The Ugly Side of Paris

Last night I was reminded how ugly and destructive people can be-- even in a beautiful city like Paris. My boyfriend and I went to sleep around 12:30 at night and within 10 minutes I started to hear some very loud noises outside our apartment. At first I thought it was someone in the apartment building slamming their doors or someone having an argument, but when I opened my eyes, I saw a huge, bright orange light shining into our apartment through our windows. I looked at my boyfriend and said, "is that a fire?" and we jumped up out of bed to see a horrifying sight just outside our window. My boyfriend's scooter along with a neighbor's scooter parked across the street were in a blaze of fire! In a state of shock and a sleepy haze, I started asking, "is that your scooter?" "did you park your scooter there?" I kept hoping that we had parked it further down the street, but unfortunately, no. I've never been that close to a large fire before, but it's impressive how destructive it is. In minutes the scooters were reduced to a pile of black metal. All we could do was talk to the police and stand by as we watched our beloved scooter dissolve into nothing-- completely helpless.

We did find out that the culprits of this hideous display of human behavior was likely done by the previous owner of our neighbor's scooter. I won't go into the details, but it seems the previous owner was angry and decided to take revenge by lighting the scooter on fire. Unfortunately, our scooter happened to be parked right next to his and so it eventually caught on fire. Witnesses say they saw two men pour gasoline on our neighbor's scooter and light it. By the time the police and fire department arrived though, our scooter had also caught fire. The two men likely came from the neighborhood next to Montmarte called, Barbes, according to our neighbor. A word to those visiting Paris for the first time, stay away from this area, especially at night. My boyfriend and I have driven through this area many times and occassionally have to walk in the area, and it's a bit scary. Lots of stolen goods are sold in this area, there is a high crime rate and you can find a predominance of what the Parisiens call "wesh, wesh" which are basically gangsters and gangster wannabe's-- and all this just a block away from the posh area of Montmartre.

This a little known part about Paris that most tourists will never know but it does exist, even in Paris. Like Los Angeles, Paris has it's positives and negatives. And like Los Angeles, it also has a huge immigration problem with immigrants who contribute to a lot of the crime in Paris. I realize this may make me sound like a racist, but it's reality and it's important to be aware of when visiting Paris. Having experienced, witnessed and learned about this side of the Paris, it's something I felt I needed to include in my blog. It's not the idealized version that most people think about, but it's just as real. Living in Los Angeles for 36 years, I luckily never experienced some of the things I've experienced in the past two months. In just two months of being in Paris I was robbed in the metro, had a man masturbate on the metro next to me and my boyfriend, was hit by a car, and now saw our scooter go up in flames! It definitely can make one question if Paris is in fact one of the most amazing cities in the world. But, I suppose this is all to say that Paris is a complicated mix of beauty with it's architecture, history, food and culture while also being a place of ugliness with it's crime, conflict and disturbed people. Despite this "other side" of Paris, I still love it. Perhaps one day this feeling will change, but for now I will continue to admire it's beauty while still learning about what it's really like to live here.

 
Our scooter on fire outside apartment