Paris Paris in the Seventies
Back when the scent of Gaulois cigarettes permeated the train stations, back when park guardians barked at those who dared to sit on the grass, were the seventies really the ‘good old days’?
New Year's Resolution: Learning to Speak French
So you’ve decided to take French lessons. Maybe you just like the sound of the language or maybe you’ve visited France in the past and been frustrated by not being able to understand what’s being said. Maybe you just want to be able to pronounce ‘bouillabaisse’ when you see it on a menu in a French restaurant. Whatever the motivation, I can only tell you this, watch out! Taking French lessons can take you to all sorts of places you may never have imagined. It may even change your life.
Date: January 1st, 2008 |
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Back to the Seventies: Oui or Non!
Yes or Non. Even the Chartres cathedral town is not immune to tagging. Whether or not you agree that tagging should be considered as an art form of the era, there is no doubt that ‘tagging’ or ‘graffitti’ creates the anchor for this seventies vintage photo.
Regarding the sheepskin coat. The coat went the way of Good Will. I can only hope that it kept somebody as warm as it kept me during my brief sojourn in an unheated cold water student flat in Paris.
If you are curious to know more …
Date: October 8th, 2007 |
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First Hundred Days continues
Yesterday, Aujoudhui newspaper or Le Parisien in Paris (www.leparisien.com)
published the ‘official picture’ of Nicolas Sarkozy which will appear in all of France’s mairies i.e. ’soon to appear in a mairie near you’.
I took a picture of our village mayor, Pierre Espaldet, in front of Charles de Gaulle - or I could have taken his picture of former president Jacques Chirac. Now, the former president will have to move over one slot to make room for President Nicolas Sarkozy’s picture.
During election week, Aujourdhui also took a featured a photo of Nicolas Sarkozy in 1976 -
…
Date: May 24th, 2007 |
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My Secret Garden in Paris: Journals from the Seventies
Photo by Chris Card Fuller, “Monet’s Garden - a garden for all seasons”
Here is another excerpt from Paris Journals in the Seventies. As I mentioned in an earlier post, these appear only upon Paris Logue readers’ requests. No requests and the journal goes back to Christina’s Crypt (where perhaps it should stay for the next 2000 years!)
August 1977
It’s almost the end of my stay in Paris – but it seems like the beginning. I’m sitting in Parc Montsouris. It’s beautifully flower-filled and sunny, all green and blue with brown dirt footpaths and birds chirping.
This entire week has been a of series of short stories, moving out of and into new apartments, and always strange dreams. I’ll start with last night:
I’ve finally entered headlong into the Cinematheque frenzy. I asked Mary Meerson for lodging until the end of the month because it was a choice between her wild world and the quiet sterility of ‘chez mon copain’ who lived in the 13th arrondissement. If truth be told, I have a lot of apartment keys in my handbag.
Date: February 23rd, 2007 |
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My Best Friend in Paris
Heidi Loewen is American but if anyone epitomizes the ‘joie de vivre’ in the truest French sense of the word, it would have to be Heidi. Growing up in Rochester, New York, we lived across the street from one another. When she left for college, we lost touch for a while until I learned that she was heading for Paris the same year I was going over as a student at the Sorbonne. She also was studying art and the best surprise was that she would be living just a few blocks away off of Denfert Rochereau in Montparnasse.
It was Heidi that first told me about the best outdoor market in the neighborhood at Rue Daguerre - and it was Heidi that threw the greatest parties in the leafy green courtyard of her French host family’s discreetly elegant house a few footsteps from the Belfort lion.
Although, Heidi is no longer living in Paris, she hasn’t lost her command of the French language, nor her flair for living. This year she’s celebrating the 10 year anniversary of creating extraordinary porcelain sculpture at her studio and gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
She will be featured February 11 Sunday (2 pm EST &Pacific, 3 PM Mountain) on the Food Network on Giada’s Weekend Getaways. Giada De Laurentiis, grandaughter of Dino De Laurentiis will join Heidi in her studio for a porcelain pot throwing session.
Date: February 9th, 2007 |
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French Lessons at the Sorbonne
Each year a new flock of foreign students arrive on French soil hoping to unlock the ‘Da Vinci Code’ for speaking French like a Frenchman or French woman. Few of us succeed - but do we ever give up? Never give up!
Here is the Class of ‘76-’77. Full of hope and confidence.
Where are they now, I wonder?
Some of the countries represented in this photo are:
Greece, Germany, Palestine, Japan, Turkey, Venezuela, Hungary, Sweden, United States, Iran and Malaysia.
Date: October 10th, 2007 |
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Confessions of a Montparnasse Model: Or How I Spent My Summer Vacation
Cite Fleurie
Photo by Chris Card Fuller ©2007
Armand LaCroix in his atelier at Cite Fleurie, 1977
Photo by Chris Card Fuller ©2007
I’d like to say I did it for art. Or quite simply, to become part of Montparnasse history.The truth is, for students in Paris,finding a summer job is no easy task. That was true in the 1970s and it certainly holds true today. Back in the days when the Cartier Museum was still the American Center on Boulevard Raspail, the front lawn and sculpture garden appeared slightly scruffy and untended. But it was also a place where students could drop in, free of charge, and check out the bulletin board for posted job offers.
Date: July 26th, 2007 |
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Car Goddess: The Citroen DS
“I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic Cathedrals,” wrote Roland Barthes in 1957 in his rhapsody regarding the Citroën DS which was unveiled in Paris in 1955.
Futuristic in design, the car has been described by some fans as the most elegant car ever designed.
Date: April 2nd, 2007 |
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Unearthed from Christina's Crypt
This post is in answer to Research Girl’s request for another Paris -in -the -70s Journal Entry. Today is the anniversary of the unearthing of Tutankhamen at Luxor in 1923.
Likewise, I have unearthed the first notebook from Christina’s Crypt.
This is Paris - Also.
Old man stretched out on a bench.
Yellow skin, wrinkled in yesterday’s newspaper.
His eyes are dying into white slits.
Then flutter open for an instant.
A road map of red streaks leading to
Blue-gray pupils, sugared with wine.
Fogged in daydreams of soft.
Pink woman sunset au bord de la mer.
Legs hanging over his shoulders.
Sea foam at her breasts, he
Is vomiting …
Date: February 16th, 2007 |
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Dead Gorilla on the Champs Elysees
© 2007 Chris Card Fuller All rights reserved.
What if there were only 750 Homosapiens on the planet aka animals like you and me that like to hang out on the Champs Elysees? Back in the 70s, this already dead movie star “King Kong” made a comeback on the Champs that Elvis could envy - there he was - bigger than life. Stretched out like some trophy.
The AP reports today from Dakar “rebels in eastern Congo have killed and eaten two silverback mountain gorillas” There are lowland gorillas in other parts of Africa, but …
Date: January 18th, 2007 |
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