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© Making Waves - 2021.

Short stories
From the big housing estates

LISTEN TO

NON-FICTION | 17 EPISODES | 2025

Bobigny city center as told by those who live there.

Remember the summers spent at Chemin Vert, in the shade of a cabin, and the freezing winters in the houses of post-war Bobigny. And that TikTok project that was born one evening near the Paul-Vaillant-Couturier city center. Remember the basketball games at Paul Eluard, with shopping carts as hoops. And the Karl Marx plaque that had to be demolished, and the pair of falcons that nested, so they say, on the roofs of the town hall…

Through the personal stories of residents, this audio and photographic project invites you to discover the different neighborhoods of the city center from an offbeat and often unexpected angle. Far from the clichés associated with the suburbs, it seeks to highlight the poetic, sometimes funny, always precious dimension of the lives lived there, with the conviction that these often stigmatized neighborhoods are an important part of our country’s history: that of working-class neighborhoods, the construction of large housing projects, immigration, and also art and architecture.

17 TESTIMONIALS FROM RESIDENTS

Radio workshops, held from April to July 2025 at MC93, resulted in the creation of seventeen short audio clips, echoing the different periods of construction in the city center, as well as personal stories and anecdotes symbolizing how people have lived in these neighborhoods for over half a century.



#1 Avant les tours : la maison d’enfance

– par Jean


#2
Un si précieux terrain –
par Aymen



#3 Faire un jardin partagé

– par Sophie


#4
À la mémoire des frères libraires –
 par Bintou


#5
Rebâtir l’église Saint-André –
par René




#6 Karl Marx, la dalle et moi


– par Farid


#7 Courir et souffler au parc de la Bergère
– par Aïssatan



#8 La salle des mariages est une œuvre d’art

– par Bénédicte


#9 Souviens-toi les étés à Chemin Vert
– par Valoua


#10
La vie secrète des volatiles –
par Dominique

#11 Le vieux 93 : naissance d’un projet TikT

ok

– par Sailan



#12 Refaire le monde en centre de rééducation

– par Jocelyne



#13 Un jeu d’enfant dans le bâtiment

– par Théo



#14 Défense et illustration du collège en bois

– par Sébastien



#15 Prendre soin des chats errants

– par Brigitte



#16 Soudés face à la fracture

– par Mehdi



#17 Kermesse, rock and roll et blousons noirs

– par Jean

A PODCAST AND A PHOTO EXHIBITION

A podcast produced by Thomas Guillaud-Bataille, as part of a radio workshop conducted with residents of the city: Dominique Bouffe, Brigitte Journée, Jocelyne Macé, and Sophie Mayou. A Making Waves production, supported by Seine-Saint-Denis Habitat and Est-Ensemble Habitat. In partnership with MC93.

Photographs: Mathilde Pannet

Mixing: Clément Nouguier

Coordination: Eva Jaoui for Making Waves, Hugo Grente for Seine-Saint-Denis Habitat, Sandra Sellami and Céline Drogoul for Est-Ensemble Habitat, and Carole Battistanel for MC93.

Thank you to our witnesses: Aïssatan, Aymen, Bénédicte, Bintou, Farid, Jean, Mehdi, René, Sébastien, Saïlan, Théo, Valoua.

During 2025-2026, a photo exhibition will be held in the Chemin Vert neighborhood during the renovation project undertaken by Seine-Saint-Denis Habitat and Est-Ensemble Habitat. Each poster will feature a portrait of one of the podcast’s interviewees, with a QR code providing access to the various audio clips.

The project will be previewed at the Universités de quartier festival at the Cité de l’Abreuvoir in Bobigny on September 13 and 14, 2025.

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