Visiting Paris often entails a visit to the Louvre, the Musee D’Orsay or another museum in the city to view amazing art.  I was interested in viewing the art outside of the museums – the Paris Street Art scene throughout the city. The tour wasn’t originally on my radar, but after touring the street art in Melbourne which referenced Paris, I was curious.   A quick google search pointed me toward Underground Art tours which I then cross referenced on Trip Advisor for reviews and then booked their 3 hour street art walking tour online for 15 Euro.

The email confirmation had directions to the meeting point, a cafe close to the Parmentier metro stop on line 3 . Our tour guide, Jason, was a local writer, poet and artist.  He started the tour (we were a group of four – me, a woman from Israel, a college student from Melbourne traveling Europe and a man from Scotland)  with the history of  graffiti and how it and the artists have evolved over the years. We would see graffiti tagging, street art in various forms and materials as well as commissioned art – it was a large outdoor gallery available to everyone if you looked up, down and all around.  How many of us do that on vacation or even in our everyday?

What immediately surprised me was to hear that graffiti is said to have started in the 60’s in Philadelphia by the artist Cornbread.  I don’t remember seeing his graffiti growing up in the 70’s but I have seen graffiti tagging in the city my whole life.  Philadelphia graffiti artists have their own style and font unique to the city, all of which seems to stay in the graffiti tagging phase in my opinion not venturing into street art.  In Philly, our street art is curated and managed as a product of Mural Arts Philadelphia, created originally as the “Anti-Graffiti Network”. This is what our street art looks like in Philly.

At the cafe meeting point we had many types of street art to view on every corner.  On the wall next to the cafe, there is a sponsored space for an artist to create for a temporary time (one time, a famous paste up artist had his piece stolen overnight due to the value of the art).

On the building, we also had examples of tagging (what I would call graffiti).  The are distinctions in the street art community of graffiti – the style, the font, whether you are on your own or part of a group.

We also saw an example of a “paste up” which is generally produced in studio, reproduced and then pasted in various locations. The artist, Fred le Chevalier, is very popular and beloved in the city as much as his characters and art.  His first gallery show sold out in an hour!

A multi-colored large scale piece was on the side of a nearby building which was so incorporated many styles and colors.  Yes, up that high, he had spray cans creating this –

Many of the graffiti artists have evolved to street art and then even further with their fame –  showing in galleries and commanding high prices for sales and commissions.  In fact, a few street art installations were actually commissioned by the city or building owners blurring the lines of “street art”. Walking around, I experienced so many different types of street art I never knew about.

We would walk through neighborhoods looking for street art, each of us trying to find it before it was pointed out by Jason.  Having visited Paris many times before, this was a great way to visit different neighborhoods as well as see art that changes unlike the Louvre – this was a fluid art collection that was fleeting – it might not be here tomorrow,  in a few weeks or years if someone paints/pastes over it.  We would visit a street full of art, galleries and meet an artist, Pedro, in his studio.  He had many pieces to show us, all of which were available for purchase.

How easily I could have walked by the street art  thinking “that is nice or I don’t like that” but having a guide explain the history opened my eyes to the process of the artist and their art.   I took so many photos fascinated by the artistry, the colors the techniques.

We walked toward a neighborhood park which exploded color and fun in the commissioned work by Spanish artist, Pez.  It was a nice space for families to enjoy. How can you not smile with this?

As we concluded the tour,  I joined the Scottish man for lunch at a local restaurant, La Cantine de Belleville (recommended by Jason).  The prices were reasonable for a two course or three course lunch.  For less than 16 Euro, I had a steak entree, dessert and shared a bottle of wine with all the bread I could eat!  The menu was on a chalkboard in French and is brought table side.

After lunch, I boarded the metro at the Belleville station, which for a portion was elevated providing another view of Paris (from above) outside the normal tourist path.  It was really a great day touring the streets of Paris with Underground Paris and I appreciated the follow up email with additional information, links and photos of the art we couldn’t see during our tour.