Instagram’s Favorite Street! 🇫🇷

With its candy-coated pastel houses and weathered cobblestones, it’s easy to see why Rue Crémieux is a HUGE hit on Instagram. This car-free backstreet is the most Instagramable street in Paris, much to the annoyance of the locals. 

Photo via aei-voyage.be

While the picturesque street in the 12th arrondissement is garnering a lot of attention, tourists also have to be mindful of the residents.

BACK STORY

The one-block pedestrian street was originally built as workers’ housing in 1857. From 1865-1898, it was known as Rue Millaud. It was renamed for Adolphe Crémieux, a French lawyer and politician. During the catastrophic Crue de la Seine de 1910 (1910 Great Flood of Paris), water from the Seine reached as high as 1.75 meters on one of the buildings. In 1993, the street was closed to vehicles.

TODAY

We live in a self-absorbed world. With the hashtag #ruecremieux now linking to over 31,000 images on Instagram, Rue Crémieux might be a paradise for Instagrammers, but they’ve taken away the residents’ privacy. They used to be able to take their tables outside to have lunch, but now, they can’t do so with yoga aficionados, dance sessions, and fashion shoots blocking their doorways. The residents are okay with people taking photos, but they’ve demanded that the city of Paris to protect their privacy by closing the street to visitors on evenings and weekends which is fair enough. Imagine looking out your window and seeing this:

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Dimanche 💃 #paris #ballet #streetdance

A post shared by Club Crémieux (@clubcremieux) on Sep 30, 2018 at 4:46am PDT

Or this:

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Rue Crémieux : la comédie musicale #broadway #streetchoreography

A post shared by Club Crémieux (@clubcremieux) on Jun 16, 2018 at 2:32am PDT

And this:

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Flashée à 180 sur l’autoroute du lol 🎻🏎 #streetphotography #violon #cabriolet #paris #wtf

A post shared by Club Crémieux (@clubcremieux) on Aug 21, 2018 at 3:21pm PDT

And even this:

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“Au début on pensait faire ça tranquillement à la maison et puis quelqu’un a dit ‘et si on allait étendre nos culottes dans la rue et les photographier ?’, et là on s’est dit qu’on tenait un truc…” 👙📸 #startupnation #streetunderwear #ruecremieux #paris #streetphotography #igersfrance

A post shared by Club Crémieux (@clubcremieux) on May 2, 2018 at 7:44am PDT

It’s a beautiful street, but it’s rude to disturb the peace and snatch away privacy. Some even go as far as recording residents leaving their homes. People are sheep, literally, and when they see something goes viral online, they want to do it, too. You travel to experience, not to take pretentious photos of yourself.

***GIFs/Images that don’t belong to LPM are via Google Search (Right-click for original source)

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