That’s because it’s a suburb.
Leave Le Marais to the tourists and come here to discover what’s next for the French capital.
As Kern describes it, “Ropac said, I’m hesitating between London and Pantin.'
Les Grands Moulins, a converted mill in Pantin, France, now houses offices of the financial firm BNP Paribas.Credit: Céline Clanet
I had to rub my eyes.
A guy like Ropac!
London has Greater London, so I suppose this would be Greater Paris, if there were one.”
Works by British sculptor Tony Cragg on display at Thaddaeus Ropac’s pioneering gallery in Pantin.Céline Clanet
Alas, there isn’t.
Paris beautiful, tiny, perfect Paris can barely breathe inside its tight corset.
There’s no place for it to go, and building upward is largely out of the question.
From left: Mayor Bertrand Kern; layers of street art overlap on a riverfront building in Pantin.Céline Clanet
Kern is right about Greater London.
The metropolis can sprawl for years to come.
Paris, on the other hand, is packed like so many exquisite chocolates into a tidy 40-square-mile box.
In the end, Ropac did choose Pantin (though he recently expanded to London, too).
In 2012, he opened his gallery in a refurbished 19th-century ironworks.
“We got five times as many.”
Ropac wasn’t necessarily looking for company when he moved out here, but he’s found it anyway.
Equally important to the changing character of Pantin is the outward migration of Parisians.
Soaring Paris rents have a lot to do with it.
I met Adrien Betra at his ramshackle offices in the 10th Arrondissement.
Betra cofounded Surprize, a firm that organizes nightlife events.
“Paris has gotten a little stuck,” Betra told me.
In 1802, Napoleon built the Canal de l’Ourcq, which runs through the center of Pantin to Paris.
The ParisStrasbourg railway cut through Pantin in 1849.
Industry soon clustered around these transport arteries.
Gauloises cigarettes used to be made here.
So did Motobecane mopeds.
And then, little by little in the postwar years, manufacturing evaporated.
“This is the Paris of the future,” she said.
What to do in Paris
Parts of Pantin remain pretty dicey.
But open-air drug sales still go on.
Artist Myriam Lefkowitz recently staged an exhibit at Pantin’s swimming pool.
She made sure the pool stayed open during her exhibit.
“I wanted the art world and the people from the community to mix,” Lefkowitz said.
The Brooklyn analogy isn’t embraced by everyone inla zone.
The Communists don’t much like Pantin’s climb up the class ladder.
“I have to keep Pantin from being completely gentrified,” Kern said.
“But otherwise I’m content to let the process take care of itself.”
Cine 104:An art-house cinema with a renowned annual festival of short films and other offbeat events.
Go for a swim or simply take in the buildings unique design.
