Table of contents

Welcome to La Villette

History

The creation

The major construction site of Parc de la Villette (1982-1998)

The evolution (2000-2019)

The Future La Villette (2019-2024)

The park today

The essentials

Cultural life and performing arts

In the park

In the neighbourhood

Beyond the ring road

Having a drink & eating out

In the park

Porte de Pantin area

Porte de la Villette/Corentin Cariou aera

Along le bassin de La Villette to Canal Saint-Martin

In the neighbourhood

Beyond the ring-road

Sports and Leisure

In the park

In the neighbourhood

Welcome to La Villette

As an exceptional architectural and cultural heritage, Parc de la Villette is a unique place in the world: it is the initiator of the concept of a 21st century urban cultural park. The site of the former slaughterhouses and cattle market has been transformed into a 55-hectare setting entirely dedicated to nature, culture, architecture, science, sports and leisure. This place of life and experimentation of all kinds boasts an astonishing cultural wealth thanks to the diversity of its institutions. There are no borders here between the most prestigious and the most popular ones and this desire for openness, mixing and dialogue between different arts and societies is what best characterises La Villette. Today, the park welcomes more than 10 million visitors per year and responds to as many demands for exhibitions, shows, performances, workshops, sports activities or simply green spaces. An ever-increasing success that is as much due to its multidisciplinary offer as to its avant-garde spirit. Bold and innovative, Parc de la Villette is constantly reinventing itself in tune with our times and certainly already ahead of tomorrow's...

History

Jack Lang, former Minister of Cultures

Jack Lang is an emblematic figure of La Villette who worked passionately to create the park when he was Minister of Culture under François Mitterrand's presidency. This new government came to power in 1981 with an abundance of ideas, reforms and large-scale operations, but also with an open spirit towards all forms of culture. The still fallow site of La Villette would be one of the spearheads of this new cultural policy: "La Villette was in my head well before 1981, I was already thinking of gathering scientific and musical equipment on the site. I had also suggested the idea of a Musical Beaubourg for a pre-electoral speech by François Mitterrand. When he came to power, the idea became clear: we wanted a new kind of park, a multicultural urban park open to everyone in a permanent way. The year after the election, Jack Lang announced the launch of the international competition for the creation of this new park, evoking a wonderful era with a desire of opening borders and giving new talent a chance. As soon as the architect Bernard Tschumi was appointed, the park's design became clearer in a frenzied effervescence, leaving room for the unexpected: "The Zenith was an almost improvised initiative! I was taking my first steps as a Minister and I was absolutely determined to understand our era and imagine how to set my government in its time. After attending a concert of the band Téléphone in Pantin, I asked them what we should do for this kind of music, they just needed a real venue with good acoustics. The idea of the Zenith was born." Over the years and until the Philharmonie opened, Jack Lang would closely follow the evolution of Parc de La Villette, a place that is particularly close to his heart because it evokes his desire to reconcile cultures: "If I had to choose an achievement of which I am most proud, it would be La Villette not out of vanity, but because it best embodies the philosophy of mixing all cultures: scientific, artistic, scholarly, popular, current, local, foreign... Parc de La Villette has an extraordinary opportunity to count on brilliant people: the work of Didier Fusillier* and his teams is remarkable, as is that of Laurent Bayle at the Philharmonie. I like to go there during the day, in the evening, for exhibitions, shows... I always feel happy when I am at La Villette. »

*The current President of La Villette.

Bernard Tschumi, the architect of Follies

La Villette would not be what it is without its ingenious designer, the architect Bernard Tschumi. Winner of the competition for the creation of the park in 1983, he transformed the former industrial wasteland into a unique architectural and landscape ensemble, a genre he created himself: the 21st century urban park. "La Villette is part of my own trajectory, I was an architect rather interested in abstract speculation and this competition came at a time when I wanted to move from theory to practice and interpret the work I had done in a real project. So I signed up for it, but I didn't expect to win at all! It was my first project, I hadn't built anything until then: the adequacy between the world of ideas and immediate reality was rather acrobatic." Indeed, he who had drawn these plans on a corner of the table now had to face a complex project subject to many political, economic, structural and constructive obligations... In the midst of a hubbub of controversy, he clung to his initial idea: "This project was incredible, because on the one hand we had a free map to invent the 21st century park, but on the other hand we had to respect the imposing characteristics of the site. Three elements guided my thinking: in terms of construction, it seemed impossible to add masses as large as those of the Cité des Sciences and the Grande Halle: the Folies were a way of changing the scale of construction. Then, for me, the park was inseparable from the notion of movement: it is a space that we travel through, that we cross. Finally, users had to be able to appropriate this territory... these three concepts gave rise to points, lines and surfaces." Its construction site will take more than 15 years to become what he now calls "the largest deconstructed building in history". For the designer, the La Villette project marked a turning point in the way architecture is approached, placing experience long before functionality or aesthetics: "La Villette embodies the idea that architecture is inseparable from the way people can appropriate space. And see how the users take possession of the place, how the unexpected is omnipresent. Everything here is a spirit of openness that constantly generates new desires and gives as many people as possible the opportunity to invent." After such an architectural, social and cultural success, the Franco-Swiss architect refused to participate in the creation of any other park... La Villette and Tschumi, Tschumi and La Villette: a wonderful story.

The creation

La Villette used to be a rural village with an agricultural vocation as from the Middle Ages. It kept its rural character until the 18th century. High dignitaries had their mansion in the middle of this countryside adorned with fields, vineyards and orchards which supplied the royal capital with various commodities. It is also located at the crossroads of the German and Flemish routes used by many merchants heading for Paris. In order to control the octroi – the tax on goods entering the city – King Louis XVI ordered the construction of the Mur des Fermiers généraux in 1783. He then delineated the borders of Paris at La Villette, which became a municipality in 1790. This border was punctuated by 54 barriers, the former tax offices, from which taxes were levied (the current Rotonde de Satalingrad is one of the last vestiges). Alcohol and meat were the most heavily taxed products; so to avoid the octroi, multiple inns and cabarets were set up behind the wall. This explains the flowering of guinguettes at the Paris gates where people came to get drunk and dance to the sound of jinxes. The festive legend of La Villette was born, between two barrels of cheap wine and a few quadrille steps!

From one Napoleon..

At the dawn of the 19th century, Paris was struggling: the Revolution had stigmatized the city, many buildings had been vandalized, gardens had been left abandoned and the streets were unhealthy, noxious and dangerous... Then First Consul of the French Republic, Napoleon had the ambition to transform this desolate Paris into a modern capital. He undertook major works, but also devoted himself to the quality of life of Parisians and hygiene was immediately established as a priority. It was essential to ensure a constant supply of drinking water, which had so far been distributed by a few wells and water carriers. Napoleon then decided to take over the Ourcq pipeline project, which had been built under Francis I of France. It involved bringing water from the Beuvronne and Ourcq rivers via a diversion canal to be stored in a large basin. He entrusted the project to Pierre-Simon Girard, who designed the routes of three canals for the distribution of spring water and to also open new river trade routes. La Villette basin and part of Canal de l'Ourcq were completed and inaugurated in 1808. The entire network was completed in 1825 with the extension of the Ourcq Canal and the construction of the Saint-Denis and Saint-Martin canals.

... to the other!

Set right in the middle of an important river traffic, La Villette was being strongly industrialized to the point of becoming one of the first ports in France. Sunday-afternoon cruisers gave way to freight activity between the Customs House, warehouses, markets and factories that were being set up from all over the world. This economic boom intensified with the opening of a railway in 1852: in a few years, La Villette had the largest number of Parisian industries, the number of inhabitants increased from 4,900 in 1831 to over 30,000 in 1856. Fascinated by London's modernism, Napoleon III launched vast urban planning projects that he entrusted to his Prefect, Baron Haussmann. Consideration was given to the extension of the city, which experienced significant population growth in the 1850s. It was then decided to push back the borders drawn by the Mur des Fermiers généraux up to the fortifications, which today correspond to Boulevard des Maréchaux. Thus, in 1860, 11 municipalities were annexed to Paris, including La Villette, which was then part of the 19th arrondissement. Paris, which had then been extended, required a whole reorganisation and layout policy with the construction of transport, schools, town halls, parks, etc. In this context, Baron Haussmann suggested to gather the city's various slaughterhouses into larger infrastructures that were off-centre in order to avoid the transport of cattle and carcasses across the city. La Villette site seemed to be the most convenient; works began in 1865 under the direction of Mr. Janvier, and according to Mr. Baltard's plans. Inaugurated in 1867, the year of the Universal Exhibition, the slaughterhouses of La Villette and the cattle market were set around the canal de l'Ourcq, which naturally divided the site into two distinct areas: to the south the cattle market and to the north the slaughterhouses, commonly called "Cité du sang". The premises were then served by two stations: the Paris-Bestiaux station and the Paris-Abattoirs station.

Two different atmospheres

The history of La Villette then took a completely different turn, which plunged it into an essentially manly world governed by its codes, rites and slang: the Louchébem. The cattle market was located on the site of the Grande Halle, which housed the cattle. It was supported by two smaller halls, one for sheep, the other for pigs and calves. The Fontaine aux Lions de Nubie was used as trough for animals. The activity around trade began before dawn when the animals were unloaded, washed, brushed and marked by the herdsmen before being exposed to the buyers. A bell announced the opening of transactions that lasted two hours during which wholesalers and butchers valued the best animals and negotiated their prices with guile. Once the business was done, the animals were taken to the slaughterhouse, on the other side of the park (Porte de la Villette) where 240 scalders awaited for the butchers to do their work. There were two atmospheres on the same site: a swarming and noisy life on the market side and a bloody atmosphere where the smell of death mixed with the sweat of men on the slaughterhouse side. This strangeness had something fascinating that attracted all of Paris, especially during the inter-war period. Poor people, merchants and beautiful bourgeois women gathered in the buildings on Avenue Jean Jaurès to carve out the fat and get drunk at the restaurants at that time, like the current Boeuf Couronné or the legendary Dagorno.

Bring down the slaughterhouses

As from the beginning of the 20th century, there were plans to modernise slaughterhouses that were dilapidated and which no longer met the standards of the meat industry – the latter had evolved considerably. A reconstruction project was launched in the early 1960s... and finally failed before it was even completed. The prime contractors had largely underestimated the scale and cost of the work, which became obsolete with the advent of the refrigeration industry: since meat could then be transported in refrigerated trucks, it was more profitable to slaughter the animals on their breeding sites. The construction work therefore ceased in 1971 and the slaughterhouses at La Villette closed their doors definitely in March 1974 in the midst of scandal. The headlines then denounced the shameful waste of public funds on slaughterhouses...

The first steps towards the Parc de La Villette

Actions had to be quickly taken to cover up the accusations. This raised a problem as vast as the area left under construction: how to rehabilitate this 55-hectare industrial wasteland. Discussions began in 1975 and multiple negotiations were held to decide on the future development of La Villette. The site was in the middle of a working-class district resulting from waves of immigration, so should housing, or a hospital be built...? Valéry-Giscard d'Estaing, then President of the Republic, put a stop to speculation by commissioning a study for the construction of a Science Museum and the development of an urban park. In 1979, a decree established the Établissement Public du Parc de la Villette (EPPV) which was responsible for coordinating projects under the supervision of Paul Delouvrier. Three main axis were then identified: science, nature and art. La Villette would accommodate a Museum of Science and Technology and a Cité dedicated to music and dance in an urban park. The same year, the Grande Halle was added to the list of Historic Monuments and ia decision to preserve some 19th century lodges was made. But then, actions were needed as well as buildings. Adrien Fainsilber was the winner of the competition for the construction of the Musée des Sciences, des Techniques et de l’Industrie in 1980. During the following decade, the current face of La Villette took shape.

And in the meantime...

While the administrative elite was debating the subject, La Villette seemed to find its new vocation on its own and reconnect with its popular past. While he was commissioner to the development of the La Villette sector, Jean Sérignan had the old grids removed from the slaughterhouses, thus opening the site. The Jean Richard circus set up its tent near the Fontaine aux Lions; theatre shows were held in an old lodge; fairgrounds and fairs were held there. The former sheep market was the space for the most rocking concerts at that time: the Rolling Stones, the Who... They even set a skateboard track on the site of the future Cité des Sciences.

Enter Jack Lang

In 1981, the presidency changed and François Mitterrand's coming to office gave a boost to all the projects under way. In the year of his election, he announced the creation of the Cité internationale de la Musique and mandated François Barré to lead the operations. The rehabilitation of the site was part of the "Major architectural and urban planning operations", led by Jack Lang, his Minister of Cultures. In 1982, Jack Lang announced the launch of an international competition open to architects and landscape architects for the creation of Parc de la Villette. The purpose of this competition embodied the political and cultural thinking of the time: in addition to its infrastructure, Parc de la Villette would have a social vocation. From then on, everything accelerated: in 1983, Bernard Tschumi won the competition and was appointed project manager of the park; in 1984, the Zénith  was inaugurated; in 1985, the newly renovated Grande Halle and Géode  were opened; in 1986, the City of Science and Industry was inaugurated; in 1987, the first gardens of the park were created and the Maison de la Villette was rehabilitated; in 1990, the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse opened and 5 years later, the Cité de la musique did, then the Musée de la Musique in 1997... The first urban multicultural park was thus created in less than twenty years under the control of various institutions.

In the slaughterhouse days...

The women of the bourgeoisie went to the slaughterhouses at dawn to drink a bowl of fresh veal blood that had the virtue of giving fresh complexion!

When the buyers and the chevillards had finished trading, they would go to the restaurants in the neighbourhood and ring the bell. They would then hang their jackets full of money on hooks on the ceilings to avoid bad temptation.

The butchers spoke their own language, the Louchébem, which means "butcher". A slang with a complex process: the first consonant of the word was replaced by an L, it was placed at the end of the word and a suffix was added (em, esse, ingue, é, uche...). Butcher = Louché= Loucheb = Louchebem!

A rat-baiting arena had been set up near the Porte de la Villette where onlookers came to see the show of dogs chasing rats as big as cats.

Nothing is lost... everything is transformed! During the butchering process, all parts of the animals were recycled: the guts were used for andouillettes and sausages, the bladders for balloons, tobacco pouches and violin strings, the nerves were transformed into whips, the horns into combs and tool handles, the hairs into brushes, etc.

Authorized to dress as a man, the animal painter Rosa Bonheur sat by the Fontaine aux Lions de Nubie to sketch on market days.

The major construction site of Parc de la Villette (1982-1998)

In the early 1980s, a series of architectural competitions were launched to rehabilitate the abandoned park. These competitions opened the door to young talents who would become great names on the international scene. At the same time, it was decided to preserve and rehabilitate some slaughterhouse buildings, a precious heritage listed as Historic Monuments in 1979. This global renovation project was complex and tackled several projects at the same time that had a single purpose: to create the "21st century park".

The legacy of slaughterhouses

Of all the buildings preserved from the slaughterhouses, the Grande Halle is certainly the most significant. The former Halle aux Bœufs, built by Jules de Merindol, was renovated between 1983 and 1985 by Bernard Reichen and Philippe Robert. The challenge was to preserve the building's historical identity while developing various cultural spaces. The Hall, typical of industrial architecture, has kept its 245-metre long, 85-metre wide and 19-metre high steel structure. It covers an area of 20,000 m² that can accommodate up to 15,000 people. To the right of the Grande Halle is the Pavillon Janvier, named after the architect who built it in 1865, Louis Janvier. It once housed the Police services and the post office: today, it is home to the administration of Parc de la Villette. The Pavillon de la Bourse, a former livestock exchange housing an auction – negotiations were once conducted there -, now houses the Théâtre Paris Villette. In 1987, three architects renovated the former veterinary rotunda: Dominique Lyon, Pierre du Besset and Kazuroshi Morita. Renamed Maison de la Villette, the building has been hollowed out and its framework stripped to offer an exhibition space of more than 1,000 m². Intended to become a memorial centre of La Villette, it has become a space for exhibitions, shows and an artist's residence, under the name of Pavillion Villette. The Pavillon du Charolais, a former café for the butchers of La Villette, has been renovated by Jean Perrottet, Alberto Cattani and Valentin Fabre. All three experienced in the renovation of theatres, they transformed the space to accommodate the TILF, Théâtre International de la Langue Française. It has since given way to the Centre National du Patrimoine de la Chanson. Renovated by André and Felix Roux, the Pavillon des Maquettes is the current headquarters of the APSV, the Association de Prévention du Site de la Villette. The Fontaine aux Lions de Nubie, where animals came to drink, and the Horloge des Abattoirs were also preserved. Only a part of it remains and was moved and integrated into the Folie-Horloge, located at the northern entrance to the park, on the Porte de la Villette side.

The creation of the Parc de la Villette

The international competition for the creation of Parc de la Villette was launched in 1982 by Jack Lang. The scale of this competition was unprecedented: 472 projects were selected out of the 805 entries registered! A year later, in March 1983, the jury appointed Bernard Tschumi as general contractor for the park, thus launching a project that would last for decades. The silhouette of Parc de la Villette would gradually be refined, as a result of numerous constructions and inaugurations.

1984

Zenith

The Zenith was one of the first buildings in La Villette Park, it will become the prototype of the 16 other "ZENITH" brands present throughout France. The initiative was taken in 1981 by Jack Lang so as to open his Ministry of Culture to the popular arts. Therefore, the project was to imagine structures of great capacity, open to all types of music. He entrusted the mission to Daniel Colling, current president of the Zenith, which would be achieved two years later under the guidance of architects Philippe Chaix and Jean-Paul Morel. Built in the location of the Pavillon de Paris, the Zenith was originally a temporary hall that should have been destroyed 3 years after its construction, but as a result of its success, it was made a reference: the concept would spread throughout France. The first concert at the Zénith de Paris was given on January 17, 1984, by Renaud. Inspired by the amphitheatres of ancient Greece, Le Zénith has a modular architecture that can be adapted to all types of shows with a capacity of 6,238 seats. It is one of the largest theatres in the capital.

1985

The year 1985 was marked by several major events: the rehabilitation of the Grande Halle (see The legacy of slaughterhouses), the inauguration of the Géode, the appointment of Christian de Portzamparc for the creation of the Cité de la Musique and Philippe Starck for urban furniture.

Géode

Inaugurated on May 6, 1985 by François Mitterrand, the Géode was designed by Adrien Fainsilber and Gérard Chamayou. This creation marked the era, it is a revolution both architectural and technical. One is immediately fascinated by this immense shimmering sphere, 36 metres in diameter, which reflects the immediate environment. From a technical point of view, the Géode is a real prowess. Its hemispherical screen, one of the largest in the world, covers an area of 1,000 m². It covers almost the entire room and uses 3D and IMAX to broadcast films at an 180 degree angle. The room is inclined at 27° to the horizon so that the 400 spectators have the impression of being "part of" the film. The twelve speakers, distributed behind the screen, reinforce this illusion.

1986

Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie

On March 13, 1986, the project initiated under the presidency of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was launched: the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie was inaugurated! The initial idea was to provide France with a museum for technology, science and industry, but also a place for the popularization of science for all audiences. Designed by architect Adrien Fainsilber, it looks like a huge metal and iron vessel that is reflected in the moats surrounding it. The 270 m-long, 110 m-wide and 47 m-high building offers 100,000 m² on 5 levels for permanent and temporary exhibitions, as well as demonstrations and workshops.

1987

Inauguration of the Parc de La Villette

François Mitterrand inaugurated the first phase of the works on Parc de la Villette in 1987 when the first gardens sprang up. Then the young shoots of the huge development project designed by Bernard Tschumi appeared. Among all the candidates, Tschumi's project stood out for its philosophical dimension, influenced by Jacques Derrida's notion of "deconstructivism". He thought of the park landscape as a superposition of three autonomous systems: points, lines and surfaces. The points are materialized by twenty-six red Follies of 10,80 metres per side, laid every 120 meters on an orthogonal grid. The lines are formed by the pathways that draw a series of paths and perspectives ; the surfaces represent the large meadows and the squares. Each system fulfils a specific function: the Follies house the programmed activities, the lines guide traffic and the surfaces are left free for the public and various activities.

1990

The first phase of the Cité de la Musique was completed in 1990 with the inauguration of the Conservatoire national supérieur de Musique et de Danse. It will take seven more years to complete the overall project with the creation of the Cité de la Musique in 1995 and the Musée de la Musique in 1997 (the Philharmonie was still only a draft idea).

Espace Chapiteaux

Concerned about integrating circus into the urban picture, Parc de la Villette created Espace Chapiteaux in 1990, on the banks of the Bassin. It was one of the first Parisian spaces entirely dedicated to the diffusion of contemporary circus. The 4,200 m² space is perfectly equipped to accommodate all forms of circus art and also houses the Chapithôtel, the accommodation for companies.

Cité de la Musique (1990-1997)

The Cité de la Musique refers to a huge complex that brings together the Conservatoire national supérieur de la Musique et Danse, the Cité de la Musique and the Musée de la Musique. These three entities are part of a global project led by the architect Christian de Portzamparc. The latter will win prestigious architectural awards for his achievements such as the Silver Square and the Pritzker Prize.

Conservatoire national supérieur de Musique et de Danse (West wing)