THE JONES IN PARIS: BONJOUR À LA VIE EN ROSE

Silvia Jones in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel hall

The Jones are in Paris. They have just arrived to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the French capital and they are resting now and waiting the last news about Eli's searching in Scotland.

The Grandma is very happy to return to Paris, one of the most wonderful cities around the world, a city that she loves deeply and an incredible centre of history and culture. She trusts in Scottish friends and she knows Eli Jones is going to appear because as difficult as life seems, as passion and effort you must offer, in fact, La Vie en Rose.

More information: Mandarin Oriental Hotel

It's difficult for The Grandma choosing between Édith Piaf, Marlene Dietrich, Madonna, Louis Amstrong, Lady Gaga, Céline Dion or Cindy Lauper but, because life is a way of chances, she decides to bet for Cindy Lauper, perhaps this 94-old woman still has a Goonies' spirit inside her heart.

 

 

 Hold me close and hold me fast,

the magic spell you cast.
This is la vie en rose.

Louis Amstrong

Paris is the capital and most populous city in France, with an administrative-limits area of 105 square kilometres and an official population of 2,206,488. The city is a commune and department, and the heart of the 12,012-square-kilometre Île-de-France region. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts.

Cubism in Hogwarts, 2018 / Musée de l'Orangerie

The City of Paris's administrative limits form an East-West oval centred on the island at its historical heart, the Île de la Cité; this island is near the top of an arc of the river Seine that divides the city into southern Rive Gauche and northern Rive Droite regions.

Paris is especially known for its museums and architectural landmarks: the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Musée de l'Orangerie and the Pompidou Centre Musée National d'Art Moderne. The historical district along the Seine in the city centre is classified as a UNESCO Heritage Site. Popular landmarks in the centre of the city include the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris and The Gothic royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, both on the Île de la Cité; the Eiffel Tower, constructed for the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889; the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, built for the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900; the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Élysées, and the Basilica of Sacré-Coeur on the hill of Montmartre.

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The name Paris is derived from its early inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. The city's name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology.

Paris is often referred to as The City of Light (La Ville Lumière), both because of its leading role during the Age of Enlightenment, and more literally because Paris was one of the first European cities to adopt gas street lighting. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps.

French Revolution, 1789-1799

The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. 

One of the area's major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité; this meeting place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town and an important trading centre. 

The Parisii traded with many river towns, some as far away as the Iberian Peninsula, and minted their own coins for that purpose.

The Romans conquered the Paris Basin in 52 BC and, after making the island a garrison camp, began extending their settlement in a more permanent way to Paris's Left Bank. The Gallo-Roman town was originally called Lutetia. It became a prosperous city with a forum, baths, temples, theatres, and an amphitheatre.

More information: Facts and Details

By the end of the Western Roman Empire, the town was known as Parisius, a Latin name that would later become Paris in French. Christianity was introduced in the middle of the 3rd century AD by Saint Denis, the first Bishop of Paris: according to legend, when he refused to renounce his faith before the Roman occupiers, he was beheaded on the hill which became known as Mons Martyrum, in Latin Hill of Martyrs, later Montmartre, from where he walked headless to the north of the city; the place where he fell and was buried became an important religious shrine, the Basilica of Saint-Denis, and many French kings are buried there.

Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris

Clovis the Frank, the first king of the Merovingian dynasty, made the city his capital from 508. As the Frankish domination of Gaul began, there was a gradual immigration by the Franks to Paris and the Parisian Francien dialects were born.

By the end of the 12th century, Paris had become the political, economic, religious, and cultural capital of France. The Palais de la Cité, the royal residence, was located at the western end of the Île de la Cité. 

In 1163, during the reign of Louis VII, Maurice de Sully, bishop of Paris, undertook the construction of the Notre Dame Cathedral at its eastern extremity.

In the summer of 1789, Paris became the centre stage of the French Revolution. On 14 July, a mob seized the arsenal at the Invalides, acquiring thousands of guns, and stormed the Bastille, a symbol of royal authority. The first independent Paris Commune, or city council, met in the Hôtel de Ville and, on 15 July, elected a Mayor, the astronomer Jean Sylvain Bailly.

More information: History

During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), Paris was besieged by the Prussian army. After months of blockade, hunger, and then bombardment by the Prussians, the city was forced to surrender on 28 January 1871. On 28 March, a revolutionary government called the Paris Commune seized power in Paris. The Commune held power for two months, until it was harshly suppressed by the French army during the Bloody Week at the end of May 1871.

Oscar-Claude Monet

Late in the 19th century, Paris hosted two major international expositions: the 1889 Universal Exposition, was held to mark the centennial of the French Revolution and featured the new Eiffel Tower; and the 1900 Universal Exposition, which gave Paris the Pont Alexandre III, the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais and the first Paris Métro line.  

Paris became the laboratory of Naturalism with Émile Zola and Symbolism with Charles Baudelaire and Paul Verlaine, and of Impressionism in art with Courbet, Manet, Monet, and Renoir.

A the beginning of the 20th century, artists from around the world including: Pablo Picasso, Modigliani, and Henri Matisse made Paris their home. It was the birthplace of Fauvism, Cubism and abstract art, and authors such as Marcel Proust were exploring new approaches to literature.

More information: Art History Archive

During the First World War, Paris sometimes found itself on the front line. The city was also bombed by Zeppelins and shelled by German long-range guns. In the years after the war, known as Les Années Folles, Paris continued to be a mecca for writers, musicians and artists from around the world, including Ernest Hemingway, Igor Stravinsky, James Joyce, Josephine Baker, Sidney Bechet and the surrealist Salvador Dalí.

Grandma's memories in Paris in August, 1944

Paris started mobilizing for war in September 1939, when Nazi Germanyinvaded Poland, but the war seemed far away until May 10, 1940, when the Germans attacked France and quickly defeated the French army. 

The French government departed Paris on June 10, and the Germans occupied the city on June 14. During the Occupation, the French Government moved to Vichy, and Paris was governed by the German military and by French officials approved by the Germans.

For the Parisians, the Occupation was a series of frustrations, shortages and humiliations. A curfew was in effect from nine in the evening until five in the morning; at night, the city went dark. Rationing of food, tobacco, coal and clothing was imposed from September 1940. Every year the supplies grew more scarce and the prices higher. A million Parisians left the city for the provinces, where there was more food and fewer Germans. The French press and radio contained only German propaganda.

More information: Daily Mail

Jews in Paris were forced to wear the yellow Star of David badge, and were barred from certain professions and public places. On 16–17 July 1942, 13,152 Jews, including 4,115 children and 5,919 women, were rounded up by the French police, on orders of the Germans, and were sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Grandma's memories in Paris in August, 1944

The first demonstration against the Occupation, by Paris students, took place on 11 November 1940. 

As the war continued, anti-German clandestine groups and networks were created, some loyal to the French Communist Party, others to General Charles de Gaulle in London. 

They wrote slogans on walls, organized an underground press, and sometimes attacked German officers. Reprisals by the Germans were swift and harsh.

Following the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, the French Resistance in Paris launched an uprising on August 19, 1944, seizing the police headquarters and other government buildings. 

The city was liberated by French and American troops on August 25, and General Charles de Gaulle led a triumphant parade down the Champs-Élysées on August 26, and organized a new government. 

In the following months, ten thousand Parisians who had collaborated with the Germans were arrested and tried, eight thousand convicted, and 116 executed. On 29 April and 13 May 1945, the first post-war municipal elections were held, in which French women voted for the first time.

More information: Eye Witness to History

In May 1968, protesting students occupied the Sorbonne and put up barricades in the Latin Quarter. Thousands of Parisian blue-collar workers joined the students, and the movement grew into a two-week general strike. Supporters of the government won the June elections by a large majority.

In the early 21st century, the population of Paris began to increase slowly again, as more young people moved into the city. It reached 2.25 million in 2011.

More information: National Public Radio

Never relinquish the initiative. 

Charles de Gaulle