In a world before budget airlines Paris nudged Bruges as first stop for Brits venturing onto the Continent. My first visit was in , in a sponsored student hitch from Bristol. I can also come up with a couple of short stops in the s, and I was there some time in the s for a conference. Never took to it โ too French. What is Paris, anyway? He reveals just how small the City of Lights actually is:. Venturing beyond tourist hotspots quickly brings you to suburbs and the too often notorious banlieues with their own councils.
The satellite view of Paris displays a homogeneous mass, divided by laterals and diagonals, interspersed by the odd circle:. All this goes some way to explain my issues with the place. And cars, cars, cars. If the empty post-nuclear holocaust feel of central Copenhagen is the way to go, Paris has a problem.
Queuing to take a selfie at the Arc de Triomphe in wedged between four lanes of French drivers may be one explanation for Paris Syndrome. Paris : a city that attracted people dreaming of a better world after World War 1. Among old friends we find Samuel Beckett , James Joyce who arrived in at the invitation of Ezra Pound, supposedly for a week , but ended up living there until his death , Ernest Hemingway whose posthumous Moveable feast has unexpectedly regained popularity โ see Being Human and Peggy Guggenheim.
Update: Inger Christensen also stopped by. The big beast though is polymath Asger Jorn , in town briefly during and working with Le Corbusier on the Pavillon des Temps Nouveaux for the forthcoming World Exposition. Going a step further is Rue Watt , named after Scottish inventor James Watt and in its wrought iron incarnation featuring in a song, a film and two novels. Architecture for me starts with Art Deco.
Le Corbusier may not have achieved a Haussmann-style remake of the city, however his UNESCO recognised Paris traces include Immeuble Molitor , an apartment building conforming to four of his five points of architecture. Initiated in by a team of visionary architects as a modern business district for Paris, its first building is one of its most impressive.
