In my post yesterday, I mentioned that I lived in the Paris suburbs from 1974 until 1976. My apartment was across the street from the train station in Asnières-sur-Seine, northwest of Paris proper. I was working in the Latin Quarter, and the commute was long. It was especially miserable in winter, when skies stayed gray, temperatures stayed low, and it rained much of the time. However, Asnières itself wasn't a bad place to live. There was a Saturday morning open-air market in the street just below my windows, and there was a big supermarket within few minutes' walk. And a movie theater. Here's a short slideshow that includes photos of the building I lived in. On the ground floor there was a bread and pastry bakery, so the mornings in my apartment smelled delicious.
Asnières is very residential and very urban. The town is just 2 square miles and the population is about 85,000. The brick apartment building I lived in was pretty nice. The apartment itself was tiny, with a small kitchen (but no refrigerator) and a small bathroom (sink, toilet, and shower). It cost me 75 or 80 dollars a month. I had no lease. I took the photos in the slideshow here in April 2007, the last time I was in Asnières. I don't know if the cafés in my photos were there back then, but maybe they were. I remember the cheese shop (fromagerie) very well. The two men in that street sculpture are General de Gaulle, who was president of France in the 1960s, and the author André Malraux, who was his minister of culture. I lived on the edge of Asnières, close to the more upscale town of Courbevoie. The house at the end of the slideshow is typical of the houses in that part of the area, mixed in with more modern apartment buildings.
I'm enjoying this series featuring suburbs. Asnieres is interesting, especially since I thought you were living in Paris at that time. The summer I worked in Paris I visited St Cloud where some of the French hosts in my work exchange with the University of Louisville lived.
ReplyDeleteI put your rent into an inflation calculator...$80 in 1975 equals $390 today, so that's very inexpensive! That little house at the end of the slideshow is nice. I wouldn't mind having it!
ReplyDeleteAbout 15 years ago, I did a two-week summer workshop for French teachers, and we were based just outside of the southwest edge of Paris, in Issy-les-Moulineaux. At first, I was disappointed that we were not inside Paris proper, but, we were actually only one Métro stop outside of Paris, and we were on line 12, which takes you right in to Montparnasse (a great spot for Correspondances to other lines), and continues to other good spots. It was a good 15 minute ride from Montparnasse to our Métro stop just past Porte-de-Versailles, but at least we didn't have to do all kinds of switching. Actually, where I lived in the 12th, when I was an au pair, though inside Paris, was a long walk to the closest Métro, and long rides in, and required changing... I was always late to wherever I was going LOL.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the dog cemetery? Any photos/comments?
ReplyDeleteSorry, no photos taken in the dog cemetery. I didn't take photos back in the '70s and I haven't been back to the cemetery since then. There are many photos of it here. Hope your Thanksgiving is a good one. We're cooking a leg of lamb.
DeleteI just came across this Atlas Obscura article about the Asnières dog cemetery. It's in English.
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