The new geography of Paris

ON THE SITE of a former piano factory in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, a 40-storey tower is being converted into a gleaming luxury hotel with a rooftop bar. A short walk away, beside the river Seine, builders are finishing off a vast new “eco-neighbourhood” of flats, lined with saplings and lamp posts made from recycled scaffolding. These will briefly lodge 10,500 athletes during the , which take place from July 26th-August 11th. Across the railway tracks, on land that formerly housed a gasworks, workers are completing a brand-new aquatics centre, under a gently curved timber frame of French and Finnish pine.These developments are part of an attempt by French urban planners to use the Olympics to revive Seine-Saint-Denis, a (suburb) that hugs the north and eastern edges of Paris. During the games many sporting events will take place in the historic city centre, including beach volleyball under the Eiffel Tower. But some of the most prestigious, such as athletics, will be held at the Stade de France in Seine-Saint-Denis. More than this, the Olympics is part of a big rethink of greater Paris, and , which could in time radically change the capital’s geography.