La Butte-aux-Cailles is a district of Paris located in the western side of the 13th arrondissement.
Rue de la Butte-aux-Cailles provides a village atmosphere with its low buildings, little houses, shops and bustling cafés during the evening.
This is one of those die-hard Parisian villages passionately defended by their inhabitants. Housing estates with small working-class homes in the early twentieth-century, now host an upper-middle class anxious to preserve the charm of the neighbourhood. The Butte-aux-Cailles became famous on 21 November 1783. This was the day when Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis of Arlandes, travelling to the Chateau de la Muette, landed on la Butte in their paper hot air balloon, which was used to make the first human flight.
Place Paul Verlaine installed a public fountain supplied by a well, and a swimming pool built in 1924. The façade has an Art nouveau appearance while the interior has a reinforced concrete roof supported by seven small arches. This is one of the few Parisian swimming pools to offer an outdoor pool. It is supplied by a well that provides water at 28°C.
