France In Flux

"I love taking the Metro. The train is a great way to get around. It adds to the trip!" Sennen said on the Metro as we made our way to Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur. 

"I don't think 44 years is really that long to build something like this. I mean, they didn't have all the tools and machines we have and it's a work of art – people had to do such detail," Ailyn said when I pointed out that even though the Sacre Coeur began construction in 1875 – a vast improvement over the almost 200 years it took to build Notre Dame which began construction in 1163, but nonetheless shocking by 2023 standards. Ailyn felt I was looking at it all wrong. She saw the Sacre Coeur through the lens of its time and the depth of what went into its creation.

I've noticed that beyond the original skies being the wrong color issue Ailyn had when arriving, the kids generally accept and even embrace things as they are. There aren't a lot of "should's". Maybe it's because children naturally absorb and learn about he environment in which they find themselves or maybe it's because mine have been traveling abroad from such young ages that they fundamentally understand that different places come with different environments, peoples and ways of life. Or both. Or something else too.

Before this trip, I heard from so many people sentiments along the lines of "France isn't France anymore" and "Paris isn't Paris anymore." And to some degree, that's true. There's homelessness, which I not only have never seen before in France, but is interesting for a country with vast social welfare benefits. It's still a drop in the bucket compared to a single city block in Hollywood these days – but nonetheless it's a big change. And there's no doubt that the average face in Paris is no longer white. Paris is as multiethnic and multiracial as it gets with people from every corner of the former French Empire  - from Senegal to Syria to Morocco to Vietnam.

Growing up, I was taught that France was a homogeneous culture of Caucasian, European people. There are probably regions of France where this is still more the case – but not Paris.

My kids haven't asked a question or batted an eye at the diversity – other than to ask what exactly is Senegalese cuisine with an eye to trying something new to them. Ailyn is always troubled by homelessness and we have given out a lot of 2 euro coins – but the kids don't think homelessness is anathema to Paris. In fact, in their minds the only places homelessness does not exist are Singapore and Patmos.

Today looking out at Paris from the Sacre Coeur, I thought about the difference between the adult observations I heard at home and my kids' approach to Paris. At first I thought that the changed face of France is a result long in coming from France's choices long ago. Like the Sacre Coeur itself that took 44 years to build, or Notre Dame that took almost 200 – the net effect of vast imperialism has come home to roost. Is there a world in which you can take over half of Africa, portions of the Caribbean, large swaths of the South Pacific, half the Middle East, and chunks of Asia – massively transfer whatever wealth they had to you – and remain unaffected?

Britain, France and the Netherlands have all undergone major cultural change because of the massive moral weight of imperialism. Sure, in the beginning – at the height of empire, having enclaves of elite Asian businessmen or Arab Sheiks probably felt very cosmopolitan and forward thinking. But as colonies gained independence and so many of them became politically and economically unstable, it became hard not to allow immigration – not to take some responsibility for having irreparably warped the societies England and France forcibly overtook. 

After all, didn't Vietnam's communist movement gain its strength from anti-colonial backlash after more than a hundred years of having France exploit their country? Wasn't Beirut once the Paris of the Middle East now brought to its knees  - economically and politically devastated? Doesn't Senegal still have separatist uprisings, an abysmal standard of living and violence in the streets from protesters angry that their president is an alleged rapist? Which former French West African colony is thriving?

It's hard to think of France as just having a liberal immigration policy. France's changed ethnic composition is largely a function of the moral debt for its financial wealth.

Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore said that one of America's principal strengths is its ability to assimilate the talent of the world. While France may not be as culturally disposed as America to assimilate people, it's not incapable. France walks an interesting line of at times clinging to the traditional conservatism of a homogeneous culture and also embracing differences as beautiful, unique and worth celebrating. Isn't that why so many artists made France their home? Isn't that why Josephine Baker, Frida Kahlo and Jerry Lewis had more success in France than America? Could it be that Frenchness can inhabit a second generation Senegalese and third generation Vietnamese immigrants? Call me an optimist, but I think it can.

In fact, looking at the Metro map with Sennen drove this home for me. The names of the train stations and boulevards: Place de David Ben Gurion, Boulevard de Franklin Roosevelt, Stalingrad, Oberkamf, Boulevard George V, Place de Pablo Picasso, Austerlitz. You don't have to be French to be honored – you don't even have to fit within France's philosophical norms. France memorializes a shockingly diverse set of people, places and ideas. It's a society that has room to integrate "other".

Of course to anyone who grew up with images of a France being as gay and content as a Maurice Chevalier movie, the future of France might look scary. What will France be if its culture is not driven by the descendants of the Franks and Gauls? We can all hypothesize all the ways it might go – both beautiful and horrific. Truthfully, none of us knows. What I do know is that the France of 1950 was not the France of  1890 or 1923. France spent 1789 to 1870 in a prolonged upheaval from monarchy to democracy with a lot of scary things in between. France has always been in flux and we enjoy certain snapshot moments we've deemed quintessential. We like bohemian artists of the Fin de Siecle turning Montmartre upside down and rarely talk about the squalor and poverty that let up to the July Revolution of 1830 (the French notably liked their revolutions in July). We talk about Louis XIV and and the magnificence of Versailles and rarely discuss that he liked Versailles because Paris was at that time one of the smelliest, foulest cities in the world. 

Change cuts both ways.

After an afternoon in Montmartre and eating some hot chestnuts outside the Anvers metro station, we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysees so Ailyn could walk one of the world's great shopping streets. Interestingly, the giant street that was once one of the social and commercial marvels  - if not envy – of the world, did not impress my kids. There was nothing on that great thoroughfare Sennen and Ailyn haven't seen in a mall before: Dior, Apple, Versace, Chanel, Mc Donalds, Sephora…. Moreover, the boulevard was so crowded, it was a little scary and uncomfortable just walking down the street. The one celebrated size and grandeur was overwhelming and hyper-commercial to them.

I wondered if, in a way, the Champs-Elysees itself hasn't lost some of its relevance?

With Ailyn's ankle still hurting after twisting it yesterday, we decided on an early evening, dinner delivered by UberEats and some movies. Enjoying our Parisian apartment and slowing down when we need can be just as valuable a part of the experience as anything else. Because in the end, Paris is still there just outside the window. And when Youssef brought us our dinner from a Thai restaurant owned by a Vietnamese family, it was still great.