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”Yes, it’s like this every day”, my friend David told me with a certain disdain on his face. As I looked around the carriage most of the other passengers seemed to have the same look on their faces, as a group of buskers started playing music in our carriage.

Saint Denis is a municipality just north of Paris. Its name refers to Saint Denis, first bishop of Paris (3rd century) and the catholic patron of France, decapitated near Montmartre. According to the legend, he picked up his head and walked some six kilometres (four or five miles) to the north before he collapsed.

In 2004, 19-year-old author Faiza Guene became the voice of immigrant French youth with her novel, Kiffe Kiffe Demain. A year later her Paris housing estate where erupted in the notorious riots, beamed around the world - but this hasn’t stopped her finishing her third novel; neither has she moved.