Rue Marjolin

“A society that forgets and disowns its past and history, and which does not respect its elders, is a society without a future.” This is the message scrawled on a sign outside a small townhouse on Rue Marjolin in Levallois-Perret. The sign is a poignant reminder of the street’s history and the stories that are quickly fading away. Rue Marjolin, once a bustling street of working-class life, is now being demolished to make way for a new development, a dreary pastiche of a new town model. The town was considered once to be suitably welcoming by arch-revolutionary Louise Michel, who chose to be buried in the town. It was also once under the control of Communist mayor Parfait Jans until 1983. But the factories that once employed people are gone, and the local authorities seem intent on scrubbing clean all traces of the industrial era. Many locals lament the loss of their street, including an 87-year-old lady, a resistant who was deported to Germany during World War II. She wants to remain in the town where her husband is buried, but it seems unlikely. The local authorities say the new structures will be mostly social housing and that they need to undertake this development to meet a 20% target for such housing in the town. But the estimated cost of the operation is €20 million, with half that sum earmarked for property purchasing and demolition. Renovating the buildings would have been more economically and environmentally sensible. Take a moment to imagine this once-lively street, a narrow street of cheap lodgings and shops, now destined to be swallowed by blandness. Only a crumbling butcher shop, its fascinating facade a testament to the past stands defiant. Levallois-Perret is a town with no museum and seemingly no need to display traces of its past. It’s the classic tale of the nouveau riche who are ashamed of their unprosperous ancestors. Surely the only gain from this development will be an identity for the town. This is the tragic fate of Rue Marjolin – a forgotten street swallowed by the relentless march of time.