MAIS ABSOLUMENT!
Noticing what makes no sense or is left out changes the story and applies universally.
- For example, when houses crowded up to the facade of Notre-Dame Cathedral...
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Twelth century, Grez computer image |
The space in front of the church was used for a market, for religious performances and for the condemned to ask pardon before execution. But it was small.
...the edifice surged up over daily life, the impression its builders intended.
Claude Abron
- But the huge esplanade of 1853 leads to seeing it from afar. It then seems smaller and less imposing, and the reminder of eternity vanishes:
Uncredited photos are mine.
The space was meant for massing troops in case of insurrection. That used to be explained. Not anymore.
- Other pages that challenge the usual view concern the Sacre-Coeur, Napoleon's tomb, the Arc of Triumph and the Opéra.
- Or go beyond it, as for the Louvre (here for the visit, here for the palace), place des Vosges, Palais-Royal, pont Neuf, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Versailles.
- Or concern important sites that are usually missed (Louis XIV's arc at the Saint-Denis gate, the church of Saint-Paul Saint-Louis, a band of gardens that pierces eastern Paris and another that covers over a canal).
- "Contents" gives the complete list.
For two wider topics that are minimized or omitted, please scroll down.
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This "blook" (book-blog) makes its points briefly through headlines and pictures. It stresses observation for the present and the underlying economy for the past. For those methods' wider relevance, please click.
My credentials: a French-American who has lived in Paris for decades, a professor of history in the U.S. and a tour guide in Paris. Once a member of the Office of Tourism (for seven years), I know the usual story well.
There's space for comments at the end of each page: political discussions welcome.
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TRAILERS
1. THE MODERN CITY:
THAT ADS AND BRANDS
OVERWHELM THE HISTORIC CENTER
IS NOT SAID...
...OR THAT CREATIVE ENERGY
HAS MOVED TO THE OUTSKIRTS...
Take the 13th* on the city's southeastern fringe. Once exceptionally miserable, it is now a hub of innovative art.
The passage under the aerial métro in the 13th, illuminated by voters' choice through 2026.
*To skip repeating "arrondissement" or "district," I say simply "13th," or whatever the number, as the French do.
It also hosts two major festivals: 10 days of innovative arts and ethnic performances, described here. and three weeks of the Chinese New Year. A few media finally noticed the Chinese parade in 2025, after 40 years, but the celebrations that surround it are still skipped. Residents are almost alone to know of the arts festival.
Boulevard Vincent Auriol, 13th
...OR THAT IMMIGRANTS CONTRIBUTE POWERFUL INVENTIVITY
For my own experience with seemingly scary youths, here.
- The creativity of La Goutte d'Or, the largely African neighborhood north of Barbès, is entirely unknown.
That concert will last until 4 a.m.
- Unique prints, whose interest is starting to be acknowledged:
"Wax" prints at the entry of the Louvre, 2022
- Tailors' workshops.
- Barbershops whose posters derive from African market signs. Immigrants' boys choose among innumerable, flamboyant styles that "Gauls" timidly copy:
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| Bouno coiffure, 51 rue de la Goutte d'Or, 18th One of four that cluster together and stay open until 10 or 11 p.m.  Panel from Abidjan's Treichville market, 1973 (notice the "Kennedy" haircut). |
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Tip Top Couture, 84 rue de Ménilmontant 20th (a trendy neighborhood) |
The Communards (please scroll down) defined art as any creation that adresses the public and is done with passion and an esteemed critic said, "Art must express a philosophy, or it is just decoration."
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| On rue Doudeauville, "Main Street" |
By expressing an upbeat affirmation of individual uniqueness in the context of a homogenous, supportive community, the "looks" one comes upon in La Goutte d'Or fit those definitions.
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2. THE PAST
THE MAIN REASONS FOR THE CITY'S ALLURE:
KINGS' GRANDEUR
AND ELITES' DREAD OF INSURRECTION,
BOTH FORGOTTEN
Except for the Louvre, a former palace that is impossible to ignore, almost nothing is said of the majesty the kings bequeathed.
The 19th-century insurrections are so ignored that many people think these iconic figures are storming the Bastille, though the forgotten Revolution of 1830 inspired the work:
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La Liberté guide le people by Eugene Delacroix, 1830-1831 (cropped) / zoom
*Clicking on "zoom" leads to the original image and information about it.
But...
- Europe's first conscious massive working-class movement, the upheaval of June 1848 brought the unprecedented urban transformation that began a few years later: the space in front of Notre-Dame to assemble troops is one aspect of a metamorphosis that is usually explained as "modernization."
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Le combat devant la porte Saint-Denis, anonymous lithograph, 1848 |
- The last, most tragic and most important of the upheavals, the Paris Commune, came about when military defeat and government myopia brought an explosion by which young idealists, backed by the humble, took control of Paris for 72 days in 1871. They kept the continent's largest city (population a million and a half) running in spite of the flight of most seasoned administrators, siege and war, and sketched out a society that was genuinely democratic.
Proclamation de la Commune le 26 mars 1871, anonymous engraving / zoom
The appellation "Bloody Week" recalls the ferocity of their repression.
Un Peloton d'exécution [firing squad] pendant la Semaine sanglante by V. Sarday / zoom
A painting made a generation later, based on prints of the time and opponents' grudging statements of respect.
They still inspire the left.
Commemorative parade, 2021
The official narrative dismisses the social conflict that permeates the Parisian past. The musée Carnavalet (the historical museum)...
- presents the French Revolution as almost peaceful.
- relegates 1848 to a single sentence at the back of a room and turns its barricades into a game for kids.
- sandwiches La Commune into a four-meter passage that connects rooms about elites. On one side are portraits of people who were marginal or irrelevant: a huge image of a rebel's later girlfriend who was 13 at the time of La Commune and had nothing to do with it takes up much of the space. One can barely make out the two small images of carnage, which reflections on a glass showcase hide.
For schoolbook views click here and here. For how even a Social-Democrat municipality presents the victors' point of view, here.
For why such bias can be involuntary, please see the example here and the explanation on the last page.
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Behind these erasures is a mentality that globalized capitalism promotes and that ads reveal. Behind the promotion of brands they project a message that counters the collective action that can undo their sponsors by...
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Pont d'Arcole in central Paris
- applauding irrationality: No logical reason is given for purchases, a mindlessness that empowers choice by emotion and leads to accepting authority.
- glamorizing isolation: At a time when economic transformation increasingly weakens traditional ties, the figures are usually alone (here the exceptional partner is shadowy).
- making the outside world a void that individuals cannot affect.
- suggesting through smiling, interchangeable models a stereotype to follow.
By unveiling what contradicts that mindset and so is omitted, these blooks join a fight that is taking place wherever giant capitalism holds sway.
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BLOOK II:
AN APPROACH TO THE PAST
THAT IS CROSS-CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC
It shows how the destabilization economic growth brought led societies of precolonial Africa and pre-industrial France to react in similar ways.
One example: elites use ostentation to destroy profits that, invested, would bring the challenge of a new class.
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A Royal Army on the March,16th-century tapestry (detail), Renaissance Museum |
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History from Fresh Perspectives renews an approach to history that once was widespread and now is largely overlooked.
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I am grateful to Harald Wolff for drawings that illustrate many of these points.
Like the vast majority of Parisian artists he is foreign (German), and lives not in the places associated with them (Saint-Germain, Montmartre, Montparnasse) but in a plebeian suburb (Montreuil) where rents are lower. So he is part of the reality that these pages describe.
The index, under the menu on the right, gives immediate access to the main ideas. Contents is more detailed.
Epilogues and Economic History, a Tool of Enlightenment say more about their relevance.
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Next,
