Travels with Forty Roses: Culture, Commemoration & Clashes

The Louvre Museum is an immense place. On a short trip to Paris you can decide to visit, or determine it's too exhausting and not buy a ticket. But, with an Amis du Louvre card, I have all winter to explore the place at leisure. And so, I am doing it slowly. It really is a treat to explore a section or exposition for a few hours, then leave and know that in a few days you can investigate something else. So far, I’ve managed an Exposition of Italian artifacts collected by Giampietro Campana, who created a huge collection of all things Roman. (It spanned from earliest Roman civilization to the 19th century.) With a friend, I visited the Petite Galerie area, noted for French sculpture, including wonderful things from Chateau Marly, which is no more. I am looking forward to my next outing and have planned a route that will take me through until April to navigate in full. As the French say; petit à petit.

The commemoration of World War I was solemnly acknowledged at the Arc de Triomphe and in each town and village throughout all of France, November 11. The bells tolled at 11AM across the city on a rainy and chilly day, which usually is the case for this day of remembrance. As a Girl Guide I recall standing in our little Ontario town with freezing legs, in a bitter wind, listening to the sorrowful sound of the Last Post and the wail of the bagpipes, as wreaths of red poppies were laid at our cenotaph. At the Paris City Hall, 94, 415 flowers were planted to acknowledge the deaths of the soldiers from this city. So many soldiers and civilians died in Europe it is almost unfathomable. The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was about 40 million: estimates range from 15 to 19 million deaths and about 23 million wounded military personnel, ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history. Armistice is so well remembered here; the city felt subdued and muffled with black coats and umbrellas predominating. Dozens of world leaders met in Paris and walked as a group to the Arc de Triomphe with the French President and following, attended the inaugural Paris Peace Forum, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron. (of course, a particular leader did not attend and flew home).

Most recently, we have seen and experienced the Gilets Jaunes protesters, some 280,000 strong across France last weekend, but diminished today to about 23, 000. The original protest was over the price of diesel and the Yellow Vests blocked roadways and held up traffic but mostly in a good natured way. This weekend there seems to be a different profile to the protests and those people protesting. Last week it appeared to be professional people and working people with a common complaint. This week there is suspicion that Le Pen followers are stirring the pot. Accusations are being thrown right to left. We shall see how this evolves. We are simply steering clear like the majority of the population. But it’s all really about a tax on a carbon product. If all of us do not face the fact that carbon will eventually kill the planet and our very own grandchildren and great grandchildren will have to face the consequences of our terrible legacy, we are foolish and naïve. The piper must be paid at some point, in my view.