Skip the nightlife clichés. The real Oberkampf is the same streets in the slack hours of the afternoon, when the bar spine that everyone writes about is just a corridor of half-open shutters and you can hear yourself think.
Start at Oberkampf metro and walk down rue Oberkampf to the Cirque d'Hiver — an 1852 circus that still runs, shaped like nothing else in the city. Then drop onto rue Saint-Maur, the calmer parallel, for the bistros and caves à vin (wine shops) the neighbourhood keeps for itself. Cut through Square Maurice-Gardette when you need a bench, and on to the square in front of Saint-Ambroise, which is more church-adjacent loitering than churchgoing.
The finish is the eating. Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud runs north with Maghrebi grocers, spice shops, and a couple of the better bakeries in the arrondissement (district). Buy a msemen or a baguette and walk it; the street wants to be eaten on the move. Filles du Calvaire is five minutes on, or keep going into the Marais while the bread's still warm.
