Traveler of the week: Louis Oliveros—Paris

Given the different dramas unfolding now (Afghanistan, Haiti …) it would seem frivolous to write about Paris, art and beauty. Consider it as an interlude, a blurred photograph:

of something unusual in our world right now. 

So, Voilà: Paris for some (and me).When I was very small, a few years ago, I learnt that babies (1) came from Paris, France (not Texas).

Paris was also the "City of Love”

and the City of Light

or, rather, "la Cité de la Lumière’' 

 

Everything came from Paris: painters, revolutions (latest in 1968?), even Statues of Liberty 

photography and cinema (the Lumiére brothers). Your imagination worked overtime when the name of Paris appeared somewhere but the fact remains that these stories were all correct: Paris was indeed the city of Love

de la Lumière 

of enlightenment 

painters 

statues

and liberties

of beauty, engineers and artists, a summary of the history of Europe

The Tower was always there, unmovable!

For reasons that only destiny  knows, I keep  going back to Paris every so often.  Presumably, I see the same things over and over but they seem to be just different versions. 

Paris reinvents itself continuously, creates new images out of the old

incessantly repairs or changes old structures 

opens new pedestrian passages and streets, illuminates the tower 

landscapes are redone in no time

even Notre Dame will soon be finished 

And of course, the river is forever changing 

If out of the blue you go to Paris for the first time, be prepared to be surprised.  

No one expects a pachyderm 

among impressionist paintings 

in a museum inside a train station

that shows Neanderthal people

and where clocks are the windows overlooking Paris 

Or a museum built under a glass pyramid (or upside down?).  

There are other museums where fantasy is also the main element, where you can see things from far away - and beyond - that never had room in any Cartesian imagination: forms that are not from this western world, 

faces

dreamt figures from another world

Winter, spring, summer or fall, all you have to do is call, Paris will be there; but never the same one.  Always an explosion of light

and beauty 

play 

where destiny will tell you what to do.

The latest news on Paris :

France awards Josephine Baker the honor to enter the French Pantheon, the first black woman...

among the 5 women already there, which include Marie Curie.  Bravo!