These are apparently working class suburbs that ring France's larger cities. Are they full of hot blue collar guys who will fix your rear tire? Do they all get a free baguette every day? Could we expect to see a hot guy sporting a jaunty beret and singing a Maurice Chevalier tune to a French twink?
DataLoungers, tell me all about France's banlieue
by Anonymous | reply 29 | February 22, 2021 10:44 PM |
They're full of Muslims and people from the former colonies (mostly African). I know because my parents live in a a town south of Paris accessible by the RER (train).
by Anonymous | reply 1 | February 22, 2021 11:11 AM |
The "blue collar" (actually unemployed) guys you meet there are less likely to fix your tire than torch your car.
They're also more likely to be wearing a turban than a beret, and more likely to stab you than sing to you.
But otherwise, your assumptions are totally correct, OP.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | February 22, 2021 12:05 PM |
I had to drive through Paris to get to Normandy, and I took a wrong turn and ended up in a banlieue. It was scary, but probably no different than a rough neighborhood in a large American city. It kind of reminded me of a dirtier, more rundown version of a high-crime neighborhood in Washington, DC.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | February 22, 2021 12:25 PM |
Those complexes at R2's link look like a Parisian Pruitt-Igoe and just as "charming."
by Anonymous | reply 5 | February 22, 2021 12:41 PM |
Maybe 30 years ago, OP. Now it is what R1 said.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | February 22, 2021 1:03 PM |
DISTRICT 13 is a great action movie set there.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | February 22, 2021 1:07 PM |
Far fewer stink sleeves than the usual French towns.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | February 22, 2021 1:08 PM |
Shocking revelation of the racial divide in France. Middle Eastern and African families and their angry, hopeless kids. Has seemed like a powder keg for decades now. Far from the glamorous cite or the quaint ville of advertising.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | February 22, 2021 1:39 PM |
They're full of people who will happily behead you in the middle of street.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | February 22, 2021 1:40 PM |
Isn't it terrible that the impact of colonialism still affects dear France?
Much as slavery's curse still haunts America.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | February 22, 2021 1:43 PM |
Lots of clothes drying on balconies and unsightly dish antennas.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | February 22, 2021 1:45 PM |
Colonialism R11? Uh no. Decades of empty-headed immigrant policies and culture clash.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | February 22, 2021 1:49 PM |
After the terror attacks of 2015, France resolved to do better by its foreign immigrants so they didn’t feel so disillusioned.
Judging by a 2018 taxi ride in Paris, where a France-born driver of Algerian descent went on about how much he hates French people, I’d say they have a ways to go. (I thought he would go off when I said I was American, but he went on about how much he wishes he could move to America).
by Anonymous | reply 14 | February 22, 2021 1:57 PM |
France still reaps billions from former African colonies as payment for their "independence" (got a bad habit from extorting Haiti) maybe if it had not destabilized these African countries and let them govern themselves in peace perhaps they wouldn't have many African refugees.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | February 22, 2021 1:57 PM |
R15 France's former African colonies are tribal and Islamic. Governance and peace are both unknown factors.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | February 22, 2021 2:02 PM |
I honestly don’t think there is a solution to resolve the entrenched bitterness of non-white French. The great grandchildren of former colonialists rage who anger at “the French”. It’s a very different history than African Americans. But at least in US, there is some acknowledgement by a large minority that a debt is owed and affirmative action needs to be taken. I honestly don’t see a French resolution.
Recently read “Submisssion” - which was an insightful look at the French view of non-French cultures and people. Further entrenched my view that there is no happy coexistence possible.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | February 22, 2021 2:22 PM |
Never heard of her.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | February 22, 2021 2:31 PM |
[Quote]maybe if it had not destabilized these African countries and let them govern themselves in peace perhaps they wouldn't have many African refugees.
This is hilarious.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | February 22, 2021 2:44 PM |
I lived in St-Denis, which is in the notorious 93rd Département. It was always working class, but these days is now predominantly working class North African immigrants and their French born children. If a city has “Villeneuve” in its name, (trans., New Town) you can expect to find the dispossessed warehoused in charmless tower blocks.
While the French welfare state affords a certain quality of life that many of the poor in the US would envy, in the banlieues there remains a pervasive sense of malaise and despair that comes with living literally and figuratively on the margins of mainstream society.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | February 22, 2021 2:48 PM |
Watch "Engrenages" ("The Spiral" in English) to get a better sense of what Paris looks like outside the central picture postcard sites with charming cafes and pain au chocolat.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | February 22, 2021 2:52 PM |
OP is a shit stirrer. Typical queen.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | February 22, 2021 2:52 PM |
If it's anything like this film, it's terrifying.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | February 22, 2021 2:54 PM |
They have a certain je ne sais quoi!
by Anonymous | reply 24 | February 22, 2021 3:01 PM |
"Could we expect to see a hot guy sporting a jaunty beret and singing a Maurice Chevalier tune to a French twink?"
No, not since the Allies liberated Paris in 1944.
And I doubt Chevalier would have surfaced by then anyway: he was a collaborationist during the Nazi occupation.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | February 22, 2021 3:09 PM |
The shitty Europeans get what they deserve for raping the world and subjugating three quarters of the world. Payback is hell, deal with it.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | February 22, 2021 3:26 PM |
They are absolute shot holes and the average Muslim male in those neighborhoods is extremely likely to be a homophobe who would gladly behead gay men.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | February 22, 2021 3:32 PM |
*shit holes, not shot holes. Damn autocorrect.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | February 22, 2021 3:33 PM |
So true r11 so true.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | February 22, 2021 10:44 PM |