City of lights, of mysteries. Its steep alleys, its slated roofs, its orange facades. With successive seasons color tones alternate in nuances…. But Paris is first and foremost about its inhabitants. All walks of life are represented. Nowadays, everyone dresses in dark colors all year round but it was not always like this.
The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th are my favorite periods. And these times are most prolific: arts, medicine, literature, techniques, all explode, everything experiences renewal. We dare question, innovate and restructure. What was once taken as granted in the name of morality, academia or religious beliefs becomes a subject of interest… Everything is made possible. Everything remains to be done …
The great painting movements are in their early beginnings : Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism. From Douanier Rousseau to Picasso, with Toulouse Lautrec as well, Manet, Monet, Bazille, Caillebotte, from Cézanne to Chagall, Soutine to Dali, from Klimt to Ernst. And many more… Living palettes leaving their marks forever in arts, literature, architecture…All is set in motion.
Even if life is not easy, what I like are colors that beget a world of feeling good. The Opera “La Bohème” by Puccini depicts it well. This is why this period is so unique.
Strolling through this city of a thousand faces.
Each building front, each neighborhood tells a story or an anecdote that makes it charming.
From Le Marais to the Seine’s banks, from Ménilmontant to the Butte aux Cailles, from Père Lachaise to Nation, from the scents of the 12th arrondissement to Parc Montsouris… While being carried away we enter in Woody Allen’s movie “Midnight in Paris”.
This city where I was born and grew up…
The recklessness of an epoch, the scent of a time when living was easy…Like a dragonfly resting on a shoulder.
D.K.