If we must talk about Paris…

Ah, Paris! (pronounced “pari”)

Instead of stupefying yourself with the drivel saturating the media about that nuisance of a girl who got out of jail, why not talk about the other Paris, the capital of France, instead? It’s so much more interesting and it won’t slowly kill your soul.

Here’s a sprinkling of really random things about Paris that I find interesting:

Paris was named after the Parisii, a Celtic Iron Age people who lived along the Seine River from circa 350 B.C. to the Roman era.

Paris is a culinary mecca. Adolphe Duglere, chef at the famed Cafe Anglais, was known as “the Mozart of the kitchen.” In 1867, he served what was arguably the greatest dinner in European history to Russian czars, now known as “The Dinner of the Three Emperors.” See what was on the menu>> Yummm…

Paris has one of the most remarkable sewer systems in the world, and it even has a museum called Musée des égouts de Paris, or the Paris Sewers Museum so one can learn about its ingenious engineering. C’est très bizarre, non?

Speaking of engineering, Paris is filled with incredible architecture, from to the Notre Dame Cathedral to the Arc de Triomphe.

I once drew the Centre Pompidou, its exposed skeleton of colored pipes and all, (which was said to “turn the architecture world upside down” by the New York Times) as a visual aid for a French class project in high school and it was a bitch. (I wanted the Louvre, but the subject was already taken by a classmate.)

The Louvre was built in 1190 by Philippe Auguste as a fortress to protect the capital from the Anglo-Norman threat. Going through many transformations, part of the chateau became a museum in 1793, and the collections gradually spread through the entire building.

The Eiffel Tower weighs 10,000 tons.

There are about 10,000 books that have been written about Paris.

An 18th century Parisian architect planned to construct a bordello in the shape of a giant phallus (hee hee). Got this from the editorial review of Paris: Capital of the World by Patrice Higonnet.

One of my heroes, Gordon Parks, when he went to Paris on assignment in the 1960’s for Life Magazine, said that it was the first time he could breathe and spread his wings as an artist without being oppressed by racism*

*paraphrased, not a direct quote

As an artist, a man has no home in Europe save in Paris. – Friedrich Nietzsche

Paris is always a good idea – the film “Sabrina” (1954)