The name Courtille comes from courti, "garden" in the Picard dialect. The heights of Belleville were known as La Haute Courtille in the nineteenth century, while the lower part around rue du Faubourg-du-Temple and rue de la Fontaine-au-Roi was La Basse Courtille. Both were full of boozers and dance halls, where people flocked from the city on high days and holidays.The wildest revels of the year took place on the night of Mardi Gras, when thousands of masked people turned out to celebrate the end of the carnaval. Next morning – Ash Wednesday – they descended in drunken procession from Belleville to the city, in up to a thousand horse-drawn vehicles: la descente de la Courtille.
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