2.1.4. BACK TO THE RAMPART, ON TO THE RIVER

MENU: 2.1.4. Back to the rampart On to the river

RETURN TO THE RAMPART GATE VIA CAFÉS AND GOURMET SHOPS AND STROLL ON TO THE RIVER

 Toward the medieval Buci gate

In brief

• A pedestrian street for gourmets

• The Old Régime lives on

• Eternal France, river banks and book sellers

• Epitaph

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Next,

A pedestrian street for gourmets

A PEDESTRIAN STREET FOR GOURMETS

RESIDENTS WITH SOPHISTICATED PALATES MEAN THAT QUALITY

REMAINS, EVEN IN THIS HEART OF MASS TOURISM

The crossroads that replace the Buci gate

 

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Here valets beat up a baker, imitating an adventurer who thought himself above the law. Residents hanged them on the same spot (in 1616).

We tell the adventurer's story at the Louvre.

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Next,

A bastion of the Old Régime

A BASTION OF THE OLD REGIME

AT THE PARKING LOT — THAT IS, AT THE RAMPART —

WALK DOWN TO THE DOME

(VIA RUE MAZARINE)

View from the Louvre

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The bridge highlights the "School of Four Nations,"* where young nobles from recently-conquered territories learned to administer them under royal control.

*Artois, Alsace, Pignerol and Roussillon

  The School of  Four Nations by Israël Sylvestre, toward 1670 / zoom

The majesty of the site and its location facing the Louvre palace suggest a grander objective: to emphasize France's continental hegemony after defeating its hereditary enemy, Spain (victory 1659, edifice 1661).

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Becoming the "Institut de France" at the Revolution, the site harbors five learned academies. Most prominent is the "Académie française," which decides on correct use of the French language and what words belong in the dictionary. 

Reasons for French insistence on its language:

• In the exceptionally large and populated kingdom with several languages and innumerable dialects, the royal tongue encouraged unity.

• Like so much else it harks back to the monarchy. As the language of the court, explicitly oral when few outside the clergy were literate, it was sociable and refined. 

-- The Genius of the French Language by Mark Fumaroli,  

"Sites of  Memory," III, 3, dir. Pierra Nora, 1997 (in French)

Louis XIV Grants the Cross of Saint Louis in 1693 (detail) by François Marot, 1709, zoom 

• It is still the language of prestige: American television anchors say frisson, tranche, pour encourager les autres, vis-à-vis, coup de grâce, avant la lettre, à propos, etc., and a specialist of infectious diseases (Anthony Fauci) called virus mutation a "spécialité de la maison."

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The Académie française, vestige of the Old Regime

•  The ritual of admission recalls the royal court and members, modestly called "The Immortals," wear embroidered uniforms and carry a sword.

 

               Video from Secrets of History, a royalist series (in French) 

Jean Cocteau in a photo steps from the Institut

• The Académie has skipped writers who do not fit its assumptions: Victor Hugo was barely invited, and Voltaire, Balzac, Dumas, Zola, Flaubert (...) not at all. 

But Maxime du Camp was admitted for publishing a ferocious account of La Commune, Les Convulsions de Paris (in 1879).

• Its 40 members, writers who are co-opted for life, choose replacements when openings arise: Mentalities stay the same and change is almost impossible. 

-- Persistance of the Corporative Spirit in "Parisians of the 17th century"

by Orest Ranum, French ed. 1973 

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Today only five members are women, one is Black 

and there are no North Africans or Asians

Pamela Spurdon

The vast male, elderly, conservative and white majority

is unlikely to recognize the contribution 

of slammers who trade rap verses in the street

as nobles once traded poems in salons...

Barbès festival, The Word that Slaps, 16 years of slam ("Le mot qui claque, 16 ans de slam"), 2024

...or of Africans make French

 the world's fifth most widely-spoken language.

          Rap in Abidjan by Elian Peltier "The New York Times," December 12, 20  / zoom

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Next,
Eternal France: river banks and booksellers

ETERNAL FRANCE: RIVER BANKS AND BOOK SELLERS

THE WALK ENDS AT THE SEINE, WHOSE BANKS ARE A UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

They are so beloved that the outcry against eliminating the booksellers during the Olympic games forced backtrack.

This is the sole page to accept the classic view without addition or critique.

Magazine cover, 1950s

Anonymous, Musée Carnavalet

Bouquinistes (vendors) are specialized, and the City must approve their stands. Many speak English and conversations can be a cultural experience, like discovering a talking museum — they may answer questions in depth, simply to share a passion.

At the Institut de France cross pont des Arts... 

...turn right and continue until you come upon works by the late Jaber.

In 2021

A Tunisian shepherd who left school at age seven, in Paris he became a baker, boxer, street performer and artist. Bouquiniste David Nocek presents some of his works.

These stalls are excellent for

old posters, magazines and books,

but usually not for art.

 That Jaber's works should be there shows 

that exceptions exist for almost everything.

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Next,

Epitaph

EPITAPH

A MAN CARRYING A PAINTING STOOD NEXT TO ME WAITING FOR A LIGHT TO CHANGE 

Now I have eight of Jaber's works: Here are two.

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He was particularly fond of donkeys for their humility and patience.

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After his death some of his works were exhibited at the entry of the museum for "outsiders' art," Halle Saint-Pierre:

More appear here and here.

Jaber al-Mahjoub could hardly read or write and had schizophrenia. Those handicaps contribute to the strength of his works, hallucinations with the inner logic of dreams and words with the power of symbols.

He lived in a small, dark room without electricity, and painted by candlelight. He'd go out next day and sell his joyful works for almost nothing.

Despite innumerable exhibits (please click) and presence in museums and collections, he refused to take himself seriously. He had no interest in money, infuriating gallery owners by his habit of giving works away, even on the street to people he did not know.

Jaber died in 2021, aged 80. 

I miss him.

Zoom

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Now cross the street and walk through

 the grandiose courtyards of the Louvre.

We leave the ramparts and their imprint,
because on the right bank 

 most traces of the Middle Ages have disappeared:

The chapter on insurrections explains why. 

End of this section.

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Next section,

II.1.5.

Palaces: glory and demise