wow - I've always wanted to ride Tram 1 and never got around to it - will do next time as this is the side of Paris that I really love - more than all the touristed areas.

Merci for posting!

Thank you, Kerouac, for taking us were most tourists would not go. I thought the headstones particularly poignant…

I assume all this is outside the peripherique, but inside the A86. So less than 10 miles from the centre?

There's a HUGE amount of buildings in your snaps that would be the object of conservation society pressure and spontaneous gentrification at a similar distance from central London.

And though it might have been a bit early on a Sunday morning, where were the youngish white gentrifier families? There's clearly been a ton of State money thrown into improvement and maintenance: in Hackney or Lewishman, the newly-married forex dealers would be snapping up those properties and their wives doing them up - if the Montessori schools hadn't grabbed them first.

Thanks for sharing that trip. Very interesting change of perspective.

It's important to see those pictures to put into perspective what life is really like outside the view of the Eiffel Tower. It could be anywhere and not just France.

I did not read all the comments associated with the pictures but what do the Roma people do to afford to move from shanty towns to camper home?

Thankyou K2...love your work!
I shall travel that tram line( and others)during my stay in Feb 13 and will roam happely inside the La Courneuve market.
Working class suburbs of Paris with grit and character, not every tourists cup of tea but just fine by me...thanx again.

Flanner, we're still busy gentrifying the 18-19-20th arrondissements, so areas out along the T1 will have to wait. There has been some gentrification in Le Pré Saint Gervais and Montreuil, but those towns touch Paris -- same for Clichy and Saint Ouen to the north or Ivry and Issy to the south. Yuppies with extra money still prefer the west of Paris, where everything is neat and clean already.

If one wished to circumnavigate Paris by tram (one does) without stopping to see the sites, do you have an estimate of how long it would take to go right round?

It is something I like to do. I have done end-to-end across Rome on trams; all the MBTA lines in Boston, including the Orange Line when it was elevated; and several bus routes end to end in New York, London, San Francisco, and in Paris within the Peripherique. I like to watch the way neighborhoods unfold from class to class and ethnicity to ethnicity.

Your route has been on my radar screen for the last two trips, but I would love to do the entire route.

I don't even know where to begin to comment, other than to say another great report, k. I certainly learned a lot!

I didn't realize how large St. Denis was, to warrant so many public transportation connections. I've been there, but many years ago.

Thanks for the great photos and commentary.

In response to the Roma question, I can't say if this is applicable, as I just don't know enough, but there is a Roma caste system (they originally came from India, but I don't know if that's why), and some are artisans or musicians or other specific skilled workers, and some are in lower castes. Take a look here:
http://tzigania.com/romahierarchy.html

Very interesting and sad.

Kerouac: thanks for another fascinating look at a diferent part of Paris. I do love your trips!

If one wished to circumnavigate Paris by tram (one does) without stopping to see the sites, do you have an estimate of how long it would take to go right round?

The T3 tramway just inaugurated a huge new section this week and now goes two thirds of the way around the city -- but you have to change trams at Porte de Vincennes. I have not taken the complete trip yet, so I'm not sure how long it takes.

As for the T1 tram, I took it from one end to the other in just over one hour -- but it was not at all a peak period. It might take as long as 90 minutes at rush hour.

That was super interesting kerouac, thank you!

bookmarking

Thank you. Perhaps in May, if all works out as hoped, I'll make the circumnavigation and report back.

We're going to have to do this next week, Kerouac. Thank you.

And thanks, WillTravel, for the link.

The Belleville club LaJava has a New Year's Eve program, Tzigane An Nouvel, that looks pretty fun: http://www.la-java.fr/evenement.php?i=193

So is it Gitan/e or Tzigane? or both?

Means the same thing.

TTT

Oh, PalenQ, you're trying to send people to their doom!

Fascinating report, Kerouac ! Thank you.

Re. gentrifying, I've noticed that also some bits of the 17th arrondissement looked as if they were undergoing an active process of gentrification (or should I say re-gentrification ?)

I haven't made a report about it yet, but those of you who are interested in this tramway business but don't want to go out to the suburbs should know that the T3 tramway opened a huge new section last week and now goes two thirds of the way around the city from Porte de la Chapelle to the Pont de Garigliano (you have to change at Porte de Vincennes because they cut the line in half, but it is super easy).

They have put all sorts of artworks along the line, some of which are super obvious and others that are very discreet. My favorites are at Porte d'Aubervillers where the modules of a merry-go-round have taken flight independently, Porte de Bagnolet where a light pole has mutated, and Porte de Pantin where huge ants walk along a luminous panel under the périphérique.

For those of you with time on your hands, I'll let you know when I have a T3 tramway report ready.

We rode part of the T1 a few days ago, and then walked around St. Denis. Gorgeous basilica. And a cool experience, especially after the Django show at Cité de la Musique. Thanks, Kerouac!

Good pictures of ordinary scenes. But why would I want to spend thousands of dollars and waste my limited vacation time with a really uncomfortable overnight flight to see the sort of places that I could see in several cities within a couple of hundred miles of home?

You wouldn't, sumrcr, unless you had already been to a place innumerable times and seen and done all the ordinary things, or just were unusually curious and inquiring. kerouac's adventures aren't for ordinary tourists; that's what makes them so intriguing. I, for one, don't think I'll ever go to Paris again without going to some new, unusual place he has talked about and photographed (same for FrenchMystiqueTours) - but I've been to Paris 100+ times and am always looking for new experiences. kerouac and others offer lots of those.

The Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre, Michelin restaurants, Seine cruises, The Latin Quarter, etc., are not the only things Paris has to offer. For those of us who go back to Paris again and again, sometimes it's the "ordinary scenes" in places we're not familiar with that flesh out our relationship with that wonderful city. In a wonderful and insightful way.

There's more than loads of room on these forums for posts that deal with things other than the "main sites" of a city anywhere. If you don't want to "waste your time" with them, skip them. You're not the only kind of traveler out there, though you may be lumped with the majority.

Good point, StCirq, some travelers do fit the stereotype, but others are more nuanced. Some of us travel to escape the mundane, not sink back into it. Paris is great, yet parts of it are really like any other city. This is not a knock on kerouac at all; I find his reports very interesting, but they do not inspire me to leave my job, hop on a plane and spend my time and the last of my funds exploring the outskirts of Paris.There is a huge difference between living in the place and visiting it, as I have done only a couple of times, unfortunately. I hope to return to Paris in the near future, and when I do, I will go back to the parts of the city that drew me there in the first place. When central Paris loses its appeal, I will move on to other places on my bucket list.

OK, sumrcr...I'm as good with your approach as I am with kerouac's.