If you could go back in time in Paris...

[parisianfields]

I had a dream a week or so ago, in which I found myself in the Paris of about 100 years ago. When my dreaming self realized that I was really travelling in time, I wondered how best to use the experience.

Where should I go? What should I see?

Here's my own answer to my question: parisianfields.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/in-search-of-lost-time/

Where would YOU go if you found yourself in the past? And which period would you most want to visit?

[keith7198]

Someone had a "Midnight in Paris moment! Well...kinda. You know what I mean!

[Happygoin]

I would love to have lived through the 1920's and 30's in Paris. I often read history and culture books about Paris during different times, and I often think I'd LOVE to have been a part of the music, fun and general loosey-goosey times in Paris then.

(Not that I'M loosey-goosey, you understand )


I just read a book, published in the 30's, called Paris With The Lid Lifted. It's advertised to be an Ooh-La-La version of Paris for people traveling there, who want to see the naughty side of the city. I laughed out loud reading it because it's so TAME today! It's really a dating manual for men, and how to pick up women (birds) in Paris. Sexist and silly, but funny.

[Sandy M]

Jul 13, 2012 12:02:07 GMT -5 Happygoin said:

I would love to have lived through the 1920's and 30's in Paris. I often read history and culture books about Paris during different times, and I often think I'd LOVE to have been a part of the music, fun and general loosey-goosey times in Paris then.

(Not that I'M loosey-goosey, you understand )

I'm with you - when I see pictures of Paris from that era I try to imagine what it would be like to have been around at that time!

[sunshine817]

I think I'd go a little further -- back to the height of the Impressionist movement...to get the chance to even glimpse Monet or Van Gogh or Renoir at work.....*swoon*

If I could really get detailed, I'd be able to find the Paris doctor who built our house as their summer house....I'd love to know about him and his family...and to see this house when it was first built and in all its glory.

[Happygoin]

What a cool thing that would be, about your house Sunshine. I can attest to the fact that it's OLD. You've probably told me, but I forget. When was it built?

I also wonder, when the Impressionists were alive, would you have to have the advantage of hindsight to know they were great? Did people know then what great artists they were?

I can also tell you that one period of time I'd have hated to live through was the time of the French Revolution. We see movies that glamorize things, dresses, palaces, feasts etc. The truth is a bit more low-brow. Paris was a filthy place to be. There was no sanitation and foodborne illness was rampant. Our beloved Paris absolutely stank!

And neighbors turned in neighbors for the teeniest slight, and their neighbors were guillotined with no trial. Sheesh, I'd be terrified I'd tick off my neighbor innocently and before I knew it...it would be OFF WITH HER HEAD! All in all, I'll stick with the 20's and 30's.

[sunshine817]

The best guess is somewhere around 1870, give or take. They're not positive, because of that little issue of the Franco-Prussian war...our town was one of those occupied by the Prussians, and keeping accurate real-estate records just wasn't much of a priority.

Yes, I'd want to take all my current knowledge with me, of course, about the impressioninsts and everything else....otherwise it wouldn't be so much time travel as it would be a tragic Jane Doe case --

[Happygoin]

...probably involving a stalking charge

[cigalechanta]

I'd hang out with Colette at her opium dens and weird friends