the closest meaning in english would be "the estates"

that's the type of thing i grew up in, scaled down though.. even though my cuz lived round there and this was second home
"Les 4000"

never seen nowt like this in England. <--that pic just goes to show how this buildings get engraved into our identity, people love them, its kinda part of us.

I've always wondered what if a kid reached out to try and touch one of the flowers or birds...

where the photograph is standing to take this pic, well behind is the local swimming pool. on the pic, if you go right you get to the townhall, then a little bit more, on your right they'll be a park, on your left is where i lived. if you turn left and go straight, there's my primary school, nested in the middle of a few "cités".
from the pic, if you go to the left, there's the pharmacy, and the post office, and the doctor's clinic. if you keep going a bit more, then turn left and keep going for a while, there's my secondary school.

there was a rumour that headteachers and teachers used to live here, thats right behind the school btw...

My little city has a bit of historical background, here's awagon used during WWII to deport Jews. (not sure about the whole story) that memorial was next to the wagon. it always used to scare me...i should go back and read what it says. family friend lived there. she used to be my nanny when i was a kid, now she's married to a half chinese nice man with three beautiful kids mashallah! (and she moved)

That's the new library never entered it, was getting build and was open while we were moving. pretty big thing, all shiny and that. before, they used to be this building falling apart. i was always surprised that there was wallpaper of the wall of the building next to it (still standing) i had so walk past there to get to my nursery.

(nursery in france is 3 years)

you see the tallest building on the right? the one just behind the second tallest building? i used to live there. 6th floor, i remember the view. A
nd where this pic was taken from, right on the left, just there, was this pizzeria..hmmm!!...the BEST pizza that were EVER made!!

also, a point about "cités" there's mostly build in some kind of shape with half of the houses facing inwards. creates a sense of whatever you wanna call it. and usually in the middle there's a park-ish thing.

the one i used to hang out in during summer hols (Cant believe i found such a good pic! getting kinda excited!) thats just half of the central bit, the greenery patch at the bottom are actually really pretty during summer, and it feels so cool walking around them. Then there's the slide, and behind, (middle left) you can see them step thing. there are HUGE! we used to race each other, behind it is a big drop where people used to drink and do drugs, so jumping off was really brave (And you could get in HUGE trouble if parents/mums found out) also, can you see how the buildings go all around?

this blogspot started off in a reply comment to stopic..then i thought i should put it in a blogpost because it was kinda useless in the topic, then i got carried away and took you on a trip.