To many city residents the banlieues surrounding Paris represent a dystopian vision made real β all high-rises and social isolation. Can new walking tours and a mile track mend centuries of misunderstanding and distrust? The northern suburb represents a dystopian vision made real β especially for those who have never visited.
Taking a tour is the last thing on their minds. But that is precisely what two parallel projects aim to encourage. Its architecture ranges from semi-rural one-storey detached houses to drab tower blocks; meanwhile its social and ethnic fabric is highly fragmented and segregated. Not much has changed since the riots of and On a cold Saturday morning I join 80 people in hiking gear for a Voyage starting at Sarcelles station.
We walk through streets too wide, lined with buildings too short, attracting curious glances from locals. Denissen agrees that many walkers on the Sarcelles trip are highly educated, mostly white, French citizens. One thing is certain, the next step is for us is to engage more directly with organisations, including local groups, that can stimulate a genuine diversity.
Paris β unlike London, New York or Berlin β is not officially a city under one metropolitan government. The City of Paris comprises 2. It was to fill this gap that Greater Paris was created from the city proper and its suburban ring in January But the technocratic exercise of adding an extra layer of government has fallen short of fixing many decades of bad feeling and misunderstanding between Parisians and the banlieusards.
The reciprocal distrust finds its roots in the late 19th century. The total absence of consultation with locals and elected officials was avenged by the local press, whose cartoonists ferociously pictured Parisian greed.
