Monday 24 September 2007

The Face of Paris


Some friends of ours have recently moved house and found a box of old English books in their cellar. Knowing I can't say no to a book, they have passed them on to me.

There's a great mixture but they all seem to date roughly from the thirties and forties, and include copies of Othello, various ones by Dickens, and one called The Face of Paris which was published in 1933.

It consists of 14 walks in Paris and five drives in the outskirts. I am delighted with it because I spent a lot of time walking around Paris when we lived there, and it has some lovely illustrations. The one above fascinates me - almost no women. Was it not acceptable for women to go to cafés?


So I'll be spending a few happy hours looking through them. I'm hoping there may be some interesting snippets about pre-war Paris, though some things have barely changed.


4 comments:

  1. It seems like a treasure! what lovely pictures and I am sure all 14 walks are just lovely.
    Thanks for your kind wishes on my blogiversary :)

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  2. Very interesting ! I love to see old pictures. Thank you so much for your comments. Unfortunately I couldn't answer you, because the Internet connection at the Garda Lake was just a catastrophe ! I almost went mad ! Now I am back home and it works smoothly.

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  3. FYI
    No, it most certainly not acceptable for polite ladies to go to the café - even now women of that generation don't - a bistro perhaps, but the café and be mistaken for a prostitute - never.
    j

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