Paris [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION Many years before there was France, even before there was a race known as the French, there was Paris. On an island in the middle of the then turbulent waters of the River Seine, a group of Celtic tribesrnen known as the Párisii settled to form a solid island home that survives today under the magical name of the 'île de la Cité'. This island is the symbolic heart of Paris for it is from the Kilometre Zéro, a brass compass-like star embedded in the pavement outside the Cathedral of Notre-Dame that all the city's distances are measured. More than any other part of Paris this island proclaims history and tradition; here the Roman legions of Julius Caesar established a permanent garrison half a century before the death of Christ and here for centuries the succeeding French kings installed themselves in the great stone palace, parts of which still stand near the western tip. The city's oldest buildings like Notre-Dame, the first of the French Gothic churches and one of the most beautiful, and the Louvre, once a royal palace and now one of the most richly endowed museums in the world, cluster on and around this island heart from which in the course of time the early foundations of the Paris of today spilled over onto both river banks to form a city, of which every stone seems steeped in history. The 17th century Porte Saint Denis for example, records the victories of Louis XIV, in the Place de la Concorde the Luxor obelisk brought from Egypt by Louis Philippe stands where once the dreaded guillotine awaited its victims and the mighty Pantheon is built on a site which was once that of a Roman temple to Diana and subsequently a medieval convent. The vestiges of a rich past are everywhere. Even just outside the city proper, Versailles, a quarter-mile long palace of pink and cream stone in the style of the classical period of French Renaissance with its lavish stucco, frescoes and tapestries presents a breath-taking vision of wealth, splendour and artistry. Paris as a whole is a living work of art. From the pavement artists of Montmartre to the Leonardos of the Louvre, from the Left Bank 'bavardiers' to the masters of the Comédie Française, from the statues of the Tuileries to the masterpieces of the Musée du Jeu de Paume, Paris's cultural life is unbelievably rich and, since French culture finds its most complete expression in the visual and dramatic arts, it is not surprising that in this her principal city and its environs there are no less than 51 theatres and 107 museums.Among Paris's great cultural centres, the Opéra, the largest theatre for opera in the world, is a spectacle in itself with its onyx-balustraded grand staircases, marble foyers, glittering chandehers and, since 1966, a fresco by Chagall. Yet it is perhaps the Comédie Française which more than any other institution epitomizes the ideals of French civilization, for in providing a magnificent setting for the great classics of French theatre from Moliere and Racine to Anouilh and Giraudoux, it gives expression to the classical ideals of patriotism and courage and to the quality of life and language so beloved by the French. Because of its many artistic and architectural treasures Paris has been likened to a vast museimi but the comparison is made void by the fact that the city is a living entity that continues to evolve in a way which provokes traditionalist criticism for its strildng modernity but which, nevertheless, incorporates architecture of superb advanced design. The unclad metal truss tower of Gustave Eiffel, built for the Exhibition of 1889, in a sense began modern Paris. Composed of 12,000 metal parts fastened together by two and a half million rivets, it rises 984 feet above the Champs de Mars (and a futher eight inches in warm weather). Yet it weighs only '7,000 tons and with its four 'feef covering an area of more than two acres, is calculated to exert no greater pressure than a man seated in a chair More recent but equally strildng are the high-rise futuristic buildings of the Quartier de la Défense, among them the Centre National des Industries et des Techniques with its spectacular swooping vault covering an area of 980,000 square feet, with only three points of support. Since the 1970s also, the slender 58 storeyTour Montparnasse presides over the Paris skyline but, like the city's older buildings these innovations have all been touched by the same love of elegance that has made Paris the fashion centre of the world and that has transformed even the subway stations into artistic masterpieces. All too, are harmonized by an all-pervasive atmosphere of verve and zest for living. Despite the fact that Parisian beauties still perform the can-can at the Moulin Rouge and disrobe with admirable artistry in the Crazy Horse Saloon, Paris today by comparison with cities like Amsterdam or Stocldiolm is almost sedate. Yet few cities have such a sense of joie-de-vivre. With its innumerable shops, bars, cafés and restaurants, Paris is a living testament to the fact that the French enjoy good living and good food, for here is a gourmet's paradise. In the Rue Royale for example, the famous Maxim's provides unsurpassed cuisine in surroundings of an elegance that has not changed since the Belle Epoch while in contrast to it, but equally famous. La Coupole in Montparnasse, a huge restaurant with something of the atmosphere of a railway station, will serve a superb but moderately-priced meal into the early hours of the morning.