Ups and Downs in Light City
The Year That Was 1995 in Paris
Text and images by Richard Erickson, Art Direction and
HTML Design by Pakeha - exclusively for Norman Barth's 'The Paris Pages -
Les Pages de Paris.'
All images Erickson/Grant© December 1995 - used with
permission
Paris, Sunday, 31. December 1995 :- The City of Paris, at the crossroads of
Europe since Roman times, is a city of fairs, salons, and exhibitions.
'Reports' started with the Salon de Livre in March, and would have ended
with the 'Salon Nautique' in December, if it had not been for the recent
strikes. Inbetween, we visited some other salons and exhibitions; but some
were either in off-years, or skipped so we could cover them in 1996
instead.
As congested as Paris is,
everybody seems to get a license to march in it. As Paris is also the
center of French administration, everybody with a complaint hits the
streets here. The May Day parade on the traditional worker's day, is not a
specific complaint, except against unemployment, but a celebration of
labor. The mood was definitely 'spring-like' this year - in contrast to
December when it was more serious.
The month of May was a
busy one with the 50th Anniversary of the end of World War II; with the
last official public act by President Mitterrand on May 8th at the VE-Day
ceremony at Etoile. There was a presidential election and the mayor of
Paris, Jacques Chirac, was elected.
Terrorists launched a series of random bombings in late July and that cut
down the length of lines of visitors to the most important monuments and
sites in the capitol. Everybody who could, left town in August as usual,
causing the usual traffic jams; that were easily surpassed by the chaos
caused by the December strikes.
While the Paris Tourist
Office was keeping a stiff upper lip through these disasters, a few
(millions, actually) hardy souls found lots of elbow-room on department
store terraces, or beside the pools in the Cour Napoleon at the entrance to
the Louvre.
Paris held its own
celebrations - open to all - on the 14th of July throughout the city; and
again after the summer, with the big race at Longchamps, the Prix de l'Arc
de Triomphe, at the end of September. In case anybody forgets that Paris is
not a city, but a collection of villages, the annual Fete de Vendanges was
held on the north side of the Butte Montmartre on Sunday, October 7th; and
many other villages from around France were represented in the parade.
Throughout the year - a year of generally mild and good weather - Paris
went on being itself; on the 'grands boulevards,' in the theaters,
restaurants and thousands of cafes; in the Metro, on the buses, in the
narrow back streets of the Quartier Latin on bicycles - with its commuters,
shoppers, marchers, celebrants - such as Jacques Chirac's impromptu
nighttime victory cruise through the city, followed by TV cameras on
motorcycles... Paris had its drama, and we reported some of that too - but
if it was dramatic enough it was thoroughly covered by other media.
In December, after a few days hesitation, we decided that anybody intending
to visit Paris, should know about the transport strikes - and that for 95
percent of the time it was possible to arrive in the city and to depart
from it. We worked seven days a week for about three weeks on this story.
Put into a Paris perspective, the transport strikes were just the 'dot' of
an exclamation mark of a year, the year 1995, in Paris.
About 'Ric's Paris Peports' for the Paris Pages / Les Pages de Paris
When I sent my first 'report,'' about the Salon de Livre, on the 17th of
March, St Patrick's Day, little did I know that I would be writing the 71th
'Ric's Paris Report' today. Regular readers may not be surprised, but I am,
and Norman Barth, founding-editor of the Paris Pages, probably is too. The
first 'Report' was a one-story deal. Nobody planned for me to make
continuing reports.
It all started in a far-off cellar, far away, on a dark and rainy night
(hah!) in the late spring of 1958. That night, I decided to become a
European - no doubt on account of a bottle of VO that was handy - but it
was only six years later that I set foot on a dock in the Bay of Algeciras,
at Gibraltar. And 18 years after that I arrived in Paris to live, to stay.
On the anniversary of my first report for Paris Pages, I will have lived in
the Paris region for about 10 days short of 20 years.
I had never been in Paris before the day I came here. After my arrival, I
worked in journalism - doing cartoons - so much so that I saw little of
Paris. I toured the Louvre one time; I have seen two afternoon movies. The
list of what I haven't seen, done, eaten, heard, looks like a list of
contents for the next five years.
Perhaps I am a poor choice as a chronicler; certainly with no license to
act as one. My way of looking at it, is probably the way many readers see
Paris - for the first time in their lives - except, of course, I have a
hidden residue of a 20-year background.
Anyway, the 'Reports' will go on. I hope we can think of something short
and snazzy to call them, but we're not losing sleep worrying about it. We
would like to add variety with many more 'live' contributions from other
Paris' hands besides my own, and this will turn up this coming year if all
goes well.
Thanks for coming... to Paris.
Return to Richard Erickson's Paris Journal
Updated 12/95
