Okay, I’m biased. To me he ranks in the top two or three artists of all time. Among them (Claude Monet, Michelangelo, and Edward Hopper, in no particular order) the number 1 depends on whose painting I looked at last. Monet (along with Renoir, Sisley and Bazille) founded the school of Impressionism, and indeed it was his painting called Impression: Sunrise, 1872 that gave the school it’s name. The term was actually used in derision at first but gradually gained acceptance. The “granular, broken and flickering effect” of Impressionism, along with the variations of light, atmosphere and water are what gives his canvases magic. Probably Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe (1865, The Picnic) is his most famous painting, but personally I prefer some of his later works. In 1883 he moved to Giverny with its famous garden and lived and painted there for his last 43 years. Apparently, if you give a man Giverny he’ll give you his impression of the world. When the man is Monet the world wins.

Original appearance Nov 20, 2005, © 2005 / Claude MONET / 1840-1926 / artist, painter, impressionist / best / A+ / 75 / CIP 375, OO 21, RD 20, YP 30/9-20

Maurice Chevalier gave him his first big break in 1936 at the Casino de Paris and he shot straight up from there. He went on entertaining during the war and thus was accused of collaboration – though it could have been a spurious charge. For sure he was a long lasting friend of Charlie Chaplin and Chaplin was no collaborator with the Germans. After the war he lived in America for some time, but returned to France in 1951. Charles Trenet was quite successful and headlined at the Olympia, Bobino and the Alhambra. He retired in 1975 but made comebacks in 1981 and 1987. Poets Take to the Streets (1999) was a very successful album. Sadly he had a stroke in 2000, and died in 2001, but, for a moment, lets go back to 1946. It was way back then that he had his biggest hit La Mer and that, in the 1960’s became Bobby Darin’s signature song ‘Sailing’ or Beyond the Sea.

Original appearance Nov 20, 2005, © 2005 / Charles TRENET / 1913-2001 / musician, singer / mixed / D+ / 43 / CIP 343, OO 21, RD 20, YP 30/9-20

As any nimble rabbit would know when you jump out of the frying pan it’s best to go lickety-split. The literati & glitterati (the wits & twits) still frequent this legendary cabaret founded in 1860. At the turn of the last century it was hot. Back then the impresarios and owners Père Frédé and Aristide Bruant were better known than their customers Picasso, Utrillo, Modigliani, Apollinaire and a host of others. Later they were joined by the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Eleanor Roosevelt and Lauren Bacall. The artist ‘Boronali’ painted an amusing painting ‘Sunset on the Adriatic’ right there and it was all the rage at the 1911 Salon. Turned out the artist was Frédé’s donkey’s tail. Intellectuals, artists, eccentrics and writers mixed humor, song and poetry in an eclectic rabbit stew.

Original appearance Aug 19, 2005, © 2005 / Au Lapin Agile, The Nimble Rabbit, A Cabaret / 26 RUE DES SAULES, 75018 / 01 46 06 85 87 / CIP 143, OO 18, RD 19, YP 30/9-19

Knowledgeable, even expert, might be a fair description of most French proprietors. Bakers, florists, wine merchants, bookstore owners – they, and their brethren amongst other small business people, seem to have an uncommon grasp of their respective trades. You can hear that they know what they are talking about. You can see that they understand how to demonstrate their products. Most proprietors appear to have spent a lifetime amassing the knowledge to actually answer their customers questions. It may be beginning to slip, chains and megachains are making inroads, but for now, expertise still has a value. It is refreshing.

Original appearance May 22, 2005, © 2005 / CIP 094, OO 18, RD 19, YP 30/9-19

Listen up, a crucial concept here. The French are round and we are square. Really, c’est vrai, it’s true. France and the French are beautiful. It’s evident everywhere. In their architecture and their streets. In their style, ambiance, bakeries and fashion. Curvilinear, round, exquisite, semi circular, tracery and transcendent. Look at their fleur-de-lis. Look at our flag. We are square, linear, solid, efficient, brave and strong. We measure in even. They measure in odd. Check out the metric system. Our houses are square, theirs are not. It is a huge difference and an opposite mindset. You can’t fit a round peg in a square hole. But you can at least try hard to comprehend geometry.

Original appearance May 22, 2005, © 2005 / CIP 086, OO 18, RD 19, YP 30/9-19

The biggest are the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes, but each of the others is a gem in its own way. The big two are called the ‘lungs of Paris’ and if you look at a map they even resemble it. Paris is the heart, the woods are the lungs, and France is the body. But don’t forget to look at some of the other individual jewels, for they are the necklace. Parc Monceau is high on my list as are Jardin du Luxembourg and Jardin des Tuileries. A mini French language lesson: bois = woods, parc = park, and jardin = garden. With anatomy and linguistics covered you may know all you need to know to love Paris.

Original appearance May 22, 2005, © 2005 / CIP 061, OO 18, RD 19, YP 30/9-19

It is possible to have too much of a good thing. The French prove it over and over and over again. Everyday, everywhere you are inundated. Sex, both the blatant and the beautiful, is omnipresent. The magnificent morphs into the commonplace. Art isn’t. the refined becomes the debased. Over abundant, over exposed and over here. Nobody, not even the children, can escape it. The naked truth is it is possible to have too much of a good thing.

Original appearance May 22, 2005, © 2005 / CIP 068, OO 18, RD 19, YP 30/9-19

Don’t look for the Bastille because it’s not there. The fortress and prison was torn down shortly after being stormed and becoming the stuff of urban legend on July 14, 1789. The mythology is thick and sifting truth from tripe is difficult. It was, as nearly everything in France was, quite bloody. So was the aftermath of the 1830, and 1848 revolutions. The column (Colonne de Juillet) commemorates the latter two revolutions and holds the remains of the victims. Next to it is the geometrically fascinating glass building that houses the 2,700 seat Opéra de Paris Bastille opened on July 14, 1989, the bicentenary of the French Revolution. To this day the French use the Place as a starting point for worker demonstrations – strikes are nearly a daily occurrence in France. Just awhile ago it was the site of the Non vote celebration on the EU Constitution. The elite control virtually everything else in France but they never have and probably never will control this square.

Original appearance Feb 17, 2005, © 2005 / OPÉRA BASTILLE / OPÉRA DE PARIS BASTILLE, (MUSIC) / 120 RUE DE LYON, 75012 / 01 40 01 17 89 / CIP 125, OO 20, RD 17, YP 30/8-17

He has played tag team tango with his nemesis Jacques Chirac for going on decades. His last defeat caused him to retire, but that may or may not be the end of it. He has always had the reputation of being a dull, honest, intellectual, as compared to his more charismatic but ethically impaired opponent. Trotskyist accusations hurt him in the last go round. As Lionel Jospin found out, in France being a communist is not a marked political liability, though obfuscating and lying about it can be. Many (okay, virtually all) French political figures have left leaning episodes in their past with absolutely no problems in the present. Spying and lying about it, however, may be beyond the pale. Of course they all went to the elite ENA school and so, in the end, everything will be forgiven. For the past 100 years in France you couldn’t do right without first graduating from the ENA and, in the final analysis, you couldn’t do wrong either. Network is everything in France and it covers a multitude of sins.

Original appearance Nov 17, 2005, © 2005 / Lionel JOSPIN / 1937- / politician, Socialist, Minister / good / C / 89 / CIP 389, OO 20, RD 17, YP 30/8-17

Like all Frenchmen (and women) the man could talk. Indeed he became known as ‘the Tiger’ for his debating skills. He once thundered: “There is no passion like that of a functionary for his function.” I’m not totally sure what he meant, but I like the turn of phrase. He was involved in radical politics in the 1860’s and 70’s (Paris Commune), and became hostile to trade unions and socialists. Twice he was Prime Minister (1906-09 & 1917-20) and forged closer ties with England. He strongly defended Dreyfus and he unified the military command under Foch during WWI. Mostly though Georges Clemenceau became known for advocating a harsh peace treaty with the Germans. His wit was evident when he opined: “Wilson bores me with his 14 Points. Why Almighty God has only 10 Commandments.” He was prescient when he warned in the 1920’s of further conflict with Germany and predicted that 1940 would be the year of greatest danger. The old Tiger and the rising young Bulldog Churchill thought and talked alike on this point; and both expended blood, sweat and tears to contain the Germans though in different wars.

Original appearance Nov 17, 2005, © 2005 / Georges CLEMENCEAU / 1841-1929 / politician, Deputy, left / better / B / 85 / CIP 385, OO 20, RD 17, YP 30/8-17