R.I.P. Elliot Paul

In the late-1920s, the American journalist/author Elliot Paul found himself in rue de la Huchette, in Paris. He lived there off and on for 18 years, chronicling the lives and fortunes of rue de la Huchette and its denizens through the Depression and the approach to World War II. His book, "The Last Time I Saw Paris" evokes a Paris not seen now; a Paris of small shops and a slow and comfortable pace and neighbors living together, not always at peace with each other, but neighbors nonetheless.

I suspect that the Paris Elliot Paul described cannot be found anywhere in the city today. I can guarantee that it cannot be found in rue de la Huchette. This small street, two blocks long and just a few steps from Notre Dame, is a horrendous hodge-podge of Greek and Turkish restaurants, with huskers in front cajoling tourists. Mixed in are souvenir shops, bars and a jazz club. Elliot Paul would not recognize rue de la Huchette as part of the city he loved, much less as the street in which he lived and which he knew intimately.

One of many Greek restaurants on rue de la Huchette, taken early in the morning, before the hordes arrive.

The hordes, visiting rue de la Chat qui Peche (Street of the Cat That Fishes), at its intersection with rue de la Huchette.

I thought of Elliot Paul today because we took a walk this morning that carried us down rue Mouffetard. Most descriptions of rue Mouffetard make it sound like rue de la Huchette years ago: a neighborhood, a street market each morning, a look back into an older Paris. Rue Mouffetard is, indeed, an ancient street, known when Paris was a Roman-governed city.

What we saw was a "modern" rue de la Huchette in the making. Restaurants of all types: fast food, Greek, Thai, Sushi, Turkish, and, occasionally, French. Upscale fashion stores, souvenir shops (there are two "Souvenir's [sic] and two "Accessorie's" [sic again] stores on the street), some authentic food stores, and many other stores catering first, foremost and exclusively, to tourists. It was, in a word, ugly, and in another word, sad.

I love Paris, more than any other city in the world. I have come here half a dozen times and we are already planning a two-week stay here next year. I don't for a minute expect to turn a corner and find myself transported back to a Paris neighborhood of the Twenties or Thirties or Fifties. Yet I can't help but wonder if rue de la Huchette and rue Mouffetard and the hundreds of other neighborhoods that have become "moderne" are an improvement. Can a row of garish Greek restaurants really be better than the same street 80 years before, with small shops and hotels and people for whom that street is home? I can't imagine that it is better.

I look at a block of apartments built in the 1800s and early 1900s with beautiful and classic architecture, bordered by buildings built later in a style that can only be described as "modern ugly" and wonder what architect and what planning board looked at that ugliness and thought it would be a good idea. Here is a photo of two apartment buildings side-by-side along Canal St. Martin.

What architect could be proud of placing that bland, non-descript building on the left next to the elegance of the building on the right?

Or this:

Belleville, a working class village converted to apartments for the working class.

It has become much harder for this to occur, as Parisiens have, over the last 30-40 years realized that the beauty of their home city was bleeding away, building by building, and reacted by requiring that new buildings fit into their neighborhoods (in most cases, when an old building needs replacing, the façade on the new will be the same as on the old). And maybe as the ugly buildings get replaced, their replacements will be of an architecture that befits this grand old lady of a city.

In the meantime, Rest in Peace, Elliot Paul. You saw and loved and described a different Paris, and I don't think you'd much like Huchette or Mouffetard today. And be glad that the residents of this still-beautiful and still-elegant city are learning what they have and striving to keep it.

Location:Avenue Charles de Gaulle,Chartrettes,France