The tourist office (daily 10am–1pm & 2–5pm; tel 01.55.87.08.70, www.ville-saint-denis.fr), opposite the basilica at 1 rue de la République, sells tickets for the St-Denis festival and can provide maps of the town.Although the centre of St-Denis still retains traces of its small town origins, the area immediately abutting the basilica has been transformed into an extraordinary fortress-like housing and shopping complex, where local youths hang out on mopeds and skateboards, women shop for African groceries and men, fresh from the latest conflict zone, beg for a few cents. The thrice-weekly market, in the main place Victor Hugo (Tues, Fri & Sun mornings), peddles vegetables at half the price of Parisian markets, as well as cheap curios, clothes and fabrics. Adjacent, off rue Dupont, are the covered halles, a multi-ethnic affair where the quantity of offal on the butchers' stalls – ears, feet, tails and bladders – shows this is not rich folks' territory. About five minutes' walk south of the basilica is the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de la Ville de St-Denis (Mon, Wed & Fri 10am–5.30pm, Thurs 10am–8pm, Sat & Sun 2–6.30pm; €4), housed in a former Carmelite convent on rue Gabriel-Péri. The quickest route is along rue de la Légion-d'Honneur, then take the third right. The exhibits on display are not of spectacular interest, though the presentation is excellent. The local archeology collection is good, and there are some interesting paintings of nineteenth- and twentieth-century industrial landscapes, including the St-Denis canal. The one unique collection is of documents relating to the Commune: posters, cartoons, broadsheets, paintings, plus an audiovisual presentation. There's also an exhibition of manuscripts and rare editions of the Communist poet, Paul Éluard, native son of St-Denis. About ten minutes' further down rue Gabriel-Péri you come to the métro stop St-Denis Porte-de-Paris. Just beyond it, a broad footbridge crosses the motorway and Canal St-Denis to the Stade de France, scene of France's World Cup victory in 1998. At least €430 million was spent on the construction of this stadium, whose elliptical structure is best appreciated at night when lit up. If there isn't a match or a mega-rock event on, you can visit its grounds, facilities and a small museum (daily 10am–6pm; €6). From the northern side of the stadium's footbridge it's possible to walk back to Paris all the way along the canal towpath. Parts of the canalside are being rehabilitated and may necessitate a slight detour, and there are stretches where it may feel as if you're not supposed to be there, but press on regardless and you'll eventually fetch up at Porte de la Villette, after no more than two hours. On the way you pass peeling villas with unkempt gardens, patches of greenery, sand and gravel docks, and waste ground where larks rise above rusting bedsteads and old fridges. Decaying tenements and improvised shacks give way to lock-keepers' cottages with roses and vegetable gardens, then derelict factories and huge sheds where trundling gantries load bundles of steel rods onto Belgian barges.
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