Well, time has certainly flown by. We have a week left in Paris, and I am feeling a little blue about that. We have done a lot during our time here. Blade and Ralph visited, my pal Anthony was here over the weekend and we have Joy and Michael to look forward to. We also have a few days in London before we head back across the pond.
We have been reading How Paris Became Paris: The Invention of the Modern City which is very interesting, and a perfect companion to the book we read before, Paris Reborn: Napoléon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Quest to Build a Modern City. In the current book, it becomes clear that Napoléon III and Haussmann were really only carrying out existing ideas. Neither book is to heavy with history, but rather, talks about the character of the city, and its push to be modern and always looking to the future. All this is very true. I have also always found Paris a very walkable city, and it is reassuring that that is indeed what the idea was as early as the sixteenth century. Also the relationship between walking and fashion. I love this stuff.
In the past few days, while I have been MIA, we went to the Shoah Memorial to see an exhibit of photos from the ghettos of Europe during WWII. Such depressing stuff. Even more depressing is the need for such intense security at the memorial. It is painful to think that anti-semitism is still such a force in otherwise enlightened parts of the world. Granted, it goes way beyond just anti-semitism, and really can be chalked up to anti-otherism. It also isn’t restricted to any country or continent. While going through the exhibit, the French weren’t coming out looking so great with the Vichy government gladly handing over Jews to the Nazis, and I could only feel sad at the thought that given the chance, Americans would have done the same at the time. Thank God for FDR. Yes, he could have done more, and maybe I should really be grateful for Eleanor! Sometimes history is so depressing.
We had two great days, one with Alex and Theo and yesterday with Claire. With Claire we went to the Musée Nissim de Comondo, which was a beautiful house on Parc Monceau. The house was pretty spectacular and backed up to the park. I found the kitchen and servants dining and working quarters the most interesting. I kept expecting Daisy or Mr. Bates to appear at any moment. With Alex and Theo, we just stayed at home because it rained in the morning. Today we are planning on going to the D’Orsay to see an exhibit on Van Gogh based on a book Van Gogh, the Man Suicided by Society by Artaud. Won’t be too depressing, right??!!