When I moved into Paris’s seventh arrondissement, I was not expecting to find myself living in one of the city’s dreaded no-go zones.

My neighbourhood, admittedly, is not one of the notorious districts on lists of forbidding no-go zones in the French capital’s bleak north end, plagued with crack houses and criminal gangs. I live in one of Paris’s poshest areas. The seventh arrondissement is known for its burnished boulevards and grand monuments. Every morning, I walk my two dogs on the Champ de Mars in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.

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World famous for the annual fireworks display to celebrate Bastille Day, the Champ de Mars boasts a glorious past. As suggested by its name, evoking the Roman god of war, it faces the École Militaire whose graduates include a young officer called Napoleon Bonaparte. For centuries, the Champ de Mars was a symbol of order and grandeur. In 1889, the Eiffel Tower was constructed on the site as the centrepiece of the Paris world fair that year. Over the past century, the lush gardens have been admired as an urban sanctuary of bucolic beauty with sculpted lawns, quaint bosquets, and spraying fountains. Old photos of the Champ de Mars show ice cream stands, children holding candy floss, and mothers pushing prams along promenades with the Eiffel Tower soaring in the background.

That’s the dreamy picture postcard. Today, the Champ de Mars is a desolate zone swarming with thieves and predators.........

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