Le bassin de la Villette
In the popular 19th district of Paris, the neighbourhood is getting "bourgeois bohême" or bobo, a new sociologic terminology for modern upper middle class. Especially the street along the canal are often shut to cars, which gives kms of walks, plus possibilities to rent bicycles or rollers (we have if needed). The canal and adjacent streets offer farmer marketplace, hammam baths, and an original language version movie-theatre: the twins MK2, linked by boat! Play bowls along the basin canal, drinking a margherita or just "un petit blanc". Plenty of terraces, restaurants and cultural centres. Paris-plage feasts in summer. New style shopping for clothes, books, furniture, medias. All French and international food shops, all prices, among which cheese dairies, butchers, fishermen, and of course wine specialists. And, within a 10 min walk, the Parc de la Villette http://www.villette.com/, featuring the science city http://www.cite-sciences.fr/english/index.php , the Philharmonie https://philharmoniedeparis.fr/en (the best auditorium of Paris and a fine museum), a green park with many attractions like circus, jazz bands, exhibition, the pop music theatre Zenith http://www.zenith-paris.com/index2.php .
Going South along the canal, you reach within a 30-40 min walk the historical centre. Of course, every thing can be linked by metro, plus autobuses: Paris is yours. See for that part the New-York Times article below "Abuzz on the Canal St.-Martin". Alternatively, take a Velib bike across the street http://en.velib.paris.fr/ or a motor boat (bateau mouche): http://www.group-trotter.net/france/places/canauxrama/canaux.html.
 Read also below an article from the New-York Times :
Abuzz on the Canal St.-Martin in Paris
by Julia Chaplin
published: October 9, 2005
New-York Times
Now that the Marais has become completely gentrified, a favorite pastime among trend-spotting Parisians is to debate which of the outlying arrondissements will become the next "it" locale ripe for colonization. At the moment, all signs seem to point to the tree-lined banks of the Canal St.-Martin in the 10th, a few métro stops Northeast of the city's center.
Here artists, young creative workers and fashionistas seduced by the area's lazy charm and cheaper rents have begun to trickle in to the working-class faubourg, as suburbs were called here in the 18th century, setting up small cafes, bars, boutiques and offices. At lunchtime, photographers, art directors, and graphic designers can be seen at Chez Prune, 71, quai de Valmy, (33-1)42.41.30.47, a cafe specializing in hearty salads, and Le Repaire, 29, rue Beaurepaire, (33-1) 42.01.41.20, a minimalist jewel box with nouvelle edibles.
The canal is where the action is, concentrated between rue Beaurepaire and rue des Récollets. Built to transport materials from quarries in the North to the Seine and completed in 1825, the waterway's iron footbridges and locks are still here, along with the occasional barge or pleasure boat inching past along the greenish water. (You may remember Audrey Tautou playfully skimming stones here in "Amélie.") On warm nights the stone banks are thronged with bobos - bourgeois bohemians - passing bottles of red wine, and baguettes. For American travelers, feeling the pinch of the unfavorable exchange rate, it's a great way to spend an evening.
At the Northern end of the canal, D.J.'s spin a loungelike ambience in a bar and cafe set up on the loading dock outside of Point Ephémère, 200, quai de Valmy, (33-1) 40.34.02.58, a city-sponsored arts center that opened last fall in a converted 1920's brick-and-concrete art deco warehouse. It's the place to scout the latest sounds from emerging local electronic acts and rock bands.
Last june, the owners of Mandala Ray, the trendy nightclub, opened a restaurant on the ground floor of the old Hôtel du Nord, 102, quai de Jemmapes, (33-1) 40.40.78.78, made famous by Marcel Carné's 1938 film of the same name. Fashion designers like Christian Lacroix and Pierre Hardy as well as the graffiti artist and night-life impresario known simply as André, have been known to linger late into the night on the French fusion cuisine in the dimly-illuminated dining room with brown velvet sofas, walls of old books, and a raw wood planked floors. "People are starting to spend time here because it's like this little pocket of fresh air, some green and a feeling of a real everyday local life," said Marie Peltier, a co-owner of the Hôtel du Nord. "There's a feeling of time slowed down."
The canal's restaurants tend to be small, friendly, with home-spun décor. stylists and fashion reps fill the outdoor tables at La Madonnina, 10, rue Marie et Louise, (33-1) 42.01.25.26, a low-key Italian restaurant that serves simple but flawless vongole and fresh antipasti. Le Cambodge, 10, avenue Richerand, (33-1) 44.84.37.70 is a tiny, neon-lighted Cambodian place, run by a husband-wife team, with a line that chronically stretches out the door for its sublime, inexpensive bowls of curry noodles and coconut shrimp.