Paris – Rive Gauche - 4me

Plate XXXVI - A walk on the Rive Gauche…

Of all my pictures of Paris this one generates the strongest feeling of nostalgia I have for the city. Before ever visiting France, or having images of the country formed by too many episodes of ‘Allo ‘Allo, I held a stereotypical mental picture of a Frenchman.

He wore a beret, and was clothed in black.

He smoked Gauloises, and he drank cognac - perhaps an occasional absinthe.

He laughed (as I do) at Jean-Jacques Loupe.

He still mourned Piaf and Chevalier, and did not appreciate Trenet; perhaps Brel and Aznavour were his idea of modern song. He secretly liked Françoise, but not Johnny or Sacha or Serge and Jane …

Perhaps he wore a cape.

He’d contemplated life as a Legionnaire.

No longer young, he took a daily promenade along the Rive Gauche, and the Boulevards St. Michel and St. Germain, into the Rue de Rennes, recalling the lost loves of his youth.

Perhaps he resided at Les Invalides.

I’m sure this was him.