Paris : the City of Love

Paris for different people means different things. It has marketed itself very well as the city of love (amour) and everyone wants to be with a loved one out there.

Auguste Rodin, "The Kiss"

For Victor Hugo, “Paris is the synonym of Cosmos, Paris is Athens, Sybaris, Jerusalem, Pantin. All civilizations are there in an abridged form, all barbarisms also”.

For me, it is the city in which Victor Hugo wrote Les Miserables, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. It is the city where Asterix and Obelix were born in Franco-Belgian comics.

It is the city where a great genius like Lenoardo Da Vinci chose to stay and work, and Rodin sculpted The Thinker.

Paris is where Gene Kelley danced in An American in Paris, and Shammi Kapoor gave us An Evening in Paris. It is the land of Ninotchka (played by Greta Garbo), a stern Russian envoy, who is seduced by the romance of the city, and by silk stockings, enough to give up soviet-style communism! It was remade as Silk Stockings, a musical starring Fred Astaire and long legged Cyd Charisse.

From the Gardens of Versaille

To those who have read Asterix and the Cheftain’s Shield, you will remember the famous battle which Julius Ceasar (the Crazy Roman), won over Vercengetorix, our brave Gaul, in 52 BC, which actually happened.

Paris is where the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen was first made in 1789 CE, a momentous document in human history, after the Magna Carta of 1215 CE.

Paris is also Louis XIV (sculpture here), the French Revolution, and Napoleon. Every European king wanted to be the next Louis XIV. Some even went to the extent of modeling their castles on Versailles.

There is absolutely no way to capture the impressive room except with a 360 camera. I missed my Ricoh Theta wistfully, but one has to make do with whatever one carries.

France, like several other countries, has an ancient history. The beautiful cave paintings of Lascaux showing a hunt are 18,000 BCE (unfortunately, I couldn’t go there since I did not have enough time).

A bust of Augustus Caesar

The Gauls populated France between the 5th and 3rd centuries. After Julius Caesar took over, Roman culture and architecture merged syncretically with the Gaelic. Latin combined with Gaelic and French was born.

The French (“Franks”) were fierce warriors during the two hundred years of the Crusades. So much so that every crusading warrior was referred to as Franj by the Arabs.

Basilica of Sacre-Coeur at Montmartre

The French Renaissance (15th to 17th Century CE) which was really spread across Europe, represented the first signs of a cultural and artistic upheaval.

There were ideas of Humanism that questioned the divinity of monarchs, humanized God and Jesus, and started new waves of music, literature, painting, sculpture and spread like wildfire across Europe.

The Rodin Museum. Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) was a modern sculptor who was deeply inspired by Michelangelo, and saw himself as part of an artistic tradition stretching from the Greeks, through the Renaissance.

There isn’t an exact place where it started (most probably Italy) or date for when the renaissance began, or even why it started.

This was a flamboyant Rodin sculpture. To capture a woman in this unusual pose, and that too in sculpture, is truly a mark of genius! Note the cup out of which she is leaning forward on her elbows. It seems off-balance and there is a sense of movement because the cup is on edge and seems to be falling over.

Another kiss by Rodin. The fingers outstretched, the woman's back arched, all create the sense of tension in the sculpture.

Studies of human body parts in Rodin's studio.

The Louvre is the world's largest Art Museum with around 38,000 exhibits.Every year, it receives more than 8 million visitors.

Most of the spectacular architecture was built or rebuilt in the Renaissance like the Louvre. There isn’t an exact place where it started (most probably Italy) or date for when the renaissance began, or even why it started. But a combination of factors led to it - the Printing Press in 1454, increasing literacy and the rise of intellectuals, rich patrons.

Some say the Black Death (plague) that wiped out a third of Europe’s population and led to a new class of rich people (nouveau rich), and helped create the Renaissance.

Even war helped, as in the case of France, which most probably brought back the Renaissance from the war with Italy, when Francis I invited Leonardo Da Vinci back to France with him.

Winged Victory of Samothrace, 190 BCE. This statue once stood on a hilltop, and before that, on the prow of a ship. Notice the detail in the folds of her dress, the ripples and angle of her thighs, daring the sea, wings outstretched, swept back by the wind! Each and every inch is poised to convey a sense of movement and vibrance. If I had a ship, she would be on the prow!

The central exhibit in the Louvre is Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. It's around 30 x 21 inches, really tiny, and surrounded at all times by waves of tourists (a sizeable number being Chinese and Koreans, but that may have been my anecdotal perception). All the tourists are there to get to Mona Lisa, and get out at breakneck speed! To get to within 5 feet, you have to claw your way in (which I didn't do). The painting itself is highly overrated and the enigmatic expression is caused by blurring the corners of the mouth, a neat illusion by Da Vinci, using a technique called sfumato!

I didn't even bother photographing the Mona Lisa, but spent my time on more interesting pieces. Anyway, there are millions of high resolution photographs, including Mad Magazine parodies of La Gioconda.

Venus De Milo, from 100 BCE. Notice the S curve in the body, with the knees pointed in one direction and her head turning the other. The Greeks found this S-curve especially attractive. Venus, as the Goddess of Love, must be obviously the most beautiful woman. As was every God, fashioned on the idealized form of humanity.

Claude Monet was one of the masters of Impressionism from the 1870's. He made a radical departure, painting with short brushstrokes, employing individual colors, which stood out resisting the even blending of earlier paintings. The illusion of color was created by the combination of individual myriad brushstrokes of different colors!

Claude Monet was an impressionist painter. Light just appears to leak out of the painting. This is a Woman with Umbrella turned to the left.

Allow me to present just one more Monet!

A view from Pont Neuf, the New Bridge made barely four centuries ago (in Hyderabadi, "parsu parsu ich bana"), in the heart of Paris.

The locks left by lovers and liars on Point Neuf at the bridge. There's a business opportunity here but the details will need to unlocked painstakingly!

I was aware that the French pronounced words differently, but was just not prepared for the metro. A loud voice proclaimed over the speakers, “Focklandehoozavailthparimetho” and I was left floundering trying to recognize the station and missed my stop entirely, even though I was waiting for it. The stop was supposed to be “Franklin D Roosevelt Paris Metro”.

The true highlight of my French Tour was Le Crazy Horse, a very underappreciated cabaret in Paris, compared to the Moulin Rouge. No photo or video is allowed, so I have to content myself with my vivid visual memories. And I am making an unabashed advertisement for them, plugging an existing Youtube Video. Le Crazy Horse is definitely not to be missed! The performers were all nude female dancers decorated with wigs, dancing around poles and props, and painted sparsely.

It is worth every one of those 85 Euros that I gritted my teeth on when buying the ticket online for a late 11 p.m. show. They were truly well choreographed, and the lights on human bodies seemed suggestive of clothes at places. I can only point you to Youtube videos, since photos and videos aren’t allowed.

No visit to Paris is complete without a visit to the Eiffel Tower - just as it is considered crass to visit it as a Parisian. Parisians scoffed at it, leading artists, intellectuals criticized it for its design, but it still got made!

A view of the Eiffel Tower from the Arc De Triomphe. Some of these photos were taken with a mobile phone and so may be grainy, poorly resolved.

A view of Eiffel Tower from Trocadero

Walking down the wrought iron steps

At the top (1063 feet), Gustav Eiffel, whose company designed and built the World's tallest structure (at the time it was built) had an apartment where he would throw parties.

The first floor of the Eiffel Tower has transparent glass (I have deliberately underexposed it to show the safety mesh in the glass), and it is an eerie feeling to be walking so high in the air, with nothing below you but tiny people and trucks passing by.

At night, there is a lightshow, and sparkling lights every hour.

Another view of Eiffel Tower from Trocadero. I loved the combination of the old and new architectures, with the line of statues directing one's gaze to the Eiffel.

The Luxor Obelisk, over 3000 years old, from the Luxor Temple, standing at the Place De La Concorde.

The Paris Catacombs are underground ossuaries that house more than six million skeletons! Since Paris' cemeteries were overflowing, they dug out all the old skeletons and stacked them into defunct quarries in the 18th century. The catacombs remained forgotten till some enterprising Parisians decided to hold concerts and private events out there.

The place and year where the original bones rested are marked. The French Resistance used the system of tunnels during World War II. Thieves broke into the catacombs in 2017 and stole wine worth 350,00 Euros from the cellar.