0.4. CONTENTS

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

You can scroll by clicking on menu titles, but don't go so fast that ideas merge. 

Harald Wolff

Scrolling stops when the pages become too heavy to load, so you end up clicking anyway.

I.

WHAT MAKES FRANCE DISTINCT?

1.1. SETTING THE SCENE

1.1. THE PLAYERS, LEGENDARY OR UNSUNG 

1.1.1. Kings, at the heart of French civilization

1.1.2. Women of the court who bequeathed their refinement

1.1.3. The Church, inseparable from monarchy

1.1.4. Small farms: ferocious repressions and art de vivre

1.1.5. Rebels and their demand for social justice

1.1.6. Exiles and expats

1.1.7. The French language, imperialists' explosive gift

1.1.8. Immigrants, source of new energies

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"

2.4.1.a. High rises built ahead of their time

2.4.1.b. An enclave

2.4.1.c. Autonomy

2.4.1.d. Inspiration of the royal squares

2.4.1.e. Historical panels that avoid what counts

    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. "BARBES DON'T PANIC"

2.4.3.a. Back to the wine tax

2.4.3.b. A métro station and a movie theater

2.4.3.c. Toward La Goutte d'Or

2.4.3.d. The media: feat, exoticism, misery and bias

2.4.3.e. (Not very) threatening youth

2.4.3.f. Take another look 

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. Appearance, a way to communicate

      2.4.4.f. Textiles, tailors and roots

      2.4.4.g. Gentrification with brakes 

      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. VISITS WITH KIDS (OR WITHOUT THEM)

   2.5.1. If you come with little boys

   2.5.2. Street art: Kids follow signs and pictures

   2.5.3. A mini-wood where children play

   2.5.4. New horizons

   2.5.5. The Louvre through kids' sharp eyes

Finding the key to this iconic painting encourages observation.

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

  

   2.6.1. Everything strengthens the elite 

   2.6.2. Detour: History — anecdotes or the economy?

   2.6.3. The gods' modernity

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 

2.7.4.a.  Place Vendôme and the Occupation

2.7.4.b. Why Paris didn't burn

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

3.2.1. The Grand Axis as model

3.2.2. Perspectives, key to the city's grandeur

3.2.3. "Places" stay royal

3.2.4. The violent imagery of victors on horseback

3.2.5. Detour: heroes on white horses 

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 first great 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

The acclamation at City Hall

5.1. EGALITARIANISM BREAKS THROUGH

     5.1.1. Defeat and revolution

               5.1.1.a. A war of choice brings disaster

               5.1.1.b. Explosion

              

5.2. CIVIL WAR AND CARNAGE

    5.2.1. The humble against the powerful

    5.2.2. The slaughter of the wretched

    5.2.3. Escape by socializing with the enemy

    5.2.4. The Latin Quarter after victory

    5.2.5. The fate of a political painter

    5.2.6. Soldiers whom officers mistrust

    5.2.7. The officers' responsibility

    5.2.8. The adversaries

    5.2.9. Parisian sequels

    5.2.9.a. The past sways pop culture: Piaf and Sinatra

5.3. RUINS. REVENGE. EVOLUTION

5.3.1. The inferno in context

5.3.2. The sacred hilltop

5.3.3. The "Acropolis of the Revolution"

5.3.4. The church of vengeance

5.3.5. Changed threat, changed city

5.3.6. The Sacré-Coeur frightens, Sainte-Anne heals

5.3.7. The "chocolate façade"

 

5.4. MYSTIFICATION, OLD SCHOOL AND NOW

5.4.1. Emblematic site, odd marker

5.4.2. A firing squad that makes no sense

5.4.3. Versaillais propaganda that tells the truth

5.4.4. "The hostages of rue Haxo," the other publicized killing

5.4.5. Catholic martyrs whom even the Church forgets

5.4.6. Whose violence? The comeback of the Versaillais myth

5.4.7. Schoolbooks buttress the individual to erase the group

5.4.8. The City Museum before renovation (in 2016-2022)...

5.4.9. And after it

5.4.9.x. "To the victors belong the spoils"

5.4.9.xx. Two historians fight back 

5.5. FRATERNITY THAT WORKED

      5.5.1. Pariahs take charge of their lives

     5.5.2. Leaders we wish we had

      5.5.3. Victories of La Commune

      5.5.4. A rooted memory

      5.5.5. Friends of the Paris Commune"

Women meet during La Commune 

5.6. AN OMEN AND A TURNING POINT

     5.6.1. A foretaste of genocide

    5.6.2. Toward the 20th century

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?