The post offices here are used by people of modest means, usually, to do their banking.
Housing projects are shown here, the tobacconist (buraliste) in my quartier chaud, which means bad nabe, and there is discussion about quality of life issues, in this video. I show various services in my nabe, and I cause quite a stir when I discover that the local bar/gambling place/tobacco shop has changed hands!
The new owner kind of told me to stop filming, but pretty nicely.
Outside, I chatted with one of the bar patrons who'd stepped outside for a smoke, and I said, where are the owners? This was when I found out -- just today, the bar/gambling place/tobaconist in my nabe had changed hands. I asked if the previous owners had retired, and the patron didn't know. I knew they were going to pull out -- I am surprised they stayed as long as they did.
Quartier Saint-Remi is in Saint-Denis, France, and Saint-Denis has a border contiguous with the Paris city limits. We're on the Paris bus and métro lines and all, and we have a tramway and two different commuter train lines here.
My street is called rue de Strasbourg because for about 2,000 years or so, this was the road one too when they were going from Saint-Denis (the original capital of France before Paris) to Strasbourg, which was in Germany at the time. There is a river here, but it's underground now. My street is incredibly badly marked. It's as if you're expected to know, deep down in your DNA, that this is the street you take to get to Strasbourg! Such has been the case for about 2,000 years, so why are clear street signs needed, huh? Drives me nuts when people try to find my apartment, to visit or deliver something.
The Post Office shown in the beginning of this clip has been looking like this since the 1950s. People of modest means use Post Offices here for banking and more. This branch gets robbed a lot. I can't even mail a letter inside -- they're too worried about bombs or whatever. I have to use the mailbox outside, after I buy postage inside!
Saint-Denis was a walled city in medieval times. I suggest you bone up on its history. It's fascinating!
I show the pharmacy a little -- they are people you can talk to about your most intimate things, and you can save time and money, often, by going to them FIRST, before even seeing your doctor.
I show a beggar girl. Her family is living in an abandoned garage behind my building. It's slated for destruction. This has been an incredibly cold winter. I give them coins, transit passes, food vouchers (for prepared food), cigarettes, my coordinates if they need help, and kind words. There are huge new shantytowns right near by. I have a slide show, I think on CUTECATFAITH, my other YouTube channel, with some photos I took INSIDE one the other day.
I moved to France in 1994, because I couldn't get healthcare in the USA. I have an immune system disorder, possibly from a bad batch of polio vaccine. (All us kids got very, very sick.) I bought the abandoned apartment after five months of homelessness, using all my remaining cash, and even had to pay a bribe to get it! It didn't even have a working toilet.
Chasing the drug buyers out of this nabe was interesting, but effective. No one has ever stood up to them here, not the residents! I also stood up to the Trésor Publique, who tried to shake me down some years ago for not paying enough for my apartment! I was the first person in 40 years of the manager's career who said no and questioned authority.
LISA, INC. (EURL) is a going concern I'm setting up based in France. I have 3 full-length movies in pre-production, with Melvin Van Peebles directing. Nick Zedd and Randy Russell have been asked to be associate directors for THE FRANK LETTERS, a movie about my relationship via the mail with FULL FORCE FRANK. This is also a book coming out, THE FRANK LETTERS, which I am doing with BOOK WHISPERER PRESS (New York/Paris). People will flip!
The charitable foundation, Back-In-Spades, is being set up, too. It will be based in Ohio, USA, and I will focus the other activities on improving my nabe here, and doing a few "surprise" things people will be . . . well . . . SURPRISED ABOUT.
This video is dedicated to Angelo Pastormerlo, who runs BOOK WHISPERER PRESS, as a token of our great friendship, dating back to 1979. I stick with him because he's a good person. Yay for friendship!
copyright 2010 Lisa B. Falour all rights reserved
copyright 2010 Lisa B. Falour
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Paris ghettoby frankpeeteevee410,526 views
I live in a middle-class neighborhood in the South Bay of Los Angeles and I have a cousin who lives in the Seine-Saint-Denis area. Would you recommend visiting him or is it too dangerous ?
westside121812 5 months ago
@westside121812 Oh, heavens, no, visit him or her but do not ride the RER trains! xo
slobomotion 4 months ago
I'm French, it's nice to see American people living in France, we have lot of immigrants here but the American community is tiny.
I hope that you enjoy the life in our country.
by the way, st denis it's really popular, you don't live in the chic quarter lol...
the mentality between the French and the American is quite different, in fact France is another world if you compare with the US.
burtoncaly 1 year ago
@burtoncaly The word "popluaire" translates into "working class" in English. Saint-Denis had a very bad reputation but now it is very expensive to buy there. I like it, I lived in NYC for 17 years, Saint-Denis is way more exciting and right next to Paris! No one spots me as American here, they say I speak French with an Irish accent! I have been a French citizen for 11 years now and love it here! Bises!
slobomotion 1 year ago
@slobomotion Well, I live in Tours in the center of France it's a quite big city (300 thousands inh.) the life here is more sweet than the "région parisienne" in general the life "en province" is less stressful. personally I'm quite afraid to live there.
it's less expensive to buy a house or an apartment. with a great space and a garden in the little city of France than in "région parisienne" this, include Paris it's almost 11 million ppl it's even difficult to find a HLM there. bon courage.
burtoncaly 1 year ago
@burtoncaly I was in Tours last year and loved it but only got to spend half a day there. I went to the Museum, though. We found the city bigger than we had thought. I have a friend there but she never answered me and I would have liked to see her. We are very interested in property elsewhere. We found a great place in Selestat in March, ony 13,000 euros, and regret not buying it. We are looking in Montmorency but keeping an open mind to other cities, cheaper. xo
slobomotion 1 year ago