Paris 1945 ~ 2018

L' Opera Paris 1945- look at the gorgeous cars and all the men in suits and hats. I saw a lot of men dressed this nicely on my trip.

This is a pretty amazing story, and one that starts long before I even began planning a trip to Paris. Way back to when I was a teenager and my first choice of a foreign destination would have been Australia. Back then I loved auctions just as much as I do now. And at that time, people were not interested in old pictures of any sort. There wasn't anyone selling them on eBay (Okay, a bit of age disclosure, there wasn't even Internet, more or less an eBay. Yes, I hear the gasps...), and there weren't people chopping them for crafts and such. Lots of times an old trunk would be bought and the buyer would empty the contents on the ground- photos, diaries, old clothes- to be thrown away before taking their purchase. And that's where I came in. It hurt my heart to see some other person's family thrown casually into the trash. I wondered about very single life shown in the photos. I poured over the old letters, chuckled over the diaries. And I kept them tucked away in various places. Safe and sound from those who would render them into oblivion.

Place Vendome Paris 1945

Well, the other day moma and pop were cleaning out the back room of the garage and found a bunch of things that I had tucked there when I moved out. I went through piles of notebooks of stories I had written in High School (cringe and toss- repeat as necessary). And some things that I had forgotten all about, like this small stack of photos of Paris. Call it serendipity, or whatever you like, this was a completely forgotten bit from my past that suddenly reemerged only four months after my own trip to Paris.

L'Arc de Triomphe Paris 1945

These were all taken in July of 1945 by D.J.Taylor. I know this, because unlike  myself and much of my family, he wrote it on the back of each and every photo, including the location. Wasn't he a treasure? And he took fantastic photos. I am wondering how he got many of these that are from almost aerial views. Did he climb tall buildings and take them out of windows?  

La Bourse (Stock Exchange) Paris 1945

These are from July 1945, World War II would not officially be over until September of '45. I think he was a serviceman over there. And there is a niggling tickle at the back of my mind that I also have a diary or letters from this man in one of my trunks. Now I will have to ferret them out!

Palais de Chaillot Paris 1945

I had always thought of Paris being in rubble after the war. In fact, one of the dear elderly men from our church was one of the soldiers who helped liberate Paris. When his wife wanted to go there 40 years later, she asked what he recognized. He said nothing but the Eiffel Tower because there had been so much rubble when he was there in the war. I know realize this is because of the area he was in. It was the outlying areas, mainly the working class neighborhoods near the factories that were bombed. There was severe bombing near the Eiffel Tower, because of its proximity to certain factories. Thankfully, most of the historic areas of Paris remained intact for us to be able to enjoy today, just as in 1945.

I took my first overseas trip (and first plane trip!) this May of 2018. I was staggered by the amount of places that Mr. D.J. Taylor and I had both visited, and even how similar some of our photos were. I though it would be fun to share them with you, along with my more modern ones.

Here is the beautiful Hotel de Ville, 1945 and 2018.

Below is a picture from Les Sept Pont toward Notre Dame, 1945. Look at the barges at the side of the Seine river.

And the below photo is taken of  Notre Dame on a sunset boat tour. There are still barges along the Seine.

 

Classic front views of Notre Dame. I can't help adoring the old cars. There are a tad more people in the modern photo...

The side of Notre Dame, two different views, and decades between.

Below is Les Invalides, which Napoleon originally built as a sort of veteran's hospital, today it houses his tomb.

Our view of it from Pont Alexandre.

On the opposite side of Pont Alexander is the Grand Palais, below.

Here we are crossing the magnificent bridge with the Grand Palais and it's magnificent glass roof to the left.

A close-up of the amazing statues that grace the corners of the building.

Below is the Pantheon, the tomb of many of France's most famous people.

And a closer view, circa 2018. What's funny is that we walked down the street he photographed above to reach the Pantheon, and it looked just the same. We went in a stationary shop and I got a pastry along this block.

Below is a photo of the Place de la Concorde, the square in which most of the beheading occurred during the Revolution, including Marie Antoinette. (I am loving the lady in her coat and hat, looking very stylish.) Behind the spire is La Madeline church.

Here is my photo of La Madeline across a busy street.

And his.

Below is La Obelisque, a pillar brought from Egypt to commemorate the ones who died on the spot during the French Revolution, namely King Louis XVI.

And a view of the fountain and obelisk looking from a different direction.

The back of this photograph read, Le Carrousel. It looked familiar, but I wanted to be certain, so I looked it up. This is a picture of the Louvre before it was changed.

Below is a view looking through the same arch shown in the 1945 photo. But in 1983 the courtyard was "renovated" and the glass pyramid took its place in the center of the horseshoe shape that is the Louvre.

Here is the Sacre-Coeur (sacred heart) church in Montmartre.

It was the very first monument we visited on our trip to Paris.

The photo below, of Rue (street) de Rivoli, delights me for a myriad of reasons. First off, just take a moment to really look at it. There are no lanes marked, yet there are people coming and going through what would amount to about six lanes of traffic. And I don't know if you can make it out, but that splash of white beside the one vehicle that seems wrecked, it almost looks like a pile of lumber, or ?? It looks like an accident to me. But I'm still wondering if there is any rhyme or reason to where they were supposed to drive...

Another thing that delighted me on finding the 1945 picture- we walked down that street pretty much every day!! Of all the streets he could have photographed! 

Below- we would come out from our apartment onto Rue St Antoine, which turns into Rue de Rivoli right past the little blue metro sign on the right of the street. Doesn't look so very different in 2018, does it? :)

Someone had a bit of humor...

Below is the one picture that happened to be completely ruined, and of course it would be the Eiffel Tower. I am not complaining. The garage room leaks, is damp, and the reason they were cleaning it was to get rid of a pack rat that was eating things! And to think he could have snacked his ratty way through these photos of Paris and I never would have even remembered them...

A picture at sunset of Eiffel's great success, and the only thing my dear old friend, Mr Louis, could recognize in Paris after the war.

There have been seventy-three years between our visits, but I like to think that Mr. D.J Taylor loved Paris as much as I did. I think his pictures say it all. Dear Reader, if you know of someone who served in WWII with this name, I would appreciate any information. My Grandpa RV served in WWII, but on the South Pacific front, and he is still living at 92 years of age. Wouldn't it be incredible to connect the man with the pictures? Well, whoever he is, he is still being remembered. Thank you Mr. Taylor for giving me a second trip to Paris through your eyes...


*If you would like to hear and see more about the things we did in Paris, check out my Paris Trip posts, they chronicle a Monday- Friday trip.