"DON'T YOU HAVE AN AGENDA?"

A CONSERVATIVE VISITOR ASKED, FIVE MINUTES INTO A TOUR...

All drawings by Harald Wolff

When the walk was over, he said...

Understanding what's not said 

and exposure to economy-based history

 provides a mental shield against the lies

 that help the mighty keep their power.

*     *     * 

IX.2

"You're teaching Communism to the police!"

VIII. A PAST THAT IS FORGOTTEN AND INDELIBLE

MENU: 8. A past forgotten and indelible

THE MAY DAY PARADE IN HONOR OF LABOR BEGINS IN FRONT OF THE 13TH'S CITY HALL

Its mayor believes that "social services are the fortune of the poor," and has made this overlooked district on the city's southeastern edge a leader in revegetation and the promotion of unstandardized arts. 

I gladly introduce you to an area where I have lived since 2007.

# # #

• In the footsteps of "demons"

• Small businesses that Communards would value

• Lost industry's fine traces

• A district that leans left

• More gifts from City Hall

• The obscure 13th, a place to pitch your tent?

*    *    *

Next,

VIII.1.
In the footsteps of "demons"

A DISTRICT THAT LEANS LEFT

 

STRIKERS DEMONSTRATE AT PLACE D'ITALIE

(MAY 2024)

The ambiance favors them. I have never seen right-wing posters in the 13th, but there are many from the left. Some of them: 

Probably 2022, in the space leading to the series of parks on the site of the former Say sugar refinery

"For public services against the Europe of money"

                                                      Before the legislative elections of June 2024 on the parc de Choisy railing 

"Where do you think you're going if you go right?"

 

On the obscure corner of rue Sthrau and rue Nationale

"Racists vote. And you?"  "Where are you on June 9?" (The day of the European elections) "The rich vote. And you?"

Corner, rue de Tolbiac and rue Nationale, April 2024

"The Dignity of Work" / "Movement of Communist Youth of France" / "Solidarity with Palestine"

More Communist posters (the party is very different from that of the Cold War)

Corner  rue de Tolbiac / rue du Château des Rentiers, June 2024

"Against fascism!" / The force to change it all!" (France Unbowed) / "Animal reign"

Place d'Italie, January 2025

Left: Join the Communist revolution / Middle: Health school transport research justice culture finance leisure information: Public Service Forum  / Right : Billionaires will not defeat us 

Railing of parc de Choisy, February 2025

"To change it all, Popular Front" (a coalition of left-wing parties inspired by that of 1936) 

*   *   *

Next,

IV.4.3.b.

A walk in an outskirt that used to be chilling

THE CHURCH WHERE THE LAST BATTLE WAS FOUGHT

 

BUILT IN 1855-1858 IN ANTICIPATION OF ANOTHER INSURRECTION, THE SPACE LARGE ENOUGH TO HOLD SOLDIERS, HORSES AND CANNONS MUST BE THE SITE "WEST" OF THE JAIL...

--  Gérard Conte, Élements de l'histoire de la Commune dans le 13e arrondissement, 1981,

    based on archival records.

Where Sérisier and his men left the monks and went on to pursue the fight. 

  

The huge space around Notre-Dame de la Gare was meant for massing troops. 

Toward 5 p.m., the battle lost, they faded into their neighborhood. Sérizier, who was too well-known to go home, took refuge in a house on a neighboring street.* 

*Rue du Chateau des Rentiers fits the information in the study just mentioned

Next,

The passage by which the survivors fled

VIII.1. IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF "DEMONS"

 MENU: 8.1. In the footsteps of "demons"

THE MODERN STREETS BY WHICH THE COMMUNARDS FLED 

Adapted from a map of about 1900 / zoom

          Photo by Eugène Adjet, 1925 / zoom

N° 204 rue du Château des Rentiers, the street by which Communards dispersed after the last battle, which we follow.

At n° 120 of the same street, the caretaker of a City-run establishment for seniors chats with a resident.

 In brief

• The church where the last battle was fought 
• The passage by which survivors fled 
• City-run residences for the elderly or the handicapped
• Sculptures. Bikes. Gyms. Gardens
• More social services, gardens and neighborhood engagement
• Election posters that show a real democracy

*    *    *

Next,

The church where the last battle was fought

 

THE PASSAGE BY WHICH SURVIVORS FLED

A MEDICAL LABORATORY IS ON ONE SIDE OF THE PASSAGE

A medical center is a few steps away.  

A sculpture and trees soften the aridity of low-cost construction. 

Place Souham

The passage ends with a mosaic of the area's métro map:

A father points his tennis racket as he explains it to his son.

Across the street...

Rue Jean Coly

• This cheerful café

Le Père Fecto, 15 rue Jean Coly

• An intersection island with greenery enriched, a kindergarten with activist parents, a street closed off to enlarge the greenery:

Intersection, rues Jean Coly and Château des Rentiers

In 2025, an enlarged island of greenery. Behind it, a City-run kindergarten ("Ville de Paris, Ecole Maternelle"

Banner in front of the kindergarten: "We love public school" "Maintain the freedom of school directors not to be saddled by extra tasks"

In June 2025, the small street beyond the intersection was blocked ff to plant more greenery. It will stay blocked off.

*    *    *

Next,

City-run residences for the elderly or handicapped

ELECTION POSTERS THAT SHOW A REAL DEMOCRACY

AMERICAN OBSERVATIONS

In contrast to the United States... 

The main parties present their candidates (farther along rue Nationale).

• Voting is on Sunday.

• There are many voting sites (I have never heard of suppressing them to favor a rival camp).

• There is no gerrymandering. 

• Businesses cannot contribute to political  parties.  

• Candidates are elected by direct popular vote (as opposed to the two-tiered system that in the U.S. favors conservatives). 

•  Far-right media are far less prominent.  

• The parliamentary system allows a number of parties.

As well, students are admitted to the top universities on the basis of competitive national examinations and receive salaries as government officials (they teach for at least three years after receiving their diplomas, again by competitive exams). Government-run health care is free for life-and-death cases and relatively inexpensive for the rest. There are no privately-run prisons.

Americans who before Trump's second presidency said

"We are the world's most admired democracy,"

knew nothing of European systems. 

End of this section.

 

*     *     *

Next,

VIII.2.

Small businesses that Communards would have valued

VIII.2. SMALL BUSINESSES THAT COMMUNARDS WOULD HAVE VALUED

 

"ART IS ANYTHING DONE WITH PASSION THAT ADDRESSES THE PUBLIC" THE COMMUNARDS SAID 

They would approve the little shops that now line the routes where they dispersed.

Adapted from a Google map

Having made the page I realized that all were founded by immigrants or their descendants. When I asked why, they said:

• Being hired by a company or rising within it can be difficult.

• Diplomas from outside the European Union are not recognized in France. 

• Transplanting oneself into a new culture already takes initiative, and once there one must invent one's way.

• Immigrants are willing to work the 12-14 hours a day that a small business requires. *

*A Cameroonian shop owner in another neighborhood sleeps there when she must finish an order.

• Compatriots or family who are already there often have shops. Newcomers may work for them and so be introduced to the trade. Such entourages also lead offspring to follow the same path.  

    # # # 

Beginning just behind the church:

• The only stationary store in the vicinity from which one can send a fax or buy The New York Times (since 2005).

Bureau Vallée

10 rue Jeanne d'Arc

 Fanny and Robert Ho, Chinese

• Asian and organic products (since 2002).

Boutique Bio et Bien-être

19 place Jeanne d'Arc

From left to right: Aline Ly, from Laos: She is familiar with Asian medicine and chooses the products; Sophie Dmitreff, owner, whose grandmother came from Russia in 1924; Barbara Raab, whose grandparents were Austrian and Czechoslovakian. 

=

Date syrup and birch sugar 

# # #

Beyond the crossroad

(On rues du Château des Rentiers and Nationale)

• A pharmacy

Pharmacie Nationale

128 rue Nationale

"Thank you, Catherine!" said this client. The pharmacist is Asian. A majority are of immigrant origin. 

Valerie Marquiès (of Spanish and Moroccan origine) shows how to use a blood pressure monitor. 

New York's Union Square neighborhood

 is as far from the center as the 13th,

and one might expect a comparable ambiance.  

But pharmacies are part of a chain, the very young employees know nothing and the clients are anonymous. Here, employees are professionals who inform and know the customers. 

• A few steps on: a couturier who also does alterations and reparations (since 2000).

Marcel Bayo Lukombo

Bayocreamode

12 rue Dr Victor Huntinel (corner of rue Nationale)

 

Fugitives must have taken this important way. 

• On the parallel street, a Chinese restaurant* (since 1986):

*For more about it, please click.

La Mer de Chine

159 rue du Château des Rentiers

The menu explains the dishes' origins and health benefits.

Simon, who replaced his older brother in 2021.

That a restaurant should maintain itself in a neighborhood where many elderly residents lack the means to dine out and where at night there is very little traffic surprises.Its durability comes from excellence.

# # #

On a street that barricades once covered (rue de Tolbiac), Lin, from Cambodia and Roy, from Spain have opened an excellent eyewear store. Flamenco music quietly plays as you walk in.

Lin et Roy

75 rue Tolbiac 

And across from it, Hamid Amin foresees the moment when sales by chains and the web will force him to sell the hardware store that his mother, from Réunion, founded in 1986. But for the moment... 

Burhanie decor shop

70 rue Tolbiac 

• Monsieur Amin and his friend Mohammed ("Momo"), a retired laborer who now transports children and does odd jobs:

Momo working for me.

• A shop where every inch is used:  

• One evening as I waited while Monsieur Amid wrapped a package for the man behind the counter I overheard this conversation...

"If the government changes the retirement age there'll be demonstrations, covid is always present and in any case we'll all die some day, we don't know when or how, but it will come." 

Those somber subjects were evoked with as much good humor as at the bar of a café. 

# # #

There's a mall ten minutes away. 

The salespeople are polite,

but one feels that for them it's just a job. 

These shops are different.  

*     *     *

Back to the walk. 

At the end of rue du Château des Rentiers

is a sign that invites you to enter 

 "The garden of the Say refinery."  

At the end of rue du Château des Rentiers.

That follows.

*    *    *

Next,

VIII.3

Lost industry's fine traces