16 November, 2006 | Leave a Comment

I live just a few minutes walk from the Place de la République, one of Paris’s grandes places. Paris is filled with these giant squares (for lack of a better term, which doesn’t necessarily have an equivalent in English), among them Place de la Concorde and Place de la Bastille. Eight of Paris’s grands boulevards run from around the Madeleine to the Place de la République. It is always buzzing with traffic and people. At its center is an immense statue commemorating Paris’s republics. There are two squares on either side of the statue (which serves as a traffic circle) and around the perimeter of the square are shops and cafés. A column I read recently described République as Paris’s most “schizophrenic” place, “because it is so many things at once and takes on bits of the quartiers that converge on it from all sides: the Marais, the grands boulevards, the Bastille, the up-and-coming parts of the 11th [arrondissement], the heavily-accented flavors of the immigrant communities… ”

République is definitely an odd mixture, with Americana (McD, KFC, Holiday Inn), traditional French cafés, crepe and ice cream stands, French chain stores and a belle époque carousel filled with delighted children just yards away from homeless people camping in tents and passed out on the pavement. Shoppers and café goers co-exist with hungry people lined up for boxed lunches. It’s all rather strange to observe and defies any attempt at neat categorization. République is the traditional starting point for demonstrations in Paris. Every weekend I see a rally of some sort in one of the squares. This past spring during the massive demonstrations over the French jobs law, République was the site of major civil unrest.

The Place de la République is a constant presence in my life and I’ve grown quite fond of it. In a strange way, it feels like home already and I can’t imagine living in any other neighborhood. As such, I’ve tried to document it in a photo essay of sorts and in a video. Nothing compares to the real thing, but I hope in some small way I can give you a sense of what it’s like to live here.

[gv data="http://www.youtube.com/v/VLb9s_kfKYM" width="425" height="350"][/gv]

Tags: Place de la Republique

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1. Anita Says:

   November 17th, 2006 at 4:07 am

   Looks like downtown Washington, DC. I guess that’s L’Enfant’s handiwork.

2. caroline Says:

   November 19th, 2006 at 1:58 am

   This is so thoughful and so beautiful and so descriptive. Thanks for this post. Seems as if Place de la République is the center of the world.

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