Crack Hill

The area you are approaching, widely known as Crack Hill, occupies a desolate stretch of land tucked between the highway interchanges of the Porte de la Chapelle and the city ring road. For over a decade, this five-acre wasteland served as a primary, open-air hub for the city's crack cocaine market. Its isolated position, wedged behind concrete barriers and transport infrastructure, once provided a hidden, semi-permanent refuge for hundreds of individuals involved in the drug trade. The site became a central point of tension in Paris as the city grappled with the visibility of its long-standing struggle against crack addiction, with authorities frequently clearing the encampments only for them to reform shortly after.