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Paris sketches-The Seine and its two banks |
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In an administrative way, Paris is divided into
20 arrondissements, numbered after the concentric circles of a spiral which
epicentre is located on the right 
bank, round the Louvre and the Palais-Royal. Each arrondissement has four
districts, which raises the total of artificial subdivisions to 80. Because for
the real “Parisien” only the districts which he knows, likes and
visits, are important and have an importance in their lives. There is the
district where he lives, where he has to hurry out of obligation, necessity or
need…..and the other districts, whose existence he only knows by hear saying.
Then you have the Seine, just not caring about all these official divisions,
tracing her own, unavoidable border, making two different ways of life coexist
in Paris. Or you are from the left bank, or the right bank and this important
subdivision tells us much more than long and boring essays. The right bank is
the centre of a cosmopolite bustle and speculation fever, because it’s the
location of all great “perfumers”, couturiers and jewellers. Neat ladies
with raised little finger enjoy super expensive cappuccinos in chic tearooms and
underground the grottos of Ali Baba are tucked away packed with gold.On the left bank, it’s the kingdom of the Spirit, the Arts, the Intellect, more specifically the university faculties and their seismic shocks, the “Ecoles Nationales”, the high schools (here called “lycées), institutes, colleges, hospitals. On the left side they use their mind, on the right side they spend the money. On the right side they like to show off, on the left side style is deepened. But nothing prevents you to change sides even after a long stay at one of the Seine banks. In fact, six of the 20 arrondissements lie on the left bank of which three genuine popular ones at the border near the périphérique. But in the student areas the corporate spirit is still very lively. Since man can memorize each profession has its own hunting field: the market vendors at the Temple, antiquaries rue Bonaparte, rue du Cherche-Midi and rue de la Boétie. The violinmakers around the conservatory and the manufacturers of pious statuettes at the foot of Saint-Sulpice. The furnishing manufacturers in the faubourg Saint-Antoine, the librarians in the shadow of the Odeon. The seed and corn merchants are at the quai de la Mégisserie and the top class of the caterers and “rotisseurs” around the Madeleine. The list of real Parisian areas is always wrong, or above or under reality. And this gives me the excuse to manipulate the borders of objectivity. But professions are not the only factors to cut Paris into “villages”, “countries” or “pieces of Paris in Paris”. Social origin, average age of the local inhabitants, the quality of the air, the design of the public squares, the height of the chimneys, the reigning cultural trend are all factors playing a part in the slow genesis of a Parisian “quartier”. Let the writers of the psycho dramas sort it out why someone prefers one quarter above another…. |
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