The Gay/Jewish area of town is known as Marais (come on, roll that r). It apparently has fantastic boutique shopping, delis and rainbow yamakas. I kid, I kid. Seriously though, it is a very schweat (French slang for cool) area, even Victor Hugo would agree. His house stands on a bat-inhabited corner of Place des Vosges.
We started at the Bastille Opera house that is an amazing statement of the nature of Paris. To build an opera house for the people, as opposed to the elitism the genre carries in America, is very telling. Posters for Verdi’s Requiem and Bach performances adorn the streets, side by side with posters for Jacky Brown’s latest album and Sigur Ros’ next performance.
Starting down Rue St. Antoine, it is evident that very noticeable that Algerians exiles, Jews and Muslims all live peacefully together in Marais. There is an amazing diversity of stores and restraints all along Rue des Francis Bourgeois and around Place Marche St. Catherine. Reminders of the holocaust are presented in the form of plaques over institutions where entire groups of people were taken to Auschwitz.I honestly didn't see the rebranding of this area as Gay.
We really didn’t get enough time to explore. Samar and Courtney’s recommendation to explore this area was spot on, and I'll have to revisit.
Instead of further wanderings, we grabbed lunch near Pompidou, and then headed to the metro to get to class.
1 comment:
I am impressed by the amount of integration the French do. It seems that everyone here has at least one foot in mainstream culture, which is definitely NOT true in NYC, although more so in Chicago. It is part of the French immigration experience to force assimilation on people, from what I hear, due to some sort of idea of the greatness of French culture. Of course, America has been a society defined by immigration and changed by it, whereas immigration is a fairly new thing in france.
Post a Comment