Outside the Basilica of St.Denis there’s a building site followed by a shopping mall, and in the hinterland betwixt young guys skateboard for most of the day. For centuries, from the 10th century until the French Revolution, this was where French Kings of France and their families were buried.
Thus it was a significant place for the “revolution”. In 1789 the royal tombs were opened by workers, the bodies removed and disposed of in two nearby pits. The deposed King at the time of the revolution, Louis XVI, and his wife Marie Antoniette weren’t buried there at all.
Jean is nineteen, his parents are from Senegal. They came to France in the 1980s. He wanted to be a footballer, was good, very good, had “matches” with a professional team, though he doesn’t say which. He comes here most days to the mall, his mother lives in one of the nearby blocks on the way to the university. His friends come here as well, there’s stuff to discuss.
After the revolution, and then Napoleon’s rule and his first exile to Elba, the French Royalty returned to power, for a while. Searches were made for the corpses of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette: what was found was a few remains, a bones (pre DNA) that were possibly the king's, and some gray material, part of a lady's garter. All were added to the crypt at St Denis, and the bones of the old Kings brought back.
Jean wants to get on a course for IT, computers – he’s good at games. But its expensive, and he doesn’t have a job. There are ways to make money, but – you know – it’s difficult.
Viollet-Le-Duc the architect who was famous for his restoration work at Notre Dame also worked on the Basilica. These days it is still a tourist attraction, but for the specialist, not the generalist.
If he could Jean would like to live in America, not the centre of Paris. They don’t have the same problems with immigrants, he says. Walk two hundred metres from the Basilica and in the rows of housing blocks there are thousands like Jean, he says. They just want their chance.
1 comment:
Funny that you came here one day...
I actually recently bought a flat on the St-Denis canal closeby... This canal built under Napoleon (I believe) is very pleasant to live by, and full of many birds...
The city should florish in a few years as Luc Besson (Leon, the 5th element, Nikita, Le Grand Bleu) has started building the new center for French and European cinema, which will open during the 2012 Cannes festival (see Europacorp studios in Pleyel-St-Denis). This area should become a major media center....
You could have also mentionned that Henry the 4th might be reburied in the royal basilic there very soon, as his enbalmed head just got found lately;
that the "Legion d'Honneur monastory" built on the right of the royal basilic is one of the biggest in France and is splendid; the odd thing is that it became one of the most prestigious "public schools" in France (the british way), neighbouring districts with the highest rates of juvenile crime and unemployment for young men, hence the infamous "vols à la tir" mentioned repeatedly in the newspapers;
You could have added that the run down "couvent des Ursulines" has architecture-wise nothing to envy to the most beautiful houses in the parisian marais....
But the State has obviously given up its mission in those areas, and the communist mayor is better at repeating empty rhetoric than making his city nice to leave for its diverse population or at making it attractive for general tourism...
You should have also come to the subway station nearby (Porte de Paris) at 6 am in the morning. Because apart from those young men aspiring to fame in Uncle Sam's country, you would have seen all those brave men (from the construction industry) and those courageous women (in the housecleaning sector)ready to go to work and bring their contribution to the French economy. Those are the ones who should be put in the light.
Welcome again to the very charming city of St-Denis...
Anne-Marie, your French Madonna... ;-)
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