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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2011 5:05:37 GMT
Paris didn't always have an African neighbourhood. 50 years ago, most of the Africans were workers living in housing supplied by their employers. Often these were prefab barrack type buildings out in the suburbs. However, as the years went by and a lot of them preferred to settle permanently in France, the families arrived and it wasn't possible to live in barracks anymore. The area around the Château Rouge metro station already had plenty of immigrants and was cheap. There were several other areas that could have been chosen for another specific ethnic neighbourhood to form, but this sort of thing tends to happen by accident. The core of any such neighbourhood is the food. The market street right at the metro exit is rue Dejean, and it has become a typical African market, even though there are still a few European merchants there. Business is good for everybody. (more coming) |
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Post by bixaorellana on May 23, 2011 5:41:57 GMT
Too wonderful! I can't wait for the rest and wish I could catch a whiff of Chez Salem.
All that fresh okra! What's the item to its left?
Did the immigrants mostly come from one part of Africa, or from all over that continent?
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Post by tod2 on May 23, 2011 8:17:40 GMT
Kerouac you know how I absolutely love the 'strange' things about Paris and you can't please me more by showing these great photos of lesser visited areas where tourist fear to tread (Yay!).
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Post by mich64 on May 23, 2011 14:00:33 GMT
Tod, I too love when he does these essays for us. I can not get over the size of the peas! Bixa, I thought the items to the left were yellow tomatoes, I will be interested to find out what they are as well.
I enjoy all the colours Kerouac, it reminds me of Fumobici's report from Italy where he showed us all the dried fruit. Your photo of the okra and the peppers would make a nice framed print for anyones kitchen as I thought Fumobici's of the dried fruit would. They would be a nice pair to print. I am looking forward to more.
Cheers,
Mich
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2011 17:29:40 GMT
Frankly I am not sure what the item to the left of the okra is. My first guess would be some kind of mini gourd/squash. I will try to remember to look the next time I pass through.
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2011 17:55:41 GMT
I want you to know that this was a much more difficult report to make than a lot of my other reports. Many of these people are clandestine immigrants engaged in illegal trade. They don't much like being photographed by strangers with unclear motives. Therefore, I wasn't able to take pictures as freely as I would like, but I am pleased to announce that I am so sneaky that only once did someone run up to me in a threatening manner to make me delete the photo that I had just taken. People sell all sorts of things out on the street -- clothes, sunglasses, belts, pirated DVDs, odd fruit, strange herbs... It won't be until the end of summer that the women will be hawking big burlap bags of "mice! mice! mice!" (Actually, they are saying "maïs! maïs! maïs" and are selling roasted sweetcorn on the cob.) The police come through every 30 minutes... or twice a day... or not at all, depending on their mood. It sends everybody running for cover, with big plastic bags of merchandise. When the police are in a bad mood, they will destroy the cardboard boxes that serve as display stands. Usually, they don't bother because they are human beings like the rest of us. |
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2011 19:58:25 GMT
 "] There is clearly great pride in the concept of "Africa" because you find it in a large number of the names of the shops. (This would sort of be in contrast to the name "Paris Store" being used by the southeast Asians as the name of the 2nd biggest chain of Asian supermarkets in France.) There is great pride in being from Africa, even if you are also a Parisian.  But you can also find community pride in people from other countries.  |
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2011 5:09:33 GMT
If you need calves' feet or oxtail, this is the area to come to the butcher shops. |
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Post by bjd on May 24, 2011 6:58:23 GMT
Maybe you could take your photos with a cell phone -- that way it would be much more discreet.  Et "pas cher". Another area I don't know. Sure looks far from Woody Allen's Paris. |
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Post by patricklondon on May 24, 2011 10:47:03 GMT
Where isn't ?!
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Post by bjd on May 24, 2011 11:08:01 GMT
I haven't seen the movie yet, but at a guess, the 8th, 7th, 16th. You know, the boring areas.
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2011 11:43:00 GMT
Woody Allen said that for this particular movie, he only wanted to show perfect "picture postcard Paris." So there are plenty of shots of Concorde, the Champs Elysées, the banks of the Seine, the Louvre, the Musée Rodin and the charming cobblestone streets of Montmartre without even a single souvenir shop anywhere.
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2011 13:06:23 GMT
I really like the way you show it all, the nitty gritty and the kind of places tourists may never see. This makes the essay so much more interesting and real.
When I was in Paris last, I ended up in a similar kind of area, but just by pure accident. I found it all fascinating.
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Post by tod2 on May 24, 2011 13:44:00 GMT
Once again fantastic pics Kerouac! I'm glad you mentioned the difficulty in taking photos because I actually thought about that aspect..... When we passed through Swaziland en route to Kruger we encountered the same reaction of not wanting to be snapped - a great deal of shouting and arm waving as they saw the camera pointing out of the passenger window but we we just kept going.
Praise for the clean looking butcherie Musulmane displaying the most gorgeous oxtails I've ever seen! All visible fat trimmed away and ready for the pot. I am so impressed by the shiny display counters - not a finger print or smudge to be seen! Could you perhaps tell me which of the adverts with prices on are for oxtail?
I have to tell you and everyone else, that the Africans in Goutte D'Or are nothing like the Africans from South Africa. These days our restaurant waiters and waitresses are 99% from Nigeria, Congo, Zimbabwe and Malawi. You know it straight away when they serve you. Polite and professional.
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2011 18:34:40 GMT
Sorry, the price of oxtail is not visible on any of the signs that I can read, but I have regularly bought oxtail at Château Rouge and I recall that the basic price is along the lines of 9€ for 3kgs. That might seem like a lot of oxtail, but since more than 50% of it is bone to be discarded after boiling, it becomes a manageable amount. I did notice that one or two of the grocery stores had decided to be rather modern and chic, even if they sold the same products as the other places. The metro station becomes so overcrowded on Saturday that the RATP sends agents for traffic control. They even restrict access and only allow people into the station every couple minutes. I have never seen this at any other metro station in Paris. Fabric for dresses is an essential part of African culture. It is rather shocking to discover that nearly all of the fabrics are made in the Netherlands and Germany, most particularly the highly prized bazin. |
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2011 19:43:01 GMT
Posters for African music concerts are everywhere. I am often surprised to see that they are often in major venues like the Zénith, but since Paris is the capital of "world music" the renown of a lot of these musicians goes far beyond the immigrant community. Bring on the food! Unfortunately, I did not stay around to see it. But I will try to add some more photos to this thread in the future, because the area absolutely deserves it. |
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Post by mich64 on May 24, 2011 20:07:19 GMT
I like how the store vendors keep their stores so neat and orgarnized and that they utilize all their space. Thank you for including the slate! And, it is too bad for all of us that you could not stay for the street party, it looked like it would have been fun! Cheers,  Mich |
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Post by zona on May 24, 2011 20:51:43 GMT
Love the fabrics displayed in the window - what a vibrant photo! I have always been a bit hesitant of taking photos of people without permission; in some of the places I have been I was told it was not done unless you asked the person first. But I think having people in the photos can really capture the mood, especially with markets, etc. Kerouac2, do you usually have to be discreet when taking photos of people in Paris, or are people there just accustomed to having their photos snapped (due to tourist hordes, etc) for the most part?
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2011 21:16:13 GMT
I would say that Paris is one of the easiest cities in the world to get a picture of just about anything, indeed because of its status of being the most visited city in the world. Obviously it is better not to just shove a camera in somebody's face, but there are all sorts of techniques for getting certain shots that are either forbidden or might be refused -- the easiest one of course is to just pretend to be taking a photo of something else and then to slowly swing your camera around as though you are still examining the quality of the photo you just took.  But, working near the Champs Elysées, I probably appear furtively in at least 200 photos a day -- when I am not ruining them, because if I waited patiently for all of the people trying to take a picture of their companion in front of the Louis Vuitton store, I would never make it to the George V metro station.  |
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Post by bixaorellana on May 25, 2011 2:30:26 GMT
This is so great! I wonder if a person were scooped up from his bed at night & deposited in that area, where he'd think he was. Interesting and surprising about the African fabrics not coming from Africa. There are some traditionally dressed women from one area here who all sport long "Polish" kerchiefs on their heads. I asked one where it came from, & she said they ordered it from Los Angeles, California. I absolutely love the last picture of the parade, right before the tables ~~ practically the whole globe is represented in those faces. The menu is great, too -- so African, but with French wines and dessert. Have you eaten in the area often? |
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Post by hwinpp on May 25, 2011 2:42:57 GMT
If you need calves' feet or oxtail, this is the area to come to the butcher shops. I need! Chateau Rouge, is it? |
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Post by fumobici on May 25, 2011 3:38:17 GMT
Beautiful report. Paris as actual real city as opposed to collection of pittoresque cheesy tourist icons or stultifyingly banal high end shopping mecca.
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2011 6:31:14 GMT
If anybody wants to see more of the Goutte d'Or/Château Rouge area, I made a little cultural report last year when I unexpectedly encountered the Emperor of Château Rouge. |
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Post by tod2 on May 25, 2011 14:21:25 GMT
Looking at these photos just once isn't enough - Things I have noticed on second and third viewings are:
Plantins look about the same size as a large banana - I always thought they were at least double if not three times the size...
The little mini pumpkin like vegetables next to the okra are called 'dumpling squash' over here.
Traders set up makeshift stalls on the sidewalks just like here - nobody seems to mind that they pay no rent right in front of your own store and that they cause congestion to pedestrians. It all seems to add to the flavour of organised chaos...
I see some person has erected a pallet for a counter top by balancing it on a velib terminal!
In front of Kolti Bazaar the young man must be feeling a cool breeze passing through his underpants as his jeans slide south of his hips!
At the Restaurant La Nouvelle Histoire you can just make out the remnants of Christmas window decorations - the camels seem to have survived the best..
The glorious colours of the tissus Africains like at Kumasi Market store have got me thinking. We have so many immigrants from up north perusing fabric in my store, maybe it would be a good move to import some and see if they are interested?! We do have a similar cotton fabric which is very popular with the locals called Shweshewe ( pronounced shhh -wez -swhere) but it is very dull browns, blues and reds.
I am going to grab a tin or two of that strange looking concoction called Trofai when I'm next in Paris!
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2011 17:38:52 GMT
But tod2, the poster for Trofai says to buy it "so that you will never miss Africa"! That is hardly an appropriate product for you. ;D I am absolutely certain that the immigrants from up north would like some more colourful fabrics. If you can supply colourful cotton, I'm sure they will buy it. Sorry to say, Bixa, that I have never eaten in any of the restaurants in the area. Strangely enough, I have eaten in African restaurants on the other side of the city. I just don't feel like I am eating out when I eat in my own neighbourhood (or next to it). However, a new African place has just opened on my route between my mother's nursing home and my place, and they have takeaway service, so I am pretty sure that I will give them a try. Here are two other places that I pass every day.  I'm pretty sure that this place must sell ingredients for marabout potions.  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2012 13:12:24 GMT
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Post by guest on Nov 3, 2012 9:37:44 GMT
the "thing to the left" is a garden egg. garden eggs are vegetables that come in many shapes, colours and sizes, and are eaten in many parts of africa as a fruit, or make stews with.
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2014 5:48:23 GMT
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Post by bjd on May 3, 2014 8:01:26 GMT
The green store, Jenebou, is the same as just above in one of your last pictures from 2011. Is it your different camera or has the green paint faded?
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2014 10:17:08 GMT
Probably the automatic adjustment because of the sun washed out the photo. I was just happy to finally get a shot of that store head on because it nearly always has a van parked directly in front.
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Et "pas cher".
