the Para cycling road races will be held in Clichy-sous-Bois Olympic Membership - Free Live Stream Sports & Original Series - join now that Para road cycling will live out its hours of glory Paris 2024 has laid out a 14.2-kilometer circuit capable of adapting to each event and category (H runners will head east through the Bondy forest the difficulties begin with the côte de Courtry (1 km at 4.5%) Runners then head back towards Clichy-sous-Bois via the Bois de Bernouille to reach the final difficulty of the course the côte de Clichy-sous-Bois (850m at 4.7%) The mixed team relay will take place on an even more dynamic 1.8 km course in the heart of Clichy-sous-Bois 850m at 4.7%: located just over a kilometer from the start/finish line The fresher competitors will be able to make the final difference and go for a gold medal this climb could take on an Alpes d'Huez air The grassy verges and embankments are ideal for gathering the crowds to cheer on the para-cyclists at the top of this climb which will wreak havoc on the peloton as it progresses Boulevard Émile Zola: the starting and finishing point of the race this boulevard will be the scene of major exploits that will go down in history which will never stray far from its 1.8-kilometre loop Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker LVMH strives to ensure the long-term development of each of its Maisons in keeping with their identity BackCOMMITMENTSCommitted to positive impact environmental and cultural initiatives with a long-term vision The Group works closely with numerous stakeholders that address important social issues BackMAISONSLVMH is home to 75 distinguished Maisons rooted in six different sectors each of our brands builds on a specialty legacy while keeping an unwavering focus on the exquisite caliber of its products Home Wines & Spirits Home Fashion & Leather goods Home Perfumes & Cosmetics Home Watches & Jewelry Home Selective Retailing Home Other activities BackJOINUSWith more than 75 prestigious Maisons covering six business sectors, LVMH offers boundless opportunities. 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LVMH x FORMULA 1®InvestorsBackINVESTORSLVMH with 84.7 billion euros revenue in 2024 and a retail network of over 6,300 stores worldwide Craft and Customer Experience professionsPublished on 03.07.2025 • 3 MINUTESSavoir-faireLVMH LVMH is celebrating the 10th edition of the “You & ME” tour reaffirming the Group’s commitment to unique Métiers d'Excellence skills by raising awareness among young generations and promoting their employability this unique traveling vocational event will have made stops in four cities in France Designed to better guide visitors in their career orientation the “You & ME” events offer an unprecedented immersive experience to middle school and high school students as well as job seekers and people interested in a career transition To meet the challenges in a sector with a shortage of qualified candidates – over 20,000 skilled jobs go unfilled each year in France – this tour was initiated in 2016 in Clichy-sous-Bois promoting the diversity of these professions and the career opportunities they offer LVMH is meeting its future talents in Clichy-sous-Bois at the Armand Desmet Gymnasium the birthplace of the initiative launched in 2015 to showcase its 280 Métiers d’Excellence and provide access to its many job and training opportunities visitors will be able to discover professions such as cosmetic formulation (LVMH Research) leather goods craftsmanship (Louis Vuitton) as well as customer experience roles (Louis Vuitton Several independent artisans who are suppliers of the LVMH Group will also share their passion and expertise in partnership with the Institut pour les Savoir-faire Français specializing in pleating and textile embellishment; Margot Perotin an embroiderer; and Lucie Ponard and Anne Abgadou-Masson The event will be inaugurated by Olivier Klein Mayor of Clichy-sous-Bois and former minister; Xavier Lemoine Mayor of Montfermeil; Maud Alvarez-Pereyre Human Resources Director of the LVMH Group; and Marc-Antoine Jamet The fair is open to everyone with free access throughout the day with specific time slots reserved for school groups · Discover their vocation: Through an orientation quiz visitors can find out which category of Métiers (Design or Customer Experience) best matches their affinities After discovering iconic products from LVMH Maisons they can meet with experts in various skillsets as well as HR representatives from LVMH Maisons and representatives from our partner schools Orientation guides will also be available to assist them in their discovery of the underlying savoir-faire · Experience the Métiers d'Excellence face-to-face during participatory workshops led by Virtuosos and apprentices from LVMH Maisons as well as new “savoir-faire trunks” from Hennessy and Maison Francis Kurkdjian offer a unique immersion into the heart of our expertise LVMH has been present in Clichy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil for 20 years with the Culture & Creation fashion show In addition to preserving and passing on unique savoir-faire the Group supports vocational training and employment through the Institut des Vocations pour l'Emploi (LIVE) which assists people over 25 who wish to embark on a new professional project the Métiers d'Excellence also organizes Excellent workplace discovery internships at LVMH Maisons for students from Clichy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil in their final year of middle school giving them a chance to learn about these professions firsthand "You & ME" pursues its commitment in collaboration with educational and community partners working to raise awareness among young people and the public around the Métiers d’Excellence the Group announced the launch of a nationwide study conducted with the Institut pour les Savoir-faire Français The study will analyze perceptions of these professions and identify barriers and expectations among younger generations in order to adjust and strengthen awareness efforts for this important sector The results of the study will be made public during the launch of the You & ME 2026 tour LVMH is continuing its initiatives to facilitate access to these professions with the announcement of a new partnership with the Fondation des Femmes The Group's collaboration initiated in 2022 with Le Refuge continues as well LVMH is also joining the European Alliance for Apprenticeships at the invitation of the European Commission recognizing the work carried out by the LVMH Group over the past decade in multiple European countries The "You & ME" tour is set to continue in Italy visiting Rome on March 20 and Florence on April 4 and 5 Next slide Open the gallery Nos actualitésVoir toutes nos actualités News LVMHLVMH Métiers d’Excellence completes You & ME tour in France at Clichy-sous-Bois, where the initiative was launched. 4,500 job offers available in Design, Craft and Customer Experience professionsCOPYRIGHTS In addition to the station's design, EMBT’s proposal will provide a new public square for the renewed neighborhood of Clichy-sous-bois that will serve as a symbol of change following the violent riots of 2005. “We want to transform this grey and abandoned area into a vivid and colorful plaza, that will inspire joy and optimism,” stated EMBT.  More about the winning design, after the break. If you have done all of this and still can't find the email You don't have permission to access the page you requested What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed Olympic Membership - Free Live Stream Sports & Original Series - join now! 🥇 The atmosphere was rather chill on the morning of 4 September in Clichy-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis) you could sense something was a little unusual With good reason: the entire Para cycling road peloton had taken possession of the premises Despite an early start to the session at 8am the start/finish area was already packed with spectators Some of them didn't have to travel far leaning on her windows just a dozen metres from the finish line of this 14.2 kilometre individual time trial just a stone's throw from the Henri Barbusse sports complex As the clouds gradually cleared as the morning wore on the Para cyclists made their way down the finish line They all got a round of applause from the fans but it was the representatives of the French team who stood out from the rest but also a privilege for the medal winners many of whom were in the French clan today the regular roar of the two helicopters filming the race heralds the imminent arrival of the riders It was almost like being on the roads of the Tour de France the speaker announcing the times and the fans banging on the advertising hoardings to support the Para athletes in their final efforts at the start of the last bend in the route a few pupils from the Romain Rolland secondary school were wearing bewildered faces the context of the day didn't really seem conducive to the first lessons and tests of the year with their share of anthems and lively music And it's been a great success in the bike park as the number of visitors increased in the early afternoon to which must be added the three from the morning ‘And it's another medal for the French team The clamour that went up was heart-warming and reflected the success of this cycling event organised outside Paris We're not used to that,’ said Dorian Foulon the day's bronze medallist in the C5 category where the public are knocking to cheer them on the Games are a chance to travel around the world each Para athlete received a standing ovation as they crossed the finish line with cyclists coming past every 30 seconds a mother who came along with her two young sons who couldn't miss a moment of the action Djemba Diatite stood for hours in line to feed her growing family The coronavirus pandemic has turned her world upside down two children to feed and another on the way Diatite said even tomatoes were now too expensive relieved that a local group in her Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois stepped in with help Clichy-sous-Bois — where fiery nationwide riots started in 2005 — is just 23 kilometers (14 miles) northeast of the French capital restless youth and residents teetering on the poverty line seeing a looming crisis triggered by food shortages and with scattered unrest simmering in impoverished suburbs the French government announced 39 million euros (nearly $42.1 million) for communities in need Providing food aid might be the most fixable of the longstanding problems in the heavily immigrant housing projects ringing France’s large cities Leader after leader has tried and failed to find remedies for often-dilapidated and cramped housing the entrenched discrimination against minorities that limits their job prospects in France Some residents say they felt confined years before France imposed strict coronavirus lockdown measures on March 17 “I feel the social crisis is growing with confinement,” said Clichy-Sous-Bois Mayor Olivier Klein in a way we’ve never seen,” he told France Info radio the smallest spark can trigger still more tension.” with youths targeting French police in confrontations that end in clouds of tear gas The town is where filmmaker Ladj Ly shot his Oscar-nominated modern police drama “Les Misérables.” A call for calm came from an unlikely person a 30-year-old man with a long criminal record who crashed his motorcycle into the open door of a police car in Villeneuve-la-Garenne As claims that police were at fault spread across the internet the man from his hospital bed implored gangs to “go home,” in a video released by his lawyer Clichy-sous-Bois was the spark for nationwide rioting 15 years ago Nightly TV images of the destruction awakened many in France to large swaths of a population they barely knew existed The lockdown is again shining a spotlight on those who struggle even in the best of times The town is in the poorest region of mainland France where the overall mortality rate has more than doubled since March 1 when the country began counting virus deaths according to national statistics agency Insee Experts have blamed the density of the population the difficulty of social distancing in large families and the fact that those in poorer areas often have jobs with a higher risk of infection “This crisis is simply making (the problems) much more visible,” said Mohamed Mechmache which grew out of the riots and is distributing food in Clichy-sous-Bois Thousands now line up twice a week for the distribution organized after the coronavirus lockdown began Her husband drives a bus at Paris’ Orly Airport which closed last month due to the lull in air traffic Their growing family lives in a 26-square-meter (less than 280-square foot) apartment “There is a very large accumulation of inequalities that often increase” in a crisis “We’re moving toward a large social crisis.” About 70% of Clichy-sous-Bois is of immigrant origin Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said since the start of the lockdown police have carried out checks on 220,000 people in Seine-Saint-Denis to ensure confinement rules are respected Some police attribute scattered violence to the squeeze on drug dealers during the lockdown “Traffickers want to eliminate all police presence,” tweeted Linda Kebbab dismissed the violence as just “another problem” among the many facing France’s poor suburbs But he predicted a worst-case scenario should the food distributions stop “I dare to hope that there will be an awareness at the end of this lockdown to tackle the problems of inequality which have existed for more than 30 years,” he told The Associated Press “it’s the moment to return to the fundamental challenge But she says she doubts that kind of political investment will happen adding that “an explosion is not to be excluded.” A tram that allows Clichy-sous-Bois residents to connect more easily with Paris — and jobs — opened in December In the nearby housing project known as Les Bosquets dilapidated high rises used by drug dealers were razed several years ago fulfilling a government promise after the 2005 riots “But you don’t transform the social dimension by fixing … architectural problems,” Bacque said © 1996 - 2025 NewsHour Productions LLC PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization Subscribe to Here's the Deal with Lisa Desjardins A game of golf-foot being played at Lafayette Anticipations in Paris Of the many Olympics-themed exhibitions taking place in Paris this summer a two-part show at Lafayette Anticipations and the Ateliers Médicis a branch of the Franco-Algerian artist Neil Beloufa’s practice dedicated to tech-led cultural projects the exhibition has been imagined and designed by 60 students from the Alfred Nobel secondary school in Clichy-sous-Bois who were given carte blanche to conjure their own alternative Olympic park the curator and director of Lafayette Anticipations says Beloufa came to her with the idea for a show that would “give pride of place to the student’s own imaginaries The result is an escape-game-cum-theme-park that invites visitors on a quest to retrieve the Olympic flame The rides dreamt up by the students “cast an eye that is at times idealised at times critical of the world around them”—but always filled with a lot of humour Among them is an urban rodeo ride on a motorcycle; a labyrinth set in a post-apocalyptic forest; and Golf-foot the part of the show at the Atelier Médicis takes visitors back into the hacker’s storied past as an 18th-century filibuster shedding light on the reasons that led him to sabotage the Olympics and his demands for its return accompanied the students through workshops giving them access to his studio and the facilities at Lafayette Anticipations and the Ateliers Médicis He also helped them with his technology skills to make the project connected and interactive The playful and highly narrativised nature of the project is reminiscent of Beloufa’s own practice; during the pandemic he developed Screen Talk (2020) a zany web-based game set in a world in the throes of a hallucination-inducing pandemic “Neil and I are interested in the question of culture: what do we call culture and who it speaks to,” Lamarche-Vadel says Some of the students have also been hired to work at Lafayette Anticipations during the summer “We’re trying to create a virtuous process of transmission and empowerment,” Lamarche-Vadel explains “that will allow the students to develop new skills and experiences that might help them with their future careers something which was not really in the cards for them a year ago • Gold Rush, Lafayette Anticipations, Paris, until 1 September; Ateliers Médicis, Clichy-sous-Bois, until 27 July news15 November 2017Rem Koolhaas transforms Paris building into moving gallery for French retail giant’s cultural foundationMobile floors in Lafayette Anticipations's central exhibition space will operate as ‘curatorial machine’ France – Cyclists have a term called “sad climbing.” It means to take inclines at their own pace instead of trying to match others Dennis Connors lived that during the men’s T1-2 road race on Saturday afternoon at the 2024 Paris Paralympics The 42.6-kilometer course consisted of three 14.2-kilometer laps with hill portions of 1 kilometer at 4.5% and 850 meters at 4.7% The Marine veteran anticipated struggling to drag his 6-foot frame over the hills on his tricycle So he and his coach devised a plan to let his competitors blow past him before he caught up on the flats and declines coming back three times to the leading group and the last time to the chasing group before sprinting to a second-place finish in Clichy-sous-Bois “I planned on getting dropped,” said Connors climbed them at my own pace and conserved energy so that I had enough to go on that last climb.” The silver medal was Connors’ first in his Paralympics debut The former intelligence officer was the defending world champion in the event China’s Chen Jianxin flew the coup the last time Connors was dropped to win the event in 1:15.08 who suffered multiple traumatic brain injuries during three tours in Iraq that caused ataxia – which affects his ability to comprehend space and his place in it – and two strokes that left him partially paralyzed on his left side “It’s a sign of sacrifice,” Connors said of the silver hanging around his neck Did it for all the vets … all the guys who aren’t here Connors found himself third in a group of four with Columbia’s Juan Jose Betancourt Quiroga Germany’s Maximilian Jaeger and Austria’s Wolfgang Steinbichler Connors stayed patient while the other three tried to make their moves native jumped onto the wheels each time before seeing his opportunity to beat them down the home stretch Betancourt Quiroga and Jaeger came in at the same time at Connors in third and fourth place Connors’ final effort completed a comeback in which he was 21 seconds out of medal contention at the start of the lap “I’ve gone too early too many times and have been beaten,” Connors said I saw the hole that I needed and took it.” Connors has the chance for a true homecoming in four years’ time resident said most of his family is from Southern California with Los Angeles as the host of the next Summer Games Connors had 14 members of his family cheering him on in France on Saturday “LA is going to be a big deal,” Connors said and I’d love to represent my country again if I can.” Tuesday World Subscribers only In Zurich the leaf blower war or the anti-'woke' backlash World Subscribers only Germany's Friedrich Merz is embracing pragmatism World Subscribers only Trump-Carney meeting: Canada seeks reconciliation World Subscribers only Friedrich Merz bets on two private sector converts to revive the German economy and reform the state World Subscribers only Founder of Sant'Egidio community fears next pope could undo Francis's legacy Opinion Subscribers only 'Russian gas and Europe is an old story that ended badly Economy Subscribers only Europe's steel industry flattened by crisis World Subscribers only How European countries plan to fund defense efforts France Subscribers only Macron announces citizens' convention on school schedules France Subscribers only 21 charged over French prison attacks as 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diaries are revealed Magazine Subscribers only For Jewish cartoonist Joann Sfar 2025."> Pixels Subscribers only Golden Owl solution is revealed but leaves players of 31-year hunt disappointed Pixels Subscribers only Secrets of decades-long Golden Owl treasure hunt to be revealed Lifestyle Inside Chanel's French leather workshops Culture Subscribers only The marvelous bronzes of Angkor on display at the Musée Guimet in Paris After the deaths of Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré in an electricity substation the resulting riots across France led to a state of emergency in November 2005 By Aline Leclerc STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP On Thursday Muhittin Altun and seven of their friends spent the afternoon playing football A local man thought he saw two of them entering a construction site a third "keeping watch," and called the police officers were on the scene: one of the youths was arrested quickly caught by other police teams called in as reinforcements scaled the 3-meter enclosure of an EDF power plant and the high wall of the transformer without realizing the danger Clichy-sous-Bois experienced its first night of rioting Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy made initial statements suggesting that the victims were thieves despite the fact that the police officers testified in their initial statements that they had not observed any theft or damage on the site they had visited 300 CRS riot police and gendarmes clashed in Clichy with a hail of stones and Molotov cocktails Sarkozy announced the opening of an inquiry to uncover the "truth" about "this tragedy" while asserting from the outset that the "police were not pursuing these young people." This view was not shared by the victims' families who lodged a complaint against police officers for non-assistance to a person in danger recordings suggest that they knew the young people were in mortal danger and did not intervene a tear gas grenade exploded in front of the entrance to the Bilal mosque The riots spread throughout the Paris region the crisis exacerbated existing rivalries between de Villepin and Sarkozy who started displaying their disagreements more and more openly while the Socialist opposition criticized the government's "powerlessness" and worried about the "risk of aggravation." a woman was seriously burned in a bus fire in Sevran a pensioner who had come to put out a rubbish fire was killed by a violent punch in Stains and police officers were filmed assaulting a man in La Courneuve More than 1,400 cars were set alight on the night of November 7 Sarkozy spoke of actions that were "not spontaneous" and were "perfectly organized" (a report by the intelligence services three weeks later stated the opposite) The prime minister decided to take action: he announced the introduction of the "state of emergency," a law conceived during the Algerian War curfews could be introduced wherever mayors deemed it necessary It would be 10 days before normalcy was restored and 233 public buildings and 74 private ones were damaged in 300 different districts two police officers appeared before the criminal court for failure to assist a person in danger in the death of Zyed and Bouna This article was originally published in French on October 25 Aline Leclerc Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version Lecture du Monde en cours sur un autre appareil Vous pouvez lire Le Monde sur un seul appareil à la fois Ce message s’affichera sur l’autre appareil Parce qu’une autre personne (ou vous) est en train de lire Le Monde avec ce compte sur un autre appareil Vous ne pouvez lire Le Monde que sur un seul appareil à la fois (ordinateur En cliquant sur « Continuer à lire ici » et en vous assurant que vous êtes la seule personne à consulter Le Monde avec ce compte Que se passera-t-il si vous continuez à lire ici Ce dernier restera connecté avec ce compte Vous pouvez vous connecter avec votre compte sur autant d’appareils que vous le souhaitez mais en les utilisant à des moments différents Nous vous conseillons de modifier votre mot de passe Votre abonnement n’autorise pas la lecture de cet article merci de contacter notre service commercial seemingly nonplussed that they were getting drenched A storm was blowing rain into the building on the Chêne Pointu estate Nor were there any lobby windows – just buckled metal and a few shards of smashed-out glass surrounded by graffiti saying "Fuck the police" but anyway there weren't enough of them for all the people crammed into the block some sharing rooms in flats run by slum landlords The lift hadn't worked for six years and residents who couldn't drag their shopping up the unlit stairwell had to rely on young "porters" Some rigged up pulley systems to hoist shopping to their windows where the glass was cracked and fixed with tape Some apartments had walls black with mould Last year there were 20 tuberculosis cases here "Even in the third world it's not like this," said Merzuk Described by a Socialist politician as "France's most run-down estate", La Chêne Pointu has a special place in France's psyche. It was here in Clichy-sous-Bois in 2005 that the deaths of two boys who had been running from police were the catalyst for the worst riots in modern French history. Three weeks of uprisings spread through high-rise estates across France with more than 9,000 cars torched and dozens of public buildings trashed The government declared a state of national emergency it seemed that the high-rise ghettoes of France's neglected banlieues would have to change forever the latest twist in a seven-year fight by the boys' families for justice revealed how little has really changed where more than 70% of the 6,000 residents live under the poverty line There has been no trial over the deaths of Zyed Benna who were electrocuted while hiding from police in a sub- station Last week France's highest court overturned a ruling that the case be dropped Two police officers could now face trial for failing to come to the boys' aid "It is terrible it has taken seven years to get a possibility of justice," said Sana Abdelhafidh "But nothing's going to change here – if anything There's a semblance of new construction work but fundamentally it is still the same." it could plunge to the heart of a central problem still plaguing French society and which has been the trigger for more recent riots from Clermont-Ferrand in central France to Amiens in the Somme: the dire relationship between police and young people particularly non-white young men and teenagers daily discrimination and racism have run local people into the ground in the poorest parts of Clichy-sous-Bois it is the daily conflict with police that remains a tinderbox At the centre of the Zyed and Bouna deaths is the continuing issue of police controls This year more than 20 citizens sued the government over alleged racist policing claiming that they were stopped by police purely because of the colour of their skin In January the US-based Human Rights Watch accused French police of carrying out identity checks based on race A study by the CNRS research institute showed that people of Arab appearance were eight times more likely to be stopped than white people Police unions denied outright that racism was at play in what campaigners say are continual, arbitrary and at times insulting and aggressive stops made on housing estates, or at Paris locations like the Gare du Nord or in "white" places such as around the Eiffel tower black people are stopped and asked what they are doing Non-white teenagers in certain areas complain of being frisked on their way home from school While for years the tense relationship with police was blamed on the hardline policies of rightwing Nicolas Sarkozy the Socialist François Hollande is now under pressure to act Sarkozy promised during his campaign that the "discrimination" of constant stop and searches against non-white people merely walking down the street would stop But the government is divided over a promise to issue receipts after police checks a spokeswoman for the lobby group Stop Le Contrôle au Faciès said the Zyed and Bouna deaths "have marked a whole generation in France because it could have happened to any of us" the boys had gone for a football match and were coming home for the evening Ramadan meal although an inquiry established that they had done nothing wrong The families' lawyers pointed to the "absurdity" of kids running just because of the police and police chasing just because they were running The two boys hid in an electricity sub- station and were killed by tens of thousands of volts a community worker who after the riots founded the community pressure group AcLefeu said: "This struggle for justice is not against the police; it is about them taking the stand and saying what happened it is important to be acquitted before a court It has been hard to convince young people to move beyond that tense relationship with police when they thought there was a sense of impunity feel there has been no fundamental change here since the riots the economic crisis had made the scourge of unemployment even worse – on estates such as La Chêne Pointu where more than half the population is under 25 Young French people here still say their address skin colour and "non-French-sounding names" mean that their CVs are thrown in the bin Despite new building work and the town's first ever police station – which is so grandiose it looks like an opera house – there is still no unemployment office The state has a plan to renovate the privately owned Chêne Pointu estate but there is still no direct transport route from the capital in his council flat in the high-rise estates of Villiers-le- Bel Mara Kanté explains why the notion of justice for Zyed and Bouna is so important across France riots broke out in Villiers-le-Bel after two teenagers were killed when a motorbike they were riding collided with a police car It was the first time firearms were widely used against police a local football star who had trials in England and played no role in the attacks on police He was cleared on appeal after a controversial trial before which the police had offered cash rewards and anonymity in exchange for witness statements "I am not the only one who's been through something like this; lots of people have," he said "It is just that I fought hard to speak out about it There is a justice system with several speeds depending on your social class "It is still very tense between young people and police here There is a pseudo-politeness to them which is like putting a tiny bit of sticking plaster over a big open scar Society still seems totally divided." This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025 The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media that Para cycling road will be living out its hours of glory Paris 2024 has laid out a 14.2-kilometre circuit that can be adapted to each event and each category (H the riders will head east through the Bondy forest starting with the Courtry climb (1 kilometre at 4.5%) The racers then head back towards Clichy-sous-Bois via the Bois de Bernouille to reach the final climb of the course The mixed team relay will take place on an even more dynamic 1.8-kilometre course in the heart of Clichy-sous-Bois To find out more about the circuit around Clichy-sous-Bois VISUAL DISABILITY: maximum visual acuity of 1/10th of the better eye after correction or visual field of 40°. Each classification category begins with the letter B, which stands for ‘Blind’. Want to find out more about Road Ciclyng? Discover the sport's presentation and rules. 1min30 to understand it all! Competition will be fierce in these events. Among the various pelotons, several names will be worth keeping an eye on after their medals at past Paralympic Games: SOME INTERNATIONAL PARA-ATHLETES TO KEEP AN EYE ON TOO: It's free! No need to book a place. All you have to do is go to the trackside in Clichy-sous-Bois to enjoy a magnificent show. Book your tickets for the Paralympic Games Text description provided by the architects. This facility, located in the outer suburbs of Paris, is emblematic of the renewal of public cultural policies. The program aims to create new dynamics between artistic creation, research, and education, by creating spaces for artists’ workshops, exhibitions, performances and rehearsals. It is a place dedicated to the diversity of gesture and speech. The building is structured around a radiating configuration which deconstructs the concept of the “black box”. The main auditorium, located in the center, opens onto all the spaces around, creating possibilities for a dozen different scenic configurations. Performances and exhibitions are therefore free to take place simultaneously and evolve. You'll now receive updates based on what you follow Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors Three Medals in the Morning, Eight in the Afternoon! The Performance of the French Para-Cycling Team is Simply Exceptional on This First Day of Road Competitions in Seine-Saint-Denis. Élie de Carvalho and his pilot Mickaël Guichard kicked things off. The duo showed remarkable consistency in the B category (for the visually impaired). Over the 28-kilometer distance, which they completed in 34 minutes and 23 seconds, they rode fast, very fast. Not fast enough to surpass Tristan Bangma and Patrick Bos, but definitely fast enough to earn a well-deserved silver medal. "It's incredible! We've been working for this for months, and now it's happening. It's amazing. The strongest won, so no disappointment, but we're getting closer and closer to first place. We have a fairly lightweight and rather enduring tandem, so the course suited us well! We studied it thoroughly, so we knew we could do well. For Friday, I think we'll be even stronger. We're aiming for the gold medal." This race could have brought another medal to the French team, but bad luck struck the duo Alexandre Lloveras/Yoan Paillot: "There was an accident on the course. Emergency services were on the scene, and their vehicle took up a lot of space on the road. It happened in a turn that normally we'd take quickly, but this time we almost had to stop. We lost the medal here, no doubt about it," lamented the tandem, who indeed missed the bronze medal by just a second and a half. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Equipe France (@equipefra) ‘It was Gatien who told me I had the best time. I wanted to stay in my bubble throughout the race so I had no indication. It's really cool to do the double like that. I was afraid when I left the track that I'd finish these Games without a medal. Now it's done, I can relax even more for the road race. This gold medal is a relief"* explains Kévin Le Cunff. ‘It's just great! I set off strongly to be in front at the split time. But then I got a bit stuck, and Kévin took time off me. Technically, I was below him today. Out of a total of fifteen or so bends, times two because there were two laps, that's a good 30 seconds lost. I also had a scare on the last lap so I preferred to keep my lines straight. After the bronze on the track, it's great to win this silver medal,’ added Gatien Le Rousseau. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Paris2024 (@paris2024) At 39 years old, Thomas Peyroton-Dartet (C3 category) arrived quietly at these Paralympic Games, the first of his career. At the first intermediate time check, the native of Muret was in sixth place. It seemed like today might not be his day. Wrong! By the 14th kilometer (out of 28), the Frenchman had set things straight, taking the lead and never letting go. Averaging 44.1 km/h, he dominated this time trial, finishing 43 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor. "The course suited me perfectly! In a way, you could say the Games are already a success, but I need to stay focused until Sunday because, with Alexandre, we could achieve something special. I’m already looking forward to Sunday to race with a good friend." The rain of French medals continued until 5 PM! The last representatives of Team France competing today, Mathieu Bosredon and Johan Quaile, gave the crowd one final gift. Bosredon claimed his first Paralympic medal, a gold, while Quaile took the silver in the H3 category. Mathieu Bosredon left no chance for his competitors, finishing more than two minutes ahead of his fellow Frenchman. Thanks to them, the French medal count soared even higher, reaching 49 medals, including 15 gold. And that makes four! The man from Roanne (Loire) has claimed his fourth Paralympic silver medal today. The first three were won in Tokyo in 2021, and this latest one comes after a strong performance on the Clichy-sous-Bois circuit. Behind the unbeatable Mitch Valize (Netherlands), the Frenchman did what was needed to further bolster his record in the H5 category. Notably, Joseph Fritsch finished fourth in the H4 category, and the duo Anne-Sophie Centis/Élise Delzenne also took fourth place in the women's B race. there are plenty of places near Paris where the most daring travellers can venture this rarely-visited neighbourhood boasts hidden gems like chateaux and chapels that date back to the 13th century The off-piste venture to the darkest corners of Paris is not for the faint-hearted insatiably curious and it also helps if you’ve got a trusted local friend to take care of the lingo you can’t vouch for people speaking English then one such place could be Clichy-sous-Bois Firstly, its isolation comes from the fact that it has its own administrative district, which is referred to in France as a ‘commune’. It’s officially a separate entity. The separation from central Paris is also clear in its population of almost 30,000, who don’t describe themselves as ‘Parisians’, preferring the term banlieusard (from the Parisian suburbs) But the most striking hurdle to deal with is how there are no direct transport links from Clichy-sous-Bois to the centre of Paris Despite the suburb being located a mere 9-10 miles from Notre-Dame the odyssey to this dark corner can take up to two hours Metro station in Paris | © Free-Photos / Pixabay as argued by the most defiant banlieusards given how few travellers dare venture beyond the bounds of tourist guides there’s something authentic to discover here It’s a bold claim and will be refuted by many but take a trip to Montmartre and you immediately fall into tourist traps Such quartiers may be stunningly beautiful Of course, we can’t pass over how Clichy-sous-Bois was the place where the 2005 riots started and so, it’s been tarred with a bad brush ever since. Nonetheless, if you’ve made friends with banlieusards from the area, then you might just find character, charm and even hidden gems in this rarely-visited district While the Notre-Dame Cathedral in central Paris might be the most famous there’s a hidden relic in this neighbourhood that goes by a similar name built in the 13th century to commemorate a miracle has since become an annual pilgrimage site An old photo of the chapel of Notre-Dame-des-Anges | © P. Avice / WikiCommons it was here that the Virgin Mary came to the rescue of three Angevin merchants robbed and tied to trees in the forest of Bondy the chapel was rebuilt in the 19th century and three crosses were erected to remember the miraculous origins of the chapel Sign up to our newsletter to save up to $800 on our unique trips See privacy policy The chapel of Notre-Dame-des-Anges | © Marianna / WikiCommons If ancient churches are your perfect travel inspiration It was erected for the first time at the beginning of the 13th century before being destroyed and rebuilt in 1641 it has been preserved and restored many times by the municipality as a historic heritage site of the city but there are impressive chateaux to be explored as well there is Le château de la mairie (the castle of the town hall) that was purchased in 1645 by Robert de Bragelongne Superintendent of Finances under King Louis XIV and built upon a luscious former hunting ground Hôtel de Ville, Clichy-sous-Bois | © Clicsouris / WikiCommons First occupied by a Templar commandery it was later ransacked in 1870 by the Prussians before being renovated and sold to the city in 1930 by the Lindet-Girard family to house the present-day town hall built in the second half of the 18th century it was later registered in the inventory of historic monuments in 1972 sealing its importance in the history books forever You wouldn’t believe it when you first step into this commune but the Orangery used to house various royal receptions as they went hunting in the nearby forests Another castle not too far away is the Château de la Terrasse (Terrace Castle) originally built in 1800 before it was heavily damaged during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 Like the other monuments of historic importance Franco-Prussian War | © Public Domain / WikiCommons the neighbourhood prides itself on being one of the greenest areas of the city – once you get past the tower blocks It’s nestled beside the Bondy Forest to the east the park of the Fosse-Maussoin to the west the aqueduct of the Dhuis and the calm pond of Clichy This makes it one of the city’s most varied and least-visited neighbourhoods Woodland | © OrcaTec / Pixabay About the author Jade is an English travel writer & journalist whose love of languages led her to Paris She has bylines in The Guardian and The Times amongst other publications Guides & Tips This Is Europe's Ultimate Road Trip See & Do The Best European Cities to Visit in October Guides & Tips Scenic Road Trips to Take From Biarritz See & Do Hacks Every Tourist Should Know When Visiting the Eiffel Tower See & Do The Best European Cities to Visit in Autumn Guides & Tips The Best European Cities to Visit in December Art The Best Photography Galleries in Paris See & Do The Best European Cities to Visit in Summer See & Do The Best European Cities to Visit in July See & Do 10 French Theme Parks You Should Be Visiting Instead of Disney See & Do The Best European Cities to Visit in September Guides & Tips The Best European Cities to Visit in November US: +1 (678) 967 4965 | UK: +44 (0)1630 35000 tripssupport@theculturetrip.com © Copyright 2025 The Culture Trip Ltd France's highest court on Wednesday overturned a previous ruling saying the case against the police officers should be dropped The path is now open for what could be one of the most important police trials in recent years a landmark moment in the tense relationship between youths on poor estates and France's security services have continued to symbolise the dire relations and extreme mistrust between police and youths living in France's tower blocks The two teenagers were electrocuted while hiding in a power substation in Clichy-sous-Bois Another 17-year-old survived with severe burns The boys had been returning from a football match with a group of friends rushing to get home for the evening meal during Ramadan A subsequent inquiry found they had not committed any crime but when they saw a police van cross their path they fled They were chased by police and hid in a highly dangerous electricity substation Their deaths by electrocution triggered riots on the boys' run-down estates in Clichy-sous-Bois Riots went on for weeks at housing estates across the country More than 9,000 vehicles and dozens of public buildings and businesses were set on fire as the government invoked emergency powers to quell the worst unrest in mainland France in nearly 40 years French judges initially recommended that two police officers should face trial on charges of "non-assistance to a person in danger" for failing to come to the boys' aid The police did not notify the French energy company EDF that the boys were hiding in the substation But the regional prosecutor's office argued that there was not enough evidence to show the officers knew the boys were inside the power station one of the officers was discovered to have said on internal radio that if the boys went into the substation they "didn't have much of a chance" Activists and youth workers in Clichy-sous-Bois had said that if the case did not go to trial it would be a message that poor families on run-down estates did not deserve justice in France said France's highest court had made a "historic" decision in reopening the trial said: "I hope that they didn't die for nothing told the court the officers had continued in their careers and not faced disciplinary procedures He said the deaths were no more than "an accident" The French appeals court in Rennes will now decide the next step in the case your new go-to podcast to spice up your weekday mornings with relevant news and behind-the-scenes from Brussels and beyond From the economy to the climate and the EU's role in world affairs this talk show sheds light on European affairs and the issues that impact on our daily lives as Europeans Tune in to understand the ins and outs of European politics Dare to imagine the future with business and tech visionaries Deep dive conversations with business leaders Euronews Tech Talks goes beyond discussions to explore the impact of new technologies on our lives the podcast provides valuable insights into the intersection of technology and society Europe's water is under increasing pressure floods are taking their toll on our drinking water Join us on a journey around Europe to see why protecting ecosystems matters and to discover some of the best water solutions an animated explainer series and live debate - find out why Water Matters We give you the latest climate facts from the world’s leading source analyse the trends and explain how our planet is changing We meet the experts on the front line of climate change who explore new strategies to mitigate and adapt In the run-up to France's presidential election on Sunday Euronews is publishing a story at 16:00 each day to help you better understand the race for the Elysee residents gather at a sprawling new tram stop to unload their political concerns The suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois is the last stop on a road trip around some of the poorest neighbourhoods in France for a non-profit organisation hoping to give a voice to those who say the government has forgotten them “The presidential candidates don't talk about people's real problems so we did a tour of France and we discuss the problems they face,” said one of the volunteers who has been working with the organisation Pas Sans Nous (Not Without Us) for four years Many residents and volunteers here agreed that the presidential candidates only speak about cities like Clichy where some 37% of the population are immigrants Immigration has become a main talking point in the upcoming April election with two major candidates calling for it to be reduced to zero It’s like business capital,” said Echabouni who came to France at the age of 17 from Morocco “The problems for these people are employment residents want politicians to come and listen to what they have to say “I'm fed up that people from the banlieue [suburbs] are treated like less that we’re looked down on but people don't know what we feel wants politicians and ministers to come and live in his neighbourhood for a few days to see what it’s like “Politicians come to deposit their leaflets at the market and then they leave whereas they should come really see what’s happening adding that it can take three to six months to get an eye appointment here he’s sick of hearing about security and immigration as the big topics of the election “They shouldn’t say that in this area there’s no security Those who know of Clichy-sous-Bois likely remember it as the backdrop of the 2019 Oscar-nominated film entitled Les Misérables which depicted a violent relationship between the city’s youth and police The Paris suburb was also the starting point for the 2005 riots that erupted after two teenagers died while avoiding a police check Mohamed Mechmache who founded the organisation Pas Sans Nous said it was important to hold the last stage of their nationwide tour in this area he says the people here were the backbone of France’s economy and he wants to make sure that their voices are heard during the election “They needed this space to be able to express themselves and talk about their concerns,” Mechmache said which came up in most conversations with residents It’s not surprising – despite the plentiful new construction projects dotted along the brand new tram line massive dilapidated apartment complexes with black windows and tagged corners line the streets in the centre of town The region has committed to demolishing more than 1,200 housing units to construct new buildings but residents say housing remains their top concern A 41-year-old mother of six says she lives with her husband and children in a three-bedroom apartment and has struggled to find adequate housing for 20 years They have a hard time doing their homework Three rooms is small for eight people,” said Ms Camara The city’s mayor swings by the association’s tour stop to talk with residents recently sponsored incumbent President Emmanuel Macron’s campaign “In working-class neighbourhoods in France I think the major challenge is to have nice housing What they need is to be normal,” Klein said “The future of these neighbourhoods is to become completely normal so we stop blaming them for their problems but thanking them for all the solutions they bring to this country.” Many of the people gathered at the event are immigrants who have been in France for more than a decade and who have raised their children here Women from the area serve North African delicacies as French and Arab music blasts from the speakers outside the police station with the political discussion quickly resembling a neighbourhood street party But improving people’s lives remains centre-stage at a debate among some 20 women sitting with children around a table Samia has lived in Clichy-sous-Bois for 18 years and says that her children have a hard time learning in part because the teachers sent to the area have little experience She says France’s politicians are lost but that she won’t be able to vote in the upcoming election as she's an immigrant from Algeria is disappointed in what she sees as little change to her living circumstances but she still plans on voting in the upcoming election “Sometimes I tell myself that I won’t vote Then there's 84-year-old Charef Abderrahmane who stayed for the entire three-hour event He hopes that they can get the professional training they need to live normal lives they are not always bright but when we are listened to We use cookies to help better serve your experience. Accept Cookies Follow us on Instagram (@readingthepictures) and Twitter (@readingthepix), and subscribe to our newsletter. A curated collection of pieces related to our most-popular subject matter Comments Powered by Disqus Former Parachute Regiment soldier Jaco van Gass has missed out on a medal in the Men's C3 Individual Time Trial in road cycling at the Paralympic Games in Paris who lost his left arm while serving in Afghanistan finished in eighth overall with a total time of 44:19.48 His ParalympicsGB teammates Benjamin Watson and Finlay Graham finished fourth and sixth respectively Van Gass has already won two gold medals in Paris inside the velodrome, winning the Men's C3 3,000m Pursuit and in the C1 to C5 750m team sprint He will compete in his final event of the games in the Men's C1-3 Road Race on 7 September Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe to: I wanted to be a tourist in the most authentic bit of Paris The American tourist looks at me like I’m an idiot as well he might: we are standing outside of Notre Dame I have been asking myself the same question Since I learned of a recent 59-point plan by the Paris Mayor’s Office to turn the French capital into the world’s most visited city I have begun to wonder what it means to visit a city at all Paris’s officials simply want to overtake Bangkok and London in the Mastercard Global Destination Index based on the yearly total of overnight stays by foreigners But how many of those visitors go beyond box-tick itineraries of guide book sanctioned sites or an idea of what Paris is supposed to be: a Paris theme park in the white-grey drizzle of this January morning outside Notre Dame there’s an air of Alton Towers to the poncho-wearing crowds like that of legions of tiresome tourists before me is that the only true visit to Paris is one that encounters its “authentic” side I imagine some magic side-street bistro in the 17th Arrondissement stuffed with accordions and hairy-knuckled men eating eggs at the bar the most authentically Parisian part of the city must be the part least tainted by tourism: a place where no visitor ever goes the least visited part of Paris is the most Paris part of Paris The suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois became famous throughout France in 2005 as the epicentre of riots protesting unemployment and police harassment And when commentators tried to explain why the violence had begun in that suburb Clichy-sous-Bois has its own administrative district Yet there are not only no direct transport links from Clichy-sous-Bois to the centre of Paris but no direct transport links from there to anywhere else with direct transport links to the centre of Paris Despite the suburb being less than 10 miles from Notre Dame The city’s dedication to its tourists is apparent the moment I leave Notre Dame for the nearby Réseau Express Régional (Regional Express Network) station at St Michel the 1970s-built RER is a masterful piece of public transport design linking distant suburbs through the centre but the first two trains that stop at St Michel will bypass the suburbs entirely Both instead are heading direct to Charles de Gaulle Airport unplanned jumble of Paris beyond the Périphérique ring road while the face Paris presents to the world retains a museum-like beauty Notre Dame had looked bad enough in this weather; the commune of Aubervilliers with its close-together tower blocks and rusting industry Aulnay-sous-Bois is about the same distance from Paris’s centre as Clichy but the journey takes less than half the time The fastest way to reach Clichy-sous-Bois now is to walk It is another half hour on a slight incline brutalist apartment blocks loom from the distance almost beautiful in their bleakness and size But to start holiday-snapping the apartment blocks there is little that differs this place from the suburbs I have already passed through My assumption that this might be the most Parisian part of Paris feels I stubbornly set off in search of the essence of the place I head to the town hall – incongruously old and low-rise – where I dutifully read an information sign that says something about the Knights Templar and something about the Duc d’Orleans This information seems like the very opposite of Clichy-sous-Bois and full of men sat around large round tables playing cards A football game from Africa is playing on a corner TV they individually greet everyone in the room I soon fall into conversation with two men Both have lived in Clichy-sous-Bois for eight years I ask how often they go to the centre of Paris “Every day,” the man from the Ivory Coast tells me His name is Di Batarad and he is a jewellery seller work is underway to extend the tram into Clichy-sous-Bois though has been pushed back until next year I ask Batarad whether he considers the suburb to be truly part of Paris Batarad is as clear on what is the real Paris as any tourist: the Eiffel Tower and in the distance clouds part to reveal a purple sky against which is the etched silhouette of Sacré Couer Despite my pretensions toward the authentic I’m struck suddenly by the importance of icons and of guidebooks in the creation of place particularly when encouraging visitors or counting their numbers Clichy-sous-Bois may not or may not be Paris Description of project by Muoto and Titan architects.This facility is emblematic of the renewal of public cultural policies The aim of the program is to create new dynamics between artistic creation It is a place dedicated to diversity of gesture and of speech The building is structured around a radiating configuration which deconstructs the concept of the “black box”.The main auditorium creating possibilities for a dozen different scenic configurations Performances and exhibitions are therefore free to take place simultaneously and evolve over time The simple volume stands out from the neighbouring projects currently under construction bringing a sense of calm and clarity to the public spaces.The external surfaces have an appearance of luxury that would not be out of place in the courtyard of the Louvre The glass façades are coupled with monumental silvered shutters that constitute an architecture in itself reminiscent of the imagination inherent in performance The peripheral passageways fulfil a temperature management function like ventilated winter gardens that provide warmth in winter and cool in summer Muoto, Titan architects Ministry of Culture, Ateliers Médicis. Olivier Campagne, artefactorylab. Archive Art Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information 2015 at 12:01 AM EDTBookmarkSaveLock This article is for subscribers only the epicenter of riots that shook France 10 years ago built new schools and daycare centers and installed a public pool What the town of 31,000 still lacks is jobs: The youth unemployment rate is 40 percent After eight years of legal wrangling and a campaign led by the boys' families the appeal court in Rennes ruled that a criminal trial should take place It promises to be one of the most important police court cases in recent years For eight years, the faces of Zyed Benna, 17, and Bouna Traoré, 15, have symbolised the dire relations and mistrust between police and youths in French tower blocks The boys were rushing home from a football match for their evening meal during Ramadan The two police officers will face trial on charges of "non-assistance to a person in danger" for failing to come to the boys' aid. The police did not notify the French energy company EDF that the boys were hiding in the substation. The officers' lawyers argued they never thought the boys were in the substation. Siaka Traoré, Bouna's brother, told French media: "There's progress, a certain recognition." Adel Benna, Zyed's brother, said: "To turn the page we need a trial. We're waiting for explanations." An earlier ruling that the case against the officers should be dropped was overturned by France's highest court last year. Lawyers for the police officers could still appeal against the decision to hold a trial. “Le téléphone,” 2006.Upon returning to Paris in the aftermath of the riots Bourouissa began spending time in the banlieues with friends who introduced him to more people who lived there as subjects for a series of staged photographs composed in the tradition of tableaux vivants or living pictures—an uncanny arrangement that places ordinary people in relief against their normal environments depicts two Black men captured mid-conversation a shocking lime-green wall their background The taut musculature of their torsos—one clothed a large tattoo sprawling across the curve of his back—is accentuated by the light streaming in through the titular window at top left heightening the dramatic tension that pervades the scene the two figures stand in for the strained relations between the state and its frustrated poor and between civil society and the immigrant class circumscribed to its périphérique—the name Bourouissa would later give to the series of photographs after the circular highway separating Paris from its outer suburbs preparatory study from “Périphérique,” 2005-08.Untitled preparatory study from “Périphérique,” 2005-08.Made between 2005 and 2008 “Périphérique” was Bourouissa’s rejoinder to the sensationalist and sociological representation of the banlieues in the mainstream media of early-two-thousands France the gritty surroundings of the banlieues provide a stage for his artful dramatizations of everyday life and interactions are heightened to striking effect the stylish photographs from the project were published in a single volume for the first time: accompanied by essays from the art historian and writer Taous R the book includes dozens of preparatory images and test shots made by Bourouissa revealing his methodological blend of rigorous composition From this mass of curated material emerges the erudite sensibility of an artist who is neither glib nor precious about the stakes of representation for his subjects In their insurgent performances of the European canon the figures in Bourouissa’s pictures illuminate a fundamental flaw of the nation-state—its failure to imagine the racialized poor as part of its fabric “La main,” 2008.Untitled, preparatory study from “Périphérique,” 2005-08.Untitled, preparatory study from “Périphérique,” 2005-08.[Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today »] “I wanted to bring it into another aesthetic dimension Born in the Algerian city of Blida in 1978 Bourouissa moved to France at the age of five with his mother and grew up in Courbevoie He demonstrated a knack for art at a young age and by the time he was twenty was studying the Old Masters at the Sorbonne Painting portraits of his friends by day and festooning the streets with graffiti by night Bourouissa sought to bring the aesthetics of the streets to his studio and smash together contemporary culture with the dramatic history paintings that he studied in the classroom Bourouissa’s understanding of fashion as a form of conspicuous consumption and a means of claiming identity is apparent here and would shape his approach to his later work “Le couloir,” 2007-08.From the “Halles” project, Bourouissa learned the art that he wished to create required patience, time, and trust. To produce “Périphérique,” the artist spent time in the neighborhoods of La Courneuve, Clichy-sous-Bois, Grigny, and Argenteuil—the latter a favorite site of Monet and Renoir for plein-air painting Though the two series appear to share a similar straightforward documentary style the images in “Périphérique” stage intricate exchanges between individuals and their surroundings The double-barrelled perspective in “Le couloir,” for instance—ingeniously established through the single central adjoining wall of a staircase in an apartment complex—allows us to take in two scenes of potential aggression simultaneously “Carré rouge” shows a group of young men leaning against the tiled walls of an apartment foyer similarly making use of architecture to play with the viewer’s sense of depth and proximity holding these subjects and their interiority at arm’s length “Carré rouge,” 2005.The project’s fine attunement to place owes much to Bourouissa’s understanding of the banlieue’s critical role in fuelling the imagination of writers and painters of the nineteenth century who recognized the area as possessing its own poetry at least some aspects of the modern condition could be observed: the juxtaposition of work and leisure sketched experience of modern industrialized life Bourouissa asks the subjects of his photographs to act out scenarios but also encourages them to improvise He trains his camera on the moments of friction and the gestures uneven weight—the graze of a passing elbow Nowhere is this more evident than in “La république,” the most iconic of the artist’s images from this series; the photograph’s direct referent is Eugène Delacroix’s 1830 painting “Liberty Leading the People.” Taken in Clichy-sous-Bois on Christmas Day Bourouissa’s photograph freezes a moment of glorious rebellion the tricolor banner of the French republic dangling right above the image’s punctum—a flash of light around which the Black rebels of the photograph constellate their bodies forming a loose perimeter that limns an absent center “La république,” 2006.Since débuting his tableaux of France’s marginalized communities, Bourouissa has expanded his practice to include film, installation, and curatorial projects on subjects such as the Black cowboys of Philadelphia and the legacy of Frantz Fanon has changed for the banlieusards in the years since Bourouissa rendered their likenesses; in some regards what becomes clear is Bourouissa’s canny knowledge that the people living at the margins were inscribed in a larger global dialogue that the figures deemed peripheral were forming centers of their own “Périphérique,” by Mohamed Bourouissa, is published by Loose Joints A long-ago crime, suddenly remembered A limousine driver watches her passengers transform The day Muhammad Ali punched me What is it like to be keenly intelligent but deeply alienated from simple emotions? Temple Grandin knows The harsh realm of “gentle parenting.”  Retirement the Margaritaville way Fiction by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Thank You for the Light.”  Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker. Mahmoud Kebe and Doğukan Kur on the roof of a residential high-rise: "I don't get funny looks here in Clichy like I do in Paris." One of the first rules you learn in Clichy-sous-Bois sounds absurd The rule is: Never stand too close to the side of a building that can't be stopped by the nets that have been provisionally installed on the sides of the housing projects refrigerators or flowerpots come raining down," says Mahmadou Kebe with a grin are standing at the edge of a parking lot in front of one of these beige-brown high-rises that make up their neighborhood of Cité Le Chêne-Pointu situated in Clichy-sous Bois It is one of those places in the French Republic where the sacred principle of "égalité," equality plaster crumbles down from the soot-black ceilings There are puddles of water on the floor and rusty mailboxes hang loosely from the wall someone has sprayed a message on the wall: "Attention: The parents who live in this staircase have not raised their children well." The article you are reading originally appeared in German in issue 34/2020 (August 14 Seven Decades of Quality Journalism: The History of DER SPIEGEL  Reprints: How To License SPIEGEL Articles  Mahmadou Kebe and Doğukan Kur have lived here for as long as they can remember Kebe came to France from Mali with his family as a small child while Tur Both are intimately familiar with all of the rules and codes of Clichy-sous-Bois They know how to get on the roofs of the high-rises the only place where they can escape the closeness of their apartments depending on the number of rooms they have They know in which buildings the elevator still works and where it does not They know that you shouldn't stare too long if a drug deal is going down in the parking lot however: How to get out of this desolation Because as run down as Clichy-sous-Bois might be Director Ladj Ly: "I want to make things possible for them." "I don't get funny looks here in Clichy like I do in Paris People stick together here because everyone is stuck in the same shit." Kebe and Tur are both wearing the banlieue uniform: baseball cap Kebe also carries around a fake Louis Vuitton bag and has a thick silver chain around his neck With the support of the prize-winning director Ladj Ly Kebe and Tur are currently making a film about life in the banlieue During the worst of the coronavirus pandemic The death rate has risen by almost 120 percent relative to last year the death rate even skyrocketed by 295 percent more diabetes patients and more people in risk groups than in many other regions of the country the Département has three times fewer intensive-care beds per capita than are available in Paris If more proof were needed that the pandemic in France has hit low-wage earners immigrants and the poor harder than others The global Black Lives Matter protests have also resonated strongly among the people here racism is a daily fact of life in the banlieues which are largely populated by immigrants and their descendants Tur and Kebe grew up with arbitrary checks and police violence How they enjoy provoking you when they are standing in front of you in their uniforms and giving you the feeling that you are nothing," says Tur He was beat up by a policeman when he was younger Tur started a training program as an automobile mechanic He then worked for a time at the technical inspection association the biggest constant in his life has been Clichy-sous-Bois located just 10 kilometers (around 6 miles) from Paris yet still cut off from the prosperity and wealth of the capital as though by an invisible demarcation line It is essentially a failed state in miniature unemployment among 15- to 24-year-olds stands at 29 percent and the average per-family income of 15,543 euros per year is among the lowest in France The poverty rate here is roughly three times as high as in neighboring Paris And despite all the promises from the various mayors who have occupied City Hall in this town of 30,000 residents and despite the different presidents in the Élysée Palace - which is just an hour away by car yet feels like it is on the other side of the country – these circumstances haven't changed much over the years Screenplay writer Gladys Chauvellier with three of her 10 children: "Normally Everyone in this country must be guaranteed the ability to chart their own course French President Emmanuel Macron said on Bastille Day in July Most white people in France only know the banlieues as a kind of caricature such as that presented by the right-wing populist Marine Le Pen during her political campaigns the feature film "La Haine" (Hate) delivered an impressive black-and-white portrayal of the bleak banlieue life even arranged for a special screening for his entire cabinet because he wanted them to see a part of the country with which they were unfamiliar a new film was released about life in the Paris suburbs not much has changed in the intervening 25 years The film is called "Les Misérables" (like the Victor Hugo novel) and depicts life in Clichy-sous-Bois is a 42-year-old who was born in Mali but grew up here He has become one of the most successful filmmakers in the country He was awarded the Jury Prize for "Les Misérables" at the Cannes Film Festival and later won the César Award for best film of the year His film was also nominated in the best foreign film category at the Oscars Ly has been seen in the banlieues as a hero because he showed that even someone from Clichy-sous-Bois can make it big is standing in a business park in Clichy and eating a grilled lamb sausage The film school that he founded here in 2018 is holding its summer party to mark the end of the academic year At the grill is the lead actor of the film that Tur and Kebe are currently filming and the two budding filmmakers are here as well and Mahmadou once lived in the same building as the director's family The fascinating thing about Ly's film is that everyone is a victim of the same system: the police whose story he tells; the young men and women who are brutally persecuted by the officers; and the mothers who worry about their sons when they don't come home The entryway of a building in Clichy-sous-Bois "Les Misérables" is an SOS to the country's politicians he invited Macron to come watch the film with him in the place where it was made The French president declined the invitation he said that he had been deeply shaken by what it depicted - as though the misery had been hidden to him too Ly declined all of the offers he received from Hollywood after his success at Cannes "My focus is to gain access for young people here to a world that has thus far been closed to them," the director says at the summer party He knows how terrible the apartments are in Clichy-sous-Bois how bad the schools are and how deep the hate runs His father worked as a garbage collector in Paris He was stopped by the police for the first time when he was 10 but he didn't know at the time what the word meant was a constant companion ever since he was a child adding that he has been stopped by the police more than a thousand times in his life "We have been enduring the police violence that everybody is talking about at the moment for 20 years." which he founded right in the heart of the banlieue is a challenge to the country's traditional elite schools It costs nothing to attend and is open to all: a school-leaving certificate is unnecessary they still have access to the network of directors producers and cinematographers that Ladj Ly has developed over the years It is the well-established "alumni principle" used by elite universities around the world it is being made available to those with less opportunity Tur and Kebe are part of a course for youth from the two municipalities of Clichy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil: Each year 12 of them take a seven-month screenplay seminar that meets two evenings a week the director of "La Haine," have been guests in the course "Ouf is his rendering of "fou," which means crazy Part of banlieue slang includes reversing the letters in certain words there is quite a lot of "ouf" in their lives they traveled to Marseille together with Ly where he has opened up a second film school Kebe spoke to 250 people for the first time in his life "It was as if we were no longer the same people." a strange experience: For the first time in their lives people are listening to them and taking them seriously "You say that you are at the École Kourtrajmé of Ladj Ly and people look at you differently," says Tur Even the police officers in the neighborhood "They're suddenly asking me how the filming is going." mechanics or an hourly wage job at Amazon: Those are normally the kinds of things people do here - if you're lucky you live with your parents for as long as you can Never had anyone told the two young men that they could also be film directors my teacher would yell at me whether I was on time or not People only see Clichy-sous-Bois as an address They see that you are Black and named Mahmadou you no longer want to be part of the circus." Kebe says he started making small films with his mobile phone when he was 12 If you ask Keben how many people live in his household reciting names as though he isn't totally sure He stops at eight – he has seven brothers and sisters "My life takes place elsewhere anyway," he says You sit on the hoods or in the cars and turn up the music Until he applied last year for École Kourtrajmé Five of them cooperated on writing their screenplay: Tur himself and three friends he chose to help out It tells the story of a young man from Mali who comes to Clichy-sous-Bois to look for his cousin The letters the cousin sent home had made it sound like paradise - the eternal lie told by many migrants he realizes that his cousin makes his money on the black market They wanted to show how hard life is in the suburbs People should know what is in store for them – and stay at home instead of coming here The crazy architect's dream from the 1960s which envisioned middle-class families buying affordable modern apartments here not far from the capital The metro line announced at the time and the planned highway to Paris were never built and the middle class found other neighborhoods to be more attractive The Chêne Pointu estate is now considered the most run-down neighborhood in the whole country a plan that makes it all the less likely that the apartments will get the attention they need Residents will just have to make do with what they have until then Tur and Kebe have been filming in the apartment of their friend an F4 apartment of 60 square meters (645 square feet) the landlord doesn't necessarily require proof of earnings instead preferring documentation that they are receiving the child allowance from the state Each room of the apartment is furnished with extra wide bunkbeds pleather sofa in the living room – where there is absolutely nothing to indicate that they have been living here for four years During the eight-week coronavirus lockdown the younger children went down to play soccer in the parking lot "It actually brought us even closer together as a family," says Chauvellier who everyone in the neighborhood simply calls "La Daronne," the boss because she has her life and her 10 children under control even though she has been a single mother for years Chauvellier is the only woman on the screenplay team before then writing through it once again with the help of a film director from Spain who the school appointed to assist the group which they hope will ultimately be broadcast as a web series I liked the fact that there was a structure The last day of shooting takes place on a gigantic concrete slab in Clichy-sous-Bois The ground is covered in shards of glass and rusting shopping carts while children nearby are trying to learn how to ride wheelies Kebe stares in concentration at the camera-mounted screen Chauvellier is also there and Tur is standing next to the cameraman is wearing a mint-green outfit with white golf shoes and white socks is the secret passion of the main character He is supposed to strike the ball like a professional with the director having shown him how to do so It will be one of the final scenes - a golf ball flying through the banlieue the first director's assistant calls out: "It's a wrap!" Everyone looks startled knowing that something has come to an end that they may not ever experience again Tur and Kebe have applied for the year-long course And Chauvellier is now writing new screenplays on her mobile phone after the children go to bed Notes with different colored dots hang on the wall which she has used to mark the leading and supporting roles - separated by episode Just like they are taught in the screenplay seminar But the dream of following in the footsteps of their idol Ladj Ly won't come true for all of them the cast and crew have drinks on the terrace of the Aram Café in the Clichy-sous-Bois shopping center The Spanish director Fabien Mariano Ortiz has jotted down a few notes on his mobile phone for his speech He praises Chauvellier for her outstanding achievement as an actress "I seriously didn't expect such a gift." He also commends Kebe for his calm warm-hearted manner and his ability during shooting to consistently make everything possible the cool and eloquent Tur who repeatedly took over the leadership role in the preceding weeks It sounds almost ceremonial when he says that only people like Tur – people who are always on the lookout for the best shot who are always trying to fight the chaos within – will be able to get the stars to dance one day But Tur pulls his black cap down over his face He doesn't want the others to see that he is crying Mahmadou Kebe and Doğukan Tur on one of the roofs in their neighborhood we had to walk up 12 floors before squeezing through a tight hole in a metal wall The building supervisors try to block access to the roofs but the young residents always find ways to get past the locks and barricades Because of the strict coronavirus lockdown in France Kebe and Tur often came here to get out of their apartments The most suprising thing about Gladys Chauvellier's living room was the austerity There were no toys on the table and no pictures on the walls Even the two small shelves in the room were empty apartments are often just a place to sleep and eat with real life taking place elsewhere: on the parking lots in the neighborhood in the shopping center and on the few playing fields that exist it was a new experience for everybody when Chauvellier spent months in her small kitchen with Kebe and Tur working on the screenplay of their short film One of the bedrooms in the apartment of Gladys Chauvellier It is where three of her 10 children sleep The apartments in this building haven't been renovated for years The plaster is peeling off the outside walls and the windows leak Khadil is the youngest member of the team working on the short film he is currently enrolled in a bookkeeping course he plays a Clichy-sous-Bois resident who is secretly a passionate golfer the Spanish director that is assisting the team spent half an hour teaching him how to swing a golf club The outfit here is for the role he is playing - except for the faux Louis Vuitton bag This parking lot is one of the main hubs for drug deals in Clichy-sous-Bois This is also where the first film shoot took place that we could be part of The filmmakers negotiated a 30-minute window with the dealers The team wasn't sure that it would be enough time and an actress had to change in a car they discovered that an important prop was missing Mahmadou Kebe negotiated an extension with the drug dealers "They only agreed to it because they've known me since I was five," he said when he came back Filming is taking place exclusively in the neighborhood of Le Chêne Pointu one of the few bustling venues in the area The film school École Kourtrajmé provided a budget for the film so that the crew could rent camera equipment the directors-in-training are able to rely on a professional director and a professional cinematographer for assistance we were amazed that the buildings still look exactly as they did in Ladj Ly's film "Les Misérables," which was shot in 2017 President Macron asked his advisers to come up with ideas for improving conditions in the Paris suburbs But the mailboxes in Chêne Pointu are still just as rusty as they've ever been and the staircases stink of garbage the director of "Les Misérables," set up in the middle of the banlieue is well equipped - which is another aspect of the school that differentiates it from other educational institutions in the area it contrasts heavily with its surroundings: High-ceilings and pastel-colored chairs along with Mac computers combined with giant screens The school can train 30 students each year They come from across France and from all socio-economic levels with the young men in the quarter proud to be able to wear them is seen as a hero in the banlieue because he has made it The name "Kourtrajmé" is banlieue slang for "Court Métrage," or short film An artists collective was founded under the name in 1994 along with film directors like Vincent Cassel and Romain Gavras takes care of administrative tasks and PR work for the school She also helps organize shoots and will even take care of the catering the actress Ludivine Sagnier will be leading the school's new Acting Department One of the school's important principles is that successful graduates from the previous year help out students in the current year - such as here during post-production of the short films that are shot at the end of the year The school also cooperates with the well-regarded film university Louis Lumière in Noisy-le-Grand outside Paris Students from that school help out in Clichy-sous-Bois with things like sound and light By J R New York About 12 years ago I met an artist named Ladj Ly through a directors’ collective in France called Kourtrajmé We were 20 years old and both interested in representing marginalized communities through our art Ladj was from a housing development in the Parisian suburb Clichy-sous-Bois called Les Bosquets which translates as “the groves.” It looked nothing like a grove however: the neighborhood was full of giant housing towers in a very stark landscape Ladj called it “the real ghetto.” Everything was broken: the elevators in the housing projects He asked me if I would like to work with him there and he was my introduction to the neighborhood I did not know then that we were starting what would be a ten-year project or that At that time Les Bosquets was full of tension It was created in the 1960s to provide better conditions for immigrants But the train line that would have connected Clichy-sous-Bois to Paris was never completed The neighborhood was literally disconnected We made our first portraits in Les Bosquets in 2004 Ladj and I took close-up images of the neighbors there This was before social media made it possible for people to disseminate their own images so easily so when we posted these portraits in Paris we were really bringing those faces to neighborhoods where they would otherwise never be seen We also posted the photos around Les Bosquets itself In October 2005 two teenagers in Clichy-sous-Bois were being chased by the police There were a lot of factors—the neighborhood was in very bad shape—but that was the triggering event The riots started on the exact corner where we had placed photos a year earlier We put some portraits on buildings that were later demolished It was a very intense experience to see the portraits of residents being destroyed as the buildings themselves were brought down Ladj was living in the neighborhood during the riots telling the stories not just of the residents who were outraged but also of others who were trying to stop the riots and serve as mediators between rioters and police There were other narratives beyond the one that was captured by the media in many neighborhoods around the world when a city is full of tension or is deteriorating my new film Les Bosquets is the culmination of the work that Ladj and I started which tells the story of the riots through choreography and testimony and video images from the neighborhood The situation in Les Bosquets has changed somewhat—the run-down housing towers have been replaced—but the community is still isolated The most significant change since we began there is the control that communities have in telling their own stories and representing themselves In Les Bosquets there is a character inspired by Ladj and another who plays a reporter For most of the ballet they are clashing with each other but ultimately they are able to engage in a dialogue no Instagram—there was no easy way for people to see information from the inside Today there are still clashes between communities and police or between citizens and governments but people are able to document their experiences and to spread their own images Through working with this community for 10 years I have learned that you need both visions to see the situation clearly the more they can be empowered by their own images Support Creative Time's groundbreaking programs Your tax-deductible gift enables Creative Time to bring the most compelling contemporary art of our time to millions of people Discover how Paris 2024 became the most media-covered Olympic Games in history See how the Olympic Games’ communications team supported by Wiztrust’s tailored PR platform overcame complex challenges-from synchronizing teams and managing thousands of journalists to ensuring top-level security Learn how innovative digital tools and expert support enabled Paris 2024 to achieve record-breaking visibility and flawless brand protection Download the full Paris 2024 Success Case now and get inspired by the strategies behind this record-breaking achievement For further information and other cases please visit Wiztrust.com protect your company and its directors from disinformation and adopt the “trust mark” of the market leaders plan campaigns targeting your audiences through all channels (e-mail social media) and organise your activities and events improve results by exploiting your data's true depth Discover the best way to manage your PR & Marketing efficiently: Wiztrust is THE integrated communication platform for corporate professionals Prioritise your activities thanks to a clearer view on your assets Manage your communication thanks to a collaborative platform for you and your team Certify your corporate communication thanks to our blockchain-backed technology Save your team and yourself some precious time Learn more about Wiztrust in our case study Enric Miralles Benedetta Tagliabue (EMBT) and Bordas+Peiro have been announced as winner among five proposals of a two-stage competition to design the future Clichy - Montfermeil metro station in Paris is part of the ambitious Grand Paris Express project which seeks to modernize the existing transport network and create an automatic metro that will connect new neighborhoods to the city EMBT’s proposal will provide a new public square for the renewed neighborhood of Clichy-sous-bois that will serve as a symbol of change following the violent riots of 2005 “We want to transform this grey and abandoned area into a vivid and colorful plaza that will inspire joy and optimism,” stated EMBT “Our approach is looking for the maximum integration of the metro station’s access into the urban context The access is made through a slow slope with stairs that invites the people coming out of the station to participate on the square the installations and the building of the station the bicycle parking and continues on an important part of the square protecting an area dedicated in the future to a periodical market (organized on Wednesday and Friday).” “The idea was to give a new identity to this place with a glance to the origins of many of his inhabitants We would like to transform this grey and abandoned place into a vivid and colorful square This is why we based the motives of the pavement the shapes and the colors of the roof on the tissues decorative motives and colors from Africa.” circulation is established within a single space illuminated by natural light The character of this space is given by the panels that cover the organic shape of the void the same as the panels of the outside pergola the Grand Paris Express project is expected to serve two million passengers daily adding 205 new miles of track and 72 new stations that will connect to three airports and France's high-speed rail (TGV) Elizabeth de Portzamparc (AECDP) has already been awarded the commission for the Bourget RER station A winner of the Saint-Denis Pleyel station will be announced late October Photograph: Dan ChungGraffiti on the La Forestiere estate I visited the suburb of Paris where that country’s 2005 riots began And this is what I can tell you: London is better than Paris its whole quartiers of intact 19th-century architecture and the kind of cheese shops that can clog an artery at a hundred yards and steak frites and tartes aux fraises and heartstopping glimpses of the Eiffel Tower But there’s no point in judging a city by the bits in which rich people live Kensington… they’re all pretty nice if that’s your thing If you want to drink overpriced cappuccinos in the company of people worrying about the colour of their next Range Rover Call a taxi in Tottenham and the driver probably won’t assume you’re a victim of violent crime as happened to me two days ago in its Parisian equivalent of Clichy-sous-Bois “Stay right where you are!” And he rang back every five minutes or so to check we weren’t dead in a ditch “It’s not normal,” he explained when he arrived The suburb is where two teenagers died in an electricity substation in 2005 after being wrongfully pursued by the police It set off a wave of violence that engulfed the country’s banlieues: 9,000 cars were torched and 3,000 people arrested A massive new police station has been built but there’s still no actual infrastructure it took nearly as long to get to Clichy from Paris (about 11 miles) as it took to get to Paris from London A fast underground ride from central London the high road is no 19th-century Haussmann boulevard – it’s full of pound shops and bookmakers and fried chicken takeaways But at least it has pound shops and bookmakers and fried chicken takeaways I know all this goes against our national expectation to see ourselves as a bit crap (Who among us thought the Olympics was going to be anything other than a complete shambles?) But when you start looking for evidence that London is actually better than the City of Light – of all places – you don’t have to look very far Fight your way past the taxi touts at the chaotic Gare du Nord and you’ll disembark in the graceful light-filled expanse of St Pancras where a line of Boris’s ambassadors will greet you with maps and directions Even the over-priced coffee has a higher chance of being actually drinkable in London their ability to brighten up previously unloved neighbourhoods with their chalkboards and handlebar moustaches is without precedent They are arriving in Clichy-sous-Bois no time soon But it’s so much more than that. Whatever you think of him, it’s a testament to what makes London great that Sadiq Khan, the son of a Pakistani bus driver, won Labour’s mayoral nomination last week. In France there are just nine non-white deputies in the entire national assembly I live in another racially diverse bit of London and I don’t see it But there’s also the Marcus Garvey library and the Bernie Grant arts centre and David Lammy as MP Our high streets full of pound shops and bookmakers and chicken takeaways should actually be a point of pride central Paris feels like Marie Antoinette’s fake farm at Versailles where she used to play at being a milkmaid: a simulacrum of city life just minus the actual life An ersatz play city laid on for the rich and deluded W while any sane person should worry about what will become of those who can’t afford to drop half a million quid on a one-bedroom flat and where on earth the doctors will live It’s this that has made London what it is: great, thriving, full of Somali taxi drivers and Romanian baristas and French bankers. If I was a Syrian refugee, I’d throw myself on a moving train to get here too. This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025. The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media. You don't have permission to access the page you requested. What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed. Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. the deaths of two boys prompted riots across France Amelia Jenne reports from  Clichy-sous-Bois where residents say there is little to show for politicians’ promises of action I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A decade since their deaths, the electrocution of Zyed Benna, 17, and Bouna Traoré, 15, while hiding from police remains a stain on the conscience of France. After they were killed and their friend Muttin Altun severely injured in an EDF transformer in Clichy-sous-Bois, a deprived Paris neighbourhood, the boys became a symbol of the discontent of the banlieues, the suburbs where they lived. The deaths triggered three weeks of rioting in cities across France. Within hours, violent protests against police had spread across Clichy-sous-Bois, and within weeks, to the suburbs of almost every city. Yesterday, on the eve of the anniversary, France’s Prime Minister Manuel Valls and 17 ministers travelled to Mureaux, another disadvantaged suburb, to set in motion a number of moves to tackle “urban ghettos”. It was another assault on the “social, ethnic, territorial apartheid” that Mr Valls vowed to dismantle following January’s jihadist attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish grocery. But the deprived suburbs, or banlieues, are still a byword for social exclusion, poverty and unemployment. The measures Mr Valls announced include attaching cameras to police uniforms and forcing recalcitrant mayors to ensure that 25 per cent of homes are social housing in their districts. “We learnt a terrible lesson,” Zyed’s brother, Adel Benna, told The Independent yesterday. “It made people start talking about problems in the estates… at least they didn’t die for nothing.” But Mr Benna said little has changed. “Politicians always make promises,” he said. “Clichy-sous-Bois is still isolated, without proper transport, with nothing at all.” In Clichy-sous-Bois, which is today holding a vigil for Zyed and Bouna, unemployment is double the national average. Some 45 per cent live below the poverty line. Outside a modest shopping centre in the Chene Pointu neighbourhood, Sami Altun, 26, says “things are changing little by little”. “But only up there,” he adds, pointing to Haut Clichy in the suburb’s east. A €620m (£446m) urban renovation programme was set in motion a year before the riots in 2004. From that, a swimming pool, new school and government employment centre have been built. Next year, a disused 14-storey office will be demolished and replaced by a cultural centre, inspired by the Villa Medici in Rome, a residence for French artists. Crucially, in response to the riots, a new police station was built in 2007 – giving the suburb a force of its own. While Clichy is improving from the inside, its flimsy transport links have entrenched its isolation: it is an overland train and bus journey away from central Paris. A tramline will be finished by 2018 and authorities hope to open a Metro station by 2023 – a move that is hoped will ease the high level of unemployment. But for another Chene Pointu resident, Tidjan Fall, 23, Clichy-sous-Bois’s greatest scourge still remains: slum landlords. “They’re buying flats and charging too much”, he said. The suburb was built on hunting land east of Paris in the 1960s, on the promise of the construction of a motorway that never materialised. Flats hastily bought and sold fell cheaply into the hands of private landlords who let them fall in to disrepair. “Some people are living in unmanageable, unacceptable conditions”, the council’s spokeswoman, Lamya Monkachi admitted. “Yes there are problems with drugs and with security – we can’t deny that it doesn’t exist.” She was at pains, however, to stress that Clichy-sous-Bois was transforming: little by little. The council is cracking down on slum landlords as well as buying up some of the properties, making improvements and selling them to tenants. “The solution to end ghettoisation of the poor is to increase social housing and stop stigmatising people who need it,” said Ms Monkachi. Mr Valls said that the government would intervene in towns that failed to subsidise at least a quarter of their housing – and named and shamed 36 who were failing to do so. He also promised a campaign to identify and tackle discrimination in the labour market. On the 45-minute journey to Clichy-sous-Bois from Gare du Nord, Samir Mihi, who runs Au-delà des mots, an association to support Zyed and Bouna’s families, said that Clichy-sous-Bois has moved on from 2005. “I’m tired of people taking our area hostage: it has physically changed and people’s mentality has too. There were no riots after the verdict on the police officers,” he said. In May a court acquitted the two police officers who had failed to raise the alarm after the boys ran towards the EDF site of “non-assistance to individuals in danger” – a ruling the families’ lawyer Jean-Pierre Mignard said was symptomatic of a “judicial apartheid”. Much of the case was based on recordings of patrol officer Sebastien Gaillemin reporting “they are running towards the EDF site… if they stay [there] I don’t like their chances of getting out”. “It was during the trial that we learnt they died at 12 minutes past six,” said Mr Mihi. “When they were electrocuted there was a power cut and the area was plunged in to darkness- that’s how we know.” Tonight, residents of Clichy-sous-Bois are gathering to light candles when the darkness falls at 6.12pm. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies the lift has been broken for months and unemployed youths loiter with nothing to do Even the local mayor calls this place a "vertical shanty town" Five years ago these estates in Clichy-sous-Bois on the edge of Paris exploded in riots that spread across France and led to a state of national emergency The trigger for the violence was the death of two young boys electrocuted in a power substation while hiding from police But the root cause was the hopelessness of a generation of young French people marginalised and jobless because of their skin colour or their parents' immigrant origins Since then discrimination against the third- and fourth-generation children of immigrants has worsened tension is rife and Nicolas Sarkozy's rightwing anti-immigrant rhetoric is blamed shared a school desk with one of the boys who died in Clichy He witnessed the nights of rioting firsthand The fourth child of an Algerian cafe-owner he's one of the few youths on his estate who have managed to carve out a future "Sarkozy's constant talk of immigration and national identity chips away at you but worse is the perpetual police stop and searches That's pretty hard to stomach when you're French." has turned the issue of immigration into electoral politics introduced France's fifth immigration law in seven years banned Muslim women wearing the niqab in public places and launched a national debate on what it means to be French led by his new ministry of immigration and national identity he dropped the contentious "national identity" title but shows no sign of softening his hardline immigration policy aimed at securing him votes from the extreme-right Front National It is about French society's problems coming to terms with its own diverse make-up When Angela Merkel declared that multiculturalism in Germany had "utterly failed" some saw it as a vindication of the French integrationist approach once a French citizen you leave cultural and ethnic differences at the border and are theoretically seamlessly assimilated into the republic Everyone is equal before a state that is blind to colour Ethnic minorities do not officially exist as it is illegal to classify and count people by ethnicity But the glaring gap between the theory and the reality of discrimination is becoming a problem in France some racially diverse estates in Clichy-sous-Bois still face over 40% unemployment for the under-25s A recent study of French citizens with immigrant parents found that they suffered higher unemployment fared worse at school and faced more discrimination than other French people Over a third felt society did not accept them as being French They were stigmatised because of their race The French government has taken grave offence at the booing of the national anthem at football matches and French youths waving Algerian flags But social workers on estates say nothing has changed in five years since the riots and France is still raising a generation of dispossessed people "Most of the kids in this neighbourhood are the fourth generation of their family in France," said Mohamed Mechmeche a youth worker in Clichy-sous-Bois who after the riots founded the community pressure group Aclefeu To now be harking back to their parents' roots is proof that French society isn't working: integration and assimilation have failed "Everything has been complicated by constantly referring to people as French 'of immigrant origin' But that suits politicians of both the left and right Sarkozy has really let himself loose – now it's as if anything goes and people can make comments as prejudiced as they like." whose Algerian grandfather fought for France in the second world war sat with colleagues lamenting a series of recent public racist remarks which he said showed France was going backwards was fined for racism after saying of a north African party member: "We always need one It's when there are lots of them that there are problems." An heir to the Guerlain perfume empire said on TV he had worked "like a nigger" to create a new scent Certain journalists had talked of "blacks and Arabs" being to blame for crime "It's not new immigration that is a problem in France it is integrating the diversity that is already part of society," said Patrick Weil immigration historian and author of How to be French "People want to be accepted as French but of course they feel different and not accepted when the president is using the language he's using said the fact that French young people with immigrant parents were demanding their rights to be equal citizens showed that the principle of the republican system worked but it had been muddied by extreme discrimination Many youths with Arab or African-sounding names still find their CVs binned when applying for jobs or are even asked to change them to something "more French" said the problems of marginalisation in diverse French suburbs had not been addressed over the last five years and the tinderbox of more urban rioting could go off at any time who watched the rioting from her tower block window as a sixth-former had started her own local catering company after she couldn't find work because of her name and her postcode "I sent out 300 letters and CVs for jobs from secretary and receptionist to community work So many people here have no work or are doing jobs beneath them We're French but we're not considered as real French people "I was born in France but feel totally rejected here I just want to be given a chance to succeed We feel set apart from the rest of France as if we live on an island." France has a long history of immigration and earlier this century was seen to be a a country that openly welcomed foreigners rather than fear them France had the highest proportion of immigrants of any western country Around three million immigrants made up 7% of its population Around one third of people in France now have a foreign relative in their close family tree and France still has the highest number of asylum applications of any OECD country poor housing problems and the questioning of the presence of Islam in a secular state have made immigration a pet topic of the far-right Nicolas Sarkozy appealed to far-right voters by promising a crackdown France has around 200,000 to 400,000 illegal immigrants After his 2007 election Sarkozy ordered that 25,000 illegal immigrants be expelled by the end of the year The ensuing police round-ups outside schools metro stations and businesses sparked a mass protest movement with some French people hiding the children of illegal immigrants in their homes The left warned the round-ups harked back to France's shameful past when a collaborationist government helped deport more than 75,000 French citizens and Jewish refugees to the Nazi concentration camps The electricity substation in Clichy-sous-Bois Police said they chased them following a burglary complaint One of the officers was identified as saying in a police radio recording submitted at the trial that he wouldn’t bet much on their survival in the substation National prosecutors had refused to bring charges against the officers involved three times Zyed’s brother Adel Benna said: “We’ve been waiting for ten years to hear what the police have to say young people started attacking police and emergency services The rioting youth of different ethnic or immigrant backgrounds vented their anger against police violence Interior Minister of the time Nicolas Sarkozy (centre-right) “We’re going to clean up the ‘citées’ with a high-pressure hose.” he announced the state of emergency and reinforced the forces of law and order Sarkozy said he was using legislation from 1955 but that the decision was one of principle The measures would be targeted as events evolved Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls acknowledged feelings of alienation in the citées and that France should put “ghettoisation” behind it but places like it still suffer from heavy unemployment a lack of opportunities and tensions with the police increasingly the French-born young identify with distortions of Islam two innocent teenagers were electrocuted while hiding from police triggering a revolt in France’s low-income suburbs The last decade shows that post-riot policies have solved nothing SalvaRegalaLinkCondividiScaricaInequality In 2005 Anna Maria MerloPARISTen years ago were electrocuted in the Parisian suburb Clichy-sous-Bois in an electrical box where they had taken refuge to escape the police from the outskirts of Paris to other French cities rioters burned cars and destroyed symbols of government (libraries something that hadn’t been done since the war in Algeria there were 4,000 people arrested and 600 charged with crimes the two police officers involved in the hunt for Zyed and Bouna were acquitted of “non-assistance to a person in danger,” even though a phone call recording showed the officers were well aware of the risks faced by young people hiding in the power substation Distrust of the police — for fear of officers and their constant surveillance particularly among immigrants and Muslims — is one of the heaviest legacies of 2005 A decade later the situation has not improved The recent increase in illegal trafficking and the greater visibility of Islam have created a new state of fear that strains relations between different neighborhoods of cities promising to free the people of Argenteuil from “scum,” making “use of Karcher” (a brand of pressure washers) he continued to distill the poison of stigmatization François Hollande has promised interventions and has achieved some gains in combatting discrimination but the operation ran aground against the Valls government social and ethnic apartheid” and yesterday after a symbolic inter-ministerial meeting in Mureaux promised to come down on municipalities that refuse to build public housing But politicians continue to perpetuate the “us” and “them” mentality that undermines French society People in the suburbs have consistently said they lack one thing: “respect.” there have been various interventions in the banlieues The government spent €48 billion for urban renewal tearing down 151,000 derelict homes in 600 districts renovating 320,000 of them and building 136,000 Another 50,000 are slated for demolition and reconstruction and there’s a plan to strengthen the transportation network as part of a “Grand Paris” project These policies have changed the set design but not the script despite some initiatives in schools to elevate the brightest students the creation of agencies to promote investment (even the United States participated) and laws that recognize the reality of discrimination But the economic crisis of 2008 hit the lower classes especially hard which over the years have lost the social cohesion once created by working in the same factory or joining the union the average income is 56 percent of the national average unemployment is 10 points higher (20 points for people younger than 25) and job insecurity is rampant (7.5 percent of the department of Seine-Saint-Denis receives income subsidies) If you take the RER from Luxembourg station in central Paris to La Courneuve More than half the children living in working-class areas are below the poverty line infant mortality is 40-50 percent higher than in the rest of France The highest rate of business creation is in the suburbs The young people study; more than 50 percent of the children of workers graduate from high school researchers and managers are more and more coming from these struggling neighborhoods The Bondy Blog successes and defeats of a French youth born in the banlieues which seven out of 10 French still consider “dangerous.” Regala questo articolo Gli articoli dall'Archivio per approfondire questo argomento Heloise Pitot FacebookDès maintenant et jusqu’au 30 juillet 2023 il est possible de se sentir en vacances sans partir à l’autre bout de la France Clichy Plage a ouvert les portes de son monde aquatique et promet de rafraîchir petits et grands dans un cadre plutôt sympa à seulement quelques pas de Paris il sera possible de venir participer à un grand pique-nique Chacun apportera ses petits plats préférés et ils seront partagés De quoi faire de belles rencontres dans une ambiance conviviale.  Tout au long de cette après-midi, des animations une tombola et un orchestre guinguette seront organisés pour passer une journée décontractée À noter : le feu d’artifice de Clichy-sous-Bois est annulé Clichy Plage Pelouse de la mairie – Clichy-sous-BoisJusqu’au 30 juillet 2023GratuitPlus d’informations le combo artistique gagnant pour les 16-28 ans à La Seine Musicale Cette rando au bord de la Seine vous entraîne dans les pas des Impressionnistes