This week my cultural narrative is about the American community in Paris. After going to see Sam perform at a poetry reading in Belleville last Monday I was struck by the strong sense of camaraderie between the different performers. Not all of them were American, bust most were at least English speaking. One of the performers got up on stage and declared that she was from Louisiana, my home state! Granted, she said she was from a small town in Louisiana, which is incredibly different from New Orleans, which is where I’m from. Anyways, that got me a little excited and made me realize what a small world it is that two people from Louisiana could end up together in a small poetry reading in Belleville, Paris. Before she started to perform her song (she was holding a guitar) she prefaced her performance by saying that in moving from a small town in Louisiana and coming to Paris, she felt as if she was ‘running away’ from something. Now, she said, it was becoming more and more clear that she was ‘running towards’ something. These were her words more or less; she did not say what it is she was running towards.
Another instance I had that made me think along the lines of the American community in Paris occurred when I went to the Olive Oil store in the Marais that Heidi told us about called, “Premiere Pression Provence.” Jenna, The lady who works there, is from Cleveland but she has been living in Paris for the past 5 years. She knew everything there was to know about olive oil and the way they make it in Provence, it seemed—pointing out how the extra virgin olive oil in the state is not always purely extra virgin.
Frances had told us about the American community is Paris before, namely the American library in Paris, but both of these experiences demonstrated the reality of this community to me. It is so interesting to me that so many Americans seem to want to come to Paris, not just for a brief time, but to live permanently. It makes me wonder if all of them are simply ‘running away’ from something and if Paris is just a fantasy land that they can escape to. If so, what are they running away from and what is it about Paris that is so magical?
Ultimately, it is very nice to know that there is a strong American and English speaking community in Paris and that so many people are able to come here and find their home within a new city.
This interests me a lot though I was mainly referring to the emmigration of African Americnas
ReplyDeleteto France such that there is now a community of 70,000. I do not know what the numbers are for North American Caucasians, nor even if their numbers are documented since they do not see themselves as exiled to France.
Either way, Marian, your perception is interesting and speaks to a migratory phenomenon that has been in place a long, long time - and it is not just North Americans who come to make this their home; people from all over the world choose France.