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Alexandra Marshall's avatar

we love to laugh at flanby, who was my neighbor in the 20th arr, and would do the saturday market on the place edith piaf IN A SUIT. but he put in place some things that changed france: he was an anti-corruption crusader (thank him for the HATVP and why we know about rachida dati's ill-gotten gains, for instance); he legalized gay marriage; the COP21 was his... unpopular opinion: i'd be happy to have him back.

Lindsey Tramuta's avatar

Fair! I don’t think he was great on international affairs and I didn’t find him a reassuring force after Le 13 Nov BUT I’m always happy to be challenged on what may be my emotional reaction.

Alexandra Marshall's avatar

oh you are totally entitled. he was despised by a lot of people for good reason (ran left, governed center). but i think we miss a few things that worked in his mandate.

gb's avatar

Fabulous .

Have recently been reading about Christo and Jean Claude and Running Fence.

It good to see this type of art!

Nicholas Gill's avatar

Thanks for the mention 🙏

Sam Hunter's avatar

I'm game for most public installations, mostly some of the people that go out of their way to experience them wouldn't necessarily be museum or gallery goers - I think they create community. I lived close to the area of Christo and Jean-Claude's yellow umbrellas, and it was amazing to see people make an effort to experience them. I had a couple of picnics under them with friends who were not art goers.

Andy Toomey's avatar

Been following & occasionally commenting, and love to read you! The Jewish roundup, ugh. A reminder of the current awfulness in my own country with so-called "immigrants". Leave them alone and deport the racists. ANYWAY my wife and I will be in France for a month, starting in Paris on Tuesday June 9th for a few days. If you'd like to meet up with us for coffee or a drink it would be a pleasure to treat you to same in return for your lovely missives. My name at gmail is the most reliable contact method. Cheers!

Paul O’Connell's avatar

In looking at the photo of Caverne du Pont Neuf, I would imaging it would be nice to gaze at on a hot, sweltering day, if only to trick the mind that you're in the very cool climate of the alps

Lindsey Tramuta's avatar

I wonder if I can will my mind to do that! Not a bad idea…

Abbie In France's avatar

I'm with Sam Hunter, in being up for most public installations. I love the freedom of experiencing art up close and (even better) outdoors. Art acts as a barometer of whatever moment it's created in, and the more it can be experienced by the masses, the better for art and the better for society (says the woman with an Art History and Humanities degree...) Thanks as always for your insightful writing, Lindsey.

Gary Schiro's avatar

Re JR: I haven't loved every installation by this artist, but I think this one, especially when seen around water level (speaking only from having seen various photos), where it momentarily erases the profoundly historic city-scape and returns it temporarily to something rugged, natural and mysterious is pretty remarkable. Could not make heads or tails of it in-progress, but was moved by the finished piece. You were terrif with Eva. Stay cool, somehow, I hope.

Margaret Csala's avatar

Just as an FYI, I was able to watch all episodes of Searching for France for free, through the "on demand" function (I have Spectrum cable), without having the CNN streamer. Hope this works for other U.S. readers!