Bois de Boulogne

In the last couple of months, I have been hooked on Emile Zola's books in the series of 20 novels, Les Rougon-Macquart. Zola was a naturalist; he started the series in 1868, and worked on it for 25 years. He was not a creationist (and he would never have been a Republican of today's Republican Party...) --he believed Darwin's views on heredity and environment-- and he wrote this series to demonstrate his opinion that man is an animal whose behavior is determined by both his genes and his place.
The series takes this idea and places a family, the Rougon-Macquarts, in France of the Second Empire, 1852-1870 --the period of Napoleon III on the throne through the defeat of the French in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. This family was descended from the three children, 2 illegitimate and one legitimate, of a woman who was insane. One branch is prosperous, gaining upward mobility in positions of power, another is bourgeois and ambitious, amassing fortunes and businesses, and the last branch are working class and unbalanced, with a history of alcoholism. And Zola placed these families in this period of French history when Paris was being re-developed by Haussmann, businesses grew and new opportunities for employment were developed, and regulation was intercepted by cronyism and excess. Sound familiar?? Honestly, it is too familiar in some sense... But it is fascinating reading and for me, being here and reading about the streets I walk every day, and the descriptions of the daily life are illuminating. For example, the novel about the development of large department stores, Au Bonheur des Dames, The Ladies Delight, brought back memories of the large department stores of my youth --advertising, sales commissions, white sales, the ladies lounges-- glorious places that celebrated the shopping experience (so if you are a Rhode Islander like me, it is like Shepherds, whose demise is still a deep wound on our collective psyches).

So, you may ask where is this going? It is going to the Bois de Boulogne. The novel about real estate development in Paris, aptly named La Curee, The Kill, begins in a carriage in October in the Bois de Boulogne. And we spent a glorious fall Sunday afternoon walking through one area, the Parc de Bagatelle (being without a carriage has its limitations!).


We are off to Venice tomorrow for both work and play... including a return trip for me to Ravenna to see the fabulous mosaics... next post!