Besides Algerians, the bidonvilles of Nanterre also housed people from Morocco and Portugal. The largest, La Folie, was mostly Algerian and Moroccan. About 1,500 workers and 300 families lived at La Folie without running water or electricity.
La Folie
Besides Algerians, the bidonvilles of Nanterre also housed people from Morocco and Portugal. The largest, La Folie, was mostly Algerian and Moroccan. About 1,500 workers and 300 families lived at La Folie without running water or electricity.
They all shared a single postal address, 127 rue de la Garenne.
Memory
Monique Hervo lived in the La Folie bidonville until July 1971. Her account, "Chroniques du bidonville. Nanterre en guerre d'Algérie", came out in 2001. The Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration, the national immigration museum, shows a photograph of Algeria's Independence Day in La Folie.
In January 2004, the association Les Oranges was created in Nanterre. Its aim was to write the history of immigration from the memories of the people who lived it.
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