These pictures were taken in the streets of Saint-Denis, a town in the north suburbs of Paris.
Taken with my 3D phone, quality is not that great but I have a little story to go with them.
In fact four stories in one. I will call it "The Saint, The Kings, The Communists and the Architect".

1) The Saint.
Around year 250, Denis was the first bishop of Paris. He was persecuted for his belief and beheaded in Montmartre.
For a normal person, the story would have ended here, but Denis pick up his head and left the site of his execution.
He started walking down hill from Montmartre and stopped only after a 6 km walk towards the north, holding his head in his hands and preaching all the way.
He gave his head to a pious woman and ultimately collapsed on the ground.
Such a feat gave him a great popularity and his resting place become a place of worship and pilgrimage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis

2) The Kings.
The small initial shrine evolved in a convent and various churches over the centuries before a large basilica was erected in the 12th century.
Ruins of the various religious buildings can still be seen in some streets of the city as in my picture.
The basilica is the last resting place for the Kings of France. Nearly all the kings since the 10th century are buried there!
For this reason, the place is quite touristic, at least for those who dare to wander in the Paris suburbs...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Denis_Basilica
The basilica, hidden by the modern building, can be glimpsed in the second picture.

3) The Communists.
Saint-Denis, as many of the towns surrounding Paris was home for many factories and industries employing a lot of workers and people obviously less well off than in Paris.
All the surrounding cities, being stronghold for the Communist Party were constituting what was known the "Red Belt".
Influence of the PCF (French Communist Party) has tremendously faded, especially since the collapse of USSR.
The "belt" is now mostly eaten away but Saint-Denis remains one of the last jewels with a nearly uninterrupted line of communist mayors since the 1920s!.
The modern building (built 1987-89) used to be the headquarter of "L'Hummanité", the daily newspaper of the PCF.
With the number of readers dwindling, the building became too large and expensive and the newspaper left it in 2008 for a cheaper location.
The frontage being referenced as a historical monument, the building was bought by the french state in 2010.
It seems to be unoccupied and the lobby was dusty and deserted...
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancien_si%C3%A8ge_du_quotidien_l%27Humanit%C3%A9

4) The Architect.
The building is "historical monument", probably not for its communist past but for its architect, Oscar Niemeyer, the famous Brazilian architect who passed away two weeks ago at the respectable age of 104.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Niemeyer
He is well known for the spectacular official buildings of Brazil federal capital Brasilia (I would like to go there!).
He had a long life, never really retired and designed about 600 buildings!
Being a leftist himself, he had to leave Brazil after the military coup of 1964 only to return in the 1980s.
He went to France, opened an office in Paris and design several buildings in France.
For his friends of the PCF, he designed the headquarter of the party, Place du Colonel Fabien in Paris, probably his most famous building in France.
(Note that the address initials "Place du Colonel Fabien" (Colonel Fabien Square) are also PCF!)
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si%C3%A8ge_du_Parti_communiste_fran%C3%A7ais
Lesser known is the building of the newspaper but I happened to be in the vicinity last Saturday and had in fact never seen it before.
Last Saturday, December the 15th, Oscar Niemeyer would have been 105 year old...

Pierre.

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