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Tour of Resistance Sites

Published March 19, 2018 by Nigel Perrin

Some photos of our tour of resistance spaces and places in the 16e last week. Thank you to those who came along, and to Emily the photographer.

 

The stairs where SOE agent Forest Yeo-Thomas was arrested, at Passy metro.

Pierre Brossolette’s bookstore, a hub for some of the early resisters in Paris.

The home of communist resister and Auschwitz survivor, Charlotte Delbo.

The address of half-Indian agent Noor Inayat Khan’s safehouse, and the scene of her betrayal.

By the lycée Janson de Sailly

Some loitering résistantes 

Sauntering through the seizième.

The headquarters of the Gestapo and German security services, on Avenue Foch.

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Resistance Tour – Sources

Published March 14, 2018 by Nigel Perrin

Thanks to those of you who came along today. Here are just a few sources to follow up if you’re interested:

Yeo-Thomas: http://nigelperrin.com/soe-yeo-thomas.htm. A blue plaque was unveiled outside his London home in 2010: http://dailym.ai/2phAJVJ

Pierre Brossolette: there are no books dedicated to him in English, but he is covered in Matthew Cobb’s The Resistance: http://amzn.to/2GtEXRd. He also appears in some wartime newsreel footage here: https://www.britishpathe.com/video/rivals-join-de-gaulle/query/Gaulle

Noor Inayat Khan: http://nigelperrin.com/soe-noor-inayat-khan.htm. Shrabani Basu’s book Spy Princess is probably the most easily available biography: http://amzn.to/2pbuQJh . If you search online, you may also find BBC’s Timewatch programme from 2006, The Princess Spy. A memorial in London was unveiled in 2012: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-20241322

Charlotte Delbo: her collected works in English are published under the title Auschwitz and After – http://amzn.to/2DtadN7

Odette Sansom: http://nigelperrin.com/odette-hallowes.htm. Jerrard Tickell’s book, on which the film Odette was based, is still in print – http://amzn.to/2IrFYdo. As we discussed, the video includes cameos by SOE’s French section head, Maurice Buckmaster, and Odette’s future husband and fellow agent, Peter Churchill: http://nigelperrin.com/peterchurchill.htm.

Vera Atkins and the search for SOE’s missing agents: http://amzn.to/2tNRkoH

 

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A Few Signs of Revolution…

Published March 7, 2018 by Nigel Perrin

This is a plaque to commemorate the work of Charles Comtesse, who in 1625 completed the bell tower of the church of Saint-Nicholas-du-Chardonnet, on rue des Bernadins, here: http://bit.ly/2s0nj3Z. Revolutionaries scratched out Comtesse’s name (because of its aristocratic ties) and references to the King. (If you go into the church, you’ll also find a monument to favourite painter of Louis XIV, Charles Le Brun, who decorated Versailles, and is buried here along with his mother.)

Rue (Saint) André des Arts, one of the many streets that lost its religious connection under the revolution. Around the corner is another example, rue (Saint) Séverin:

Coats of arms were erased from many buildings, such as the old Hotel Carnavalet (now the Musée Carnvalet):

And revolutionary graffiti in the seventeenth century Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis church, in the Marais. Despite repeated attempts to remove it, the declaration  “French Republic or death”, refuses to budge. Perhaps the communard who wrote it also defended the barricade outside, on rue Saint-Antoine, during the “bloody week” of May 21-28, 1871.

 

 

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Images en lutte

Published March 5, 2018 by

Some photos from the ‘Images en lutte’ exhibition showing at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris until May 20th.

The exhibition explores the visual culture surrounding revolutionary activity through May 68 and beyond, including work by the Atelier Populaire.

Further info: https://www.beauxartsparis.fr/fr/

 

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Saint-Sulpice crypt

Published February 12, 2018 by Nigel Perrin

If you’re interested in continuing your underground explorations, the church of Saint-Sulpice opens its crypt to visitors on the second and fourth Sundays of every month, starting at 3pm. The tour is in French (about 90 minutes), but it is free. You can book a place by mailing visites@pssparis.net .

 

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Walking Tour – Introduction

Published February 1, 2018 by jp470

Here are some photos of our walking tour led by Nigel in the introductory session.

 

Setting out!

 

Listening attentively to our tour guide!

 

The Communards’ Wall, up against which men were summarily shot, in the Jardin du Luxembourg.

 

 

The sign to the Supreme Being outside the Saint-Sulpice church

 

The Gnomon, an astronomical instrument installed in 1743, inside the Saint-Sulpice church.

 

The former home of feminist Olympe de Gouges, in rue Servandoni.

 

 

The hiding place of philosopher Condorcet during the Terror of 1793/4, and of the resistance publisher Editions de Minuit in 1943, in rue Servandoni.

 

Metre measure in rue Vaugirard.

 

The Pantheon, where the remains of a number of key historical figures are kept including Marie Curie and Jean Moulin, a Second World War resister.

 

 

Café d’Harcourt/Librairie Rive Gauche, the Nazi bookshop that was attacked by resistance fighters, (which is now Gap!) in the Place de la Sorbonne.

 

Shrapnel damage from the liberation of Paris, August 1944, on the wall of Odéon Theatre.

 

 

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Water resistance

Published January 27, 2018 by Nigel Perrin

If you’re worried about the flooding of the Seine, don’t be. Not yet, anyway. This is not unusual here, and we have a way to go to equal 1939, or 1982…

Water levels marked on the fire station at La Monnaie: http://bit.ly/2EfXZtk

 

And this is nothing compared to the flood of 1910. The marker for that one is about 3 metres higher:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36443329 

https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/paris-flood-1910/

 

 

 

 

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Welcome!

Published January 20, 2018 by Nigel Perrin

Welcome to the blog for module HI890, Paris: Revolution and Resistance.

Statue of Joan of Arc (1874), Place des Pyramides
Statue of Joan of Arc (1874), Place des Pyramides

Revolution and Resistance: you could not have picked a better city for studying these subjects! Paris’s wonderful galleries and museums are filled with examples of its long and turbulent history, but look beyond and you’ll find traces of the past everywhere – parks, squares, churches, cemeteries, metro stations, street signs, monuments and statues all have stories to tell. This is a city where walking is essential (it is the home of the flâneur, after all)! Explore Paris on foot and you’ll soon begin to appreciate how the experiences of revolution and resistance have influenced and shaped its development.

 

Image of rue de la femme sans tete (rue Le Regrattier)
A victim of the revolution decapitated in 1793, on the corner of rue de la femme sans teste (today rue Le Regrattier), Île Saint Louis

Please post your thoughts, discoveries and reflections here…whatever catches your eye or makes you think about the course. Feel free to share anything you find relevant, interesting or unusual – write something, post an image, a quote, a video or audio clip.

Juliette Pattinson will introduce the module on Wednesday 24 January at 3pm. Afterwards we’ll take a tour of some fascinating revolutionary/resistance spaces and places around the Latin Quarter. I look forward to meeting you all next week!

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