0.4. CONTENTS

EACH PAGE MAKES A SEPARATE POINT, SHOWN BY A HEADLINES AND PICTURES 

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Harald Wolff

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CHAPTERS AND THEIR SECTIONS

I.

WHAT MAKES FRANCE DISTINCT?

1.1. Setting the scene

1.1. The players, legendary or unsung

II.

VISITS OF AN UNSUSPECTED CITY

2.1. THE LOGIC OF THE LEGENDARY CORE

   2.1.1. A spectral rampart

   2.1.2. Saint-Germain-des-Prés, rampart heir

   2.1.3. Lords step out from the shadows 

   2.1.4. Back to the rampart, on to the river

   2.1.5. Palaces: glory and demise

Palais-Royal, where the ideas of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity took wing.

2.2. BRANDS TAKE  OVER THE HISTORIC CENTER

    2.2.1. Palais-Royal now

    2.2.2. A left-bank oasis evokes the recent past

    2.2.3. Shun the grotesque profits: "real" Paris's affordable shopping

2.3. THE ROYAL ROUTE (RUE SAINT-DENIS)

     2.3.1. Medieval spirits linger

     2.3.2. The street that asserted royal power

     2.3.3. Erasing rebel neighborhoods

     2.3.4. A hinterland for criminals, nobles and the garment district

     2.3.5. Louis XIV's arc looms over the route 

     2.3.6. Toward the horizon

     2.3.7. Immigrants energize tradition

2.4. VITALITY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TRACKS 

    2.4.1. Europe's "Chinatown"

    2.4.2. The east, where new worlds emerge

         2.4.2.a. Memories of insurrection

          2.4.2.b. The area stays left

          2.4.2.c. Preliminary fracas: the mad "descent from "La Courtille"

          2.4.2.d. Toward the Belleville crossroad now

          2.4.2.e. Ménilmontant, where walls turn into art galleries

         2.4.2.f. Kitch with class

         2.4.2.g.To feel the real pulse of the city go east

         2.4.2.h. Bars and music

        2.4.2.i. A path through "real Paris"

   

2.4.3. « Barbès don't panic »

2.4.4. The unhailed energies of La Goutte d'Or

      2.4.4.a. A setting of "Gauls"

      2.4.4.b. Arts known mainly to neighbors

      2.4.4.c. A couturier for Kenzo and Paco Rabanne

      2.4.4.d. First steps in another land

      2.4.4.e. "Looks," a sociable art that immigrants invent

      2.4.4.f. Textiles, tailors and roots

      2.4.4.g. Change that is bad and good

      2.4.4.h. The neighborhood keeps it soul

      2.4.4.i. "The emerging design hub of Paris"

      2.4.4.j. A changed context: suddenly visible Blacks 

      2.4.4.k. Tomorrow's destination?

      2.4.4.l. A neighborhood Gertrude Stein would have appreciated

Making oneself a composition: An art that immigrants invent.

2.5. FAMILY VISITS

   2.5.1. Street art: Kids follow signs and pictures

   2.5.2. A mini-wood where children play

   2.5.3. New horizons

   2.5.4. The Louvre with kids (or without them)

Finding the key to this iconic painting encourages observation.

2.6. ROMANS, GODS AND HEROES: NOBLES RESIST A RISING MIDDLE CLASS

  

   2.6.1. All aspects of the Old Regime reinforced the nobles

   2.6.2. Detour: History, anecdotes or the economy?

   2.6.3. The gods' modernity

Penelope recognizes Odysseus by Giuseppe Cades, en 18th century, Baulme Fine Arts

Nobles associate themselves with heroes of antiquity

2.7. WHEN OBSERVATION AND THE USUAL STORY CLASH: WHAT OPÉRA TOURS WON'T SAY

   2.7.1. A palace for a new elite

   2.7.2. Backers, sex and money

   2.7.3. Blackout

This ceiling of backers' private salon is decorated by an orgy. Few visitors notice.

2.7.4. From nymphs to Nazis: How the Opéra girls saved the City of Love  

III.
WHY IS A CITY WITHOUT NATURAL BEAUTY

SO GRAND?

3.1. MAJESTY ON A HUMAN SCALE, FORGOTTEN GIFT OF KINGS 

   3.1.1. A parade route changes course 

   3.1.2. The milestones and their meanings

   3.1.3. A design inconceivable elsewhere
   3.1.4. The royal imprint blossoms

   3.1.5.The curtain falls

3.2. A MODERN ROYAL CITY

3.3. HAVE THE KINGS BECOME SUBVERSIVE?  

IV.

A CITY OF REVOLT AND MASSACRE

How fear of insurrection broadened the beauty the kings began

A passage that let the army invade working-class territory

4.1. "OBJECTIVE HISTORY STICKS TO THE FACTS:" WHICH FACTS?

      4.1.1. 1830, the peopled fooled

      4.1.2. 1848, the people fooled again

      4.1.3. Workers' first conscious revolt and modern Europe's first massacre 

      4.1.4. The City Museum and the insurrections

4.2. FEAR, UNLIKELY PROMOTER OF URBAN GRANDEUR

       4.2.1. The metamorphosis seen up close
       4.2.2. Gifts of the repression

V.

THE CHANGES TURN OUT TO BE USELESS:

LA COMMUNE

City Hall acclamation

5.1. EGALITARIANISM BREAKS THROUGH

       5.1.1. An unlikely revolution

       5.1.2. Explosion

       5.1.3. Civil war & carnage

       5.1.4. Ruins, revenge & evolution

        5.1.5. Mystification

     

5.2. FRATERNITY THAT WORKED

Women meet during La Commune 

5.3. AN OMEN AND A TURNING POINT

VI.
A COMMUNARD BASTION,

THE FORGOTTEN 13TH DISTRICT

The long, wide, straight street let troops arrive quickly to quell revolt and the church preached obedience in the city's poorest district. (Constructions in the mid-19th century)

6.1. THE FIGHT FOR THE HILLTOP

  6.1.1. Frenzied combat

  6.1.2. Communard fighters

  6.1.3. A panel does mention La Commune...

  6.1.4. The Communard spirit continues

6.2. AN EPICENTER OF MISERY

   6.2.1. "A lost district at the city's edge"

   6.2.1. Disease, crime and revolt

   6.2.3. Vanished industry

   6.2.4. A third-world revolutionaries' training ground

   6.2.5. A walk through an outskirt that used to be chilling

 

 VII. 

A PAST THAT IS FORGOTTEN YET INDELIBLE

    7.1. A district that leans left

    7.2. In the footsteps of "demons"

             7.2.1. The passage by which survivors fled

           7.2.2. City-run residences for seniors and the handicapped

           7.2.3. Sculptures. Bikes. Gyms. Gardens

           7.2.4. More social services, gardens and local engagement

           7.2.5. Election posters in a real democracy

             7.2.6. Small business that Communards would have valued

7.3. Parks and paintings

    7.3.1. Gardens take over a sugar refinery

    7.3.2. Art animates low-cost construction

    7.3.3. A giant park occupies a gas-making site

    7.3.4. Paintings everywhere

7.4. A place to pitch your tent?

     7.4.1. Arts you discover by chance

     7.4.2. The city's newest festival

     

7.5. More gifts from City Hall

7.6. The future comes up from behind

  

VIII.

WHAT HAPPENED? 

THE WAR DID

Plaque commemorating the site where a fighter for the Liberation of Paris was killed.

7.1. "Better Hitler than Blum"

7.2. Conservatives who joined the Resistance

IX. EPILOGUE

"YOU'RE TEACHING COMMUNISM TO THE POLICE!"

"YOU'RE MISLED BUT YOU'RE NOT BOUGHT.

JOIN US!"

"DON'T YOU HAVE AN AGENDA?"

*    *    *

The sequel, History from fresh perspectives,

 shows how placing events in their economic contexts

can transform their meanings

and gives a reason for the omissions mentioned here.

*    *    *

*    *    *

Next,

I.

What makes France unique?