Paris Stories – Arrondissements Municipaux
[Part VI] like a person, Paris shines brilliantly, as the “city of
lights”, but with 22-different personalities. Actually, the twenty-two
districts are called arrondissements
in French, originally numbering around a dozen in 1790; each sub-divided into
four ancienne (“former” or older) districts.
The twenty-two arrondissements
are arranged clockwise in the form of a “spiral” (often likened to nature’s
nautilus shell-shape, reflected in the Fibonacci sequence -- see Part IV of this series), starting from the center
of the city, with the first on the “Right Bank” (north bank, or la Rive Droite) of the Seine. Similar
to minor divisions in a personality, or the gradual differences
we all share, but which make us exceptional through individual personhood; these
subdivisions each exhibit the idiosyncratic variances in Paris which make it so complex.
Visiting cafes and restaurants gives a vision of each district’s grandeur. Making the twirling route from the
center of the city outward in mathematical precision, moving from scene to
scene; one can picture the different affiliations and intrigues of each group
of writers, philosophers, artists, and curators whose lives are similar but
vary according to their own experiences and worldviews, reflected in each
neighborhood. (See Poirier’s book, Left Bank, Holt & Co. 2018).
Just as DNA bonds like a ladder along a double-helix, so
Paris' personality trails upon either side of the Seine, and in each
municipal district. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,
of course; however, stereotyping Paris is impossible, and every arrondissement links almost
symmetrically to the next neighborhood either Left or Right bank, Montparnasse
or Montmartre, as unique as brothers or sisters from the same family.
As different as the two young lovers were, they shared the
spark of discovery, the relief of escape, the procrastination of youth, the
magnetism of common art, and the freedom of time. What they lacked financially, they made up with the richness of creativity, tolerance, curiosity,
health, confidence, and the comfort of common attraction. In one way poor,
there are many who'd label them infinitely wealthy.
And
they were in Paris!
to be continued..........
2018©Mark H. Pillsbury
