eclectica

This site was meant to be a taster for those who have never
been to Paris and a something -you -may -have -missed for
those who have. I got a bit carried away and made it something
more perhaps, but even so there is no way you can cover all
Paris in depth so don't think you have visited Paris. The only
way to visit Paris is to visit Paris. There's loads more to see
and we haven't even got outside the City centre yet. The Paris
that I know is a treasure trove of art, history, architecture and
a certain "je ne sais quoi" --believe me when I say we have
only just peeked inside the chest.

This last page is a montage of " Choses Vues".

During the occupation, there was a certain von
Choltitz who was Commandant of Paris. As the
Allies neared the city, Hitler gave the order to
mine every building and monument of note. When
it became inevitable that the Allies would take the
city the order was given to blow up the buildings.
Von Choltitz did not want to go down in history as
the man who destroyed Paris and deliberately
delayed until the Allies re-took the city. His story
is told in more depth in"Is Paris Burning" by
Lapierre and Collins.

The Boulevard Montmartre is a bit of a
swizz really because it's nowhere near
Montmartre. Even so, Camille Pisarro
thought well enough of it to put it on canvas
in this picture painted in 1897.

Note the decorative lamps in the centre of
the street.

but Pisarro has captured an indefinable something that only an accomplished artist can. The
difference, I think is just a small illustration of why art has such a special place in the world.

Having said all that, the next
painting almost blows my
whole new ethos on art, life
and the universe out of the
water. Here's Joan standing
in all her gilded glory in Place
des Pyramides, just off the
Rue de Rivoli, and here's this
artist who I have never seen
before making the place look
so drab that no self-
respecting maid would be
seen dead there.

Here I've put a little frame round it to cheer it up a bit but
it still looks miserable. The artist is Guissepi de Nittis
who I have never seen before { someone is bound to mail in
and tell me he is the finest artist in the history of Western
art -- I can't wait } and the picture is dated 1876. what I
find so incredible is that Joan has stood and endured the
ravages of the Commune, the Occupation years and looked
on as a young Irwin Shaw and Hemingway fought their way
down the Rue de Rivoli during the Liberation. Hemingway
always did like a drink but he gave a whole new meaning to
the expression " fighting your way to the bar" when he set
up home in the Ritz. There is a bar still there with his
bust on the side, called The Hemingway Bar or so they tell
me --- they would'nt let me in when I wanted a drink there.

This is a Joan that very few tourists see. It is
right behind the Madeleine on the Boulevard
Malesherbes. The Church is St.Augustin and
around here is the very essence of the Grand
Boulevards - Proust lived up the road and a few
hundred yards away is the old cemetery of the
Madeleine.

The cemetery was once the place where Louis and
Marie Antoinette where buried after the
guillotine but their remains have since been
moved to st Denis. The Swiss Guard are still
here though and Charlotte Corday along with
most of the aristocrats who went to the scaffold.

Anyone who doubts that the Bourbons are alive and well should
witness the annual gathering at the rear of the Louvre near to
St. Germaine L'Auxerrois which is the parish church of the
Kings of France { in background }. It was from this church
that the bells rang out to signal the start of St. Bartholemews
Eve when 3000 Protestants were massacred in 1572.

Here's Pisarro again with an almost identical
viewpoint of the Avenue de L'Opera in 1898 as
the postcard below which looks to have been
printed about the same time.

Note the fountains to right and left of each
picture. Pisarro's street scenes always seem to
simulate a river where all the traffic is drawn to
the focal point which this time is the Opera.

When the Huguenots suffered their several pogroms in
France, many of them fled to England which was France's
loss and England's gain because most of them were
skilled artisans. Very often, but not always, pub names
have a tale to tell { Parrots and Firkin ones don't } and
there is one in Liverpool called the Glass House where a
Huguenot glass- making firm stood before the pub came
into being. So, history is all around if you just look.

The fashion for Great Exhibitions started in England
and spread throughout Europe. There was even one in
Toronto, the facade of which still stands. But it was in
Paris that the Exhibitions really took off and they have
left a legacy of architecture which has transformed
the city. The greatest monument left by the Paris
Exhibitions has, of course, to be the Eiffel Tower but
there are others such as the Grand Palais and the
Petit Palais and here on the left the Pont Alexandre
the Third, named after the father of Nicholas the
second who laid the foundation stone in 1896.

In the distance can be seen the dome of Les Invalides
and as many of these old postcards prove Paris has
changed very little down the years.

I have tried to represent in these few pages a Paris
that is slightly different than the normal tourist bus
stops---for instance I have hardly touched upon the
most famous of all Paris vistas, the Eiffel Tower.

The Marais, La Defence, Montparnasse, The Butte Chaumont { the poster in every episode of
"Friends"} and places further afield are all absent from this site -- in fact it is difficult to decide
just what to leave out. But something has to go and the only way to cover it in depth is a series of
sites. But anyway, there it is, and I think perhaps a good place to finish may be Pere Lachaise
cemetery which is where most famous Parisians reside.

Pere Lachaise has been open since 1804 and is chock full
of everyone you have ever heard of in French society.
Reputations mean nothing here - Colette and Rossini,
Modigliani and Piaf, Thiers and the members of
theCommune are jumbled together all over the place,
cheek by jowl with those who they would'nt have glanced at
in life.

Sculpted by Jacob Epstein, a winged Egyptian
messenger denotes the tomb of Oscar Wilde

{ "Either that wallpaper goes or I do" } who
died penniless living in exile after his release
from prison.

Homosexuality was a punishable crime in late
Victorian England so when Oscar took on the
establishment in the courts then he was on a
loser from the start.

Just below is The Mur des Federes where members of the
Commune were executed after making a last desperate
stand in Pere Lachaise.

Just a little further over is the tomb of Thiers who gave the
order.

Simone Signoret, of the smoky eyes and pouting lips lies
beneath the birches below. In her autobiography she tells of
the days when she spent her time at Au Deux Magot and Cafe
de Flore where Simone de Beauvoir and Sartre held sway for
so many years. Apart from her French films such as Casque
d'Or she is famous for her role in Room at the Top with
Laurence Harvey.

Sarah Bernhardt, Marshal Ney, Massena, Chopin, Ingres,
Delacroix, Apollinaire, Proust, Piaf, Gertrude Stein, Alice,
B. Toklas { one of the truly great names, without a shadow of
a doubt ---imagine writing that on your schoolbooks },
Balzac, Bellini, Musset and the list just goes on and on. It
reminds me of that Neil Diamond song where he just sings
lists of names and it sounds great { Done Too Soon }.

But of all the greats of every denomination buried in Pere
Lachaise the most visited grave is always that of Jim
Morrison and it is always decorated with candles, flowers and
verses to the Lizard King.

His sojourn in prison was an extremely unhappy time but
"out of evil "....... and Oscar wrote the Ballad of Reading
Jail { "and each man kills the thing he loves " .... you know
the one } while inside. A verse from this poem is inscribed
on the stone.