The Songs

This week, I came upon a cool park right here in the 11th called Square de la Roquette.  It has many beautiful tall trees and curvy paths.  

The park has a history to it, like everything around here and I'll warn you that this history has some sadness to it. The spot once held a prison called Petite Roquette that opened in the 1830s.   It was a prison for kids who were forced to spend their days in solitary silence. Later the Petit Roquette became a prison for women.

Grande Roquette, a men's prison, opened up nearby around the same time.    

There are some stone slabs, still visible today, in the street next to the park that were placed there to give stability to the guillotine when they rolled it out for public executions.  Public executions were outlawed here in 1939, and I was sad to learn that France has executed more people with the guillotine than any other nation.  

During World War II, 4000 French women who were part of the Resistance were imprisoned in Petite Roquette. Most of them were later killed in concentration camps.  I read an article today about how some of these political prisoners formed a choir and would sing together in solidarity and in protest.  The nuns who ran the prison weren't crazy about some of their song choices, so they would run at the women and hit them with sticks, but the nuns could not silence them for long.  

The prisons were demolished in the mid 1970s and now the 11th has a beautiful park with lots of greenery. When I visit Square de la Roquette next, I'll listen for the strains of brave songs while I watch the kids climb on the playground structures and enjoy the camaraderie of the pétanque players. This is a kind of music with staying power.