During your holiday in Paris if you are looking for a break from fine French cuisine, there is wide range of alternatives to choose from in the Bastille area of Paris. There are several ethnic restaurants in this area serving high quality food and below a guide of some of the best ones. The Blue Elephant (43 Rue de la Roquette) - is within very close walking distance from the Bastille. This is an excellent Thai restaurant where you can try delicious dishes such as the coconut prawns in tamarind sauce. The service is also very good here and you can ask for less spicy dishes if you prefer mild food. Chez Marianne (Rue de Roisiers) - arguably serves the best ethnic food in the city, with North African food the key theme in this restaurant. Visitors can enjoy many kinds of interesting dishes and meals, including custom made falafel and hummus. In the summer be sure to ask to be seated at one of the tables outside and enjoy the night breeze. Godjo (8 rue de l Ecole polytechnique) - is an Ethiopian restaurant which has gained a very good reputation in recent years. The decor is unusual and attractive, ...

La Bastille was a prison once called Bastille Saint-Antoine as it was on Rue Saint-Antoine. On 14th July, 1789, La Bastille was stormed by the peasants, marking the start of the French Revolution and that momentous event is celebrated as a public holiday in France. The word ‘Bastille’ derives from the French word ‘bastide’ which means stronghold or castle. The Bastille was built in the last quarter of the 14th century during the reign of King Charles VI and during the Hundred Years War with England. La Bastille had five storeys and the exterior walls were four and a half metres thick. There used to be three entrances to the fortification but from 1580, the drawbridge over the moat was the only way in and out. It was Cardinal Richelieu in the first half of the seventeenth century who turned the Royal fortification into a prison for the upper classes, for people who had committed treason or some offence against King Louis XIII or the state. Once established as a prison, it became a convenient place in which to incarcerate religious prisoners, writers who perpetrated seditious acts, and young men who had been caught with the wrong man’s wife. Very ...