II.3.4. "BARBÈS DON'T PANIC"

MENU: 2.3.4. "Barbès don't panic"

IMMIGRANT DISTRICTS OF THE NORTH ARE CALLED "NO-GO ZONES," NOTABLY MAGHREBIAN BARBÈS 

From Le Figaro, the main conservative daily / zoom

Here's another way of seeing the ribbon of Muslim shops that lie along the métro tracks:

Adapté d'un plan Google

In brief

• Back to the wine tax

• A métro station and a movie theater

• Toward La Goutte d'Or

• The media: fear, exoticism, misery and bias 

• (Not very) threatening youth

• Take another look 

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Next,

Back to the wine tax

BACK TO THE WINE TAX

BARBÈS'S FAMED 19TH-CENTURY EDGINESS CAME FROM THE TAX-COLLECTING CITY WALL

Adapted from a Google plan

The Exterior Boulevards replace it. 

Zola's The Drinking Den begins with the protagonist, Gervaise,

seeking her man in the throng passing through the toll gate:

"When she raised her eyes above that interminable grey wall

that surrounded the town like a band of desert...  

[trans. and underlining mine]

 ...she saw flowing, between the two squat pavilions of the toll gate, an uninterrupted stream of men, cattle, wagons, that descended from the heights of Montmartre and la Chapelle. There was the stamping of herds [...] an endless march of workers going to their jobs, their tools on their backs, their loaf under their arms; the crowd was engulfed in Paris [...]."

 -- Novel set in the 1850's, published in 1877

Untaxed wine outside the gate ,brought a counter-culture as at  Belleville, but that was much more extensive and better known.

Cover, Life in Montmartre by Georges-Boudet-Taillandier, 1897 / zoom (in French)

The poverty that came with industrialization brought dives, brothels...

L'Absinthe by Degas, 1875,  zoom ; Prostitutes by Toulouse-Lautrec, toward 1894 / zoom

...and violence. Gervaise lives near the wall,"behind which, at night, she sometimes heard the murdered scream."

# # #

Today...

• Cabarets and theaters are are on the boulevard's — the wall's — untaxed northern side. Most of the fast foods, cafés and restaurants are there too, their lights brightening the night :

In the background, the Moulin Rouge

• On the southern side there are no theaters and few cafés or restaurants

Most businesses close at night, making that side of the street much darker.

An exception is this large store for musical instruments. That it should be in this theater neighborhood makes sense, as does the location on the taxed side of the street.

The main lighting comes from sex shops, brothels' heirs.

As wealthy clients did not mind the higher cost of wine, most of these establishments are on the southern side.

#  #  #

The bar where Gervaise destroys herself through drink gave the name "L'Assommoir"* to a square a few steps north of the Barbès métro, just outside the former toll gate.

*"Assommer:" to knock out

The métro rails and toll gate site

L'Assommoir by André Capellani, 1909 / YouTube

"Standing in front of l'Assommoir, Gervaise was pensive

If she had two cents, she would go in and drink a drop. It might make her less hungry. Ah! She'd drunk a drop or two! But it had been so pleasant. And, from afar, she contemplated the drunkenness machine, feeling that her disaster came from there, and dreaming of ending it all with brandy, when she had the means."

She dies of delirium tremens.

# # #

The modern site does not fit that novel

about poverty and desperation,

just as today's pickpockets and petty drug dealers

pale next to the murderers 

whose victims' screams begin the story.

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Next,

A métro station and a movie theater

A MÉTRO STATION AND A MOVIE THEATER

THE AERIAL MÉTRO, SYMBOL OF BARBÈS

A bank chooses highlights its ATM machine with a photo of the métro. 

      Stephane Lagoutte / Le Monde

Adapted from an RATP map

 

# # #

On leaving the station turn right, look through the grid...

...and exit at the 1920's cinema, the Louxor.

                       Zoom

 Zoom

More later.

The disregarded area that lies along tracks 

harbors those exceptional monuments,

which are completely outside touristic circuits.

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Next,

Toward La Goutte d'Or

TOWARD LA GOUTTE D'OR

ON THE BOULEVARD TAKE YOUR FIRST LEFT

(RUE CAPLAT)

La Goutte d'Or, an area that is French and African, begins at the crossroads:

Upscale boutiques and a cantine that could be in Dakar align on that street (rue des Gardes).

Before entering that vast neighborhood,

a few words more on Barbès.   

 

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Next,

The media: 

Fear, exoticism, misery and bias

THE MEDIA: FEAR, EXOTICISM, MISERY AND BIAS

FEAR, THE RIGHT'S STOCK IN TRADE  

Le Figaro, the main conservative daily / zoom

"The owner of the Barbès kiosk closes definitively after an aggression" 

• Electoral poster of the xenophobic National Rally

"The choice of security"

#  #  #

Exoticism and misery, issues on the left

• "With the marabouts of Barbès" 

• Barbès, lost girls' city, podcast and written summary (in French)

• Streetpress:

"In the documentary series Rixes, Adama Camara, a militant, rapper and former prisoner, meets youth and families whose lives have been overturned by gang warfare. Find six episodes here."

"We need to hear forgotten voices to fight against the incomprehension and caricature of our lives." (Internet monthly, in French)

#  #  #

"On the traces of African Paris":* The Office of Tourism views the Château Rouge market:

*A message for Parisians when covid kept the usual visitors away

A Black couple wears expensive gear: 

In 15 years of visiting La Goutte d'Or,

I have seen one person dressed that way. 

 By suggesting a middle-class ambiance,

the photo and write-up ignore the different energy.

To be continued.

*     *     *

Next,

(Not very) threatening youth

(NOT VERY) THREATENING YOUTH

"UP TO NO GOOD!" OR "IS THIS MY COUNTRY?" SOME THINK ON DISCOVERING THE YOUNG NORTH AFRICANS MASSED

AROUND THE MÉTRO

One took my purse from a bag I hadn't closed. Salaud! ["Jerk!"] I cried. 

He gave it back.

Another time a careless teen bumped into me with his bike, and I fell down. Immediately he and three youths from the sidewalk helped me up saying "Are you all right, ma'am?" "Really all right?"

The police

• This merchant says:"These kids have i-phones that cost a month's pay. But the police don't do anything, they say the judge will let them go. 
  But me personally, I've been here 25 years, 
  we know each other, 
  I've never had a problem."

Abdel ben Ahmed, Fataha Market, 53 rue de la Goutte d'Or

• Tolerating a degree of minor illegality helps prevent worse crime, but the omni-present police do make arrests:

• Cops and kids know each other, but dialogue seems far away. "'There's The Beard, The Elf, Spartacus, Red and Bear Head,' says Mahamé, without dropping his smile. 'But the worst is Mario,' shyly chimes in one of his pals."

-- Why are they so mean? "Streetpress" (in French)

• The cops feel disrespected: 

"Refusing to take a complaint = illegal. Let's educate the police," says the message below:

• "They're anarchists, they don't like us, they think we're uneducated," said a policeman who was not much older than the boys, when I asked what it meant.

# # #

Cops and kids would benefit from meetings guided

by experienced adults of their backgrounds. 

But as a visitor,

just close your handbag or empty your back pocket, 

and walk by:

The youths are not interested in you.

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Next,

Take another look