Discover Paris’s Hidden Gem: The Trendiest Neighborhood in Pantin
There was a key moment when Bertrand Kern realized that the fortunes of his gritty little town were about to change. Kern is the three-term Socialist mayor of Pantin, just north of the Périphérique, or ring road, that marks the outer boundary of Paris intra muros — Paris within the walls. Pantin lies beyond that, in a landscape of run-down housing projects and abandoned factories that Parisians refer to asla zone. Almost exactly 11 years ago, disillusioned young men and women from around the city spent weeks rioting there, expressing frustration with their dead-end lives. Historically, it hasn’t been a place Parisians want to hang around in, for reasons of snobbery, fear, and common sense.