Every design for Saint-Denis

On match nights the crowds pour out of the Stade de France and across the canal Saint-Denis, while a short walk north the Basilique Saint-Denis stands quiet over the old town. Saint-Denis lies just over the Paris boundary, on the plain of France, bordered by the Seine and crossed by its canal; its people are the Dionysiens, and the town has long been a crossing point between Paris and northern Europe.

The Basilique Saint-Denis grew from the abbey founded in honour of the martyr Saint Denis, and almost every king, queen and prince of France was buried there. The Musée d'art et d'histoire de Saint-Denis picks up the later story: industry, then the crisis of the 1970s and 1980s, then a new start built around the Stade de France. Since the 2000s the town has grown faster than almost anywhere in the Paris region, and since it absorbed Pierrefitte-sur-Seine it has become the most populous commune in Île-de-France after Paris.

For those who grew up between the basilica, the canal and the Butte Pinson, the map holds a whole childhood: the walk to school, the stadium lights, Sunday afternoons in the Parc de la Légion d'Honneur.