Bastille & Oberkampf

Set just north of the River Seine, with the Canal St-Martin running below it, Place de la Bastille (traditionally the frontier between central Paris and the more proletarian east) has remained a potent symbol of popular revolt ever since the prison storming that inaugurated the Revolution. The square is still a gathering point for demonstrations and Bastille Day festivities, but the only remnants of the prison nowadays are found underground on Métro line 5. In fact, with its modern opera house, chic Marais-side streets (especially Place des Vosges), lively street market along Bd Richard Lenoir and bobo (bohemian-bourgeois) bars and restaurants, Bastille is positively hip. Especially at night when three streets (Amelot, de la Roquette and de Charonne) serve party-crazed Parisians enough drinks to sink the nearby canal boats (docked in the Port de l'Arsenal).
If it's a grungier night you're after, rue d'Oberkampf and surrounding streets foot the bill nicely with row upon row of humming shabby-chic bars, many following the runaway success of Café Charbon and the adjoined Nouveau Casino club. Oberkampf's southern extremities are resolutely chic-er, however; especially in the 3^rd, where ever-gentrifying streets around rue Vieille du Temple and République are awash with designers on the rise and old craft workshops. Rue Charlot is typical of the trend, with smart boutiques that rub shoulders with art galleries. In this part of town, those in the know head to Marché des Enfants Rouge, the city's oldest market (dating back to 1615), lined with food stalls each more fragrant than the next.