The 20th arrondissement of Paris (with a local)
The Earful Tower: Paris
Oliver Gee
4.8 • 796 Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to "The 20 Kingdoms", a new season of The Earful Tower podcast.
As you probably know, there are 20 districts in Paris, known in French as arrondissements. But my brother once referred to them as kingdoms and I liked it. It's true, each of the districts has its own soul, quite separate from the next. They may as well be kingdoms. At least for a podcast season.
In this 20-episode season of the podcast, I'm going to visit each kingdom and introduce you to someone who truly loves that particular district. Maybe they work there, maybe they live there, or maybe they just love it.
That's the whole concept. This isn't me recommending cafes or restaurants in different parts of town. This is true locals telling us about the soul of their kingdom and what they like to do there. The goal is to give you a very real look at each of these districts from a local's perspective.
And for the 20th Kingdom, the first episode of the season, you'll meet Abiola, a social worker who looks after kids in the north western side of the district. He loves cafes, good food, football and the 20th arrondissement of Paris. Here's what he had to say.
Mentioned in this episode:
Restaurant
Paloma
Website: https://www.instagram.com/paloma.belleville/
Address: 93 Rue Julien Lacroix, 75020 Paris
Bar
Combat
Website: https://www.instagram.com/combat.belleville/?hl=en
Address: 63 Rue de Belleville, 75019 Paris
Cafes
Candle Kids
Website: https://www.instagram.com/candlekidscoffee/
Address: 107 rue des couronnes, Paris, France 75020
Miliki Coffee
Website: https://milikicafe.com/
Address: 8 rue Levert, 75020 Paris
Bambin
Website: https://bambin-coffeeshop.fr/
Address: 40 Rue de Tourtille, 75020 Paris
Best thing to do
Parc de Belleville
Best street
Rue Saint Blaise
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Music: Pres Maxson
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, everybody, Oliver G. here. This is the Earful Tau podcast, and I'm sure you've heard before |
| 0:05.5 | that there are 20 districts in Paris, 20 arrondissements is what they call in French. But did you know, |
| 0:13.5 | when my brother visited Paris, he was very taken by the concept of these different districts |
| 0:19.3 | and called them kingdoms. |
| 0:22.0 | He loved it. |
| 0:23.0 | If we said, we're going for dinner tonight in the 11th, he'd be like, oh, the 11th kingdom. |
| 0:28.0 | And you know what? |
| 0:28.8 | I love that too. |
| 0:30.5 | Not just because the word kingdom is kind of cool, but I feel like all the 20 different districts, |
| 0:37.0 | or kingdoms, if you will, have their own soul and their own personality. |
| 0:42.2 | And I thought it could be fun to explore that a little deeper and share it with you. |
| 0:47.9 | So what you're hearing now on this new season of the Eiffel Tower is my deep dive into the different kingdoms, the 20 |
| 0:56.4 | kingdoms of Paris. This isn't me going out there finding things and recommending them for you. |
| 1:02.0 | This is me finding someone who either lives or works or loves the district and wants to talk about |
| 1:08.4 | it. So in this episode, in the 20th kingdom, you're going to hear me chatting |
| 1:13.1 | with Abiola, a social worker who absolutely adores the 20th. And I said, you tell me where to meet you. |
| 1:21.1 | You show me what you want to show me, and you tell me about your kingdom. So voila, let's go to the 20th. |
| 1:31.0 | After a quick few words from the sponsor of this show, |
| 1:38.7 | which is myself, Eiffel Tower Tours. As you maybe know, we do walking tours of Paris. And here's a quote, it didn't feel like a tour, it felt like hanging out with someone who knows Paris inside |
| 1:43.0 | out. That's the goal. |
| 1:45.2 | Earful Tower Tours are small, personal and led by a team who truly live and breathe this city. |
| 1:50.4 | No big groups, no memorized speeches, just a funny, thoughtful, occasionally surprising way |
... |
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