LETTER FROM PARIS

remember Paris before the war Paris the city of lights the most beautiful city in the world remember Paris city of gaiety and luxury wide boulevards sidewalk cafes and traffic regulations that were of no concern to anyone well Paris is a little different now take the traffic situation today it's a two-wheeled problem and strictly not motor-driven bicycles have descended on Paris like the locusts on ancient Egypt all of Paris travels by velo today fellows only requirement the pair of good lanes the sound of Paris has changed the big city huh Bob of cars and buses and trolleys has been replaced by the bucolic sounds of a country village streets react Oh to the clip-clop of wooden soul Parisians the iron hoops of horses play counterpoint to wooden sevens a horse and buggy brings up visions of a bygone gracious age and the coachman takes his resurrection with surly grace the petrol let the last word in the ghetto Sarah chugs down the shawls in his aid the Jeep the last word in mobile warfare rides scornfully past its predecessor representative of American law and order and the polite policeman unite to solemnly halt all traffic to let the goat cart to the 80s amble across the boulevards Paris traffic has its centuries all mixed up practically everything travels under its own power today even the cows on the way to the slaughterhouse cows any kind of cows are a reassuring sight cows on the hoof mean meat on the table this is a pleasant thought on an empty stomach most Parisians still have empty stomachs stores are still empty and queues are still long like most of Europe Parisians have developed patience and have learned to use the long waits profitably to knit a sweater or catch up on the latest political gossip queuing up has become a way of life everyone does it for everything for food and clothes and railroad tickets standing in line is as accepted as the weather the Metro the subway system still smelling of Clorox is more popular than ever before along the tile halls leading to the trains beside the posters and the street musicians the Metro has sprouted a new variety of merchant the pitchman a small-time hawker living off the big-time trouble have a role they cry have a fresh roll just out of the oven wonderful elastic excellent quality guaranteed pre-war material and just as the high-pressure businessmen of forty-second Street the entrepreneur takes to his heels at the sign of the law sooner or later in a city where there is little gas for buses and little electricity for trolleys everyone ride the Metro it can be very frustrating it can also be very wearing after five years of training however visions are rugged they take their manhandling with philosophic good nature the subway is practically the only means of transportation where the passenger doesn't have to get out and push what's more riding the subway every day is a wonderful lesson and democracy it's impossible to be shoved and mauled and squashed and flattened every day twice a day without requiring some degree of understanding for your fellow man of course there are exceptions to prove the rule every subway car is Paris in miniature more caps and berets than good brown humbugs more uniforms than great business suits and more than one GI has found the United Nations are delightful idea not a cut-and-dried theory at all from the dome of the Institute to the Medical College from the book line banks of the send to the 12th century dignity of the church of San Jermaine Dupri in the Latin Quarter the center of scholars and artists the old stones reverberate to new ideas the world famous cafes again serves scathing literary criticism with scalding noon coffee the surrealist poet Paula waar can be found at a table at doom ago John Grammy on the film director passes by engrossed in the latest film magazine cafe live famous for frankfurters ham and sauerkraut is closed on Mondays but at the café de Flore the eloquent jean-paul Sartre discusses life over a marble-topped table meant for ped know rather than philosophy the statue of D did all the encyclopedias having escaped the Germans by the simple expedient of being made in stone serves as arbiter of debates at his feet jean-louis Barrault the latest Hamlet discusses a new adaptation of Anthony and Cleopatra with Aundre G August Perry the architect comes out of the Institute and the writer Francois mouriak bids goodbye to the physicist Louis debroy as they leave the Academy here beats the intellectual heart of Paris the dark green book stalls along the sin with their faded old prints and their bright young faces their mildewed grammars and paper bound novels are is always open for business bibliophiles in search of treasure hunt first editions and original prints the Paris of today confined to the latest subway map greets the Paris of yesterday delineated in a 17th century etching winding banks of a sin have become even more popular as bathing beaches than ever before today along the case where the dog clippers practice their profession and a hangover could be slept off to the gentle lapping of the water the young people with neither time nor money get as good a sunburn as on the beaches of the Riviera and it is along the sin across the bridges whose vistas sum up the Exiles dream of home of the last buses of returning war prisoners bring the last Frenchman back from the camps and war fronts soldiers and prisoners have been coming back for a year now but it takes a long time to get back 3 million men you the history made while these men were gone has already become part of Paris tradition the tanks of declares 2nd Armored Division of taken their place next to the Canon of Turin the trophies of August 1944 next to those Napoleon and the coat of arms of Paris a little sailboat which rides undaunted through all the storms remains the unbowed victory the latest storm however the storm that lasts for five years has also left its mark on Paris railway stations and suburbs were bombed the suburban factories are working again but this time under new management at the Renault works the largest auto plant in the country the factories are being run by the workers and technicians with the help of the government this is an experiment and may mean a change in all French economy you the suburbs the flea market flourishes in this wonderful grab bag are the most fantastic of prizes the most amazing of treasures depending upon taste and desire some real french fries or some real 19th century brocade things for sale here don't exist anywhere else real rubber tires worn to the tubes real leather soled shoes worn to the uppers and most wonderful of all a real good pot a pot without any holes in it with an old lamp base you can make a new vies with old bars you can make a new lamp with an old-fashioned lampshade you can make a pan or a dish or a megaphone or even a lampshade in this hodgepodge and jumble of the old and the new the paltry in the precious the sharpened I of the connoisseur discerns a piece charming enough to grace the windows of the most famous shops on the Rue de la Paix the shops of the Rue de la Paix and the Phobos NRA maintain their tradition of elegance and style it is here that paris fashion known the world over has its beginning it is here that the delightful and exquisite are balanced by taste and craftsmanship here necessity is turned into inventiveness no leather for shoes cork and wood souls ordered by the local OPA okay but the cork is used with a flare the wood with a cleverness that seems to be ingenuity rather than injunction during the war Parisian hats rose to monstrous proportions now they've come down a bit and for women the world over there is nothing as rare and as precious as a chef bowl with a Paris label buying a dress in Paris is no short lunch hour affair time has to be allowed for the fashion show for the parade of models and if it was against regulations to be out of uniform well more than one whack broke regulations to please a nice lieutenant as the fine fingered girls who stitched the seams leave their work benches as the well-known names with the big ideas leave their sketch boards another working day ends suddenly the streets are full this is the hour when the shops and offices and studios closed the hour between the day and the night between duty and leisure between work and play the hour for a game of the lot the French gin rummy along the banks of the sin while the barges glide silently to their evening rest it is also the hour for homework for the Baker who must paste up his bread stamps for still rationed bread and for his son with his stamps from faraway places that no no rationing it is questionable which stamps are worth more during the long Twilight the iron shutters of the shops are pulled down and the velvet curtains of the theaters are raised the factories closed and the opera opens the grilled ironwork gates of the Luxembourg Gardens are shut and the observatory near the gardens divides its rounded dome the calm of evening descends upon the peaceful herded roofs of Paris under the roofs of Paris in the gabled addicts live the young people young students and workers after four bitter years they have come up from the underground and returned from the Mackay but today the bitterness the danger the fighting are things of the past today the bohemian life for which Paris's famous is again a way of life this is another celebration of the last bottle since the liberation somebody has always been celebrating the fete of the last bottle the very last bottle of the empty cellars of Paris yet somehow there's always been still one more left kodocha who play is still the cry when you leave the house for a late date and that house dragging the concierge pulls the core that opens the door after five years of blackout lights are on again after years of curfew evenings no longer end abruptly at 11 gay Paree is no longer in austell chick phrase the boys in from Germany on a three-day pass swarm to Pigalle the Jeep stoic Lee conducts the visiting military to the pleasures of the night jitterbugging is one of the things americans left behind them French students of the art are more intent upon its intricacies than its spirit night is not only a time for jitterbugging there is work to be done newspapers born as single sheets on the mimeograph got not in the shadow of the underground are now published in the well-lit plants of the former collaborationist press before daybreak the newspapers have been put to bed night workers stop in for early morning coffee and get the first glimpse of the latest headlines as all over the world heads shake at news that looks even more doleful and less reassuring in the gray hours of the dawn the daily communique from the ration board is almost as important as international headlines the early hours of the morning are not conducive to objectivity but the sun disperses nocturnal fears the day comes on and as the roofs of paris reflect the first blend of the new day old and young in Paris are ready for new tasks in a people's world oppose the promise of peace for coming generations