What remains of the forts and the Zône at Pré Saint-Gervais?
That is the question we asked ourselves to build this exhibition. We still have the Butte du Chapeau Rouge. No! It became Parisian. It was a ginguette frequented by Parisians as a goguette, it became an Art Deco fashion park. We still have streets lined with lilacs with pavilions surrounded by vegetable gardens. No! They became a hospital, Archives de Paris. We found the scent of the Cherry Trees, that of the Plain, the rue de l'Aubépine on photographs of Monsieur Cayeux, we found plans, a table populated with soldiers and children….
With the annexations of the City of Paris, the territory of Pré Saint-Gervais went from 136 hectares in 1840 to 72 hectares in 1930. These annexations traced a Gervaise history that profoundly changed the urban landscape, its inhabitants and its social life.