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This paper describes the course of life of a person living on the streets in a district of Paris. Joan seems to possess what society considers as essential for a “normal and integrated” life (dwelling, income and family ties). His pattern of behaviour as a “permanent search for escape” explains what he claims to be his “choice of life style”. A sequence of traumas and ruptures led him to adopt this protective behaviour: living on the street is full of constraints, and allows a projection into an imaginary elsewhere. Everyday street life is observed in terms of social practices and human relationships: identity adjustment (Goffman), self-actualisation (Vexliard), negotiations for one’s place (Strauss) and, lastly, in terms of spatial practices experienced as an attack on the homeless person’s self-image which he attempts to maintain.