by John Baxter
Fête du Travail, La, 119
“Feuilles mortes, Les” (dead leaves), 262
“Feuilles mortes, Les,” or “the dead leaves,” (Prévert), 110
fèves (ceramic figures in galettes), 237–38
filmmakers, 32, 37–38, 233, 269, 277, 279
First Empire, 186
First Estate (church), 2
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 109
Fitzgerald, Zelda, 204–5
Floréal, 119, 133, 214–15, 217
Fokine, Michel, 204, 206
Folies Bergère de Paris, 145
food:
seasonality and, 20, 23, 250–52, 285
shopping for, in Paris vs. New York, 250–52
Foucault, Léon, pendulum of, 61–63, 62, 120, 211, 292
Foucault’s Pendulum (Eco), 59, 61
franc, adoption of, 71
Franco-Prussian War, 160, 197–98
Free French government, 208
Freud, Sigmund, 264
Frimaire, 119, 181
Fructidor, 46, 119
Gaillot, Jacques, 232–33
galette des rois (kings’ cake), 237
Galileo, 62
Gallant, Mavis, 137–39, 140
Gamay grapes, 108, 115
Garbo, Greta, 245–48, 247, 256
Gaulle, Charles de, 75, 208–9, 225, 275, 277
Gee, Oliver, 175–78
geese, 182–83
Gehry, Frank, 32–34, 33
Gelenter, Terrance, 265–68, 267, 274
Germinal, 119, 201
Germinal (Zola), 262
Giscard d’Estaing, Valéry, 44–45, 256
Godin-Lesage, Marie Nicole, 94
“God Save the Queen,” 25
Goering, Hermann, 279
Goodman, Benny, 282
Gopnik, Adam, 26
graffiti artists, 161
Grand Palais (Great Palace), 28, 98–99
Grandpré, Adrian de, 47, 231–34
Grant, Cary, 11, 32
grape harvest, or vendange, 108, 119
Great Barrier Reef, 37, 39
Great Gatsby, The (Fitzgerald), 21
Gréco, Juliette, 271
Greene, Graham, 270
Gregorian calendar, 77, 105, 118, 127–28
farmers relationship to church and, 181–82
naming of children and, 129
reintroduction of, 186
transposing dates between Calendrier républicain and, 185
Gregory XIII, Pope, 77, 105
Greuze, Jean-Baptiste, 141–42
grunion, 121
Guillaume de Lorris, 209
guillotine, 69, 73, 75, 76, 106, 142, 154, 164, 168, 169, 195
Guimard, Hector, 230
Guyton de Morveau, Louis-Bernard, 77
haiku, 102–4
Halles, Les, 283
Hanin, Roger, 211
Harburg, E. Y. “Yip,” 122–24, 125
Hardy, Thomas, 258–59
Harlem Hellfighters, 206
Harris, Rolf, 24
harvests, 119, 182, 185, 216, 254, 259, 262, 282
Beaujolais nouveau and, 108, 114–15
first day of Republican year and, 107–8
haussement d’épaules, un, 100
Hawn, Goldie, 32
Hemingway, Ernest, 4, 140, 160
Hemingway, Hadley, 140
Hemingway, Pauline, 160
Henry IV, 18, 34
Henry V (Shakespeare), 216
Henry VIII, king of England, 150
Hepburn, Audrey, 32
Heraclitus, 104
Hitchcock, Alfred, 11, 140, 243
Hitler, Adolf, 275, 276, 279
HLMs (habitation à loyer modéré), 220
holidays, 65–67
in Calendrier républicain, 119–20, 182–85
traditional religious feasts, 182
“Home-Thoughts” (Browning), 126
Honest Man’s Almanac (Maréchal), 107
Hornick, Neil, and the Sidewalkers, 149
Hôtel des Invalides, 75
hot weather, 13–14, 15, 136–40
Houellebecq, Michel, 87–88, 90
houseboats on the Seine, 30, 55
Hugo, Victor, 60, 150, 197
hunting, 67, 69
hurricanes, 53–57
driving to Richebourg during, 54–57
medieval engraving of, 56
Hurricane Xynthia, 136
Île aux Juifs (Jews’ Island), 35
Île de la Cité, 16–21, 17, 34, 53–54
Île de Ré, 85–90
“Il pleut, bergère” (It’s raining, shepherdess), 95–96, 168, 292
impressionists, 104
L’Inconnue de la Seine, or the Unknown Girl of the Seine, 35
“In My Craft or Sullen Art” (Thomas), 270
Inquisition, 62
Isaure, Clémence, 82, 95, 110–11
Jacobins, 143
Jacques, Saint, festival of, 227–34, 232
Jardin du Roi (Royal Garden), 130–32
Jardins du Luxembourg, 91, 110–11, 112, 151, 159, 163
Jaurès, Jean, 211
java (jigging dance), 140
jazz, 270–71, 276, 279
Jefferies, Richard, 187
Jefferson, Thomas, 132
John of Austria, Don, 162
Johnson, Diane, 13
Johnston, George, 44
Jude, Saint, 233
Jung, Karl, 264
kangaroos, 243–44, 246
Keats, John, 259–60
Kelly, Gene, 32, 145
Kelly, Grace, 11
Khan, Yaseen, 110, 111, 116
Kipling, Rudyard, 208
Knights Templar, 35
Kolberg, 279
Kosma, Joseph, 262
Laerdal, Asmund, 35
Lafayette, Marquis de, 83
Lafitte, Louis, 154–57, 158, 181, 215, 259, 260
La Fontaine, Jean de, 291–92
Lagrange, Louis, 77–78
Lang, Jack, 50, 211
Lange, Jessica, 236
La Pallice submarine base, 277, 281
Larche, François-Raoul, 100–102, 102, 104
La Rochelle, Nazi occupation of, 276–82, 278
Last Tango in Paris, 32
Laure et Pétrarque, 95
Lawrence, T. E., 7
Leda and the swan, 157, 158
Lefrançois de Lalande, Joseph Jérôme, 77
legal system, 186
Le Havre, 17–18
Leigh, Vivien, 151
Leopold II of Belgium, 99
“Lepanto” (Chesterton), 162–63
liberation of Paris (1944), 208
Life of Pi, 174
lily of the valley, 215
literary walks, 241–42
Litscher, Hans Peter, and his Litscheriade, 242–48, 243
London Times, 185
Lost Generation, 228
Louis XIV, 207, 210
Louis XVI, xvi, 18, 68–69, 76, 82, 96–97, 166
Louvre, 28, 180
Lucas, George, 48
Lunceford, Jimmie, 279
Luxembourg Garden, see Jardins de Luxembourg
lycée system, 186
“Lydia the Tattooed Lady,” 122, 124
Macbeth (Shakespeare), 256
MacLeish, Archibald, 4
Mah, Ann, 285
Maison Maire, 218
Mallory, George, 7
Malraux, André, 275
Manceron, Claude, 211
Manhattan, author’s visit to, 249–52
Marais, 176–77, 272–74
Marat, Jean-Paul, 143–44, 164, 291
Marceau, Marcel, 235
Maréchal, Pierre-Sylvain, 107
Marianne (spirit of the revolution), 155
Marie Antoinette, 68, 69, 76, 96, 164, 210
markets, business hours of, 67
Marlowe, Christopher, 92
Marseillaise, 71, 73, 94
Martinmas, 182
, 185
May, disasters that took place in, 216–17
May Day, 216, 219
Mazet-Delpeuch, Danièle, 257
measurement systems:
metric, 106–7
physical circumstances and, 49
Méditerranée, La, 286–87
“Mer, La” (the sea), 262–63
Messidor, 119, 259, 260
“Messidor” (Miaux), 282
Métivet, Lucien, 217
metric system, 154
Calendrier républicain and, 106–7, 117
Miaux, Albert, 281–82
Michaelmas, 182–84, 184
Michel, Louise, 225
Midnight in Paris, 269
Miller, Henry, 161, 269
mimes, 235–38, 239
Minosuke, Yamada, 100–104
Mirror, The (Delvaux), 192, 193
Misérables, Les (Hugo), 197
Mistral, 236–39, 239, 240
Mitchell, David, 24
Mittelberg, Louis, 51
Mitterand, François, 208–9, 210–13, 212, 253, 254, 256–57
Moati, Serge, 211
Molay, Jacques de, 35
Molière, 80, 92
Monet, Claude, 104
Monge, Gaspard, 77
Monk, Thelonious, 271
Montagnards, 143
Montaud, Yves, 18–19
Montel, Marie-Dominique (wife), 2, 17, 22, 43–44, 47, 54–55, 60, 61, 63, 64–67, 84–87, 90, 170, 177, 223, 229, 277, 281, 290–91
month names, in Republican calendar, 118–19, 201, 263
Montmartre, 112–16, 179, 197–98, 228–31, 269
moue (pronunciation), 99, 100
Moulin, Jean, 60, 211
muguet (lily of the valley), 215
Munich, 32
Musée de Luxembourg, 111–12
Musée d’Orsay, 99
Nadja (Breton), 19, 20
Name of the Rose, The (Eco), 40–41
naming of children, 129, 134, 199
Napoléon Bonaparte, xvi, 1, 50, 75, 134, 171, 179, 180, 185–86, 198, 216, 217, 279
Napoléon III, Emperor, 64
National Guard, 95
Neuilly, childbirthing facility in, 64–65
Newby, Eric, 8
“New York minute,” 49
nightwalkers, see noctambules
Nijinsky, Vaslav, 200, 203, 204, 206
Nin, Anaïs, 30
Nivôse, 119, 133–34
noctambules (nightwalkers), 268–74
jazz and, 270–71
Paris inconvenient for, 269–70
sex clubs and, 272–74
Notre Dame, 18
Notre Dame de Paris (Hugo), 150
Nuit des Rois (Night of Kings), 237
occupation (1940–44):
of Paris, 171, 208, 275–76, 277
of southwest France, 276–82, 278
Occupation (1940–1945): Siège de La Rochelle (Miaux), 280–82
O’Day, Bob and Deidre, 227–31
Opéra, 28
Orangerie, 112
Orchestre de Paris, 211
Orczy, Baroness, 165, 195–97
ortolans, 257
Paine, Thomas, 166
Palais de Justice, 18, 21
Panthéon, 60–63
Foucault’s pendulum at, 61–63, 62, 211
Mitterand at, 210–13, 212
Parade, 206
“Paris at Night” (Prévert), 272
“Paris au mois d’août,” or “Paris in the Month of August,” 13–14
Paris plage (Paris beach), 170
Parker, Charlie “Bird,” 271
Parker, Dorothy, 125–26, 210
past:
French deeply respectful of, 26
French penchant for dwelling in, 49–50
patrimoine, le (“the heritage”—the accumulated glory of France), 26, 32
Péret, Benjamin, 218
Périphérique (ring road enclosing Paris), 55–56
Persian unit of distance, 49
Pétain, Marshal Philippe, 276
Peter, Paul and Mary, 227
Petit Palais (Little Palace), 98–99
pet shops, 177
phantom of the Opéra, legend of, 28
Piaf, Édith, 149, 150
Picasso, Pablo, 206
Picpus convent, 73, 179, 218
pigs, butchering of, 185
pilgrimages, 85
Pingré, Alexandre Guy, 77
Piscine Deligny, 171–73, 172
Piscine Molitor, 173–74, 174
piscines (swimming pools), 170–74, 172, 174
Place Dauphine, 18–20, 53–54
Place de la Concorde (formerly Place de la Révolution), 43, 45, 164, 168, 171
Place des Abbesses, 230
Place Saint-Sulpice, 159, 163
Platform (Houellebecq), 87–88, 90
Pluviôse, 119, 146, 181
politics, showmanship in, 207–13
Pompidou, Georges, 254
Pont Alexandre III, 159
Pont d’Alma, 27, 29
Pont de Bir-Hakeim, 32
Pont des Arts, 31
Pont d’Iéna, 55
Pont du Garigliano, Calle and Gehry’s phone booth on, 32–34, 33
Pont Neuf, 19, 34–35, 170
Eleanore, the crocodile of, 177–78
Poulenc, Francis, 206
Prairial, 119, 157
Préjean, Albert, 149
Prévert, Jacques, 110, 262, 272, 274
“Prima Belladonna” (Ballard), 191
Prin, Alice (aka Kiki), 218
Prix de Rome, 154–55
Proud Fool, The (Fabre), 142
Proudhon, Sophie, 93
Proust, Marcel, 11, 171, 244
Queen Charlotte’s Ball, 69
Raiders of the Lost Ark, 277
rain, 145–47, 151–52
“Singin’ in the Rain” and, 145, 146–47
see also storms
Ray, Man, 159–60, 161, 218, 222
Reagan, Ronald, 8
Réard, Louis, 173
Rear Window, 140
Récamier, Juliette, 215
Reformation, 118
Republican calendar, see Calendrier républicain
Resistance, 209, 211, 277
restaurants, seasonality and supplies delivered to, 20
Resusci Anne, 35
revolution of 1789, 2, 61, 68–69, 71–75, 94, 97, 120, 180, 198, 216, 225
achievements of, 71–72
burials after, 179–80
calendar reform and, see Calendrier républicain
Catholic clergy imprisoned in, 117–18
date reset after, 76
ended by Napoléon’s coup, 185–86
fears of invasion by Catholic Austria and Italy after, 117
gory aftermath of, 72–73, 74, 75, 76, 117–18, 164–69
later uprisings and, 197–98
mocked by Fabre, 142
novels, plays, and musical works inspired by, 194–97
storming of Bastille in, 68, 73, 207–8
Revue Nègre, 205
Reynolds, Debbie, 145
Richebourg, Île-de-France:
checking on in-laws’ house in, during storm, 54–57
Christmas Day in, 1–3, 6–9
rural decline and, 6–7
Rictus, Jehan, 150
Rimbaud, Arthur, 160–62, 163
Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai, 203
Robespierre, Maximilien de, 73, 74, 75, 76, 78, 82, 142, 143, 144, 165, 186, 217, 218, 264
burial of, 180
the Terror and, 165, 167, 168–69
“Roman de la rose,” or “The Romance of the Rose” (Guillaume de Lorris), 209
Romme, Charles-Gilbert, 78, 143, 180
rose:
Floréal associated with, 214–15
golden, as Fabre’s emblem, 80–82, 81, 95, 111, 210, 214
Mitterand’s use of symbology of, 209, 210–13, 212, 254
&
nbsp; as symbol of love, 209–10
Rouch, Jean, 38, 41
Rouget de Lisle, Claude Joseph, 94
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 60, 132
rue de l’Odéon, 73–75, 106, 155, 289
rue Férou, 159–61
rural decline, 6–7
Ruskin, John, 263–64
Russian Revolution, 73
Sacre du printemps, Le (The Rite of Spring), 201–6, 202
Sade, Marquis de, 166, 190, 192
Sagan, Françoise, 284
Sainte-Chapelle, 18, 21
Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de, 60, 253
Saint-Gerrmain-des Prés, 110, 111
Saint-Just, Louis de, 165, 180
Saint-Sulpice, Church of, 58
sanitation, 20, 43
sans-culottes, les (those without pants), 82, 106, 119
Sardou, Victorien, 218
Sartre, Jean-Paul, 271
Scarlet Pimpernel (Orczy), 165, 194, 195–97
Schama, Simon, 80, 82
Schmidt, Tobias, 75
Schneider, Maria, 32
Schoelcher, Victor, 211
Schultz-Köhn, Dietrich, 276, 282
science fiction, 187–92, 236, 270
Scott, Robert Falcon, 7
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), 265–68
seasonality:
art of living in France and, 283–86
food and, 20, 23, 250–52, 285
and symbolism of nature in works of poets, musicians, and artists, 258–64
seawater, thalassotherapy and, 84–90
Second Estate (aristocracy), 2
Seine, 27–35, 116, 235
bateaux mouches (excursion boats) on, 32, 55
bridges over, 31–35
crocodile living in, 177–78
floodwaters of, 27–31, 29
houseboats on, 30, 55
island in, see Île de la Cité
Paris plage (Paris beach) along bank of, 170
piscines (swimming pools) in, 170–74, 172, 174
upstream, unconfined by stone walls, 30
sex clubs, 272–74
Shakespeare, William, 92, 215, 216, 256
Shakespeare & Company, 31
Shaw, Irwin, 286–87
Sidewalks of London (also known as Saint Martin’s Lane), 151
Sieyès, Abbé, 2
Simon, Louis-Victor, 95
“Singin’ in the Rain,” 145, 146–47
Sirius, the Dog Star, 14
“Six White Boomers,” 24
skiing season, 65–66, 67
Slate, 137–39
snails, gathering and cooking, 22–23
social acceptance in France, 44–47
socialists, 210, 216
Socrates, 285
solar calendar, proposed by Comte, 198–99
Something Wholesale (Newby), 8
Soupault, Philippe, 269
Souris Verte, La, or The Green Mouse, 112–14, 113, 116
Sous les toits de Paris, or Under the Roofs of Paris, 149
Southern, Ann, 145
Soviet Russia, calendar reform in, 199
Spectre de la rose, Le, 200, 203, 204
Spielberg, Steven, 32, 192
spring, arrival of, 200–201
