Time travel

[Squirrel]

With all the time travel going on in the new series of Doctor Who got me thinking: If you could visit France in any time period in the past, just for a few days (and could come back to 2006 after), what time period would you choose? I think I'd really love to visit the Courts of Love in Aquitaine during the Middle Ages, esp the time of Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II king of England (and previously King Louis VIII of France).

 

 

[Missy]

Several eras I wouldn't mind exploring.

1/ La Belle Epoque

2/ l'entre 2 guerres (the 1920's)

3/ the 1950's through to the 1960's

and I would have to be in Paris! Yes I know 'Paris n'est pas la France mais son nombril!'

all of these periods for the 'insousiance du temps et du moment', the exciting wild parties, the very elegant dresses I would have to wear, the 'je ne sais quoi'....

Is that time machine advertised on the internet that I book my ticket! Can't wait....

[Just Katie]

Paris on liberation day "Let's party on!".  Then I would go knitting and cackling at the guilotine.

[SaligoBay]

Babylon.

[Just Katie]

Where in France is Babylon SB?

[Dick Smith]

Try here

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0004226A-F77D-1D4A-90FB809EC5880000

[SaligoBay]

Not telling.   Can't make me.

[PossumGirl]

I think it would have to be in the period between WWI and WWII...

PG

[Patmobile]

I have actually travelled in time.  I got here from 1948 - and it only took me 58 years of your time.

I would like to have a look at the Paris of 1889, but I haven't found how to get this thing into reverse! 

Patrick

[Gluestick]

My pedestrian pick would probably be Bordeaux, a few years prior to the vinestock being hit by phyloxera. I would love to taste the wine before it was made from hybrid vinestock.

 

[Patf]

Missyesbut and Possumgirl - why would you choose between the wars? I

think there was shortage of men then .I can't decide when I would want

to be here except for now.  Pat.

[PossumGirl]

There was so much intellectual creativity and a sense of daring, because people felt as if there was nothing to lose.

And, of course, the sadly mistaken belief that there would never again be a war...

R

[Tresco]

I'd go for the Courts of Francois I and/or Henri II.

I'd check out whether all those stories about Catherine D' Medici were true, and I'd get to see the little Queen of Scots too.

[KathyC]

What about the time of the marriage of Henry II to Eleanor of Aquitaine when the English invaded the Dordogne. On second thoughts, perhaps not.

[DZ]

I would love to visit the court of Louis XIV and see for myself Le Roi Soleil - it is under his reign, after all, that the French language (which I am trying so hard to learn...) has become the international language of diplomacy.

[ali-cat]

Please!  It would have to be the time of the Moulin Rouge!!  Bohemian artists, freedom & love!!   Maybe it's just the hippie in me coming out. 

[Gardian]

Everybody else's post has been a bit more cheerful than mine, but nonetheless.

Visited our village church the other day: memorial plaque for the 1914-18 war, which listed some two dozen names, and this from a village which today numbers no more than 400 souls. Then it was probably a few less, and 24 dead men from the 18-40 age group must have been devastating - many 'duplicated' surnames. Sadly, no different to many other villages in France (or the UK), but one can only begin to imagine the effect it must have had.

Then moving on to WWII, and the Vichy era. I wonder what it was like down here around that time? One presumes small German garrisons in the big towns, but village life? Did the local population basically rub along with the occupying forces, or was there an active resistance?  The post has made me want to find out: it may not be too easy.  

[Dick Smith]

There is quite a lot of material out there on the occupation, in both English and French. You will find that the deaths on most WW2 memorials are clustered in 1940 and 1944, many more men were deported to Germany as forced labour between those dates.

To massively simplify, at first the population almost tolerated the occupiers (although never happy about it), the active resistance grew with the increasing likelihood of the opening of a French front after the start of 1943.

Beware of opening old wounds, though.

I would recommend Trafics et Crimes sous l'Occupation by Jacques Delarue

http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2213031541/qid=1146265449/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/402-0718745-8293711

as a starting point.

Or a series of books which share the title 'La Vie Quotidienne' (sous l'occupation is good - it even has instructions for making ersatz tobacco)

I'll look out some other titles if you are interested.

[Gardian]

Yes please Dick: particularly anything specific to the South.

[Dick Smith]

Trafics et Crimes covers the south, Oradour-sur-Glane and the destruction of the Vielle Port de Marseille. If you go to Amazon.fr and search for  'la vie quotidienne' there should be plenty of stuff, I'll have a look for English titles as well.

[Christine Animal]

Montmartre and La Belle Epoque, les Impressionistes, the clothes, la Joie de Vivre...

[TWINKLE]

Me too Christine!

  Guy De Maupassant, Flaubert, absinthe[:-))]

[Christine Animal]

Funny, you go for the writing, but I as usual go for the pictures!  Maybe a little liquid too...   [:P]

 

[TWINKLE]

[quote user="Christine Animal"]

Funny, you go for the writing, but I as usual go for the pictures!  Maybe a little liquid too...   [:P]

 

[/quote]

Well the pictures would be a different era for me you see. 

 I'm more of a Modigliani, Picasso girl myself with a bit of Rodin thrown in for extra eccentricity[:)]

[Tresco]

[quote user="TWINKLE"]

 I'm more of a Mogdalino...girl myself [/quote]

Yeah, the Absinthe will get you every time...[:P]

Modigliano, Twinkle. Deary Me.