Pantin, the hidden side

Pantin, a city next to Paris’s downtown, is modifying since some years.

From a very industrialized place in the 19th century, this city is now welcoming big companies, shops and cultural establishments with a national reach.  For example, the Grands Moulins, the Magasins Généraux and the Centre National de la Danse are all strategically located here, along the Ourcq canal.

However, these iconic buildings are not representative of the northern districts of Pantin. During this walking visit, you will hear the story of the Quatre Chemins, a residential suburb-like district, and the French largest still-active cemetery, the Cimetière parisien de Pantin. There, you will have the opportunity to relax in a vegetal atmosphere constituted by 8,000 trees!

You will discover the wide range of tourism offers, and the reality of Pantin behind its nickname of the “Parisian Brooklyn”, which symbolizes the growing gentrification and stated in the New York Time, in 2012.

Your guide, Tristan Bayle, will relate to you the social struggles and some tragic events that still resonates in people’s memories. Today, as you zigzag from its renovated riverbanks to its immense tree-lined cemetery, passing through working-class neighborhoods and a small secret garden city, you'll discover a surprising town!

This 4 km-walk starts at the Gare de Pantin and ends inside the Cimetière Parisien de Pantin. Good shoes are recommended...

Your guide, Tristan Bayle, is a fully licensed guide who likes showing the european way of life to tourists. 

Come check his other visits in cities next to Paris's downtown on Explore Paris!