France still looks like and feels like France in the centre of Paris. You do not have to travel very far from the usual tourist sites, however, to start to understand the French ban on the full Islamic face-veil, which saw the first token conviction this week.
One tourist site that has quietly slipped off the traditional itineraries, for very good reasons, is the Basilica of Saint-Denis. Resting place of French kings and queens for more than a thousand years, the cathedral will see the interment next year of recently rediscovered remains of Henry IV. Ask Parisians if they have ever been to visit and they will say, almost uniformly, that they have not.
France’s equivalent to Westminster Abbey sits is today a forsaken Christian island in a surrounding Islamic sea. The population is 70% Muslim. French police publicly list much of the district as a no-go area. Walking through the area, one wonders not only whether one is really in France but whether one is even in Europe.
(Merci à Legrandsommeil)
