Charles Marville, photographer of old Paris.

 Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris (artsandculturetx.com)

Beginning in 1852 and continuing for more than two decades, the French emperor Napoleon III, along with his apparatchik—Baron Haussmann, the Prefect of the Seine—embarked on a massive public works program to regularize and sanitize the medieval agglomeration that was Paris. The best-known aspect of this program was the circulatory network of new, straight boulevards that was surgically inserted into the fabric of the old city. Not for nothing was Haussmann dubbed the “Attila of the straight line” by a contemporary critic.  Commissioned in 1862 as the official photographer of Paris, Charles Marville—the subject of a traveling retrospective making its final stop at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston—had a front-row seat to Napoleon III’s profound transformation of the city.

Charles Marville photo's

Cafe de Flore.

The first post-war surrealists

It was only in the last moments of World War I that Cafe de Flore began to attract artists. Guillaume Apollinaire, in 1917 was the first to install himself next to the heater in the morning and spend the day there. In addition to writing his books, he also brought his friends: André Breton, Paul Réverdy, Louis Aragon and Paul Éluard. While Montparnasse and Montmartre were still the favorite places for artists living in Paris, it is said that it was there at Café de Flore that the “surrealist revolution” began.

The Occupation and Golden Age of Café de Flore

Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone du Beauvoir and Boris Vian and his wife Michelle at Café de Flore

e.

Pablo Picasso at the Café de Flore. Photo by Brassai.

The surrealists ended up deserting in the following years and by the end of the 1930s, in an environment that nobody expected, Cafe de Flore found its new life. Parisian writers and artists have always frequented cafés, not for social life, but mainly to find a more pleasant and warm place than their tiny apartments. 

Installing a larger and more powerful coal-fired heater

It was in 1939 that the new manager of the Café de Flore had the brilliant idea of installing a larger and more powerful coal-fired heater to heat the establishment. This heater not only warmed up the ground floor, but also the first floor, which is much quieter. 

Simone de Beauvoir, who used to go to Dôme in Montparnasse, quickly got used to sitting at one of the dozens of tables on the first floor to work there. The director let her and some other regular customers go all day without consuming too much. 

Because they were less famous at that point, the cafés in Saint-Germain-des-Prés attracted fewer German Wehrmacht officers than the cafés in Montparnasse, so that the writers and thinkers of the time could work there with some peace of mind. On the recommendation of his wife Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre arrived at Café de Flore in 1941. He came from a few months spent in the French army and in a detention camp in Germany.

Café de Flore - The most mythical of Paris' coffee shops | Gastronomos

The Lost Generation; Cafes in Paris | Lindsay (lindsaymagazine.co)

Reading "Chansons".

I am busy reading CHANSONS

And I am walking through Paris through You Tube and Google Earth

PLACE DAUPHINE

                                                  

  Discover Place Dauphine | Paris Insiders Guide

La Place Dauphine Appartementen In Het Centrum van Parijs | Parijs Perfect (parisperfect.com)

CHANSON

52. Il est cinq heures, Paris s'éveille (1968) - Jacques Dutronc | Chanson Klassiekers

FONTAINE MOLIERE

Fontaine Molière: A Little-Known Paris Monument - French Moments

Molière in Paris: 5 Sites in the Footsteps of the Writer - French Moments

RUE RICHELIEU

Rue de Richelieu – Links in Parijs (leftinparis.org)

Parisian Walkways: Rue de Richelieu - France Today

Rue de Richelieu - Wikipedia

LOUVRE

• The First arrondissement is home to one of the most famous monuments in Paris: the Louvre. Mainly located on the Right bank of River Seine, it includes the Tuileries Garden, several historic churches and palaces, upscale squares and the bustling shopping precinct of Les Halles.
• The district of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois is that of the Louvre and the Tuileries. Here, the arts flourish thanks to the presence of several renowned museums, including the Louvre and the Orangerie. It is a district where justice reigned in the Middle Ages and up to our time. Indeed, the Palais de Justice encircles the fabulous Sainte-Chapelle on the Ile de la Cité.
• The district of Les Halles is animated by leisure and commerce. At the foot of Saint-Eustache, the Halles garden covers the Forum des Halles, a vast shopping mall buried on several levels. The garden faces the Bourse du Commerce.
• The district of the Palais-Royal is rich in contrast. It concentrates on activities related to tourism, culture and literature. The Avenue de l’Opéra is lined with travel agencies and hotels. The Comédie française, theatres and the Ministry of Culture frame the gardens of the Palais-Royal. The memory of writers and artists floats in the maze of neighbouring streets.
• The luxury industry and French savoir-vivre characterise the Vendôme district. Jewellers occupy the Place Vendôme and antique dealers line the Rue Saint-Honoré. On the neo-classical square of Place Vendôme, around the Ritz, haute couture and leather goods present the jewels of French design.

BOOKSHOPS

In addition, it boasts a few bookshops, including Librairie Delamain (the oldest bookshop in Paris at number 155 rue Saint-Honoré), Librairie Galignani and the British bookshop WH Smith (Rue de Rivoli). Lastly, you will find the FNAC (one of France’s premier bookshops) in the Westfield Forum des Halles.

De oudste boekhandel van Parijs en La Civette, waar George Sand haar sigaretten kocht

Iconic bookstores.

                                                          Three Lives & Co | Facebook

Three Lives & Company - Home

One of the greatest bookstores on the face of the Earth. Every single person who works there is incredibly knowledgeable and well read and full of soul. You can walk in and ask anybody, really, what they've read lately and they'll tell you something - very likely something you've never heard of. [But] it's always going to be something interesting and fabulous. I go there when I'm feeling depressed and discouraged, and I always feel rejuvenated. - Michael Cunningham, winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Addyman Books (@addymanbooks) • Instagram photos and videos Derek Addyman and Anne Brichto first opened Addyman Books in 1987, in a ten-foot room at the Blue Boar Inn in Hay on Wye. Only six months later success shunted us into larger premises on nearby Lion Street. This rapidly expanded into the well-loved burrow of books that is still to be found there today. In 1997 we opened a bookshop specialising in detective fiction, Murder and Mayhem, just across the road. And five years later, the jewel in the crown of the Addyman triumvirate was opened – The Addyman Annexe. This is the shop that specialises in the sexier material: beat, sex, drugs, art, modern firsts, poetry, philosophy, left wing history and the occasional occult work! Between the three shops an inviting little community has been created for the new visitor to hay as well as our regular customers. As with so many bookshops, much of our business is now conducted on the internet; but the development of e-commerce has been parallel to and not at the expense of our shops. Addyman Books is known for its fair prices, clean and well chosen stock, and a specialization in English literature and modern first editions. The unusual combination of semi-suicidal owners and our lovely members of staff (Paula, our manager, Molly, Simon, Debbie, Ruth, Emma,  Juliet and Christina) makes this one of the most successful and exciting bookshops in Hay. 5 Bookstores Every Bibliophile Should Visit In Paris - Paris Perfect