{"id":14566,"date":"2021-09-14T16:33:47","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T14:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/celineduong.com\/?page_id=14566"},"modified":"2025-11-28T12:02:59","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T11:02:59","slug":"paris-goutte-dor-the-cash-in-hand-quarter","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/celineduong.com\/index.php\/paris-goutte-dor-the-cash-in-hand-quarter\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris-Goutte d’Or, The Cash-in-Hand Quarter"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the heights of Montmartre Hill, Paris rooftops offer themselves to the passers-by. Nothing indicates what is happening close to the ground, another city, dense and crowded, conflicted, even unlivable, some would say.  <\/span>
\n \u00ab It\u2019s too noisy, my front window looks onto the street and I hear everything \u00bb<\/em><\/strong>, says an inhabitant of the Goutte d\u2019Or neighbourhood, the African quarter of Paris found at the foot of the hill. <\/span>
\n Here, counterfeiting sprawls over sidewalks. Urbanization takes place from the bottom up, on the street, <\/span>from trade in goods to trade in (women\u2019s) bodies.<\/span>
\n Some people wish to open up the area, diversify its population and turn it into a popular, multi-ethnic district, without intruding into the public space, all the while saying goodbye to police patrols. <\/span>
\n Yet, those cash-in-hand jobs protect the most vulnerable groups in a system unable to provide jobs for people without a right of residence. <\/span>
\n Therefore, the neighbourhood becomes a point of entry to the capital, where one can find support and work.  \u00ab I came here because I knew people I could stay with \u00bb<\/em>, tells a young woman. <\/span><\/p>\n

Many homeless people rent a room for the night in hotels nearby : \u00ab I see retired people who have almost no pension. They pay 35 euros a night. Well, in the end, they end up being taken care of by charities \u00bb, <\/em>says a hotel receptionist.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Drifters inside the city, they wander from one hotel to the next, the Sacr\u00e9-C\u0153ur on the horizon, like a mirage, an unlikely destination.  <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00ab\u00a0Towards the city runs everything that space contains. Everything produced by the world, the goods, money and humans. The city welcomes them and packs them in.\u00a0\u00bb<\/em> (Henri Lefebvre, The Right to the City<\/em>)  <\/span><\/p>\n

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