Tag: Paris

Paris Wants To Create Its Own Central Park

This incredible greenspace would cover approximately 5.2 square miles and offer various outdoor pursuits for locals and tourists.

:: SIMPLEMOST :: The capital of France is famous for its many iconic landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum and Arc de Triomphe, just to name a few. However, if eco-conscious French politicians get their way, we may soon associate Paris with a suburban forest that is five times the size of New York City’s Central Park.

The creation of a roughly 5.2-square mile green area north of Paris in the suburb of Pierrelaye-Bessancourt would not only be a fabulous green space for outdoor activities but it is also meant to combat air pollution. Trees remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and release oxygen back out, thus improving air quality, according to the Urban Forestry Network.

Why The French Government Wants To Build A Forest

The city’s air pollution levels have reached a dangerous high, and the air quality is so poor that the City of Lights change its nickname to the “City of Smog.” In 2017, a Parisian yoga teacher even sued the Continue reading “Paris Wants To Create Its Own Central Park” →

The literature debate tearing apart Paris: should Céline’s racist pamphlets be published?


Louis-Ferdinand Céline was one of France’s greatest novelists – but plans to republish his anti-Semitic writing has dramatically divided Paris.

n a cold but sunny afternoon in late January I paid a visit to the Passage de Choiseul in the commercial heart of Paris. The passage is a covered arcade, one of many such places that were built across the Right Bank of Paris in the early part of the 19th century, and which were effectively the world’s first shopping malls. The Passage de Choiseul is also one of the most important and totemic sites in French literary history. It was the childhood home of the novelist Louis-Ferdinand Céline, arguably the greatest French writer of the 20th century, who still regularly outranks Marcel Proust in readers’ surveys and sales. Most significantly for his admirers, the passage was immortalised by Céline in his two magnificent novels, Journey to the End of the Night andDeath on the Instalment Plan, published in the 1930s. In Céline’s day the place was poor and decrepit and “stank of dogs’ piss”. Nowadays it is expensive and chic. But there is no trace of its most famous literary inhabitant – an extremely unusual fact in France, a country that prides itself on its literature, and where even the meanest provincial town has at least one Avenue Victor Hugo or Lycée Baudelaire.

I bought some pens and a notebook in the upmarket stationery shop just opposite the entrance to number 67, where I knew Céline had lived, and asked the lady behind the counter why there was no trace of the great man. She said that she was often asked this question by Céline’s admirers, who came from all over the world to this place, and that she did not know why there was no commemorative plaque or any other sign that Céline had lived here. She then hesitated, looked around to check that we were alone, and said quietly: “There are many Jews here who control business. They don’t want anyone to remember him.” [ . . . ] More at: The literature debate tearing apart Paris: should Céline’s racist pamphlets be published?

A tour in the footsteps of famous African-Americans in Paris

 

PARIS (AP) – The great African-American writers James Baldwin and Richard Wright began their feud over Wright’s novel “Native Son,” at Cafe Les Deux Magots. Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis held hands with his white girlfriend, French actress Juliette Greco, while strolling along the Seine after hanging out with Picasso. Entertainer Josephine Baker became a megastar at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees. Some travelers to Paris seek selfies with the Eiffel Tower, go to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre or stroll to the Arc de Triomphe. But you can create a different type of itinerary exploring African-American connections to the City of Light [ . . . ]

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To Burst The Bottle Bubble, Fountains In Paris Now Flow With Sparkling Water

France might be known for its bottled water (think Evian or Perrier). But in Paris, the mayor wants people to give up plastic bottles in favor of city tap water — with bubbles added for extra appeal [ . . . ]

More: To Burst The Bottle Bubble, Fountains In Paris Now Flow With Sparkling Water

Mourning in Paris

Paris is a good place to mourn. It takes itself very seriously in a way that is sometimes tedious when you are young and full of the future, but is perfect when you are entering middle age and walking down cobblestone streets and missing someone you loved very much, particularly if that someone lived there. Paris is tonally at its most appropriate when you realize that somehow that someone, who was so intricately woven into the city — someone who, for you, was Paris — is no longer there and yet the city remains itself. The city somehow survives. But Paris absorbs your sadness like it has absorbed hundreds of years of sadness. [ . . . ] Read at NYTimes