Signs of the Suburbs

One of the biggest differences between France and the UK or US is the role of the suburbs. In Britain or the States, the inner city has traditionally been synonymous with low incomes and crime, whereas the opposite is true in France. The city centre is the domain of the rich, and it is the 'banlieue' or suburb which has the negative connotations.

Parisians rarely venture out into the suburbs. Many though are obliged to quit the city on a daily basis to go to their place of work, but even on these occasions they are whisked in and out by car or train, and spend as little time as possible in this neighbouring environment.

I am one of these people, taking a train each day away from Paris. My morning commute takes me beyond the city limits, over the peripherique and across the Seine, out into another world. As I leave Paris, the heights of the buildings drop, and I can begin to see a broad skyline, punctuated with the straight lines of the overhead power cables.

Entering the world of the suburbs does not mean fear for me, but often a kind of ennui. With a few rare exceptions, the suburbs of Paris are not attractive places. They are scruffy, the result of inexistant urban planning. Fast roads send cars thundering through what were their historic hearts and viaducts carry streams of trains through industrial estates or over back gardens. And yet there is something endlessly fascinating about these places if you scratch through this opaque vision.

It is the raggedness that gives these places their charm. Paris with its strict planning rules and its facade of wealth makes for a very homogeneous picture which in itself can become dull. The suburbs, with their tower blocks neighbouring quaint houses and Parisian style Haussmannian buildings makes for a much more disorderly spectacle. As you walk through the suburbs, you literally never know what will be around the corner.

Often it is the car that has dictated how these towns have developed, and as a result they are not particularly pedestrian friendly. Nevertheless, taking a walk here gives many rewards to the curious. Even the street signs are different here. Collapsing against a wall, a crumbling relic in solid stone and cracked enamel from several decades ago.

Pasted around the town, an affiche for an upcoming event. In Paris, this poster would have been laughed out of town for being so uncool, but here it is a celebration of a local community. Those that will attend this event care little for the snobbery of their more illustrious neighbours, and simply want to meet friends, eat some traditional foods and dance to the music they grew up with and have always known.

It's a sign of the suburbs. Defiant, unfashionable, proud, untidy and authentic.