BARBÈS'S FAMED 19TH-CENTURY EDGINESS CAME FROM THE TAX-COLLECTING CITY WALL
Adapted from a Google plan
The Exterior Boulevards replace it.
Zola's The Drinking Den begins with the protagonist, Gervaise,
seeking her man in the throng passing through the toll gate:
"When she raised her eyes above that interminable grey wall
that surrounded the town like a band of desert...
[trans. and underlining mine]
...she saw flowing, between the two squat pavilions of the toll gate, an uninterrupted stream of men, cattle, wagons, that descended from the heights of Montmartre and la Chapelle. There was the stamping of herds [...] an endless march of workers going to their jobs, their tools on their backs, their loaf under their arms; the crowd was engulfed in Paris [...]."
-- Novel set in the 1850's, published in 1877
Untaxed wine outside the gate ,brought a counter-culture as at Belleville, but that was much more extensive and better known.
The poverty that came with industrialization brought dives, brothels...
...and violence. Gervaise lives near the wall,"behind which, at night, she sometimes heard the murdered scream."
# # #
Today...
- Cabarets and theaters are are on the boulevard's — the wall's — untaxed northern side. Most of the fast foods, cafés and restaurants are there too, their lights brightening the night :
 | ||
|
In the background, the Moulin Rouge
- On the southern side there are no theaters and few cafés or restaurants
Most businesses close at night, making that side of the street much darker.
An exception is this large store for musical instruments. That it should be in this theater neighborhood makes sense, as does the location on the taxed side of the street.
The main lighting comes from sex shops, brothels' heirs.
As wealthy clients did not mind the higher cost of wine, most of these establishments are on the southern side.
# # #
The bar where Gervaise destroys herself through drink gave the name "L'Assommoir"* to a square a few steps north of the Barbès métro, just outside the former toll gate.
*"Assommer:" to knock out
L'Assommoir by André Capellani, 1909 / YouTube
"Standing in front of l'Assommoir, Gervaise was pensive
If she had two cents, she would go in and drink a drop. It might make her less hungry. Ah! She'd drunk a drop or two! But it had been so pleasant. And, from afar, she contemplated the drunkenness machine, feeling that her disaster came from there, and dreaming of ending it all with brandy, when she had the means."
She dies of delirium tremens.
# # #
The modern site does not fit that novel
about poverty and desperation,
just as today's pickpockets and petty drug dealers
pale next to the murderers
whose victims' screams begin the story.
* * *
Next,
No comments:
Post a Comment