the district, as did painter

Alfred Sisley Alfred Sisley (; ; 30 October 1839 – 29 January 1899) was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedicatio ...

in the '' Cité des Fleurs'' (''City of the Flowers'') or poet

Jules Laforgue Jules Laforgue (; 16 August 1860 – 20 August 1887) was a Franco-Uruguayan poet, often referred to as a Symbolist poet. Critics and commentators have also pointed to Impressionism as a direct influence and his poetry has been called "part-symbol ...

. Several famous left-leaning politicians or activists from the turn of the 20th century came from Epinettes:

Paul Brousse Paul Brousse (; 23 January 18441 April 1912) was a French socialist, leader of the '' possibilistes'' group. He was active in the Jura Federation, a section of the International Working Men's Association (IWMA), from the northwestern part of Swit ...

Maria Deraismes Maria Deraismes (17 August 1828 – 6 February 1894) was a French author, Freemason, and major pioneering force for women's rights. Biography Born in Paris, Maria Deraismes grew up in Pontoise in the city's northwest outskirts. From a p ...

. Famous singer

Fréhel Fréhel (; born Marguerite Boulc'h; 13 July 1891 – 3 February 1951) was a French singer and actress. Biography Born in Paris to a poor and dysfunctional Breton family, Marguerite Boulc'h was a child left to a life on the streets in the sord ...

also grew up there. It was also influenced by industrial paternalism, especially of

Edme-Jean Leclaire Edme-Jean Leclaire (14 May 1801 – 13 July 1872) was a French economist and businessman. He developed an early system of employee profit-sharing. Leclaire was born the son of a poor village shoemaker, in Aisy-sur-Armançon, a small village in ...

. Even though industries left the district as they did in the rest of Paris, its population has long been mostly middle class. It has evolved towards

gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ec ...

or ''embourgeoisement'' in French, as some sociologists or newspapers noted. Real estate prices have strongly grown, especially in the South-Western part between the Avenue de Clichy, the Avenue de Saint-Ouen and the

Rue Guy Môquet ''Ruta graveolens'', commonly known as rue, common rue or herb-of-grace, is a species of ''Ruta'' grown as an ornamental plant and herb. It is native to the Balkan Peninsula. It is grown throughout the world in gardens, especially for its bluis ...

.Les Epinettes, conservatoire d'architecture
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Places

In the Epinettes district you can see the

square des Épinettes The Square des Épinettes is a green space in the Épinettes district of Paris (17th arrondissement). It was created in 1893 by Jean-Camille Formigé. Two sculptures in the garden represent famous personalities of the area : Maria Deraismes Ma ...

, the Cité des Fleurs and the

cimetière des Batignolles The Batignolles Cemetery (french: Cimetière des Batignolles) is a cemetery in Paris. History Batignolles Cemetery opened on 22 August 1833. Part of the cemetery had to be closed and the graves moved because of the construction of the great ring ...

( André Breton,

Paul Verlaine Paul-Marie Verlaine (; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the '' fin de siècle'' in international and ...

Blaise Cendrars Frédéric-Louis Sauser (1 September 1887 – 21 January 1961), better known as Blaise Cendrars, was a Swiss-born novelist and poet who became a naturalized French citizen in 1916. He was a writer of considerable influence in the European mo ...

Ray Ventura Raymond Ventura (16 April 1908, Paris, France – 29 March 1979, Palma de Mallorca, Spain) was a French jazz pianist and bandleader. He helped popularize jazz in France in the 1930s. His nephew was singer Sacha Distel. Career Ventura was born to ...

or Benjamin Peret are buried there.

Metro stations

Epinettes is served by lines 2 and 13: Paris m 2 jms

Notes

External links

Les Épinettes sur le site de la mairie du 17e

Promenade dans le quartier des Epinettes
17th arrondissement of Paris Districts of Paris {{Paris-geo-stub