III.5.9.xx TOMORROW'S DESTINATION?

MENU: 3.5.9.xx Tomorrow's destination?

A METRO STATION'S RENOVATION SUGGESTS THAT LA GOUTTE D'OR / BARBÈS MAY BECOME A HUB OF WORLD AND URBAN MUSIC 

Run-down and extremely crowded, the Château Rouge station had to be renovated...

Vito

In 2015-2017, it was.

The city's 302 other stations are spartan.

Though its tracks lead only to the largely North African and African neighborhood far from the center with no connecting lines, it is decorated by luxurious hand-painted tiles:

Roots refer to the diversity of  residents' origins.

 Photo and article (in French) / zoom

 The National Library exhibited Barthélémy Togué's work in 2024.

They come from the famed Sèvres National Manufactory, which Louis XV founded in 1740, and that Cameroon's Barthélémy Toguo hand-painted.

That decor combines royal culture and immigration in a way that is welcoming and prestigious. It has to be directed to outsiders. 

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Other reasons for thinking that

disregarded area may become a destination:

• Existing infrastructure
• City-backed innovations
• An spectacular new center for music
• The population itself. 

In brief:

• Accessibility

• The Barbès métro station

• Another monument: A movie theater of the 1920's

• The washhouse that literature immortalized

• The couturiers' cooperative, now City-backed

• The Institute for the Cultures of Islam 

• World and urban culture for the planet?

• A portal toward the music of the outskirts

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Next,

Accessibility