Bobigny courthouse

Bobigny courthouse is a recurring workplace for Myriam as she builds her legal practice. Twice a month she goes there for court-appointed cases, waiting in the corridor until as late as nine in the evening; the courthouse becomes a concrete measure of the time, patience, and labor her work demands.

Setting and Use

Pascal encourages Myriam to devote time to legal aid, and her visits to Bobigny courthouse are part of that work. She waits for clients and cases in the corridor, her eyes fixed on her watch while time seems not to move. The courthouse is thus presented not as a grand institutional interior but as a place of delay and practical obligation.

Myriam’s Work There

The waiting sits within a larger effort to establish herself as a lawyer. Myriam takes on the cases Pascal gives her without refusing or complaining about late hours. At Bobigny courthouse, she can become impatient and sometimes answer confused clients brusquely, yet she does her best to secure whatever she can for them. Her conduct holds professional diligence and the fatigue of sustained work in the same frame.

Narrative Significance

The courthouse links Myriam’s ambition to the less visible labor of legal practice: repeated visits, hours spent waiting, and responsibility toward clients whose circumstances may be disorienting. Its slow corridor time contrasts with the force of her effort elsewhere, where she studies case records late into the night and searches for procedural errors. Bobigny courthouse therefore marks both her expanding professional life and the personal cost of making room for it.