The history of migrants’ accommodation in urban France is quite similar to the working classpeople’s one. After the Second World War however, hotels have concentrated migrantscoming from Maghreb, especially Algeria. During the Independence war (1954-1962), theyhave been used as war backstage, playing an important role on both sides. The enquiry wehave conducted in 20 of these Parisian hotels in Paris shows strong links between memoriesand places. The relevance of considering the “community” constituted by those who live andlived there – mainly old migrants coming from different part of former French colonies, butalso legionnaires who participated on the French side – is verified trough the meaningfulnarratives whose the group allows the expression. From this material collected in the veryplaces, we will present some methodological and epistemological conclusions about thepractice of “doing memory” in situ.
