More Canal Saint-Martin

The transition between the previous post and this one would have been made by the fact that both reference the Canal Saint Martin, except oops! I forgot to add that the bike store where one may acquire one's electric bike is on the Canal Saint Martin.

Anyway, in Paris, divergent things happen side by side. In this instance, the Canal Saint Martin neighborhood is on the one hand highly gentrified; on the other, it has a high concentration of homeless people. In particular, as mentioned previously, they hang out on the Blvd Richard Lenoir, where the Canal St Martin goes underground to the Place de la Bastille and the Bassin de l'Arsenal. The benches of the recently-re-landscaped central median tend to be occupied on weekdays by a collection of down-and-outs. If I understand correctly, this is also one of the areas where Emmaus (an organization that aids the homeless) distributed tents during the winter, and also where some homeless people had their tent burned recently. Anyway, there's news- several associations working together put up a large tent --40m2. In the headline it says "tipi" but in the body of the article, "un chapiteau" suggesting a circus tent-type affair.

The idea of the tent is, of course, to call attention to the plight of the homeless, but also to have an office space where people can fill out various applications and forms for help from the government, applications for housing, etc.

In addition, the associations organized a free picnic dinner last night, inviting anyone who was homeless or "mal logé" (living in a residential hotel, a shelter, anything temporary or not up to standard).

Libération on the tent: http://www.liberation.fr/actualite/societe/198326.FR.php
Le Monde on the picnic dinner: http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3226,36-803143@51-797646,0.html