Victims of Fashion

On the Rue du Faubourg du Temple, an original shop sign stands witness to a period when men literally killed for a pair of shoes. These men were known as the Apaches, and they took their clothing very seriously!

“Un Apache pouvait voler, truander, tuer si nécessaire, pour s'approprier la paire de chaussures qui le mettraient en valeur aux yeux de sa bande et de ses amoureuses. La moindre égratignure et la paire était jetée aux pauvres” (Pierre Drachline & Claude Petit-Castelli, ‘Casque d'or et les apaches’) – (An Apache could steal, cheat, or kill if necessary to get hold of a pair of shoes that would enhance his image in the eyes of his gang or his lovers. The littlest scratch and the pair were thrown to the poor).

The Apaches were the street gangs of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, taking their name from American natives following a visit from Buffalo Bill to Paris in 1905. They haunted the eastern faubourgs of Paris, and were generally very young, partly because their life expectancy was so short. These were men who lived fast, drinking, partying and stealing, and they were immediately identifiable by the clothes they wore.

Each gang was dressed slightly differently, often wearing something such as a red scarf that would be both a sign of belonging and a means of identification in other territories. However, certain elements were the same in all gangs. All wore a certain type of trouser, tight at the knees and flared at the bottom, known as a Bénard. These were named after the tailor who made them, a certain Auguste Bénard, and the word is still used in Parisian slang today to designate a pair of trousers (bénard, ben’ or bénouze).

The Apache dance was often made to look like a physical attack.

On top, the men generally wore waistcoats or jackets. It was at this store on the Rue du Faubourg du Temple that the gang members in the Courtille (lower Belleville) came to shop.

On their heads there was always a hat of some description, generally something flat in the form of a sailor’s cap, but it was what was put on the feet that was the most important. Claude Dubois in his depiction of the Bastille area of Paris (La Bastoche, 1997) describes the ideal pair:

“Le comble de la coquetterie apache étant les bottines jaunes à bouts pointus cirées de frais avec des boutons dorés”. (The height of Apache vanity was a pair of freshly polished pointed yellow boots with golden buttons).

The Apache gangs ceased to exist after the First World War, with many members killed off in the conflict. The shop survived for longer though, and until recently it was still selling men’s clothes and had retained much of its interior. Like much of the rest of the street though it was converted into a Chinese-run store, catering this time for teenage girls rather than teenage boys.

Some new Street Art

Belleville was the scene of recent protests by the Chinese community against a perceived increase in attacks on its members, but this time it is the unity of the neighbourhood that is celebrated in a mural on the Rue du Faubourg du Temple. I don't know if this an officially senctioned piece or not, but it is clearly something that would have taken the artist a great deal of time.

In the creation you can see some of the sights of the city as well as representations of some of the ethnic groups of Belleville. There is also some text in both Chinese and Hebrew, and if anyone could tell me what it says I'd be very interested!

On the Rue Sainte Marthe, another labour intensive creation. This time, the collage of torn up magazines is reminiscent of the works of Jacques Villeglé.

A little further along on the Rue du Chalet, a simple but enigmatic message. It's not clear who or what this person is apologising for!

Life at the Crossroads

Beside the Belleville Metro station is a creation by the Belgian artist Bonom. Although I didn't know who he was at the time, Bonom is someone who has already inspired me in Paris. Nicknamed the Belgian Banksy (mostly for his desire to remain anonymous), he creates monumental figures of animals, skeletons and fossils, pictures that often climb 15-20 metres up the bare stone sides of an apartment building. Here in Belleville, they are a tangle of snakes, resembling the hair of Medusa or simply a mapwork of cracks in an ancient wall.

What particular caught my eye here is the fact that they seem to spring from a trace of the past, a name carved into the wall of a neighbouring building. "Aux Quatre Arrondissements" is a reference to the fact that Belleville stands at the crossroads of four different arrondissements (10th, 11th, 19th and 20th), but what was this name promoting? From what I have been able to discover, it was the name of a large shop dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, a store belonging to a group known as the "Grands Magasins de Nouveautés".

Over 100 years later, the unifying nature of this position seems more important than ever. Today a Chinese supermarket occupies the space beneath this sign, but the crossroads shelters a multitude of nationalities and religions. Jewish patisseriess sit next to Vietnamese restaurants and Halal butchers, whilst Bangladeshis sell roasted chestnuts from supermarket trolleys alongside Africans with baskets of steamed sweetcorn. How suitable it seems therefore to find a cutting edge street artist here next to a footprint of the area's past.

Play Time

A wonderful exhibition of the work of French director Jacques Tati is currently taking place at the Cinémathèque française, an event which has set me thinking about a rarely considered part of city life. What room is there for Play Time in our cities today, and how beneficial is it for our children? After the dark cloud of seeing parks in Paris closed at the first sign of snow this winter, I have been comforted to see light this spring; a fantastic new installation at the Parc de Belleville in Paris.

When watching the films of Jacques Tati, it is clear that he had a child’s eye view of the world. A theme running through his work is that the absurdities of the modern, adult world are gently mocked, but it is in his film Play Time that these absurdities become truly grotesque. Whilst his previous films had seen his characters coming across hazards in the country (Jour de Fête) or at the beach (Les Vacances de Mr Hulot), here the characters are trapped in a futuristic Paris of straight lines, glass buildings and busy roads. However, as the organisor of the exhibition, Macha Makeïeff puts it, "Tati imagine la modernité comme un vaste terrain de jeu" (Tati imagined modernity as one large playground). The adult world is filled with incredible machines signifying progress, but they certainly do not simplify life and seem ridiculous to children.


The American educator Fred Rogers said that “for children, play is serious learning”. But how can cities help children to learn if their play is controlled by adults who do not understand them, and through fear, constantly over-protect them? Paris contains precious few spaces where children are completely free to run, jump and climb, with adults constantly telling them to get down from walls and trees and off the lush, green grass. Is it though possible to design parts of the city that are truly child-friendly?

Research today suggests that risky, adventurous play helps children’s mental and social development, and to encourage this in the UK, the government has created an entity known as Fair Play. The goal of this scheme is to change the landscape of towns and cities to make them more geared towards the needs of children, essentially to make sure “children's needs and children's play areas are at the heart of the planning process from start to finish”. Whilst no such scheme exists in France, a true representation of its spirit can be found at the Parc de Belleville.

Running up the steep 30° slope of the park, this construction of wood, rope and slides does not contain a single flat surface. Some parents still watch their offspring carefully, but the children are clearly delighted to scramble freely across the wooden boards, up rope ladders and down long slides. It is a large area, over 950m², seemingly containing many dangers, but in reality very carefully designed to encourage children to explore and take risks. As they jump or climb, it becomes clear that even if they fall the angle of the ground will always lead them down to a safe landing.

The installation, which cost over 1 million Euros, is geared towards 6-10 year olds, and is situated next to a forest of high-rise blocks of flats. Children more used to watching television or to being told to stop kicking footballs around the car-parks of their buildings now spend their afternoon running around the ondulations of this structure. Whether this truly has educational merit is another subject, but the benefits to a child’s health and self-confidence should be clearly seen. It may also make these children feel like they finally have a place to call their own in the city.