235 Anniversary of the French Revolution – It was a great one. Should be studied
July 14, 2025
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The spirit and essence of the French Revolution of 1789 was revived during the Paris Commune when the city of Paris rose up in revolt to reclaim the erosion of their revolutionary gains from 1789. It was crushed by the German military Thousands were executed at the wall in this photo at the Pere La Chaise Cemetery, an incredible place dripping with history
Vive La France (at least the France that was – pre-Macron – the France of 1789, 1832, 1848, the France of the French Resistance in WW2, of that great postwar intellectual and cultural, outpouring – Camus, Sarter, De Beauvoir, Yves Montand and Simone Signoret, Boris Vian, Serge Reggiani, of Lascaux, of fantastic food, wine and natural beauty).
I sing praises to one Dr. Oliver Andrews who for no good reason encouraged me to go on St. Lawrence University’s first junior year abroad program in Rouen, Normandy – an experience that in retrospect I realize changed the trajectory of my life in more ways than I realized at the time. The beginning of a slow and still incomplete awakening (as far as it went).
Photo from an early 2006 visit to Paris with Nancy. Still have the hat, coat and probably the same blue jeans. Pere La Chaise Cemetery, we stayed in the apartment of our former Helsinki colleague, Pierre Huguenin, organizer for the French railroad union and the French Communist Party.
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