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Mº St-Paul . As the tide of gentrification sweeps remorselessly through the Marais, the only remaining islet of genuine local, community life is in the city's main Jewish quarter, still centred around rue des Rosiers , just as it was in the twelfth century. Though many of the little grocers, bakers, bookshops and original cafes are under pressure to sell out to more upmarket enterprises (for a long time local flats were kept empty, not for property speculation, but to try to stem the middle-class invasion), the area manages to retain its Jewish identity. There's also a distinctly Mediterranean flavour to the quartier, testimony to the influence of the North African Sephardim , who, since the end of World War II, have sought refuge here from the uncertainties of life in the French ex-colonies. They have replenished Paris's Jewish population, depleted when its Ashkenazim, having escaped the pogroms of Eastern Europe, were rounded up by the Nazis and the French police and transported back east to concentration camps. Don't leave the area without wandering around the clutch of surrounding streets which best represent the evolving identity of the quartier: rue du Roi-de-Sicile, with its unpretentious eateries, the minute place Bourg-Tibourg off rue de Rivoli; the intimate rue des Ecouffes; rue Ste-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, with its lively gay bars; rue Vieille-du-Temple, full of contemporary art galleries; and rue des Archives, where a medieval cloister, the Cloitre des Billettes, at nos. 22-26, hosts free exhibitions of art and crafts (daily 10am-8pm). On the other side of rue de Rivoli, at 17 rue Geoffroy l'Asnier, the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine mounts exhibitions concerned with genocide and oppression of peoples, and guards the sombre Memorial du Martyr Juif Inconnu (Memorial to the Unknown Jewish Martyr).
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