Paris stylee walk on the wild side

Just out from the Mairie de Paris is this map of the most deprived areas of Paris, where they are investing in 211 million euros this year alone. We may have high taxes but at least the money is being invested in our city and it's inhabitants, including the most needy 350 000.

Attached to each area, there is a list of the number of inhabitants, the percentage of those under 20 years old and the percent unemployed (Chomage). The 24% foreigners we're not talking about these people, but mostly African and Maghrebin (North African) immigrants.

You could use this as a guide of where to buy that will eventually appreciate rather than hold it's value like the more priveleged parts of Paree. If you are on a limited budget and quite a pioneer. Like other capital cities, at least London (see Brixton) and New York (hipster-ville Williamsburg), Paris is gentrified up now and house prices in even places shown on this indicator like Belleville and Menilmontant have risen sharply over the years.

You could still choose the dodgy parts of town that are left (and cheaper), batten down the hatches, bribe your friends to visit you and then sooner or later you'll see a delicatessan selling over-priced Italian salami spring up on the corner where the drug addicts used to hang out.

In La Chapelle in the 18th, prices have risen by 21% between June 2005 - June 2006. It's here you find the quartier L Goutte d'Or where "Nana" was born - before I moved here I had to visit to see it was still a web of Zola-esqe crime and destitution. The answer is a resounding Yes. Don't ask me then why I decided to live nearby (Chateau Rouge) for the first year I was in Paris. I didn't realise it until I moved to a quartier "moins chaud" but it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I hadn't realised it but I had been internalising a kind of tension through the kind of "looking over my shoulder" behaviour and was getting worn down by the racy remarks from the North African men, young and old.

"Enfin, un quartier ancien au bâti très dégradé était concerné, la Goutte d’or, touchée par de lourds problèmes sociaux, de délinquance et de toxicomanie."

There are some extremely run-down buildings and social problems amongst the most visible, drug addiction.

So before jumping in as a pioneer, make sure you can hack it or will you feel unsafe coming from the Metro to your door late at night. You may not be able to hang out in your local Cafe either in that much comfort (okay sorry, I'm exaggerating but in some areas there are NO women in the cafes at all, except the odd prostitute). If this is a problem for you, stay away from some of these areas - at least until you are more streetwise because of course they are all fabulous in their own way too and I do still love Chateau Rouge and the time I spent there. The local Boulanger still remembers me when I pass by on the days I go to the fantatstic Marché Exotique on the rue Dejean. Very cheap and great for hard to find ingredients.

If you are thinking of renting your property to foreigners, especially short term holiday visitors, stay away from these areas on the map all together, yes, even Montmartre with the Sacre Coeur (oh, all right then, unless you are totaly stuck on the area like the fabulous Lamark Caulincourt) because sometimes people are very wary about going there at all, warned by alarmist guidebooks and Hotel Concierge. If it's too far from the Cafe Flore you'll be looking at an empty bookings calendar unless you've targetted a more Paree-Savvy type of visitor, of course these do exist.

Mais, J'aime ma ville en toute ses formes!

Comments

[Amy Alkon]

Very insightful post...as always!