64 percent of Parisians want to leave the capital for a variety of reasons: the rising cost of living, the accessibility of increasingly difficult real estate, neighborhoods and streets mired in endless construction, rampant dirt, individual and family loneliness, or worrying pollution. In 1962, the population of Paris (the capital) was 2.79 million. In 2013, it was 2.23, and in 2021 their number was 2.16 million. Good year, bad year, losing capital about 10,000 annually. Some time ago, since the 1960s, the population of Paris has been growing by 2,000 or 3,000 per year. Some “fugitives” flee to the parties, and this is cheaper. The Parisian region, Ile-de-France, has today, according to 2021 data, 1,221,3447 inhabitants. The growth of the “suburb”, the perimeter of the Parisian district, has a gentle face and a tragic face. A friendly face … small, young towns with many services and great shops. with shades. Recently Nobel laureate Annie Ernault lives in one of those friendly suburban towns, Serge Pontoise, and she commented to me months ago: “When I go back to Paris, I think I see ‘too many whites, and fewer blacks and Muslims’.” face Tragic … In Section 93, north of Paris, street crime has become a dangerous social cancer.The great historical modernity, accelerated by the great health crisis of Covid, is the growing desire to flee and leave the capital.According to a social study published by Le Parisien (independent popular) newspaper 64% of Parisians want to leave Paris 17% expect to be able to do so next year 29% say they are saving up so they can leave within the next two or three years 18% hope to leave when they retire or their young children are older… Evidence To escape the first destination for Parisians who have fled the capital is the nearest suburb, the Ile-de-France region.Daniel Cazot Mingot, a real estate agent, comments on the process this way: “Well … buying a small apartment is very difficult for young couples. A large apartment for families with children is also very difficult. The solution: go to the suburbs and buy a cheaper semi-detached house with a garden.” However, the economic reasons are not the only ones. The exodus of Parisians in search of another life has completely different origins. Adrien Pépin (35 years old) and his wife decided to leave Paris two years ago to settle in the suburbs of Toulouse (Occitane region). The couple has friends who have also left Paris. Based on that shared experience, Pepin wrote a book called A Guide to Leaving Paris, a kind of “practical instruction manual” for Parisians wishing to leave. “There are many reasons for wanting to flee Paris and settle in the provinces,” comments Biban, adding: “Every Parisian, every couple, has their own reasons, hence my idea of providing a practical guide, advice that comes from my personal experience.” Among the 64 percent of Parisians aspiring to leave the capital, the change in neighborhoods and regions also illustrates very different reasons. Madame Bernadette Courtois, owner of an “everything for 1 euro” store, located north of Paris, at the beginning of the rue Belleville, tells me: “I owned this store forty or fifty years ago. My husband and I are very happy. Then … my husband died, Moroccans, blacks and drug addicts started arriving. The street and the neighborhood seemed very difficult. I had to go to the suburbs. But coming and going is the way of the cross. If I can go further. But I can’t.” Wealthier Parisians also have economic reasons, but of a different kind. Maurice Vaillard, a former airline pilot, dreamed all his life of living in Saint-Germain-des-Pres, one of the most expensive areas of Paris. He tells me about the reasons for his flight from Paris this way: “I invested many years of savings in buying the apartment of my dreams. In Front Of Armani Store. But the city council’s garbage collection service is doing poorly. Waking up in an expensive neighborhood, with garbage collected, until late in the morning, seems to me like a robbery. I decided to sell to some Americans and go to my hometown, Nice, on the Cote d’Azur. Bye Paris. My daughter also ran away. It has settled eighty kilometers from the capital.” A group of Muslim women at the Parisian “Café de Flore” Quiñonero in the same neighborhood of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the famous cafés “Les Deux Magots” and “Café de Flore” are legendary establishments, almost perfect “mirrors” for trying to make sense of background changes . Julian Delay (a pseudonym, to preserve my identity), the waiter at Café de Fleur tells me: “In my childhood and my youth, the neighborhood was a lot cheaper. We had very Parsi customers, with quite a few writers and journalists. It’s all over. Publishers and newspapers emigrated. Also. Coffee, drinks, food, breakfast, are more expensive. Now we have other customers. Wealthy Muslim women are an eye-catching novelty. They arrive in luxury cars with a chauffeur. They take the best tables. And they give great tips.” Trucks and bulldozers Between Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the tower/Montparnasse district, Rue de Rennes is one of the most important shopping streets in Paris. The locals have suffered for years rosary from endless business. Sophie Delabary, manager of a perfume store, thinks wistfully pessimistic about the evolution of the street section she must suffer: “Business is turning away potential customers. It is not pleasant to go into a shop and there is a bulldozer at the door.” There are jobs and jobs… The reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris, a National and European Historic Monument, also had a very expensive or difficult cost to many neighborhoods. In an area stretching for several kilometers around, has led Monumental works complicate and complicate the daily lives of thousands of thousands of Parisians, who have been harassed by the coming and going of dozens of trucks, not to forget the extraordinary security measures, as indispensable as the grateful jacquards.A patrol of soldiers at the door of the house may be reassuring at all times. Or annoying. There are other causes of deaf anger: Pollution. Cardiologist Bernard Uglar lived his whole life in the Odeon. He had to go: more car traffic led to more pollution. “I made an effort and went to Biarritz,” he told me, adding, “I didn’t I sell. But I only come to Paris from time to time. The neighborhood changed, Paris changed. Pollution complicates my life, it attacks my eyes.” Disappointment According to a study by Utility Bidder, Paris is among the 100 most polluted cities in the world. According to The Economist, a weekly economic reference magazine, Paris and Singapore are vying, “in fairness,” for the position of the world’s most expensive cities. For years, very diverse studies have confirmed that Paris has become a very noisy and dirty city. The ‘traditional’ Parisian contemplates this development wistfully, when it is a pity to find groups of two or three without a fixed roof or address, fixed, eating and comforting themselves in their corner. Undoubtedly, Paris has many other, beautiful and wonderful faces. But the disappointment of Parisians who want to leave has very deep causes. West of the capital is still a traditional ‘oasis’ that is getting old. The entire East Paris region has multicultural parties ranging from pale black/gray to pitch black, with plenty of Islamic clothing, to suit all tastes and feelings.
