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Shortly after ISIS gunmen attacked civilians at several locations in Paris on November 13, the news of a man travelling 400 miles to the French capital to pay tribute to the victims went viral.
Davide Martello arrived at Bataclan Theatre, one of the attack sites, with his grand piano and played John Lennon’s Imagine. Martello’s gesture surprised and moved many across the world.
But this is something that can be expected in Paris. Anyone who has visited the city or lives there knows that the city moves you, and transports you on a rollercoaster ride of catharsis and ecstasy.
Acquired taste I visited Paris just a month before the attacks. Like French wine, the city is an acquired taste. The city of love, of light and of all things arts and culture is not impressive on arrival.
A case in point are some of the lines on the Paris Metro. The coaches are dingy, the seats grubby. The train rattles, and the tunnels are illuminated by unappealing tube-lights. The paint is peeling and graffiti runs wild, inside the metro and outside.
Many sides But by evening I have revised my opinion of the metro, and the city too. It dawns on me that the dirty, chaotic metro is an impression of the city and its people. It tells me people’s thoughts and imagination ought to run wild, and that life is not all order and discipline.
At the end of my first day in Paris, the city is beginning to make sense. The change in my attitude has perhaps to do with the musicians on the train — some rapping, some playing the accordion or the violin. The music ranges from pop songs by Enrique to classical pieces by Mozart, Chopin or Vivaldi. Every tune reminds you that life is sublime.
After the attacks, there must be even more musicians about, reminding Parisians that all is not lost. The reactions emerging from France, and elsewhere, reflect just this spirit.
John Oliver, comedian and host of Last Week Tonight , said in his November 15 episode: “France is going to endure. And I’ll tell you why. If you are in a war of culture and lifestyle with France, good luck!”
Addressing the ISIS, he said: “Go ahead, go ahead. Bring your bankrupt ideology. They’ll bring Jean-Paul Sartre, Edith Piaf, fine wine, Gauloises cigarettes, Camus, Camembert, madeleines, macaroons, Marcel Proust, and the croquembouche!” You know Oliver is right when, as a visitor to the city, you hear inspiring tales about its past.
How Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame changed people’s opinions of the magnificent gothic Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris (built between 1163 and 1345 AD) and saved it from being pulled down. How the Louvre was once an extravagant medieval Royal palace and converted to a people’s museum during the French Revolution in the spirit of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. How the Bastille was stormed in 1789. How people formed the famous barricades — human and often made out of furniture, as immortalised in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables — and laid down their lives for beliefs that are now the foundation of French society.
Of great artists’ and writers’ affairs with Paris at Montmartre – Van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Salvador Dali, Claude Monet, Scott Fitzgerald and many more. The most hair-raising story is of the Liberation of Paris at the end of the Second World War, when Paris was saved from complete destruction in 1944.
The history of Paris shows that, however bad things might be, the city’s spirit will remain intact, its passion flaming and faith unbroken. Parisian Anoine Leiris exemplifies that attitude. Leiris, whose wife was killed in the Bataclan concert hall, posted a tribute to her on Facebook that went viral.
Gift of hating He wrote on his Facebook wall: “So, no, I don’t give you the gift of hating you. You are asking for it but responding to hatred with anger would be giving in to the same ignorance that made you what you are. You want me to be afraid, to view my fellow countrymen with mistrust, to sacrifice my freedom for security. You have lost.”
His message encapsulates all that the city stands for.
Parisians, and their indomitable attitude, will ultimately triumph.
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