The painted walls of Ivry and the Rive Gauche neighbourhood of the 13th arrondissement

Starting point and access: Place de la République, in Ivry-sur-Seine.
- Metro – Line 7, Mairie d’Ivry station (terminus). Take Exit 1 to Place de la République and, on the last landing before the street, take the staircase on the right.
- Bus – Lines 125, 132, 182, 323.

To avoid having to go back and forth between sections, the painted walls are listed directly in the description, identified simply by their motif written in italics. Where a photograph of the wall in question has been taken, a link has been provided.

(S) On leaving the metro station, go straight ahead and take the^first left onto Rue Louis Rousseau. At the Fork in the road, turn right onto Rue Voltaire. Cross Rue Gabriel Péri; you’ll come out onto Place Voltaire, where you’ll notice on the left a sort of tower adorned with sculptures, with a portrait of Jacques Prévert at its base.

In the centre of the square, turn right and walk past the auditorium of the municipal media library on your left. At the junction (withthe spherical sculpture), cross Avenue Georges Gosnat to the right, follow Rue Raspail straight ahead and leave the town hall on your left. Cross Rue Jean-Baptiste Clément on the right-hand side and note the mural on the right-hand side depicting a concert venue, Le Hangar.

(1) At the next junction (with an Art Deco building on the corner), turn right into Rue Auguste Blanqui. At the end, continue straight on to the right along Rue Simon Dereure and walk past the Théâtre d’Ivry. At the corner of No. 3, turn left onto Chemin du Théâtre, go under a portico, climb a flight of steps and continue along a paved path at the foot of the blocks of flats.

At the end, cross Rue Marat and, opposite, climb the flight of steps that starts by a metro entrance. At the top, turn right. Note the heavily graffiti-covered walls beneath a block of flats on the right-hand side. At the traffic lights, cross Avenue Georges Gosnat in two stages and return to Place de la République.

(S) Then turn left, cross Avenue Maurice Thorez and climb the steps leading to the church. Opposite the red side door, take a cobbled path on the right that runs alongside the church. At the corner, turn left and head for the church entrance.

Then cross Place de l’Église and continue along Rue Bernard Palissy, keeping the wall of the old municipal cemetery on your left. When the street bends to the right, go through the gate to enter the cemetery (see an alternative route in the practical information). Go straight on to cross the cemetery. Exit at the other end and turn right.

(2) At the junction, follow Avenue Henri Barbusse to the left. Take the^first right, Rue Georgette Rostaing, and note the wall decorated with coloured circles on the corner. At the corner by a school, turn left into Rue Eugène Duchauffour. At the end, turn right onto Rue Alex Chaussinand. At the T-junction, turn right onto Rue Gaston Picard (not signposted here), which winds slightly between the detached houses.

At the end, turn left into Rue Hoche. On the right-hand side, note the brightly coloured façade of the Makarenko school complex and continue straight on. On the left-hand side, note a small painted wall paying tribute to Olympe de Gouges, on the corner of the street that bears her name.

(3) When Rue Hoche bends to the left, turn round to look at a mural in honour of Thomas Sankara. Turn left with the street and immediately turn right onto Place Charles de Gaulle. Cross this square, which is lined with modern buildings on stilts.

At the far end, turn right onto Rue Pierre et Marie Curie, preferably on the left-hand pavement. Near the bus depot and the Emaüs centre, note a mural with abstract motifs on the right-hand side. Pass Impasse Chanvin on your left and take the next left onto Rue Jules Ferry. Continue straight ahead and note the old workers’ houses on the left, each divided into two flats.

At the end, turn right onto Rue Barbès. Cross Place du 8 mai 1945 and walk past the base of an old windmill. Then cross Place Jean Ferrat.

(4) Then turn right onto Avenue Maurice Thorez. Take the^first left onto Rue Louis Bertrand. When the street bends to the right, turn left onto Rue René Villars (a cul-de-sac). After about fifty metres, go down a flight of metal steps on the right, between small brick and wooden houses.

At the bottom, head left along a street which soon becomes a pedestrianised area. Cross a small square and continue along a path that starts between numbers 51 and 46. After a right-hand bend, you’ll come to a T-junction. Turn left, then immediately right into Rue Mohamed Boumaceur.

You’ll come out onto Rue Mirabeau; follow it to the left. The street bends to the right and runs alongside the elevated Boulevard Périphérique. At the end, cross a wide avenue at the pedestrian crossing, follow it to the left and pass under the Boulevard Périphérique. Carry on straight ahead and, at the traffic lights, cross Boulevard du Général Jean Simon and the tram tracks in several stages. You will then pass under the bridge of the old Petite Ceinture railway line.

(5) Turn right onto Rue Régnault, following the old Petite Ceinture railway line, which runs elevated on the right. Note a façade decorated with a multicoloured figure and cross Rue du Chevaleret on the left-hand side. At the next junction, note two children with their heads inside a rainbow. Then turn left onto Rue du Loiret. Look back to your left at the junction with Rue du Chevaleret to see David’s reimagined ‘Bonaparte’ high above.

Follow Rue du Chevaleret to the right and, at the junction immediately ahead, cross Rue Watt and turn right to cross Place Paul et Augustine Fiket. Then climb the steps which start to the left of the entrance to the Rue Watt underpass. At the top, take the^{second street} on the left, Rue Julie Daubié. After a few dozen metres, turn left into Rue Jeanne Chauvin.

Then turn left onto a wide pedestrian street, Rue Jacques Lacan. At the end, go down a flight of steps on the right. At the bottom, turn right onto Rue du Chevaleret and pass under a road bridge. Opposite No. 69, climb the steps on the right, which are painted with portraits of Walt Disney and Salvador Dalí.

At the top, after a few metres, turn right into Square Cyprian Norwid. Immediately take a gravel path that runs diagonally to the right and skirt some reeds on your left. At a junction, turn left onto a paved path. Pass a metal sculpture and then a playground, and leave the square.

(6) Then head diagonally across to Rue des Grands Moulins. At the traffic lights, cross Avenue de France in two stages and follow it to the right. You’ll cross Rue Françoise Dolto; note the musicians and dancers on your left. Turn left into the next street, Rue Hélène Brion.

At the next junction (with a painted wall featuring a squirrel on the left), follow Rue Marie-Andrée Lagroua Weill-Hallé to the right, keeping to the left-hand pavement. Cross Rue Alice Domon and Léonie Duquet. You will then look down onto a parallel street to your left; turn round to see, below, a predominantly blue mural on Rue Watt.

At the corner of Place Paul Ricoeur, turn left and go down a large flight of steps. At the bottom, turn right and follow Rue Jean-Antoine de Baïf. At the next junction (an old industrial building on the right), turn left into the Jardin Biopark. Go straight on to cross the garden and emerge onto Rue Watt.

(7) Follow the street to the left to spot a lemur and get a closer look at the predominantly blue mural you saw earlier from above. Retrace your steps.

(7) Cross Rue Watt, then cross Rue Alice Domon and Léonie Duquet once more, and carry on straight ahead. At the next junction, turn left into Rue Hélène Brion. At the corner of a building with a façade featuring foliage motifs, turn right into Rue Marie-Louise Dubreil-Jacotin. At the next junction, you’ll notice a little girl painting her chest. Then turn left into Rue Françoise Dolto. On the left-hand side, one after the other, you’ll see a portrait of a woman, a colourful child’s face, and finally some black-and-white and coloured motifs.

When you reach these last motifs, enter the Jardin des Grands Moulins – Abbé Pierre from the other side of the street. Walk along the edge of the garden, pass under a footbridge and look for the exit on the right at the foot of the footbridge. Take note of the animal skeleton painted on the lift shaft leading up to the footbridge.

Then turn left and follow Rue Marguerite Duras between the garden and a former building of the Grands Moulins de Paris. At the corner of the garden, turn left onto Rue Thomas Mann. Take note of the bas-reliefs of portraits, attached to the garden railings, of people after whom streets in the neighbourhood are named, including Françoise Dolto, Marguerite Duras, Pablo Casals and René Goscinny (non-exhaustive list).

At the pedestrian crossing, turn right into the second section of the Grands Moulins – Abbé Pierre garden. Wind your way through the garden.

(8) You’ll emerge onto Rue Goscinny; follow it to the left. On the right-hand side, on the wall of a school, look out for extracts from *Le Petit Nicolas*. At the next junction, look out for characters from the *Asterix* comic strip as well as a child wearing a helmet, then turn right.

Take the^first right, Rue Primo Lévi. On the left-hand side, look out for graffiti-covered walls in the courtyard of the Les Frigos arts centre (former cold stores). At the next junction, turn left into Rue des Frigos and walk past the entrance to the arts centre, noting more graffiti-covered walls. At the corner, turn left and note the decorated window frames, followed by a water tower.

At the traffic lights, turn right to cross Rue Neuve Tolbiac and continue straight on into a pedestrianised street (Wallace Fountain). At the end, cross Rue Émile Durkheim and climb the wooden steps leading to the François Mitterrand Library. Go through a large metal gate to reach the library’s esplanade.

(9) Turn left immediately towards the Tour des Nombres, then turn right at its base. Continue for about fifty metres along the esplanade, then turn left towards a cinema and walk along a metal wall, in the opposite direction to the arrow pointing towards the entrance.

At the end of this wall, turn left and walk alongside the Tour des Nombres on your left. You’ll come out onto a large square, in front of the cinema entrance, and cross it diagonally to the right. At the traffic lights, cross Avenue de France and the Promenade Jules Isaac in several stages. Continue straight on and cross Place Jean-Michel Basquiat. At the end, note a faded mural with geometric patterns opposite.

Then turn left onto Promenade Claude Lévi-Strauss and walk above Rue du Chevaleret on your right. Note a mural on this street depicting the three ages (also faded). At the end, turn right onto Rue de Tolbiac and cross the bridge over Rue du Chevaleret.

As you leave the bridge, go down a flight of steps on the right, and look up ahead to see a mural featuring circular motifs. At the bottom of the steps, follow Rue du Chevaleret and pass under the bridge on Rue Tolbiac. You’ll soon find the entrance to the metro station and the RER station (E) on your left.

To get back home:
- Metro – Line 14.
- RER – Line C, towards Paris-Austerlitz / Versailles / Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines or Massy / Dourdan / Etampes.

A good pair of trainers is sufficient for this urban route.

Water points and public toilets are available in some gardens, marked on the OSM base map. There are numerous bars, restaurants and shops all along the route.

A detailed map is required (at the very least, the one accompanying this description).

Opening hours of public spaces:
Former Ivry municipal cemetery:
- Opening times: 8.00 am on weekdays and Saturdays; 9.00 am on Sundays and public holidays.
- Closing: 5.00 pm from November to March; 6.00 pm from April to October.
Cyprian Norwid Square:
- Opens: 8.00 am on weekdays; 9.00 am on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.
- Closing time: 5.45 pm to 9.30 pm depending on the season. See detailed opening hours.
Biopark Garden: 24 hours a day.
Grands Moulins Garden – Abbé Pierre:
- Opening times: 8.00 am on weekdays; 9.00 am on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.
- Closing times: 5.00 pm to 8.30 pm depending on the season. See detailed opening hours.

Alternative route:
If you do not wish to walk through the former Ivry municipal cemetery, continue along Rue Bernard Palissy. At the end, turn left. At the junction (2), carry on straight ahead along Avenue Henri Barbusse to rejoin the main route.

Walk completed by the author on 18 January 2020.

A / Painted or graffitied walls and murals

These works, the vast majority of which date from the 2010s, are the main focus of this urban walk. Their density is moderate in Ivry-sur-Seine. It is high in the 13th arrondissement, thanks to the determined efforts of the Town Hall – notably Jérôme Coumet, who has been mayor since 2007 – and the Galerie Itinerrance, which has been based in the arrondissement since 2004. Not to mention the inventiveness of the artists…

It is, of course, impossible to be exhaustive! In the description, the artworks visited are systematically identified, and the relevant information (artist, year, etc.) is provided in the captions of the photographs taken and published on the website, to which a link is provided.

For further details, it is worth consulting the “Trompe l’oeil” website:
- List of works in Ivry-sur-Seine.
- Interactive map of Paris’s 13th arrondissement. By clicking on a marker on the map, you’ll find a summary of the artwork in question, which includes a link to a detailed description.

Many thanks to the team behind the “Trompe l’oeil” website: the pages mentioned above were a great help to me in putting together this itinerary, and most of the information provided in the photo captions is taken from them.

B / Other heritage features

1) In Ivry-sur-Seine:
- Church of Saints Peter and Paul (12th–16th centuries), between (S) and (2).
- Former workers’ houses on Rue Jules Feery, between (3) and (4).
- Moulin de la Tour (17th century), just before (4).
- Stairways and footpaths, after (4).

2) In the Rive Gauche neighbourhood of the 13th arrondissement:
- This neighbourhood is the site of numerous reconstruction projects, and features a wide variety of modern architecture.
- Former buildings of the Grands Moulins de Paris (1917–1921).
- Les Frigos, an arts centre housed in the former warehouses of the Paris-Ivry refrigerated railway station (1919–1921).
- The François Mitterrand Library (1996).