Jon was excited to find out there is some left-ish blood in my family of engineers!
We went out to Montparnasse (south-west part of Paris) yesterday to see where my great, great grandfather once lived. The Frenchman Lucien Henry was a struggling artist (and activist) who lived, for a time, at 79 Boulevard du Montparnasse. I was most disappointed to find this building nestled amongst cinemas and tourist cafés - I was expecting a different kind of building, but not really sure what exactly.
Anyway, we took a photo of the entrance. He mustn't have been famous enough to have a plaque placed next to the door, unlike another of the tenants there (the poet). We also looked for his name at the cemetery nearby, but later found out he wasn't buried in Paris.
Jon was fascinated to learn that Lucien Henry was banished to New Caledonia in 1871 for his part in the Paris Commune uprising, where Parisians (led largely by socialists and anarchists) took control of the city, much to the delight of observers such as Karl Marx et al.
In a nice twist, we are staying in Belleville, which was the last stronghold of the Commune, before it was over-run.
Cathlin
2 comments:
CB, I knew that you were a lefty at heart. Bon Sejour!
Wow, that's fascinating. I suppose you'll definitely have to catch a show of Les Miserables now.
You can no longer deny that blood heritage Cathlin!
Post a Comment