MESSAGES AND THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF PARIS WITH RADIALIST ROBERTO BARROS
Here I want to show an unprecedented narration as a full message
that defines itself about a great and fabulous story in which I show
about the ancient city called Paris that I tell about beautiful and
unforgettable international romantic songs for everyone to listen
with immense love to understand and feel deeply about beautiful
knowledge that mixes with the true dynamics that we can remember
several ancient events that can tell us and show us great stories
that marked a great era of dreams where fantasy can be the best
companion of a great adventurous dream that we seek in your past or
in the future a deep relationship and reaction with the most
codifying nature that lacks pleasure and love for our world and that
makes us seek among many trajectories and achievements a valuable
role in getting to know much better and with divine love the very life
in which we live here in simple words that we can simply be well
connected about our desires to be happy, knowledge from our
ancestor's life, recognition with our own Self that we dedicate
ourselves to the mere pleasure of getting to know life and our world
much better through the best way to live and be happy where here
now with much love, dedication to all my formidable listeners, I want
to say that we satisfactorily admit by a simple notion and desire
about life that life is perhaps a fleeting thing and that we are duly
delving deeper into a space that I simply believe that we will still
meet as we have a lot to know and tell beautiful and extraordinary
stories that simply reveal to us a very remote era of our time and
that we are synchronized with the era of young people who have
always believed in the past as an answer to the true future and that
we can fully know it as closely as we have to take them as a friend of
a simple adventurous notion that in everything and through
everything passes through us and that will always be kept as a
memory and souvenir of a great time that here now let's remember
with beautiful love songs about a romantic moment of pleasure where
the radio waves synchronize us with power and that we can dream
much better about the future in which here I will tell a beautiful
story for everyone to hear in which here I leave my best hug as
writer and radio host Roberto Barros. Hugs!
Rarely do I believe that we are talking about a fully valuable city
that went through a great period in the May 1968 revolution.
Rarely can we understand in all the contradictions that a harsh
expression is really extinguished under a more evolutionary reality
that took place between both times, which was forming a great
country that today shows itself under a great culture and its great
traditions of a people who have always He fought and showed in his
best ways his soul, desire, work and culture that today is shown
under a great cultural construction that went through a great
change between several dilemmas and became a country of gold and
dreams where we can conquer and see from close to its best value.
We live big children's dreams and if we return to the world of
fantasy where we can see and see with our soul the best theaters
and cinemas that are successful all over the world and today we can
understand all the value and capacity of a great people who remained
and will always be kept in the cinematographic culture from life to
this day and we are going to talk about a political movement in
France that we can understand all reason and movement between
young people and society that is extinguished under a very socialist
relationship under the power of freedom.
May 1968 was a political movement in France that, marked by
general strikes and student occupations, became an icon of a time in
which the renewal of values was accompanied by the prominent
strength of a youth culture. Sexual liberation, the War in Vietnam,
the movements to expand civil rights made up all the gunpowder in a
barrel built by the speech of young students at the time. More than
starting some type of trend, May 68 can be seen as the unfolding of
a whole series of issues already proposed by the review of customs
carried out by political struggles, philosophical works and youthful
euphoria. On May 2, 1968, French students at the University of
Nanterre staged a protest against the division of dormitories
between men and women. In fact, this simple reason was rooted in a
new generation that demanded an end to conservative stances.
Taking advantage of the incident, other French university students
and political party groups decided to join the ranks of protests
against the problems experienced in France. With television
coverage, the French episode became known around the world.
In a short time, the issues that motivated the protest gained
broader and more delicate contours. The students began to demand
the resignation of President Charles de Gaulle, considered a
conservative, and the call for general elections were the protesters'
new proposals. From then on, the city of Paris became the scene of
clashes between armed police and protesters protected by
barricades. Lacking equal military strength, the rebels threw stones
and Molotov cocktails at the police. On the 18th, the workers staged
a general strike of alarming proportions. More than 9 million workers
crossed their arms demanding better working conditions. Cornered
by the proportion of the episodes, President Charles de Gaulle took
refuge in a German military base, granted a 35% minimum wage
bonus and called new legislative elections. In this way, the workers
emptied the demonstration spaces and returned to their jobs.
In the elections called by the French government, politicians linked
to the figure of Gaulle achieved a significant victory. The president
emerged from the episode as a figure capable of overcoming the
problems faced by society at the time.
Even without achieving any kind of objective achievement, the May
68 movement indicated a change in behavior. The arts, philosophy
and affective relationships would be the space for action in a world
marked by changes. We cannot really judge this episode as immature
or hasty. Much less do we know how to limit precisely how much the
world has changed since then. However, we can reflect on the place
that rebellion and vigor of ideas occupy in a society systematically
labeled as consumerist and individualistic.
Description
It began as a series of student strikes that broke out at some
universities and secondary schools in Paris, following clashes with
the administration and police. The Gaullist government's attempt to
crush these strikes with further police action in the Latin Quarter
led to an escalation of the conflict, which culminated in a general
student strike and factory occupation strikes across France.
Analysis:
Some philosophers and historians have stated that this event was
one of the most important and significant of the 20th century,
because it was not due to a restricted layer of the population, such
as workers and peasants - who were the majority -, but to a popular
uprising that overcame ethnic barriers, cultural, age and class.
Furthermore, it had intrinsic links with post-war events and those of
the Cold War.
Other interpretations place May 1968 in the context of
demonstrations and insurrections much broader than the French
events, such as the Italian 'Hot Autumn' and the Argentine
“Cordobazo”, culminating in the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia. The
common thread between such uprisings would be the repudiation of
the official line of the Soviet Union and Stalinism.
According to professor Felipe Maruf Quintas, May 68 was the first
of the Color Revolutions incited by the CIA. One of the
characteristics of color revolutions is, according to Andre Korybko,
that agents "take advantage of identity problems in a target state in
order to mobilize one, some or all of the most common identity
issues to provoke large protest movements, which can then be coopted
or directed by them to achieve their political objectives".
According to Quintas, Charles de Gaulle in 1964 broke the blockade
that the United States imposed on Western countries regarding
loans to the Soviet Union, which angered the Saxon country.
Furthermore, De Gaulle reestablished relations with Cuba and
initiated independent relations with Third World countries, that is,
non-aligned ones, including "the possibility of technology transfer by
French companies to Third World countries in various sectors". "The
legacies left by May 1968 were Neoliberalism and Identity Politics.
May 68 was individualist, it exalted subjectivist individualism against
the welfare state in Europe."
Most of the insurgents were supporters of left-wing ideas. Many saw
the events as an opportunity to shake up the values of "old society",
opposing advanced ideas about education, sexuality and pleasure.
Among them, a small minority, such as Occident, professed rightwing
ideas.
In popular culture
At the movies
• The film Baisers volés (1968), by François Truffaut, takes
place in Paris during the protests. Although it is not an overtly
political film, it contains references and images from the
demonstrations. The film captures the revolutionary feeling of the
period and explains why Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard called for
the cancellation of the 1968 Cannes festival.
• The film Mourir d'aimer (1971), by André Cayatte, is based on
the true story of Gabrielle Roussier, a classical studies professor
(played in the film by Annie Girardot) who committed suicide after
being found guilty of having an affair with one of his students during
May 1968.
• Jean-Luc Godard's film Tout Va Bien (1972) examines the class
struggle that continued in French society after May 1968.
• The film The Mother and the Whore (1973), by Jean Eustache,
winner of the Grand Prix (Cannes Festival), cites the events of May
1968 and explores their consequences.
• The film Molotov Cocktail (1980), by Diane Kurys, tells the
story of a group of French friends who were traveling to Israel, but
decide to return to Paris after hearing news about the
demonstrations.
• The film Milou en mai (1990), by Louis Malle, is a satirical
portrait of the impact of the revolutionary fervor of May 1968 on
the bourgeoisie of a small town.
• A film by Bernardo Bertolucci from 2003, The Dreamers,
based on the novel The Holy Innocents by Gilbert Adair, tells the
story of three young people who, during May 1968, see the
revolution happening through their bedroom window. In the extras
of a DVD of the film, there is a documentary about the time. The
movement is described by contemporary scholars as a critique of
contemporary Western capitalist society and a return to an idealized
romantic past. The film Les amants réguliers (2005), by Philippe
Garrel, tells the story of a group of friends who participate in the
protests, and their lives one year later.
• In the film OSS 117: Rio ne répond plus (2009), the protagonist
Hubert mocks the hippie students by sayingː "It's 1968. There will
be no revolution. Cut your hair."
• The film Après mai (2012), by Olivier Assayas, tells the story
of a young painter and his friends who take the revolution to their
local schools and have to deal with the existential and legal
consequences of the act.
In the song
• The song "Verão de 68" by the Brazilian punk band Blind Pigs -
Porcos Cegos, deals with the story of a female guerrilla member of
the MR-8 during the 68 protests in Brazil.
• The song "É Proibido Proibir", by Caetano Veloso, took its name
from graffiti painted on the streets of Paris during May 1968. The
song protested against the Brazilian military regime. The lyrics of
the song Street Fighting Man (1968), by the Rolling Stones, refer to
the protests seen from the perspective of a "sleepy city of London".
The lyrics were adapted to the melody of a Stones song with
different lyrics that had not been released. The melody also has
influences from the sound of French police car sirens. The work
"Sinfonia" (1968/1969), by Luciano B erio, included slogans from May
1968.
• Many lyrics by French anarchist singer-songwriter Léo Ferré
were inspired by May 1968, such as "L'Été 68", "Comme une fille"
(1969), "Paris je ne t'aime plus" (1970), "La Violence et l'Ennui"
(1971), "Il n'y a plus rien" (1973) and "La Nostalgie" (1979).
• The song Paris Mai (1969), by Claude Nougaro. In 1972,
Vangelis released the album Fais que ton rêve soit plus long que la
nuit (Make your dreams bigger than the night). The album contains
sounds from the demonstrations, songs and a news report.
• The imaginary Italian civil servant described by Fabrizio De
André in his album Storia di un impiegato (1973) has the idea of
exploding a bomb in front of the Italian Parliament, upon hearing the
news about the May events in France and comparing his tedious life
with the exciting lives of revolutionaries in France.
• The song Bye Bye Badman, from the album The Stone Roses
(1989) by the band The Stone Roses, is about the protests. The
album cover features the three colors of the French flag, as well as
lemons (which were used by the French to nullify the effects of tear
gas bombs during May 1968). The song Papá cuéntame otra vez
(1997), by Ismael Serrano, refers to May 1968, when he says
"daddy, tell me that beautiful story again, of guards, fascists and
students with long hair; of sweet urban war with pants bell bottoms,
and Rolling Stones songs, and girls in miniskirts."
• The song "Protest Song '68" (1998), by the Swedish band
Refused, is about the May 1968 protests. The music video for the
song I heard wonders (2008), by Northern Irish musician David
Holmes, is based on the protests , and alludes to the influence of
the Situationist International on them. In literature
• The novel The Merry Month of May (1971), by James Jones,
tells the fictional story of an American expatriate who accidentally
finds himself in the middle of the protests.
• The philosophical book "Anti-Oedipus", by Gilles Deleuze and
Félix Guattari, a major critique of traditional psychoanalysis, was
written, as the authors say, under the strong influence of May 68.
The history of Paris is linked to a combination of several geographic
and political factors. It was Clovis who decided, in the 6th century,
to install the fixed organs of the kingdom's political power in the
small city of Paris. This capital position will be confirmed by the
Capetians, after a gap of two centuries during the Carolingian era.
Paris's position at the crossroads between commercial land and river
routes in the heart of an agriculturally rich region meant that Paris
became one of France's major cities during the 10th century with
royal palaces, rich abbeys and a cathedral. During the 12th century,
Paris became one of Europe's first centers for education and the
arts.
Whether with the Fronde, the French Revolution or May 1968, Paris
has always been at the heart of the events that marked the history
of France.
The Historical Library of the city of Paris allows the public to delve
into the historical memory of Paris and Île-de-France, under very
different aspects.
Representation of "old Paris" in front of the Eiffel Tower at the
1900 Universal Exhibition
The city's patron saint is Saint Genoveva, who would have excluded
Attila and the Huns from the city, in the 5th century, through her
prayers. His reliquary is now in the Church of Saint-Étienne-du-
Mont.
History and Prehistory
The first known settlement of Paris is of the Chassean culture
(between 4,000 and 3,800 BC), on the left bank of an ancient branch
of the Seine within the 12th arrondissement of Paris. Human
presence there appears to have been continuous during the
Neolithic.
The remains of a village in the Administrative Quarter of Bercy,
part of the 12th arrondissement, were recovered and dated to
around 400 BC — notably a vessel stuck in the mud there at the time
and currently on display at the Carnavalet Museum.
Antique
Roman baths beneath the Latin Quarter
Apart from this, the lack of data characterizes the knowledge of
the period from the so-called prehistoric occupation to the Gallo-
Roman era. The only certainty is that the Parisians are the masters
of the region when Caesar's troops arrive in 52 BC, who rename it
Lutetia (Lutetia). The Parisians had submitted to Vercingetorix to
fight the Roman invaders, but without success. It is still not known
precisely where the Gallic settlement was located: île de la Cité
(hypothesis now very discredited), île Saint-Louis, or some other
island that is today attached to the left bank of the Seine, or even
Nanterre.
The Roman city was built, according to an orthogonal grid map dating
from the 1st century, on the left bank. Lutetia, as the Romans called
it, probably having no more than five to six thousand inhabitants in
its heyday, was nothing more than a modest village in the Roman
world. Compare it with Lugduno, capital of the three Gauls (one of
which is Gaul Lugdunense, which encompassed the region of Lutetia),
which had, in the 2nd century, 50,000 to 80,000 inhabitants. Even
so, Lutetia had a forum, palaces, baths, temples, theaters, and an
amphitheater.
According to tradition, the town was Christianized by Saint Denis,
martyred in the year 272. During the Low Empire, Lutetia was
affected by major invasions and its population took refuge on the île
de la Cité, fortified with stones recovered from large ruined
buildings. However, since the 4th century, the existence of
settlements outside the wall has been attested, and the town takes
its name from the people of which it is the capital, the Parisians.
In 451, Saint Genoveva, future patron saint of the city, will be the
one who will be able to convince the inhabitants not to flee before
Attila's Huns, who are effectively repelled without combat.
Middle Ages
Reconstructed map of Paris from the year 1223
King Clovis I made Paris the capital of the Kingdom of the Franks
around 506. It then remained until at least the beginning of the 7th
century. In the 6th century, the Church of Saint-Gervais was the
first place of worship established on the right bank — a sign that
the city was expanding.
The Vikings, arriving in their longships with minimal displacement,
pillaged for the first time in 845 the city abandoned by its
inhabitants. Their incursions continued until the beginning of the
10th century, and their assaults were only mitigated with the Treaty
of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte concluded in 911.
The Capets, who reigned from 987, preferred Orléans to Paris, one
of the two large towns in their personal domain. Hugo Capeto,
despite his residence on the île de la Cité, spent little time there.
Roberto Pio visits her very often. The city became an important
center of religious education since the 11th century. Royal power was
gradually established in Paris, which once again became the capital
of the kingdom, starting with Louis VI (1108-1137) and even more so
under Philip Augustus (1179–1223), who surrounded it with a wall.
Trade enriches Paris, which takes advantage of its position at the
convergence of major trade routes. The wheat enters via Rue Saint-
Honoré; fabrics from the North on Rue Saint-Denis and fish from
the North Sea and the Channel on Rue des Poissonniers. The
importance of its market, together with the Lendit fair in Saint-
Denis, demands a square in a less crowded place than the île de la
Cité: Louis VI installs it in around 1137 in the place called "Les
Champeaux" (the little meadows ); the Halles de Paris (Municipal
Market) would remain there for more than eight centuries.
Collection of ordinances of the provost of the merchants of Paris,
1416, by Charles VI
In 1163, Bishop Maurice de Sully undertook the construction of
Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral on the île de la Cité. The importance
of the city increases, both politically and financially and
commercially. The central organs of her government make her
headquarters, and the king's desire to better control her does not
allow her to enjoy a communal charter. Despite this, he grants him
the privileges of "the king's burgh" and grants favors to the "hansa"
(or "guild") of river merchants. In 1258, Saint-Louis took the
provost out of the hands of the merchants and entrusted it to a
friend, Étienne Boileau. In 1263, the merchants' hansa elected the
first council made up of a provost of merchants and four councilors.
Thus a system of dual authority was established between the city
and the royal power.
Around 1328, the Parisian population was estimated at 200,000
inhabitants, making it the most populous city in Europe. But in 1348,
the Black Death decimated the population. In the 14th century, the
wall of Charles V (1371–1380) encompassed the current 3rd and 4th
arrondissements and extended from the Pont Royal to Porte Saint-
Denis.
The Louvre fortress in the early 15th century from the illuminated
manuscript Book of Hours, Les très riches heures du duc de Berry,
month of October
During the Hundred Years' War, popular discontent fueled the
ambition of the merchants' provost, Étienne Marcel, provoking the
great ordinance of 1357 and then the first great popular uprising in
the history of Paris, causing new ruptures between the king and the
city. Since then, the kings no longer reside in the city center,
preferring first the Hôtel Saint-Pol (destroyed by order of Charles
VI after the Bal des ardents), then the Hôtel des Tournelles, from
where one can more easily escape in the event of a riot. In 1407
(shortly after the murder of Louis d'Orleães), a civil war broke out
between Armagnacs and Bourguignons that lasted until 1420. The
city passed to the Bourguignons' camp in September 1411.
Paris ends up ruined by the Hundred Years' War. Joan of Arc, in
1429, is burned alive in her attempt to free her from the English
and their Bourguignon allies. Charles VII and his son Louis XI have
reservations against the city and insist on not living there,
preferring the Loire Valley. Its population grew between 1422 and
1500, counting from one hundred thousand to one hundred and fifty
thousand souls. A modest economic expansion resumed in the mid-
15th century, but the city suffered from the absence of the Court.
Paris becomes an administrative and judicial city.
Modern age
The Renaissance, markedly present in the royal court residing in the
Loire Valley, consequently did not benefit Paris much. Despite its
removal, the monarchy is concerned about the disorderly expansion
of the city. The first urban planning regulations were decreed in
1500 regarding the new Notre-Dame bridge, on which uniform brick
and stone houses in the Louis XII style were built.
In 1528, Francis I officially established his residence in Paris.
Intellectual irradiation grows: university education (theology and
liberal arts) is joined by modern education focused on humanism and
exact sciences according to the king's wishes, at the Collège de
France. Under his reign, Paris reaches 280,000 inhabitants and
remains the largest city in the West.
Map of Paris in 1787 by Brion de la Tour
On August 24, 1572, under Charles IX, the St. Bartholomew's Night
Massacre was organized. There are between two thousand and ten
thousand victims. The French Catholic League, particularly strong in
the capital, rises up against Henry III during Barricades Day in
1588. He flees before laying siege to the city. After his murder, the
siege is maintained by Henry of Navarre, crowned as Henry IV. The
city, despite being ruined and hungry, did not open its doors to him
until 1594 after his conversion — on which occasion he coined the
famous but apocryphal quote "Paris vaut bien une messe." (In Paris,
it's worth going to mass).
The Day of the Barricades of 1648 marks the beginning of the
Fronde, which causes a severe economic crisis and an atmosphere of
contempt for the king vis-a-vis his capital. Despite a high infant
mortality rate, the population reaches 400,000 inhabitants thanks to
immigration from the provinces. Paris is a very poor town where
there is a lack of security. The neighborhood of the legendary court
of miracles (so called because the poor and sick of the day
disappeared after the night, as if by miracle) was progressively
emptied from 1656 onwards by police lieutenant general Gabriel
Nicolas de la Reynie.
Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1677, before moving
the seat of government there in 1682. Colbert took Parisian
management into his own hands and traveled back and forth between
Paris and Versailles. During his reign, the Sun King went to Paris no
more than twenty-four times, essentially just to be present at
official ceremonies, a display of hostility that Parisians did not like
very much.
In the 18th century, Versailles did not deprive Paris of its
intellectual pre-eminence; on the contrary, it becomes a rebellious
flame that feeds on Enlightenment ideas. This is the period of
literary salons, like that of Madame Geoffrin. The 1700s was also a
period of strong economic expansion which led to an important
demographic milestone: the town reached 640,000 inhabitants on
the eve of the French Revolution.
In 1715, the regent Philip d'Orléans abandoned Versailles for the
Palais Royal. The young Louis XV settles in the Tuileries Palace, thus
making an ephemeral return of royalty to Paris. Since 1722, Louis XV
returns to the Palace of Versailles, breaking the fragile
reconciliation with the Parisian people.
The city then extended more or less over the first six
arrondissements of today, with the Jardin du Luxembourg marking
the city's western border. Louis XV began to take a personal
interest in the city in 1749, which is when he decided to renovate
the square Louis currently known as the Pantheon.
The French Revolution and the Empire
The Storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789
It was in Versailles that the French Revolution began with the
convocation of the States General and then with the Oath of Play.
But the economic crisis (especially the price of bread), the
sensitivity to political problems born of Enlightenment philosophy,
and the resentment at having royal power abandoned the city for
more than a century, give Parisians a new orientation. The storming
of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, linked to the insurrection of
artisans in the Saint-Antoine suburb, is the first stage of this. On
July 15, 1789, astronomer Jean Sylvain Bailly received the position
of first mayor of Paris at the Hôtel de Ville. On October 5, an
uprising sparked by women in the Parisian markets reaches Versailles
at dusk. At 6 am, the castle is invaded and the king is forced by the
people to take up residence in Paris at the Tuileries Palace and from
there convene a constituent Assembly, which takes place on October
19th in the Salle du Manège of the Tuileries.
On July 14, 1790, the Feast of the Federation took place in Campo
de Marte. In that same place, the occasion will be less festive when,
on July 17, 1791, it will serve as the stage for a shooting.
The assets of the Catholic Church and the Crown are declared to be
national assets, owned by the revolutionary government. Among
them, the Cordelheiro convent and the Jacobin convent stand out,
taken in May 1790, which would constitute the heart of
revolutionary Paris; This demonstrates the absolute power of
Parisian clubs over the course of the Revolution.
On the night of August 9, 1792, a revolutionary "commune" takes
possession of the Hôtel de Ville. On August 10, 1792, the crowd
surrounds the Tuileries Palace with the support of the new council
government. King Louis XVI and the royal family are imprisoned in
the Tour du Temple. The French monarchy is in fact abolished.
After the 1792 elections, the representatives of the Paris Commune,
ultra-radical, opposed the National Convention dominated by the
Girondins, who represented the most moderate opinion of the
provincial bourgeoisie; The Girondin Convention is dispersed in 1793.
The Hôtel de Ville,
on 9 Thermidor of the year II
Parisians then live under two years of rationing. Terror reigns with
the specter of the Committee of Public Safety. The Paris police,
under the authority of the mayor, undertake the task of imprisoning
all who remain in the city, including the nobles, the rich bourgeoisie,
the priests and the intellectuals. It is for this reason that the
mayor of Paris is still to this day the only one in all of France to be
prohibited from exercising any police power. On January 21, 1793,
Louis XVI is guillotined in Louis XV Square, renamed "Revolution
Square". He is followed on the scaffold in just a few weeks by 1,119
people, including Marie Antoinette, Danton, Lavoisier and finally
Robespierre and his supporters after the 9th of Thermidor of the
year II (July 27, 1794).
The Revolution was not a favorable period for the development of
the city (few monuments were built), which had no more than
548,000 inhabitants in 1800. Numerous convents and churches were
razed and gave way to unplanned subdivisions, resulting in a
reduction in spaces green areas of the city and a densification of
the center. Under the Directory, splendid properties, in neoclassical
style, were built.
In 1806, Paris had already compensated for the losses suffered
during the Revolution and had 650,000 inhabitants; This progression
is mainly the effect of immigration from the provinces, as the birth
rate remains weak. After the middle of the 18th century, the city
was overtaken by London in full economic and demographic
expansion, reaching 1,096,784 inhabitants. On December 2, 1804,
Napoleon Bonaparte, who had seized power in 1799, was consecrated
emperor by Pope Pius VII in Notre-Dame Cathedral. He decides to
establish the capital of his Empire in Paris.
From the Restoration to the Paris Commune
The Avenue de l'Opéra as seen by Pissarro from the current Hôtel
du Louvre
The fall of the Empire in 1814-1815 brings to Paris the English and
Cossack armies who camp on the Champs-Élysées. Louis XVIII,
returning from exile, re-enters Paris, has himself crowned there and
settles in the Tuileries.
Louis XVIII and Charles X, and later the July Monarchy, had little
concern for Parisian urbanism. The working proletariat, in strong
expansion, is crowded miserably in the central neighborhoods which,
with more than 100,000 inhabitants per square kilometer, constitute
severe outbreaks of the epidemic; cholera in 1832 claimed 32,000
victims. In 1848, the final destination of 80% of the dead is a mass
grave, and two-thirds of Parisians are too poor to pay taxes. The
impoverished mass of the people, neglected and worn out, are in the
ideal climate for repeated revolts that the government can neither
predict nor overcome: the barricades first cause the fall of Charles
X during the Revolutions of 1830 and then that of Louis-Philippe in
1848. The society of the time is abundantly described by Balzac,
Victor Hugo and Eugène Sue.
During this period, the city accelerated its growth rate until
reaching the Mur des Fermiers Généraux. Between 1840 and 1844,
the last wall of Paris, called Enceinte de Thiers, was built on the
current site of the boulevard périphérique. In the heart of the city,
Rue Rambuteau is open.
With the arrival of the Second Empire, Paris was radically
transformed. From a city with a medieval structure, old and
unhealthy buildings, and practically devoid of major traffic routes, it
became a modern city in less than twenty years. Napoleon III had
precise ideas about urbanism and housing. The Paris of today is
therefore, above all, the city of Napoleon III and Haussmann, who
was hired to remodel the city, opening several new streets, axes and
boulevards, as well as new open spaces and monuments. In this way,
Paris acquired a new urban layout.
A typical Haussmannian building
On January 1, 1860, a law allowed Paris to annex several neighboring
communes. The French capital thus goes from twelve to twenty
arrondissements and from 3,438 to 7,802 hectares. After these
annexations, the city's administrative limits will be modified no more
than slightly, and urban growth, which continues uninterrupted from
the end of the 19th century until the 20th century, will not be
accompanied by a similar expansion of the commune's borders, which
will lead to gave rise to the "suburbs".
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Paris is besieged for
several months but is not taken by the Prussian armies. On that
occasion, air mail was invented, thanks to mail balloons. Refusing the
armistice signed on January 26, 1871 and following the February
elections which brought monarchists to power eager to put an end to
the war, Parisians rose up on March 18, 1871. It was the beginning of
the Paris Commune. The monarchist Assembly provisionally installed
in Versailles fought against the Commune between the 22nd and
28th of May, in what was called Bloody Week. This remains to this
day as the last civil war that Paris would know.
From Belle Époque to World War II
Universal Exhibition of 1889
During the Belle Époque, Paris' economic expansion is significant; in
1913 the city had one hundred thousand companies employing one
million workers. Between 1900 and 1913, 175 cinemas were created in
Paris, numerous department stores were created and contributed to
the growth of the city of light. Two universal exhibitions leave a big
mark on the city. The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 Universal
Exhibition (centenary of the French Revolution) which welcomed 28
million visitors. The first line of the Paris Metro, the Grand Palais,
the Petit Palais and the Pont Alexandre III are inaugurated on the
occasion of the 1900 Exhibition, which receives fifty-three million
visitors.[18] Industry progressively moves to nearby suburbs where
more space is available: Renault to Boulogne-Billancourt or Citroën to
Suresnes. This migration is the origin of the "banlieue rouge".
However, certain activities remain strongly implanted within the city
intra-walls, in particular the press and publishing.
From the Belle Époque to the Crazy Years, Paris is at the height of
its cultural influence (notably around the Montparnasse and
Montmartre neighborhoods) and is home to many artists such as
Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Fernand Léger.
Adolf Hitler and his generals with the Eiffel Tower in the
background, after the Battle of France during World War II
In 1910, the Great Flood of the Seine caused one of the most
serious floods the city would experience and caused three billion
francs in damage. During the First World War, Paris, spared from
direct combat, suffered German bombing and cannon fire. These
bombings are sporadic and constitute nothing more than a
psychological operation.
The Interwars unfolded against a background of social and economic
crisis. The public authorities, in response to the housing crisis, voted
the Loucheur Law, which created the Habitation à Bon Marché
(HBM, social housing) erected in the place of the old Thiers
enceinte. The other Parisian properties are essentially dilapidated
and constitute hotbeds of tuberculosis; urban density peaked in
1921, with Paris within the walls having 2,906,000 inhabitants. At
the same time, subdivisions develop everywhere around the city, in
"banlieues" where expansion takes place in an anarchic way, often in
open fields without organization and without public services.
Parisians are trying to regain their political pre-eminence in a
context of multiple financial scandals and corruption in political
circles. On February 6, 1934, the demonstration of the Patriotic
Youths against the parliamentary left degenerated into violence and
left seventeen dead and one thousand one hundred and five injured,
which was followed on July 14, 1935, by an important demonstration
in favor of Popular Front has five hundred thousand protesters.
French Resistance troops commanded by Gen. Charles de Gaulle at
the Arc de Triomphe after the liberation of Paris on August 26,
1944 during the Second World War, Paris, declared an open city
since the Battle of France, is occupied by the Wehrmacht in June
14, 1940. She is relatively spared. Marshal Pétain's government
settles in Vichy, and Paris ceases to be the capital and becomes the
headquarters of the German military command in France
(Militärbefehlshaber in Frankreich). On December 23, 1940,
engineer Jacques Bonsergent is the first member of the Resistance
to be shot in Paris. On July 16 and 17, 1942, Rafle du Vélodrome
d'Hiver, or Vel d'Hiv, seized 12,884 Jews, the most massive in
France, the majority of whom were women and children.
As allied troops approached, the French Resistance launched an
armed insurrection on August 19, 1944. The Liberation of Paris took
place on August 25 with the entry into Paris of General Leclerc's
2nd armored division, commanded by Captain Raymond Dronne. to
pierce the enemy lines with his ninth company (Régiment de marche
du Tchad). General von Choltitz capitulates without carrying out
Hitler's orders demanding the destruction of the city. The city is
relatively spared from fighting. Paris is one of the rare communes in
France to be awarded the title of Compagnon de la Libération
(Companion of Liberation).
Contemporary Paris In 1956, Paris was linked to Rome by a privileged
bond, a strong symbol of the dynamics of reconciliation and
cooperation after the Second World War.
Under General de Gaulle's rule from 1958 to 1969, several political
events unfolded in the capital. On October 17, 1961, a demonstration
in favor of Algerian independence was violently repressed. According
to estimates, between 32 and 325 people were massacred by the
police, then led by Maurice Papon. From March 22, 1968, an
important student movement emerged at the University of
Nanterre. Upon arriving at the Latin Quarter, the demonstrations
degenerated into violence. The contestation, taking shape in a
context of international solidarity and emulation (American blacks
and feminists, the Dutch Provos, the Prague Spring, the attack
against the German Rudi Dutschke, etc.) between idealists and young
people, driven by Bob Dylan and his song The Times They Are a-
Changin', wishing to "change the world", quickly develops into a
national political and social crisis. On May 13, a huge popular march
brought together 800,000 people in protest against police violence.
On May 30, a demonstration in support of the government and
General de Gaulle brings together a million people, from Place de
l'Étoile to Place de la Concorde. After two months of disorder and
turmoil, Parisians vote massively in favor of General de Gaulle in the
legislative elections and calm returns.
General de Gaulle's successor, Georges Pompidou, takes a close
interest in the capital. He lent his name to the building that houses
the musée national d'Art moderne, the bibliothèque publique
d'information and the right bank expressway. Valéry Giscard
d'Estaing, president during his term, does not share his vision of
radical modernization: he called into question the project planned
for the Halles and partially interrupts the expressway project. In
1976, the State allowed the capital to have autonomy in the council
for the first time since 1871. Gaullist Jacques Chirac is then elected
mayor. He will be re-elected in 1983 and 1989. Under the first term
of President François Mitterrand, a reform is adopted by the
decentralization law of December 31, 1982: it gives each
arrondissement of the capital its own mayor and municipal council
and no longer appointed by the mayor of Paris. In 1991, the Seine
quays, from Pont Sully to Pont d'Iéna, were placed on UNESCO's list
of World Heritage Sites as a notable river-urban complex with its
various monuments which constitute masterpieces of architecture
and of reason. Elected President of the Republic in May 1995,
Jacques Chirac is replaced by Jean Tiberi whose only mandate is
notably marked by the exposure of several corruption scandals and
the division of the majority of the council.
In 2001, socialist Bertrand Delanoë was elected mayor. He stands
out from his predecessors for his public desire to reduce automobile
space in the city for the benefit of pedestrians and public transport.
He develops the animation of Parisian life through major cultural
events such as Nuit Blanche or simply playful ones such as Paris-
Plage. On March 16, 2008, Bertrand Delanoë is re-elected mayor of
Paris against Françoise de Panafieu (UMP).
In November 2005, France found itself agitated by social conflicts,
the trigger for which was racial differences. Large popular riots
occurred in the country, including in Paris and its suburbs: they were
affected by disorder and burning of cars at night, in the episode
that became known as Autumn 2005.
The political and intellectual capital of France, Paris is the seat of
the government, the main administrations, an archbishopric, a
University (which brings together a third of French students),
several museums and libraries. It is, moreover, the main industrial
and commercial center in France, thanks to the importance of the
consumer market, the convergence of communication routes and the
concentration of capital.
Paris is the headquarters of the international organizations
UNESCO, OECD and the International Chamber of Commerce.
PARIS CINEMA:
The film industry was born in Paris when Auguste and Louis Lumière
screened the first film for a paying audience at the Grand Café on
December 28, 1895. Many of Paris's concert/dance halls were
transformed into cinemas when this type of media became popular.
from the 1930s. Later, most of the largest cinemas were divided
into several smaller theaters. The largest cinema in Paris today is at
the Grand Rex theater, with 2,700 seats.
Large multiplex cinemas have been built since the 1990s. The UGC
Ciné Cité Les Halles with 27 screens, the MK2 Bibliothèque with 20
screens and the UGC Ciné Cité Bercy with 18 screens are among the
largest.
Parisians tend to share the same cinema trends as many of the
world's global cities, with cinemas dominated mainly by Hollywoodgenerated
entertainment. French cinema comes in second place, with
great directors (réalisateurs), such as Claude Lelouch, Jean-Luc
Godard and Luc Besson, and the most popular genre, with director
Claude Zidi as an example. European and Asian films are also widely
shown and appreciated. On February 2, 2000, Philippe Binant held
the first digital cinema projection in Europe, with the DLP CINEMA
technology developed by Texas Instruments, in Paris.
OPERA, THEATER AND SHOW HALLS:
The Opera Garnier
The largest opera houses in Paris are the 19th-century Opéra
Garnier (historic Paris National Opera) and the modern Opéra
Bastille; the former tends towards more classical ballets and operas,
while the latter provides a mixed classical and modern repertoire. In
the mid-19th century, there were three other active and competing
opera houses: the Ópera-Comique (which still exists), the Théâtre-
Italien and the Théâtre Lyrique (which in modern times changed its
profile and name to Théâtre de la Ville) . The Philharmonie de Paris,
Paris' modern symphony concert hall, opened in January 2015.
Theater traditionally occupies a large place in Parisian culture, and
many of its most popular actors today are also French television
stars. The oldest and most famous theater in Paris is the Comédie-
Française, founded in 1680. Run by the government of France, it
presents mainly French classics in the Salle Richelieu in the Palais-
Royal, at 2 rue de Richelieu, next to the Louvre. Other famous
theaters include the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe, next to the
Luxembourg Gardens, also a state institution and a theatrical
landmark; the Théâtre Mogador and the Théâtre de la Gaîté-
Montparnasse.
CULTURE AND ARCHITECTURE:
The most famous monuments in Paris date back to different eras,
often found in the center or on the banks of the Seine. The Seine
quays between Pont de Sully and Pont de Bir-Hakeim constitute one
of the most beautiful urban river landscapes and are part of the
UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are, to the east and west:
Notre-Dame, the Louvre, the Invalides, the Alexandre III Bridge,
the Grand Palais, the Quai Branly Museum, the Eiffel Tower and the
Trocadéro. Several classical-style monuments also leave their mark
in the center of Paris. The Sorbonne chapel in the heart of the Latin
Quarter was built at the beginning of the 17th century. The Louvre,
the residence of royalty, was beautified in the 17th century and
retouched many more times since then. The Hôtel des Invalides,
with its famous golden dome, was erected at the end of the 17th
century on the outskirts of the city by Louis XIV, who was eager to
provide a hospital for wounded soldiers. The monument has housed
Napoleon Bonaparte's ashes since December 15, 1840 and also his
tomb since April 2, 1861. 19th century heritage is very abundant in
Paris, namely the Arc de Triomphe, the covered promenades, the
Palace Garnier (built from the end of the Second Empire to the
beginning of the Third Republic and housing the Paris Opera) and the
Eiffel Tower (a "provisional" construction erected by Gustave Eiffel
for the 1889 Universal Exhibition, but which was never dismantled ).
The tower became the emblem of Paris, visible from most of the
city's neighborhoods and even nearby suburbs. Throughout the 20th
century, the best architects sowed the streets of Paris with their
achievements: Guimard, Charles Plumette, and Jules Lavirotte, true
references of Art nouveau in France, followed by the achievements
of Robert Mallet-Stevens, Michel Roux-Spitz, Dudok, Henri Sauvage,
Le Corbusier, Auguste Perret, among others, during the interwar
period.
Contemporary architecture is represented in Paris by the Center
Georges Pompidou, a building from the 1970s that houses the
National Museum of Modern Art as well as the Public Information
Library. No less important are the achievements designed by
President François Mitterrand: the National Library of France, the
Opera Bastille and, probably the most famous, the Louvre Pyramid,
the work of architect Ieoh Ming Pei erected in the main courtyard
of the Louvre. More recently, the Quai Branly Museum, or Museum
of Arts and Civilizations of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas
designed by Jean Nouvel and opened in 2006, further enriched the
capital's architectural and cultural diversity.
I want to thank you for this work prescribed here as a very familiar
example of a great people who have always dedicated themselves to
popular culture and I want to say that we are well acquainted with
the finest nature and I see that it makes us look for the true reason
for knowing much better the life and the ancient world and I want to
wish everyone this wonderful story in which it portrays us about
several romantic songs of very deep love about a past that was stuck
in time and that still reveals to us today and shows us the simple
reason why we know much better about close to beautiful old stories
that today we will find an answer to your questions and that can
make us know their unforgettable value up close and I want to say
here at the end with lots of love and affection to all my listeners
wherever they are, be it me, you or whoever it is, the world will
always be the same as always because what changes is our ways of
thinking and that life is an endless resonance and that we must
always go back to the old time that perhaps it can and wants to tell
us that life has always been a simple reaction and revelation that
made us seek, above all the certainties and uncertainties, the pure
and hard notion that made man stop in time when he was undecided
about life and its nature that made him recognize himself through
time and teach him about the emptiness of death to get to know life
better up close and that ancient times had always kept us fuller and
more adapted to a simple notion of facing ourselves and
understanding life better and it is said that science made man on
ancient times and that today man can govern and make life the best
disciplines for living, only by knowing life much better and conserving
over time that he can be in a great relationship with nature that is
limited to a circuit in the life of space and time. Here, with much
deep love, I want to thank all my dear friends who are always
enjoying here, in this climate of peace and love, the best
international romantic songs that make us look for the present, past
and future of a new and unforgettable generation that always will
show us with more affection and dedication the best tests of living
and holding back on the more than dreamed of educations and
lessons that have always been stories in the life of man on earth and
I want to wish here to all my dear friends, from friends to friends a
unforgettable strong hug from writer and radio host Roberto
Barros. Hugs and have a good day!
By: Roberto Barros