Paris - Les larmes de Marianne (The tears of Marianne)

Marianne, the national symbol of the French Republic is crying.  On Friday November 13, 2015, citizens of France, and visitors to France were killed, 130 so far, 349 injured - 96 critically.

It has been very painful for everyone to watch the horrendous events on television.  My heart is broken to see that so many innocent people were hurt in my beautiful city.  I was distressed to watch these areas that I know so well, being the site of such hateful acts.  What has happened to our world?  Growing up in Paris I was never scared, rarely saw policemen bearing firearms - I could come back home alone at night and not feel I was in any danger.  Paris is a city to be happy, to be alive, to love, to understand la joie de vivre and not be afraid.  Paris belongs to all of us in a way - and, as I saw in an Italian comment "Parigi è tutti noi"  (Paris is all of us) the City of Light symbol, not the city of sorrow.  It was unbearable for me to see these terrifying events in Paris last Friday night unfolding on television - to hear the shots, the screams at the Bataclan.  Here are pictures of the Bataclan, interior and exterior, below.

When I lived in Paris with my parents we did go to the Bataclan - then it was a movie theatre.  It is an historic building built in 1864 to resemble a Chinese pagoda - a large building with a cafe and a theatre.  It was named after a Chinese type operetta "Ba-Ta-Clan" by Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880.)  It had a vast hall for 2500 people but a fire in 1933 destroyed part of the building.  In 1950 it was modified to adhere to safety standards, and in 1952 became a new cinema with 1350 seats.  In 1969 the cinema closed and in 1983 it became a theatre again.  In 2005 new owners changed the Bataclan, holding now 1500 seats, with updated acoustics, showing mostly rock concerts, but also trendy comedies and variety shows.  The owners are Jewish and have received numerous threats from radical groups as the hall is also used to hold regular conferences and galas for Jewish organizations.  Well known artists have appeared there along the years, such as Edith Piaf, Cesara Evora and international rock groups with a large fan base.  Here is a vintage postcard of the Bataclan.

The Grand Chinese Cafe, attached to the Bataclan concert hall, is now the Bataclan Cafe on boulevard Voltaire, a large friendly place, serving high rated brunches, lunches and dinners.

The rock group, Eagles of Death Metal, from California, was playing there last Friday to a sold-out audience.  Unlike their name, the group does not play metal type music; they are an underground favorite, mixing 1970s type blues-rock with humor.  Their style has been described as "bluegrass slide guitar mixed with stripper drum beats and Canned Heat vocals."  They have a large following in France, and in Europe.  After the first shots were heard the band managed to escape the stage through the back of the theatre and run to a police station.  The drummer Julian Dono, an Atlanta native and UGA graduate, now based in Nashville, was able to call his wife from there.  Sadly, their merchandise manager, Nick Alexander, 36, was killed in the concert hall.  Below are pictures of their show in Paris that night, courtesy AFP Photo/Rock&Folk/MarionRuszniewski.  The band cancelled the rest of their European tour.

Francois Molins, the Paris public prosecutor, said that the attacks started at 9:15 pm on Friday, November 13, 2015, at the soccer stadium on the outskirts of Paris.  This could have been a bloodbath if the attackers had blown themselves inside the stadium, but they did it outside the gates.  Another terrorist team followed at 9:20 pm with shots to the outside table occupants of two restaurants, Carillon and Le Petit Cambodge.  At 9:22 pm shots were fired at Casa Nostra, a pizza place followed at 9:35 pm with shootings at a bar called La Belle Equipe.  At 9:43 pm a bombing killed one person at a cafe called Comptoir Voltaire.  Then at 9:45 pm the attackers went into the packed Bataclan concert hall, killing the crowd at random - 89 persons perished.  (Click on collage to enlarge.)

Because of this, Marianne is crying.  We are all crying ensemble - together and grieving.

The French flag - the tricolor, as well as Marianne, embody the French Republic.  As an allegory of Liberty and the Republic, Marianne wears a Phrygian cap and first appeared during the French Revolution.  She symbolizes the triumph of the Republic and has a place of honor in town halls and law courts where she can be seen in statues all over the country, standing, sitting, as a bust or just as a head.  Marianne is a republic symbol, opposed to monarchy and any form of dictatorship.  She is an allegory for wisdom, reason, and liberty/freedom - she is the "Goddess of Liberty."  Along the years her style has changed as you can see below.

She is the official government logo of France and is engraved on French coins and French postage stamps.

Marianne has been shown on magazines, postcards, as well as on cheese packaging and ads for soaps.  Artists have painted her, such as the sad Marianne by Bernard Buffet, French (1928-1999) shown below, bottom left.

A statue of Marianne is also on Place de la Nation in Paris, shown on top below, and Place de la Republique, shown on the vintage postcard.

Thousands came on Sunday, November 15, 2015, to the Place de la Republique, to honor the victims of the terrorist attacks, to bring flowers and candles and show that they are not afraid of terrorism and stand together against it.  Parisians had been told to stay indoor (and they did not) but for a while in the evening, after a bottle exploded in a cafe, all the people around the Republique statue fled in an instant.  Photo below courtesy Julien Warmand.

I hope that these terrible events in Paris will not play in the hands of the far right French parties in the next elections, enabling them to obtain electoral benefit from this tragedy.  I also hope that governments such as France, the US, the UK and other allies will not start another large war.  It does not seem that the Iraq war brought much happiness to the inhabitants of that region.  It did not destroy Al-Qaeda which has been attacking for 17 years but has brought about the militant and ruthless ISIS (ISIL/Daech.)  The heavy military strategy from the West has not obtained good results so far against these violent groups.  I think more should be done to stop young men and women to join these radical groups.  We should address the reasons for their anger and actions.  When young people have nothing to look forward to - no job, no income, no power to change their corrupt governments, no hope whatsoever - it is easy for militant Jidahist groups to recruit them and brainwash them.  I don't see a quick resolution to this problem.  I was greatly touched though by the support for Paris from many cities across the world, as these pictures show below - at the World Trade Center in New York, in Berlin, in Canada, in London, in Shanghai, in Mexico, in San Francisco, and Sydney - courtesy CNN.

It certainly is a nice change to have our France liked here and abroad and not be the butt of jokes as the American Right loved to do, but I wish there had been no tragedy to get this result.  I was very moved to hear so many sing La Marseillaise, our national anthem, and see our flag shown in several places, such as in sport events here.  Louisiana State University team, the helicopter for the Air Force Utah State game and the Army game photos below, courtesy USA Today.

I spent much time on television and the web watching and reading on the tragic events in Paris.  One comment I read on the New York Times on Friday night by a person using the nickname Blackpoodles showed touching words of solidarity for our city -

"Blackpoodles,  Santa Barbara
France embodies everything religious zealots everywhere hate: enjoyment of life here on earth in a myriad little ways: a fragrant cup of coffee and buttery croissant in the morning, beautiful women in short dresses smiling freely on the street, the smell of warm bread, a bottle of wine shared with friends, a dab of perfume, children paying in the Luxembourg Gardens, the right not to believe in any god, not to worry about calories, to flirt and smoke and enjoy sex outside of marriage, to take vacations, to read any book you want, to go to school for free, to play, to laugh, to argue, to make fun of prelates and politicians alike, to leave worrying about the afterlife to the dead.
No country does life on earth better than the French.
Paris, we love you.  We cry for you.  You are mourning tonight and we with you.  We know you will laugh again, and sing again, and make love, and heal, because loving life is your essence.  The forces of darkness will ebb.  They will lose.  They always do."

I certainly could not add anything to these beautiful words. (Drawing below by Benjamin Regnier.)