Rue Velupillaï Prabhakaran

I remember what it was like, living in a posh neighborhood. Two out-of-the-ordinary things happened in the entire 9 months I lived on Boulevard Emile Augier, in the 16th arrondissement.

I noticed that on the weekends, my decrepid (lazy?) neighbor would routinely to let her Bijon Frisé roam free around the block for hours at a time. I would frequently walk down my block to the sight of a dirty white puppy, trickling pee out of confusion and limping around the block in laps.

Then, walking to the bus one night, I noticed a pile of Lychee husks just shy of the trash can. I looked up and down the street, expecting to see a pile of Oyster shells littering the street and foie gras wrappers cluttering up the sewer drains. Ah yes, the dreaded Racaille du 16ème, I thought. I heard that once they threatened to throw a Taittinger bottle-Molotov cocktail, but then realized their parents were waiting for them at home, and they'd better not.

Things have changed a lot since I've moved to Rue du Faubourg St. Denis.

I now find myself defending my neighborhood like a protective mother of a serial killer:

"You just don't understand! But (he/it)'s always been such a nice (boy/neighborhood) !"

Our street, Rue du Faubourg St. Denis, is the epicenter of the French Tamil community (more on this later) and a stone's throw from Gare du Nord. Our apartment is one of my favorite addresses I've ever had. But, there may be a few drawbacks. Let's look at a pro/con list:

Pro: Very cheap rent.
Con: Our address is officially a Public health hazard. According to the decree from the city of Paris posted on our main door, there are exposed electrical wires in our main courtyard, and the third building of the complex is basically crumbling; (Pictures to come, but the group of Tamil youth who stand in front of the 3rd building have deterred me from taking photos). How crumbling? "Being entirely held up by a number of sturdy wooden beams" crumbling.

Con: One of the women from our building was involved in a stabbing that ended up in the courtyard. This would be more frightening were it not the woman that stabbed a man who had 'bothered' her on the street. (He was stabbed in the back and is apparently OK, and she got taken to police headquarters. Also, the 'randomness' of this event seems a little suspicious. Who carries around a switchblade in their purse at 6 p.m.? )

Pro: The fair and balanced commentary of our gardienne. Our gardienne is a drug-addled, mail-stealing creature of the Parisian underworld. She looks like an aged character from a sub-grade production of Les Misérables, with authentic 19th century hygiene. But I never had any actual proof that she was a horrible person until this happened.

Our delicate flower is seen here, hosing down blood after the incident:

When we asked what happened, she offered some delicately woven analysis:
"She's always been such a whore! She's always bringing men to her apartment!" When we asked who the guy was, she suggested that he was "Chinese" or "Arab" and then looked at us awkwardly like she wasn't pulling her least favorite ethnic minorities out of a hat...

Pro: A lively Tamil neighborhood and the best South Asian food I've ever had.

Con: Regularly-occuring violent protests. It's really sad what's happening in North Sri Lanka, and I support people's right to protest, so other than the one time that the tear gas started coming into our apartment, I have no real complaints here, actually. The same may not be said for the guy whose scooter was incinerated just down the block. Or the people who almost got involved in the Antillean/Tamil turf war that started also just outside our window after a recent protest:

(french po po, regulatin')

(We look on as Paris riot police bring the bleepin' ruckus)

But, really, it's a lovely place to live. Come visit?