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Canal Saint-Martin is a pretty solid bet for fun interesting food, galleries, shops, markets
Done!
Booked somewhere pretty close that Liberté place.Thanks forum.
starfish&coffee-
I'm 2 weeks late to the party but this would have been my exact recommendation (including liberte as my friend up until recently was one of their pastry chefs and i stuff myself in there every time i go).
on the same street as liberte (rue des vinaigriers) is a decent coffee shop (craft coffee) and across the canal another decent coffee shop (ten belles)
if you like bao there's a great place along the canal that does burgers in bao buns called siseng which is well worth a visit.
and a couple of streets behind liberte is another bakery called 'du pain et des idees' that sells some pretty famous pistachio and chocolate swirls (escargot) though every time i've been it's been closed :(
HatBeard
Depends what you want from it / if you know people there etc. 9th and 10th can be great - they're miles from most of the touristy spots but that's lovely imo. Canal Saint-Martin is a pretty solid bet for fun interesting food, galleries, shops, markets, nice walks along the canal etc. The 2nd is a bit fancier - the closer you get to the seine, the bigger and more ornate the architecture basically. All lovely though.