Category: Paris
Paris Match
Fifty Years Later, France Is Still Debating the Legacy of Its 1968 Protests
The summer of 1968 is etched into American memory as one of nationwide turmoil, with political assassinations, anti-war protests, racial unrest and highly publicized clashes with police. But this isn’t just an American story. The conflict between a diverse, anti-war left, and a tightening of law-and-order efforts on the right spread far beyond U.S. borders, notably coming to a head in France in May 1968.
“What began as a student protest became a labor dispute which actually became a political crisis. And so by the end of the month it was possible that de Gaulle’s government – and maybe even the Fifth Republic– could fall,”
That’s when a violent confrontation between police and student protestors in Paris gave way to a nationwide general strike involving 11 million workers. As the 50th anniversary of the demonstrations arrives, the French people and their government are grappling with how best to commemorate the movement. Below is a brief guide, detailing what happened in Europe five decades ago [ . . . ]
Continue at SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE: Fifty Years Later, France Is Still Debating the Legacy of Its 1968 Protests | History | Smithsonian
Paris’ Pompidou Centre hosts a May 68 happening, 50 years on
The Pompidou Centre in Paris hosts the ‘Mai 68 Assemblée Générale’ happening to mark the 50th anniversary of May 68 in France. The event runs until 20 May.
In May-June 1968 massive student protests and strikes across France nearly brought down President Charles de Gaulle and his government.
Fifty years on, the Pompidou Centre hosts in Paris a happening called ‘Mai 68 Assemblée Générale’.
May 68 posters and slogans
Graphist artist Philippe Lakits will reinterpret the slogans and posters of May 68 in a 60 metre long frieze designed for the event.
The May 68 slogans have had a powerful impact in a France without newspapers, radio or television, which were all on strike at the time.
Most of the May 68 posters were produced in the Ateliers populaires (People’s Workshops) that art and graphic design students will try to revive in the Pompidou Centre Forum.
According to the event organiser Romain Lacroix, the main May 68 topics on the posters are nowadays ‘somehow irrelevant:
Feminism was hardly touched on, now it’s much more to the fore. Ecology was also neglected, even if the Larzac became an issue… these are issues that are of interest to the younger generation.
Besides the picture frieze, debates and conferences will take place in a mobile lecture hall designed by Olivier Vadrot.
Georges Pompidou and May 68
The Pompidou Centre has a specific link to May 68.
Georges Pompidou, who was General de Gaulle’s prime minister at the time, managed the crisis while he was bringing it to political closure.
In 1969 after being elected president, Pompidou decided to to have an arts centre built which opened ten years later in 1977.
We can see clearly how it’s a question of how to make protest part of the museum. It’s due to the fact that the first artists whose works were shown at the Pompidou Centre in 1977 were those demonstrating on the streets in 68. [ . . . ]
Continue at Source: Paris’ Pompidou Centre hosts a May 68 happening, 50 years on – culture – RFI
May 1968: A Month of Revolution Pushed France Into the Modern World – The New York Times
A Cookbook Created From Picnicking In Paris
The newly released cookbook Paris Picnic Club is not only a collection of international recipes with fresh and sometimes powerful tastes but is also an inadvertent guidebook to mainstream and offbeat markets and food stores within Paris. One premise of the book is that cooking within a Parisian home kitchen (often small and lacking storage space) requires frequent shopping. If you are in Paris and searching for Breton artichokes, Arcachon oysters, Alsatian cherries, Brillat-Savarin cheese or Korean red chili flakes—the book’s sidebars and recipe introductions will direct you to food outlets that include La Grand Epicerie on Rue de Sèvres, the Korean supermarket on Rue Saint-Anne or Sébastien Gaudard Pâtisserie in Montmartre.
Yet you don’t have to live in Paris to enjoy this cookbook.
Paris Picnic Club illustrates how Parisian and French foods celebrate the cuisines of varied cultures. Continue reading “A Cookbook Created From Picnicking In Paris”
