Occupy tourism - Versailles

  Mass tourism would be a superb source of enlightenment
if crass commercialism
did not override what's important.

This post deals with mass tourism at Versailles.

An ad on the Louvre looms over the Seine

This photo shows one of several advertisements that for the first time last September took over the walls of world-known sites. How far does the search for money go?

Taxes and (substantial) entry fees finance these sites, which are run by the State. Since many visitors know little about them, they must be explained. So administrators create websites that, besides giving practical information, explain what is important about the places themselves.

Of course, one may disagree about what is important. But  surely we agree that information should not be handled as a way to bring in cash. 

Let's compare historical reality with the official web site's presentation of a place that has exerted planet-wide influence in taste and architecture and that remains at the heart of French sensibility -- Versailles.

The Sun King's masterpiece

The Sun King: Louis XIV. His reign -- 1660-1715 -- was so important to France that the 17th century as a whole  is termed "The Great Century". For background, please click http://www.privileged-entries.org/index.php?id=436 and scroll down. 

An ensemble that a giant perspective unites

As this painting shows, Versailles is an ensemble of town, grounds and roads that converge in front of the palace gate. The straight line that unites all the elements becomes a perspective that merges with the horizon.

The Sun King begins his transformations (in the 1660's).

The horizon, being endless, is a symbol of the endless power of the king.

One still looks toward the horizon, where no building is allowed.

 This is how the perspective looks today.

 Perspectives and grandeur

This grand perspective continued and reinforced the specifically French tradition of a giant perspective that emphasized the monarchs' glory. At its origin is the straight line that runs from Bastille (fortress and prison, symbol of royal might) past the king's residence at the Louvre, past the Tuileries palace (now vanished) and past its gardens to merge into the western horizon. This is how that axis looked in the Sun King's time, when it inspired that of Versailles.

The Tuileries gardens in the 17th century

On to the 18th century. The Old Regime kings' last contribution to Paris is the Place de la Concorde, just west of these gardens. Because it was on this royal axis, it is unique among the royal Places (Place des Vosges, Place des Victoires, Place Vendôme) in having an opening -- toward what was then the horizon. 

MUST TAKE A PICTURE

That opening became the Avenue des Champs Elysées, at the end of which Napoleon staked out the Arc de Triomphe. In our own times (toward 1980) that western perspective was extended to the Grand Arch and the multinationals' city at La Défense (metro line "1" runs under this axis).

Avenue des Champs Elysées, Arch of Triumph, Grand Arch

So Versailles's perspective continued a royal tradition and reinforced it. Paris became a city of great perspectives. They all emphasize the State's grandeur (and today's Republic retains many of the characteristics of Monarchy).

Some of these perspectives are obvious:

The Invalides (1670's) and the Pont Alexandre III (about 1890)

Opera house (1860's)

Others you come upon: 

The Institut de France (1630s) seen from the Louvre

All are magnificent. Other cities (including Washington) have copied them. 

The Chateau website 
and Orwell's "memory hole"

The government in George Orwell's 1984 flings into a "memory hole" anything that it does want the public to consider. It doesn't necessarily lie. It just omits.

Keeping that in mind, please click on the Chateau's website:

http://en.chateauversailles.fr/gardens-and-park-of-the-chateau-

You'll see that the lead photo is taken in such a way that it  emphasizes the foreground, showing almost nothing of the perspective. The text does mention it, but states that it goes "up to the railings", not the horizon. (!)

Why throw Versailles's most important aspect down the the memory hole?

The château,
cherry on the sundae

Consider this explanation.

If you understand the perspective's importance, that's what you will want to see.  The palace will still seem indispensable -- but only as the cherry on a sundae, sumptuous cherry though it is.

So, instead of arriving at opening time as the website suggests (omitting to mention that the tour buses come then too), you'll arrive at your own speed. Rather than wait in line to buy your ticket, you'll go behind the château, where, of course, the perspective is unmissable.

That means being drawn down a gentle slope, from great stairs (you may recognize them from the movies) to a long, wide, statue-lined path. It leads toward the Grand Canal, where you'll find rowboats and bikes to rent, plus crepes and restaurants. Biking and rowing will take half the day and by the time you get back to the château you'll be thinking about what you'll be doing in Paris that night.

At that point, you'll be much less likely to linger at the boutique (it covers most of the château's northern facade and you must walk past it on your way to the exit). As you'll probably have had lunch by that time, you're likely to skip the cafeteria.

So the Château's administration will lose money.  It claims 6 million paid entries in 2010. If half of those visitors purchase at the boutique and have lunch, a very conservative estimate of their spending is 45 million euros (3 million people x 15€ each). If one deducts the 20% VAT tax and halves the take to account for expenses, that comes to 17 000 000€.

And that's if only half the visitors spend, and if those spend 15€ only (which is barely enough for lunch).

Given the huge expense of maintaining such a site, no one blames the administration for selling glossy brochures, coffee mugs and lunches (though the commercial emphasis began years before the economic meltdown). Or, of course, visitors for liking souvenirs (I buy them too) and being hungry. On the contrary. Contributing to costs is excellent.

But is making money more important than explaining the perspective's importance for France's civilization, influence and grandeur?

It would seem that the administration says oui.

Credits: Advertisement / Catherine Aubin; Versailles now / Gilbert Cordier; Versailles in the 1660's / by Jean Patel, Museum of the Château of Versailles; Arc de Triomphe / Claude Abron; Invalides / Claude Abron; Opera house / Institut de France / Catherine Aubin; perspective;now / Claude Abron

The next posts suggests how to visit Versailles and continues this critique of official tourism. 

 

 

Exploring the grounds at Versailles

The post above explains that Versailles's
key element is a giant perspective. 

So visit the grounds first.

The perspective that by merging with the horizon symbolizes the endless power of the king.

Since this page is partly a critique of conventional tourism, start by clicking on the website:

http://en.chateauversailles.fr/gardens-and-park-of-the-chateau- 

It encourages  you to come in the morning. Don't! Arriving early is when the tour buses do.

Public transportation is easy

There's an express metro that leaves you almost in front of the château in about half an hour. This is the VICK express that stops at Notre-Dame, Invalides, the Musée d'Orsay and Javel (don't take the CIME, which is much longer and leaves you far from the château). Or if you're in southern Paris, take the train from the Montparnasse station.


This is easy for Parisians, but if you feel uncomfortable, ask us. We'll suggest  English-speaking drivers whom we know well. The main thing:  since you aren't trying to beat the crowd, come at your own pace.

Circle the palace. You'll come upon the fabulous perspective that is at the heart of Versailles, an ensemble of which the palace is just one part. 

Another website omission:
malaria

Work site for grounds and château, 1670's (anonymous, Château Museum)

The last post mentions Orwell's "memory hole", into which one casts what one does not want to bring to light.

That applies to leaving out ordinary people in  European art, after about the 16th century (underclass people do appear in medieval art). There are exceptions, such as Jacques Callot's gypsies and beggars and his celebrated series, "Miseries of war" http://www.fulltable.com/vts/c/callot/callot.htm. But when Caravaggio painted Mary with bare feet, the convent that commissioned the work rejected it  -- it did not want the Virgin to be portrayed as lower-class: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio (scroll down for that painting, which is now in the Louvre).

Which means looking at this painting of labor with great respect. It goes beyond showing "the people", because it paints masses of people at work. Other such paintings must exist, but I don't know about them.

Conventional tourism is similar in what it leaves out. The Versailles website, for example, does say that the work required to create grounds and palace was immense (without showing the painting), and mentions "swampy" ground. But it  does not say that the original villages were simply destroyed.

What happened to the people? The question isn't even raised. As well, swamps bring mosquitoes, that is, malaria. Thousands of the workers died of it. Soldiers replaced them. They died too.

The website omits the whole thing. 

Discover the beauty,

including the "bosquets", outdoor salons

Descend the immense stairs that -- of course -- faces the perspective. Stroll down the long, statue-bordered path that leads toward the horizon, symbol of royal might.

Wander off to discover two enclosed, circular gardens. Other bosquets have vanished. The stadium seats in the website slide show show part of one  -- performances were given there. I love this illustration of the other.

Bosquet, by Michel Leloir, 1931
Leloir illustrated superb books on French history for children.

On other bosquets vanishing without a trace: the Sun King continually transformed the grounds. Think of the courtiers and himself living in noise and dust. On the other hand, he could uproot trees in the provinces and bring them full grown, or have thousands of tulips transplanted overnight...

Yet another website omission:
bikes and rowboats

At the Grand Canal, you'll find both for rent. Bikes let you explore the extensive grounds in your own way and rowing gives a sense of the canal's immensity. 

Train of thought: kings' and grandees' sipĥoning off water for this and other purposes explains why ordinary Parisians disposed of only one liter a day. Versailles is about power -- even the water takes part. 

Getting back to the website, it does not mention boats or bikes. Employees who answer the phone say they know nothing about them, which gives the impression that they aren't there. Because the Château does not collect individual rental fees? Because bikes compete with the train it proposes to cover the grounds? 

It's true that the bikes and rowboats don't function. in winter. To be sure that they're available, call one of the restaurants next to the canal (the one I know is La Flotille,  01.39.51.41.58). 

For lunch, bring a picnic. Or dine at La Flotille. The internet reviews  are mediocre, but this and the other restaurant at least have a degree of elegance, which at Versailles fits the mood.

The Château cafeteria is another matter. Noisy, lacking windows and so claustrophiobic, it is the antethesis of the grandeur of Versailles.

Visit the château at the end of the day

when crowds have usually left

  

That is the subject of the post below.

 

Visiting the Château at Versailles

Visit the château at the end of the day

when crowds have usually left 

Earphones are now included in the entry fee (raising it from 12 to 15€), so you may as well take them. They will tell you what you are looking at, the text is beautifully spoken -- but do not give much sense of the people for whom grounds and château were merely the grandiose setting for their intrigues, pride and passions.
  

Underlying everything,

 revenues from the New World   

From the 16th century, huge revenues from South America disrupt European economies. In Spain they are mainly dispersed, but to the north they finance profit-oriented production (think of the income from making nails, sails, barrels... from feeding mules to carry stuff along the expanding trade routes... of the eggs and chickens that more numerous merchants require...). New sources of income cracked open the old world and nascent capitalism began to challenge societies in which hereditary landowners lived from mainly non-commercial peasant labor. This change had begun in the 11th century but from the 16th it accelerated. Repercussions include ideological challenges (Protestantism in its many forms), stronger kingships (which were ways of controlling the new income) and a relative decline of the nobility. 

Of course nobles resisted the increasing power of the kings. A most dramatic upheaval took place during the Sun King's childhood, when nobles joined middle- and underclass Parisians to upset the Regency (in the 1650's). Fleeing the Louvre palace in the middle of the night when he was 12 is said to have permanently affected Louis XIV.

He created Versailles as a place entice the presence of nobles who left to themselves on their lands, could revolt again.

"Paying court"

Being at Versailles became the prerequisite for hand-outs of all kinds (posts in State and Church, army commissions, the right to oversee new businesses...).

Imagine their importance for an indebted aristocracy. Imagine also the debt that came from living in Versailles (holding one's rank with carriage, horses and servants), the elaborate court dress that one was obliged to change four times a day,wigs, losses at cards -- the king encouraged gambling.

And understand that all of this was pointless if the king did not know one were there, that is, if he did not see one personally.

How could that happen? By being in the front row of the courtiers he would pass in the morning, on his way to mass.

When you enter the Château, the first space you will come to is a kind of hall that overlooks the chapel. That is where the courtiers would gather to greet the king.

Imagine the jostling. 

Then, mass at the Royal Chapel

There courtiers would "turn toward the king who turns toward God" (Bossuet's famous statement).
Bossuet: celebrated Court preacher, and theologian who promoted the divine right of kings.

On the chapel's ceiling: "God the Father in his glory", by Antoine Coypel

Impressive, ornate and cold, the chapel is the place to mull over one of Louis's most disastrous decisions -- to stamp out Protestantism.

So that all his subjects would see him as God's representative, they had to be Catholic (as he defined Catholicism). Protestants were thus faced with the choice of converting or of being turned over to dragoons -- a "dragonnade" still means soldiers' molesting civilians on authorities' command. Those who would not convert fled the kingdom. Since they took their skills and capital, their flight disrupted the French economy and one can make the case that repercussions linger still.  

Dragonnade, by Michel Leloir, 1931 When Leloir chooses an event to illustrate, you may be sure it is important.

People with French names yet other nationalities are often those Protestants' descendants.  

After the chapel you'll pass two salons: imagine the card games and intrigues. 

Anecdote: during cards in one of these salons, the king sent a courtier to warn a former mistress (the Countess of Soissons) that her visits to a witch and poisoner made her arrest imminent. She instantly left the room and an hour later was on her way to the frontier. She was never allowed to return to France.

Catherine La Voisin, witch and poisoner

That incident was part of a scandal that shook the Court. When the royal favorite  (the gorgeous Marquise de Montespan), was suspected of engaging in black masses with the witch to regain the king's affection, Louis canceled a police investigation that concerned 300 other witches and poisoners -- the only time he backtracked. 

The "Affaire des poisons" sheds light on the underside of one of France's greatest reigns. As well, it reveals one of women's few "career opportunities". They made up an overwhelming majority of the suspects: poisoning requires ruse, not strength. 

You come now to the most spectacular part of the excursion, the cherry on the sundae -- the Hall of Mirrors.

The Hall of Mirrors, a different visit

Turn off the earphones --

just look

Hall of Mirrors

You've come at last to the legendary Hall of Mirrors. This was the heart of French civilization in the last decades of the Sun King's reign (1680's-1715). Then  the salons of Paris became more influential, a sign of the change that culminated with the Revolution -- but that is another story. Let's remain in the Sun King's time.

But since we're also analyzing how mass tourism operates, let's compare the king's priorities with those of the Château administration.

Here's its web page:

http://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover-estate/the-palace/the-palace/the-hall-of-mirrors
  

The most obvious objection: the giant windows look out on the perspective but the write-up says nothing about that (if you missed the page that explains the perspective's importance and gives a reason for the administration's ignoring it, please scroll up).

The writer lists facts, without explaining why they matter. With one exception:  that the 337 mirrors are there to show economic success. Of course they reveal that, but aristocrats shunned that parvenu ostentation!. The mirrors' purpose is to magnify light -- this is the Sun King's palace.

The text is boring because the facts are meaningless. To lighten it up, it gives an anecdote -- that the king had the secret of mirror-making "stolen" from Venice. This information is more colorful than the rest of the data and keeps the public from falling asleep. Yet in itself it is trivia.

But anecdotes are important when by humanizing the past  they make it easier to understand. Stealing the secret shows that Louis brought new production to France -- under his control. That gave the State a new source of revenue, while keeping it out of the hands of private interests, who might the new riches to challenge it.

Such policies characterized virtually all rulers of societies where capitalism was unknown or just beginning. Chiefs and kings emphatically dominated traders and local producers.

The king controls traders

Getting back to the data, what is the interest of, for example, "Rance pilasters"? For that matter, what are they? What was the Peace of Nijmegen"? Who today has even heard of that treaty? Or cares if they have heard of it? 

Is this kind of information as pointless as it seems?

Mass tourism's goal is to make money. For that it creates "products" that visitors consume: Versailles is an example. To appeal to a public that is wide, diverse and  inevitably uninformed, these products address themselves to modern assumptions, regardless of what their builders intended. Even if the Château had no practical reason for dismissing the perspective, its website wouldn't dwell on it. It was Louis's priority, not ours.

But in that case, visitors may as well look at the sites by themselves. Explanations have no purpose. Yet they help justify entry fees and encourage earphone rentals (which usually cost extra, as they did here until recently) and purchase of glossy booklets. Hence the data. As for arcane stuff thrown in as if it were common knowledge, it makes the public feel ignorant and humble, unlikely to question. Were someone to say "What the heck are Rance columns?" it would be like the little boy saying "The emperor has no clothes!" But that almost never happens. Visitors know they'll forget such information and are deeply bored by it, but many suppose that it's what "doing" a site requires.

So they check off the monument on their list of things to see and mass tourism rakes in the cash.

In the Hall of Mirrors,
please turn off the earphones!

They'll take your attention away from simply looking at this legendary site. 

Let nothing come between this masterpiece and you.

Behold the grandeur.

Versailles is meant to stupefy. It does so -- and then some.

Let the Sun King take over.

Louis XIV, by Charles Le Brun, in the Hall of Mirrors

Credits: Hall of Mirrors / Château website; king and traders / engraving from an 18th-century narrative of exploration in Africa; drawing / Harald Wolff

Strolling through the "garden of the dead"

Europe's most famous cemetery

is a place of nature and serenity, 

where many extremely well-known people rest.

As well, its most spectacular mausoleum and its layout

reveal one of French history's most somber pages --

working-class repression .

E

Quiet entrance across the street from the Père Lachaise métro stop

Created at the turn of the 18th century (in 1804) on slopes that then were far outside Paris, the Père Lachaise* cemetery attracts visitors for its beauty, for 19th century sculpture and for the graves of celebrated people.

As well, its older section reveals the world of the great 19th-century novelists while its layout recalls the working-class struggles of the time -- or rather, their repression.

Power and patriarchy

It took transplanting the remains of Abelard and Héloise to convince the elite that here was the place to rest. The cemetery then became so prestigious that in The Count of Monte Christo Alexandre Dumas sets a fashionable entombment next to their grave. The cemetery's prestige as final resting place explains why it so deeply expresses the preoccupations of the epoch's elite.  

As well, private stories are everywhere.

A man contemplates his wife.

You may wish to visit tombs of some the celebrated. Maps are free -- but hard to follow. 

Poring over the map

So I'll suggest a stroll. It will take you by a few important graves and the most spectacular sites. It will also show how the cemetery's layout reveals the social struggles of the time.

All Saints' Day chrysanthemums**

From the small entrance that the first picture shows, take the path on your right, following the wall that separates the cemetery from the street. You'll come to the main entrance and to a wide, tomb-lined avenue that is used for funeral processions. (The graves of Rossini and Alfred de Musset, both impressive, will be on your left.)   

 Resurrection

 This monument is at the end of the avenue. Turn and look to your right.

Go behind the flowered tomb (of Félix Faure, 1844-1899, a President of the Republic)

It is all right to leave the paved passages. Find your way from Faure's tomb to another paved path. Follow it.

Ascend this slope.

It leads to a remarkable view of Paris. This is where Balzac ends his most famous novel with Rastignac, whose name still indicates no-holds-barred ambition, crying out, Paris, à nous deux ! ("Paris, it's up to us!")***

Spectacular view

 A mausoleum recalls 
Paris's most tragic insurrection

Just behind the couple in the photo -- that is, at the summit of the hill -- is a chapel and a mausoleum. The chapel is for funeral ceremonies. The mausoleum is of a man largely forgotten today, but who in his time was considered  -- depending on one's social origin and political beliefs -- either hero or mass murderer.

 Mausoleum of Adolphe Thiers (1796-1877),

Adolph Thiers was a major political from the 1830's to the 1870's. The usual explanation for his having this huge monument, in such a dominant spot, is that he helped establish the Third Republic (1871-1940) and became its first president.

That may seem logical today, but it could not have been the reason for glory at the time: republican government (government without a king) frightened the powers-that-be and was accepted only because there was no other choice.

For an exmplation, please click http://unexpectedparis.blogspot.com/2011/07/bastille-day-what-was-french-revolution.html 

A more realistic reason for glorifying him is that he commandeered ordered the repression of the city's most spectacular insurrection, the Paris Commune (March-May 1871). "Repressing" is much too weak a word: in the single week of May 22-28, at least 20,000 Parisians, rebels or not, were massacred.*** Much of the city burned down. "La Semaine sanglante" (Bloody week) helped define French political life for a century.

The government (the Third Republic), which had fled to Versailles, reconquered Paris during that week. It attacked in the prosperous west, where most of the population supported it, and street-fought its way toward the working-class east, the insurrection's heartland. 

The Père Lachaise is in the extreme east and it was here that the last battle took place. Thiers' mausoleum commemorates his victory on the site where its last episode took place.

Bullet-holes remain on some of the tombs.

Captured survivors were shot against a wall in another part of the cemetery. The Left still recalls those killings by a ceremony at the wall on every anniversary. 

We will come back to the Commune. For a preview, click http://www.privileged-entries.org/index.php?id and scroll down.

We go on with the stroll

Face the mausoleum and take the path on your right. You will come to the grave of the first great Romantic painter, Théodore Géricault (1791-1824).

Rising briefly from his deathbed, Géricault seizes his palette... 

With him, we come to a totally different sensibility. His iconic paintings of officers in Napoleonic campaigns express horror of war, his gigantic work on shipwreck survivors is the first major example of art challenging a government -- and at  a time when the Atlantic slave trade was in full swing, its central character is black.
The painting is familiar to French people, less so to visitors: click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raft_of_the_Medusa

From Géricault's grave, look down this curving path.

This path goes to the graves of Molière and La Fontaine (literary giants of the 17th century).

For the highest point of the cemetery, go left. There you'll find very high monuments in the shape of pyramids. You'll wonder whom they honor, which is exactly the reason for their being there: their money could by memorials, to make up for leaving no other trace.

The path to the right 

leads to yet another homage to repression

Banker and Prime Minister Casimir Périer (1777-1832)

Périer put down France's first working-class rebellion, the uprising of the Lyons silk-workers (in 1831). 

Just behind his statue is a grave that honors a man on the other side:

Tomb of François Raspail (1794-1878), scientist, doctor and socialist

The statue shows his wife weeping outside his prison wall.

Individual graves can be of opponents. But the cemetery's layout, its most important monuments and in the military section the general mood, glorify repression.

Clergy and military, bastions of 19th-century reaction

Or rather, that is true for the older part of the cemetery, whose slopes are the main reason for its beauty. The newer part, created after World War 2, is  very different.

More later.

Modern graves too :

the most visited is Jim Morrison's

Grave of Jim Morrison, 1943-1971

Morrison's father, an American Cold-war admiral, abhorred his son's lifestyle and music and refused to receive his remains. Jim had liked the Père Lachaise and when he died of an overdose in Paris, his girlfriend had him buried here.

You are likely to find young pilgrims leaving flowers and candles.

The black square on the left-hand lantern is a camera.

Morrison came to Paris with no musical engagements, to ponder and write. He is entirely in the tradition of expates who choose this city as a refuge -- he even stayed for a time in the hotel where Oscar Wilde died. He rests in the Père Lachaise because his girlfriend knew that he had liked it -- but a deeper reason may be that he deserved to be here.  

The most poetic time to visit

is on a mild, foggy day in winter...

when nature too is at rest. 

The site encourages meditation, not sadness.

www.privileged-entries.org/english/daytime-suggestions/parks-and-gardens

* The Père Lachaise (Father Lachaise), the Sun King's confessor, had a house on these slopes.

** Americans beware. To us, mums recall football games and cheerleaders. In France, they are symbols of death. So if a French hostess invites you to dinner, choose another present ! (While on the subject, bring cut flowers, because potted flowers suggest that you intend to stay. Better yet -- if this is a dinner invitation, your hostess may not have time to put the flowers in a vase. Bring chocolates, or a present for the kids.)

 ***Le Père Goriot, 1835. This was the first and most famous novel of Balzac's 18-volume series, La comédie humaine ("The human comedy"). Even if French people have read the book, they recognize that last line. 

**** Point of comparison: the Syrian rebellion of 2011 led to about 5000 deaths over six months.  

 

"Occupy Paris", a future with a past

Paris's take on the "Occupy" movement --

roots in the past, spirit and discipline.

But it is almost exclusively white.

Commune troops guard cannon on heights of Belleville, 1871

Les Indignés ("the Outraged") are France's version of "Occupy Wall Street".

Deliberately or not,

their demonstration on October 15 2011

harked back to the city's revolutionary past

Rallying -point at Belleville metro stop, down the street from the heights

The main starting-point was Belleville, in the working-class east -- and was an epicenter of the Paris Commune (as I'll explain in a later post). Other starting-points were railway stations for people coming from other parts of France and Châtelet in the city's center. But Belleville alone was billed for music, which means that that is where the greatest effort was made.

"Time of Outrage" by Stephane Hessel

Another way that the French past emerges

The call by a member of the French Resistance to adapt the ideals of that movement as opposed to those of capitalism is the heart of the pamphlet "Les Indignés", a name that the Continental "Occupy" movements have adopted.

Published exactly a year ago and sold for 3€, it became an instant best seller and and has been translated into almost all European languages (even Esperanto).

Good humor and discipline

The demonstration was totally peaceful. And there were no drugs, alcohol or even smoking (which remains extraordinary for Paris).

I saw only three "organizers", a man and two women who walked at the head of the march, indicating the route and passing out flyers. I asked the man whether he was part of a service d'ordre -- a team of burly guys that ensures order during political events. He said that there wasn't any, and that the demonstration had been very quickly pulled together. 

These photos give an idea of the impressive event. 

Obvious by their absence --

new populations

When I asked the "organizer" just mentioned why that was, he said that he would have informed African friends if there had been more time. I did see a sole black man, who said he had come on his own through a website, but that people who didn't see the site wouldn't know. Absence of information may indeed be a reason. I myself heard about the march by accident.

Deeper reasons may be political refugees' terrifying memories of demonstrating at home, the greater likelihood of police violence for people of color, new populations often coming from rural backgrounds, where there is no culture of mobilization and the weakening of working-class organizations.

But one would think that mainstream progressives would seek links with such immigrant groups as women's associations. They don't seem to (as far as I know).

Bystanders seemed generally supportive

Bystanders usually hadn't heard of the parade, but did know who the Indignés were and seemed to approve them. I saw many people reading the flyers. A few joined in.

Back to the route 

and to Paris's revolutionary past

This park covers over the canal. 

The parade marched down the rue de Belleville, a working-class artery that has witnessed frightful battles. It begins next to a park that covers over a canal (the Canal Saint-Martin). The canal suddenly dips underground because the uncovered waterway had slowed down government troops advance into Belleville during the Revolution of 1848 (which I'll also explain at another time). 

So when victory was assured, a new law-and-order government (the Second Empire) covered over the canal.

The very wide street that leads to the large open Place

At the park, the marchers came to a wide, straight street (Rue du Faubourg du Temple).

Hard to barricade, good for marching troops

 

That street, which dates from the same time as the overpass, let troops march quickly toward it. 

Another reason why Parisian insurgents were hard to suppress was the warren of narrow, sometimes medieval streets that were easy to barricade. So the authorities tore them down the houses and built wide arteries, creating the Paris that we know (mainly in the 1850's and '60's). Those streets and boulevards, which are lined with trees and elegant stone houses, gave the city its cohesion and much of its beauty. They also let in light and air, reduced traffic jams -- and besides being difficult to barricade, allowed the quick movement of horses, cannon and infantry.* 

Place de la République

It was to that vast Place de la République that the march came next. It was meant for massing troops. Other examples, created at about the same time, are all in the then-working-class center or east -- the Place de la Nation, the Place d'Italie, the enlarged Place de la Bastille the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) and the vast esplanade in front of Notre Dame Cathedral.

http://www.privileged-entries.org/english/daytime-suggestions/celebrated-sites/notre-dame.html 

Place de la République

Americans were present...

General Assembly

...and the use of hand signals made Occupy Wall Street's influence -- via the Spanish Indignados -- clear.

Several thousand people

Paris's demonstration was less important than many of those elsewhere -- unemployment is less dramatic than in southern Europe, the protective social system reduces distress, banks are regulated and media have concentrated on primaries to the presidential election in May. 

Yet the number of demonstrators was very much more than the "several hundred" that was usually reported.

Proclaiming the Commune at l'Hotel de Ville (in 1871)

Were demonstrators aware that they were marching past sites of such significance? The young, at least, couldn't have been. History is written by the victors, and the decline of the French working-class has meant that its story is downplayed. In fact, a brilliant, progressive young journalist  with whom I recently spoke did not know what a "barricade"** was.

But facts are tenacious. 

We'll see what happens next. 

* Most current explanations of that transformation emphasize the need to modernize a medieval city and downplay or omit its military aspect. 

** Barricade: an obstacle made of anything rebels can get their hands on to keep troops from entering streets that they control. The term comes from "barriques", wine barrels which Parisians used to block off streets during their first rebellion (in 1358).