Thoughts on Paris – March 18, 1930

You must know that the opera in Paris considered, not without some reason by the Paris intellectuals as beneath contempt…

Photography print available at Found View Gallery.

You must know that the opera in Paris considered, not without some reason by the Paris intellectuals as beneath contempt and the spectacle of the immensely illustrious author of Ulysses endeavouring to hustle crowds of journalists and protesting admirers into that old fashioned playhouse to hear antiquated music sung by old timer Sullivan was too much. No doubt I may have exaggerated in my exertions for him and perhaps made myself ridiculous in the eyes of sober thinking people, but I do not care very much, for it is incomparably the greatest human voice I have ever heard[….] On one of the evenings he sang when Miss Beach and Miss Monnier were present I said, it may seem incautiously, when asked by the latter why I had done all I had for a person they considered unknown, that since I had come to Paris I had been introduced (i.e. by them) to a great number of recognised genuises, without specifying names, in literature, music, painting and sculpture, and that for me all these persons were quite sympathetic and friendly, but they were all, for me, perhapses, but that there was no perhaps about Sullivan’s voice. […]

I do not think that if I cease working there is much point in my continuing to live in Paris. It involves continual sacrifice of capital for one thing, which up till now was covered over by an output on my part, so that I do not think I shall renew the lease of this apartment, and as for my books it is useless to transport immense loads of what I cannot read so that I think I shall keep only the signed gift books and good old dictionaries. These questions I shall now think over, having nothing else to do, as I have to decide by May.

James Joyce, to a benefactor

Notes:
• From Selected Joyce Letters
• James Joyce was an Irish writer.

Thoughts on Paris – March 2, 1971

So, instead of going to school, I did my washing, at least part of it. Gerd and I had planned to go to the Louvre this afternoon and it was the perfect day for it: wet, cold and snowing…

Photography print available at Found View Gallery.

So, instead of going to school, I did my washing, at least part of it. Gerd and I had planned to go to the Louvre this afternoon and it was the perfect day for it: wet, cold and snowing! Unfortunately, I remembered that today was Tuesday, and all museums are closed. […] After the movie and my quick letter to JT, I only had time to get dressed for the Opera tonight. We took the chic Métro to the Opera Comique to see Les Nocede Figaro 17 – really a great experience. The building itself is a really happening – four balconies, the whole works – and we had some of the best seats in the house for about $3.50 – just incredible – and of course as it is with most good cheap entertainment, the place was about half empty. We had to rush out at the very end because I was afraid that we would miss the last Métro. On the way out of the building, we almost ran into a man puking in the gutter. Paris does have its seedy side, too. Not all of it is beautiful art and fine music.

William H. Nelson, Jr.

Notes:
• From A Paris Journal by William H. Nelson, Jr.
• Bill Nelson, Jr. was an American who kept a diary while he was living in Paris for eight months in his early twenties.

A Life in Paris – February 10, 1941

Symbolic: every evening at the Opera, I am told, German officers are extremely numerous…

Photography print available at Found View Gallery.

Symbolic: every evening at the Opera, I am told, German officers are extremely numerous. At the intermissions, following the custom of their country, they walk around the lobby in ranks of three or four, all in the same direction. Despite themselves, the French join in the procession and march in step, unconsciously. The boots impose their rhythm.

Jean Guéhenno

Notes:
• From Diary of the Dark Years, 1940-1944
• Jean Guéhenno was a French writer and intellectual who kept a diary during the WWII German occupation of France.