MAIS ABSOLUMENT!
Noticing what makes no sense or is blotted 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 examples of fundamental topics that are minimized or omitted, please scroll down.
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This "blook" (book-blog) makes its points briskly through headlines and pictures. It stresses observation for the present and the underlying economy for the past.
My credentials: a French-American who has lived in Paris for decades, a professor of history in the U.S., then 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 PRESENT:
MOST VIEWS EXTOL THE FABLED CULTURE,
OMITTING TO SAY THAT
BRANDS HAVE REPLACED MANY CREATIVE SHOPS
IN THE HISTORIC CENTER
AS GIANT ADS LOOM OVER ALL...
The passage under the aerial métro in the 13th, illuminated by voters' choice through 2026.
...hosts two festivals:
Ten days of ethnic performances and unstandardized art and the Chinese New Year's three weeks. A few media did notice its parade after 40 years (in 2025). They still ignore its other festivities.
Boulevard Vincent Auriol, 13th
Street dance the day before the parade.
IMMIGRANT ENERGIES
ARE ALMOST ENTIRELY SKIPPED
- Maghrebin Barbès may be the most ebullient part of the city, because of the low prices of the market under the aerial métro and of the ribbon of shops that runs along it. During Ramadan, gourmet specialties sold next to the tracks and the cordial, happy ambiance bring crowds. As for the gathering of seemingly frightening youths, please click here.
- La Goutte d'Or, the largely African area north of Barbès, is poor. Though an anchored French middle class lives there too, the delinquency, prostitution and drugs are real.
That concert will last until 4 a.m.
...where as well, an amiable art of communicates through personal appearance flourishes. Aspects:
- Prints whose interest is starting to be acknowledged:
"Wax" at the entry of the Louvre, 2022
- Tailors whose animated workshops one sees from the street.
- Beauty salons and barbershops, whose styles "Gauls" timidly copy:
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| Bouno coiffure, 51 rue de la Goutte d'Or, 18th One of a cluster that stays open until 10 or 11 p.m. |
Their posters come from African market signs.
 Panel from Abidjan's Treichville market, 1973 (notice the "Kennedy" haircut). |
They let boys and young men choose among innumerable, flamboyant styles that have spread worldwide...
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...which "Gauls" timidly copy:
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Tip Top Couture, 84 rue de Ménilmontant 20th (a trendy neighborhood) |
- Costume, a composition:
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| On rue Doudeauville, "Main Street" |
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." By expressing an upbeat affirmation of individual uniqueness in the context of a homogenous, supportive community such "looks" fit that definition, and are part of the good humor that the pages on the neighborhood show.
2. THE PAST:
THE MAIN REASONS FOR THE CITY'S ALLURE
ARE 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 terror insurrections brought cannot be understood, sinced the upheavals themselves are largely skipped. 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.
In fact...
- 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 the metamorphosis that is usually called "modernization."
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Le Combat devant la porte Saint-Denis, anonymous lithograph, 1848 |
- The last, most tragic and most important upheaval, that of the Paris Commune, came about when military defeat and government myopia brought an explosion by which young idealists took control of Paris for 72 days in 1871. Backed by the humble, 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 name "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
Most narratives dismiss the social conflict that permeates the Parisian past. The musée Carnavalet (the historical museum) presents the French Revolution as almost peaceful and...
- relegates 1848 to a single sentence at the back of a room while turning 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 had nothing to do with La Commune 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 schoolbooks, click here and here. For how even a Social-Democrat municipality adopts the victors' point of view, here.
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WHY THAT BIAS?
Insurrections do not fit the "City of Love." Immigrants may be bogeymen. The outskirts are distant.
For another kind of explanation, please click.
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BLOOK II:
AN APPROACH TO THE PAST
THAT IS CROSS-CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC
History from Fresh Perspectives shows how societies with a common material base react to economic change in similar ways.
One example: elites use ostentation to destroy profits that would challenge them if invested.
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A Royal Army on the March,16th-century tapestry (detail), Renaissance Museum |
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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 Materialist history, a tool of enlightenment say more about their relevance.
