The City of Light, Lelouch, Truffaut, Bunuel, Bertolucci and Hemingway
Hello!!! Save yourself if you can.
The Paris Olympic Games kicked off this Friday, so there’s nothing better than warming up readers with information about the city.
There are so many stories in this magical city that I decided to divide it into two parts.
The first is about my first solo visit in 2003 and my honeymoon in 2005. In the second part, the stories are from 2007 with my brother-in-law and his crew, and then from 2012 during a family trip.
Paris is magnetic and seems to be a sort of obsession for most tourists. Rightfully so, as the city has so much history, culture, art and gastronomy concentrated in a small space.
The playlist”Parisian vibes” is a little gem to listen to several times. Preferably accompanied by good wine and a blanket of corn.
Ring in the box and that’s life!!!
Paris is infinite and magnetic
The first time is hard to forget. In August 2003 I made the last leg of my journey that began two months earlier in Berlin after six weeks of technical exchange.
After a tour of the Czech Republic, Vienna, Germany and Amsterdam, I planned five days in the City of Lights Alone and God with a list of places to visit, what more could I want?
From Gare du Nord to Pigalle the city changes a lot. The cream of the local scams were the Africans who filled the streets. My hostel was what you would expect for the price. A room with nine bunk beds and a bathroom. Luckily I took the top bed of the only one that was against the wall, isolated from the other eight.
The plan was to wake up very early, have a coffee outside and follow the planned itinerary. Come back as late as possible, take a shower and unplug. The next day, everything again.
From Pigalle to the Arc de Triomphe by metro, going down Xânzêlisê, that is, the Champs-Elysées, the Parisian Champs-Elysées, I stopped at the first McDonald’s to give breakfast to a student with little money at the end of the trip.
I took the traditional tours, crossed the beautiful Alexandre III bridge, passing the statue of Churchill right in front of the Grand Palais and its superb steel and glass dome. Continuing towards the Place de la Concorde I made a point of going to the headquarters of the FIA, the International Automobile Federation, in the hope of running into Max Mosley, then president, and asking him for a coffee.
From the Tuileries Gardens, passing between the Jeu de Paume and L’Orangerie, you can see in the distance the glass pyramid in front of the Louvre. I spent an afternoon there imagining Cardinal Richelieu living and confabulating in the prodigious complex of buildings that make up the most famous museum in the world.
Monalisa was there, it really exists and it is disappointing. But Van Gogh, Renoir, Matisse and Chagall are worth every minute. Not to mention the sculptures and thematic sessions.
The day of the visit to La Tour, I went to the Invalides to greet Napoleon. Right next door is the Rodin Museum with a garden full of wonderful sculptures, including The Thinker. A dazzle.
The architecture and exterior of the Pompidou are worth the visit, but the interior is a unique experience. The small studio with Brancusi’s Romanian sculptures right in front is a pleasant surprise.
The Picasso Museum is a must-see for art lovers. The blue phase is there, sculptures, sketches, letters, memorabilia. From there I headed to Montmartre, closing the circuit and retracing the paths of the most famous artist who lived there in the 1920s.
Closing on a high note, I visited the Lizard King, Jim Morrison, at Père Lachaise Cemetery. A pilgrimage of fans, hippies and admirers placed candles, sang and drank in front of the tombstone of the rocker who died in Paris and became a legend.
In the night of Pigalle, you can never be too careful. I almost fell prey to some scoundrels and ladies of the night, but I barely managed to escape.
honeymoon
In December 2005 we rented a sardine can on Rue de la Rochelle to enjoy the wedding and the most romantic city in the world.
It was snowing, which is rare in Paris. We were dragging suitcases through the streets, she was hurting her hands, money was still tight, but love was in the air and the desire to enjoy the city was enormous.
The Musée d’Orsay is located in an old train station. I remember the Gates of Hell created by Rodin. A magnetic and eternal work.
In the afternoon of the last day we wandered around St. Germain and its famous cafes. The Parisian patisseries are jaw-dropping. You look like a dog in front of those rotating skewers with tasty roast chickens. Eat the pastries with your eyes and then devour them, without pity or mercy. If you want to accompany it with a coffee!
And the croissant? Stop the world!
In both bars and restaurants you will encounter a famous Parisian character: the waiter. They are unbearable, arrogant, rude and do not care about you. There are so many tourists all the time that providing good service does not matter. There will always be an unwary person who will sit down and consume.
Once we were treated so well that we decided to ask where that ET was from. “From Paris,” he replied casually. We asked to see his ID and confirmed the impossible: Paris had one, at least one, kind and attentive waiter.
Other places to see are the Hotel de Ville, the Paris City Hall and the splendid Place de Vosges with its perfect symmetry.
Finally, Notre Dame. I am a cathedral fanatic. Not for its religious character, but for the architecture and the works of art that are contained within. The famous gargoyles of the main church of Paris are just one of the many details that make this work of art unparalleled. After the fire I hope they restore it as soon as possible.
I also went to Saint Sulpice, which appears in the book “The Da Vinci Code”. I tried to find the markings on the floor, the compass rose and other details, but not everything was there. That’s how literature is created, with a lot of imagination.
I have never been to Canal St. Martin and I know that the famous Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, resident in Paris since 1976, keeps his studio there. Unforgivable failure and a good reason to return.
C’était un Rendezvous / Claude Lelouch (1976)
A Mercedes with a Ferrari sound
Many stories about this underground film. They said it was a Ferrari racing through Paris at dawn, filmed underground in August of that year when Parisians were fleeing the city for summer vacation.
It was actually a Mercedes 450 SEL 6.9 V8 and the sound of a Ferrari 275 GTB was added later to give it more charm and authenticity. They say the driver was a former Formula 1 driver whose identity was previously unknown. Since this is Paris in the 1970s, it is suspected that Jean Pierre Jabouille was behind the wheel of the car. We will never know.
It may have been the director himself, Claude Lelouch, who made the film to recall a period of madness and forbidden things typical of youth.
After its release, the director was arrested and the film was banned, remaining underground for many years. United Artists itself reports that ‘C’était un rendez-vous’ is an illegal and uncompromising documentary.
There was a little pop group, I think it was Snow Patrol, that used this video in a clip. Don’t bother watching.
If you want to take a high-speed city tour of Paris, fasten your seatbelts. Here!
And see also this short documentary showing the behind the scenes of how they made the film.
Must see and read
MOVIES: Five films set in Paris (there are so many it’s impossible to choose just one).
Besides the world-famous “Amélie Poulain,” Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris,” and “The Untouchables,” about the unlikely friendship between an African nanny and a wheelchair-bound French billionaire, Paris has always been the setting and inexhaustible source of good films.
I have selected five films so as not to tire the reader too much.
La Vie en Rose / Olivier Dahan (2007) – Marion Cotillard made her career in this film. A stunning performance as Edith Piaf, the great French singer famous throughout the world.
Paris, je t’aime / several directors (2006) – A collection of 21 short films of 5 minutes each made by famous directors. Names like Walter Salles, Alfonso Cuarón, Gus Van Sant and Wes Craven and equally famous actors like Natalie Portman, Juliette Binoche, Elijah Wood, Nick Nolte and Willem Dafoe, take us around the city and its corners. Binoche is gorgeous, as always.
Jules et Jim / François Truffaut (1962) – Perhaps the greatest classic of the French New Wave, much to Goddard’s despair. Jeanne Moreau…
Belle de Jour / Luis Bunuel (1967) – Catherine Deneuve has never looked so beautiful on the movie screen.
Last Tango in Paris / Bernardo Bertolucci (1972) – Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, an empty apartment and some butter. The rest is history…
BOOK: Paris is a celebration – Ernest Hemingway (YEAR). The privilege of spending my youth in Paris.
“If you were fortunate enough to live in Paris when you were young, then the memory will stay with you for the rest of your life, wherever you are, because Paris is a walking party,” Ernest Hemingway told a friend in 1950.
The memories of a young Ernest in the 1920s starting his writing career in the best city to be in at that time in his life.
Hemingway and his young wife Hadley were newlyweds, broke, and eager to live and explore Paris. We wandered the city with friends like Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein and her companion Alice B. Toklas, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his Zelda, Picasso, James Joyce, among many others.
His routine was to write in the morning, have lunch in a restaurant usually accompanied by one or more friends, always drinking a lot, then continue writing in the afternoon, have dinner with his wife in his favorite places and, who knows, go to someone’s house or a party.
Money was counted for rent and basic necessities. Ernest had a much better life than George Orwell when he lived in the City of Light and told all in “The Worst of Paris and London”.
Young Ernest had two fundamental goals: to be a good writer and to live in absolute fidelity to himself. It was in Paris that he blossomed, met famous people, expanded his circle of friends and influences and paved the way for what was to come.
This posthumously published memoir, begun in Cuba in the fall of 1957, refined in the Idaho winter of 1958-59, and finished again in Cuba in 1960, covers the period from 1921 to 1926 in Paris.
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Source: Terra
Ben Stock is a lifestyle journalist and author at Gossipify. He writes about topics such as health, wellness, travel, food and home decor. He provides practical advice and inspiration to improve well-being, keeps readers up to date with latest lifestyle news and trends, known for his engaging writing style, in-depth analysis and unique perspectives.
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