Last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris brought back memories of that city which was home to us for a month back in 2013. With other Cebuano artists invited to exhibit there, we explored the city famous for its museums, Gothic cathedrals, opera houses, cafés, imperial gardens, and, of course, the Eiffel Tower.
Images on CNN of the streets at night, now filled with police cars and people scampering, brought back memories of our own evening walks, when we chose not to take the Metro going home to our host’s apartment in Colonel Fabien in the 10th arrondissement (district), finding our way with only a map for a guide.
Paris is beautiful but it’s not without blemishes. At night and early in the morning before street cleaners hose down the pavements and storefronts with water, the city actually reeks of urine, bird droppings and dog excrement. Blame it on the lack of public toilets (although it’s normal to enter the nearest café or shop to just use their toilet), Frenchmen often relieve themselves on any tree or wall, very much like Filipinos.
The “City of Lovers” also has its share of street crime. Once, walking along one of the empty streets near the public market in the 12th arrondissement, where we had our studio, a group of policeman suddenly grabbed us, frisked our clothes and took our passports.
It turned out that a Chinese tourist had just been robbed nearby and the police, seeing our gangsta hoods, mistook us for the suspects. We were immediately released when the victim shook her head upon seeing us. One of the police officers, the only one who could speak English, apologized.
Our habit of smiling at strangers only met suspicious stares. We quickly learned that Parisians don’t like being photographed. Some of them complained to us in French, made angry gestures, and once flashed a dirty finger before our camera. That was our first taste of Parisian inhospitality.
But we never had problems with our French hosts who were so kind to show us around. One of them, a doctor, took us to her farmhouse near the Northern town of Beauvais and to the beach in Le Treport in Normandy. In those trips, we saw how, in contrast to the crowded streets of Paris, the roads of the French countryside are almost empty of people.
As young people flock to the cities to work, their old folk prefer to retire in the country living on their pensions and free healthcare provided by the government. The moment children finish school, they are expected to leave their parents to start leading their own lives in the city, often rarely seeing each other.
I find this part of French life quite depressing. People try to amuse themselves by watching football games or going to concerts and parties. Or they sit by themselves at cafés sipping espresso while watching people pass by.
Those who are lonely and misguided in their desperate pursuit for meaning are attracted to radicalism, which offers a different way of looking at the world and what seems to be an opportunity to take part in its remaking.
The French have always been drawn to revolutionary ideas. During our stay in Paris, we had a chance to collaborate with artists belonging to the La Commune Libre d´Aligre, a community of left-wing radicals right across our studio. The commune members invited us to help them make artwork for their float used during a carnival. The artworks tackled issues on labor and immigration, which were controversial at that time. They gave us their perspective on those issues and a free hand to interpret them.
The paintings attached to the float were paraded during the Carnival, which saw people in the community dressed as clowns and jesters, singing and dancing around the historic market area of Aligre, which, more than a century ago, saw violent revolts by the original members of the Paris Commune.
Paris is thus not alien to violence and terror like the bombings and shootings that took place in different parts of the city last Nov. 13.
Such is the paradox of this city. Home to the world’s masterpieces of art and a haven for some of the world’s greatest thinkers, it also frequently falls prey to barbarism and bloodshed. It took a mass slaughter before France could attain liberté and égalité. Such is the price of freedom that the French and the whole world now enjoys.
The Islamist terrorists were so envious and resentful of that freedom that is now becoming truly universal.
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