ETERNAL PARIS IS ALWAYS CHANGING
by Armen Pandola
During World War II, the Nazis occupied Paris. It was declared an 'open city' and so was not bombed. At the end of the war, Hitler ordered the German commandant of Paris, General Dietrich von Choltitz, to destroy all the bridges over the Seine River and dynamite all the major monuments, including the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Les Invalide and even Notre Dame. Choltitz disobeyed the order. Later, a book and movie was based on this event, Is Paris Burning?
How Paris would have survived such a catastrophe is unknown, but the City of Lights has always found a way to rekindle itself. Today, we'll explore a few examples that have become part of 'eternal Paris' - that 'moveable feast' that is best summarized by a line from a movie we all love - as Rick says to Ilsa, 'we'll always have Paris.'
Les Halles was Paris' wholesale fresh food center for centuries. The problem was that it was much too close to the center of Paris - it was like having such a market in Times Square. So, in 1971, Paris bit the bullet and moved it to a local suburb, but it didn't just give away the remaining empty land, it developed it into one of the major rail/train and shopping malls in the world. How do you do that and not destroy the center of Paris with an unsightly modern mall? You put it all underground.
Les Halles caters to over 150,000 shoppers daily. The train center connected to it sees 750,000 commuters a day. And this is where you want to shop because this is where Parisians shop. Dozens of stores, mostly non-premier names like H&M or retailers like Sephora. You can buy everything here - and eat too, all kinds of food from all over the world. There is a large movie complex and, also, Bibliothèque du cinéma François Truffaut, a media lending and research library with over 20,000 movie titles. Then, in 2010, Paris decided that the mall needed to be updated to its present open configuration. The best part is that way back in the late 1970s Paris took all the above-ground land that was now empty and made it into a park and a pedestrian way. The move proved so popular that many of the streets in the area were converted to pedestrian ways. Now, mostly cafés line the car-free streets of the area. The bonus is that the major metro and rail center makes carless access easy so there is no need for the large parking lots that are required by American malls.
That's what Paris did for shopping. For art, it had even bigger ambitions.
The Gare d'Orsay railroad station was built in 1900 and meant to accommodate coal locomotives. Over the next several decades, the station became less and less functional since its platforms were too short to accommodate modern electric trains. By 1971, it was on the list to be demolished. Then, a couple of government ministers intervened and obtained the support of President Pompidou. It was decided that the useless train station would be converted into an Art Museum and would bridge the gap between the mostly pre-19th century art in the Louvre and late 20th century art in it Modern Art Museum. In 1986, the new Musée d'Orsay opened its door and was a resounding success from the start - how could it fail with one of the world's largest collections of Impressionist art with works by all the masters.
Yesterday, I went to see it again. Here are a couple of practical tips - buy your tickets online. It's easy. I suggest you get the deal of buying a double ticket that will get you into MUSÉE DE L'ORANGERIE (just across the river) too. Oh, you say, you left your printer home. Oh no! Don't panic - you can get an e-ticket.Download it to your phone, then take a screenshot of it so it will be in your photos collection for easy retrieval. Then, have brunch the day you go and get there between 12:30 and 2, lunch time. Using this method, I waited - 0 minutes. That's right, I walked right in on a Friday afternoon.
If you are in Paris between now and January 19, 2020, go directly to the "Degas at the Opera" exhibit. It's an amazing collection of Degas paintings of ballerinas. Don't miss it if you can. As for the rest, the most crowded area is the 5th floor where the Impressionists are located, but don't miss a lot of collections on the ground floor, especially on the right side as you enter the Museum - there are many Impressionists in the collections donated by individuals and located here.
The third and final transformation we will talk about is more like the ones done in American cities - areas of the city that once were dumps are transformed (or gentrified) into modern Meccas. The Canal St. Martin district is located along a canal ordered built by Napoleon - it took 25 years to build and was used mostly for commercial purposes and to bring fresh water into Paris' outer arrondissements. By the 1960s it had fallen into disuse and was about to be filled in or paved over when - that's right, people came forward and the canal was saved. Now, it is the hub of one of Paris' trendiest, most dynamic quartiers in the city, with great restaurants, fun fashion, and bars bursting with local crowds. This is the Paris that you want to go to to find reasonably priced food, coffee and drinks. But, hurry, guys like me are writing about it. In fact, the other night, I was there with a local and - well, more on that in a later column about night life.
And that is how Paris keeps renewing itself. It doesn't demolish and sell off its prime real estate to developers whose only goal is to make as much money - right now - as they possibly can - need I remind you of a famous person who is one of these types? No, it re-imagines the city for the benefit of all. I think they call that democracy.