muffya
Junior Member
Posts: 84
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Post by muffya on Jul 13, 2007 19:52:33 GMT -5
maybe I'll pick up a rotiserie chicken, and really make us feel that we are in Paris!! I remember when I was at club med on Bastille day and we reinacted the storming of the bastille on the beach. Now, that was fun!
Viva La France!!!
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Post by arrowcapet on Jul 14, 2007 9:53:23 GMT -5
Ah, Truffaut, you bring up and interesting topic: The "cleaning-up" of some of these dirty buildings and monuments. Paris has changed a lot, IMO, since I first started going there in 1984, but nothing stands out quite as much as the clean-up job that's been done on many historic landmarks and buildings. Forget about the Pyramid changing the face of the Louvre...those who had an opportunity to see it before the massive effort to sandblast the exterior in the 80's and 90's can't quite imagine what it looked like. As a young man, I was not yet savvy enough to realize that the Louvre was anything other than black...and the change from it's black facade to that of blazing sand-colored stone is one of the most remarkable transformations I've seen in the city.
In some ways, however, my feelings on all that are a bit conflicted. On one hand, the restoration of these places to there original beauty and splendor are so important to the physical preservation of the structure, as well as to their historical significance for future generations to learn and remember, and I value and appreciate that, as great study and lover of French history, more than just about anything. On the other hand, however, in general, I am a very nostalgic person, and since my first trips to Paris were at a time when both I, and the city, were going through some remarkable changes, I still get a little weepy for those days when Paris was just a nasty, polluted, blackened mess, the Metro wasn't too crowded (but was littered with cigarette butts and filled with the smell and haze of Gauloises), Francs with still accepted, and St. Denis was still a sleepy little place that no one had ever heard of.
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Post by luckyluc on Jul 16, 2007 3:22:49 GMT -5
Ah Monsieur Capet, Tous en coeur: Je vous parles d'un temps que les moins de vingts ans....
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Let the riot begin! LOL - 
hahahha