by Tom Kando
On Sunday July 27, I watched the final stage of the Tour de France. The race’s arrival in Paris, where they ride eight laps up and down the Champs-Elysées, around the Arch of Triumph, across the Place de la Concorde, down the Rue de Rivoli, by the Louvre and the Tuileries Gardens. Fabulous!
It’s a scientific fact: Paris is the world’s most beautiful city. When I lived there, my high school teacher Madame Louvain said so. At that time, I thought, “Oh sure, that’s what teachers tell their students in Omaha, in Shanghai and in Saint Louis also. But now I realize that Madame Louvain was right. The matter is not debatable.
My life’s trajectory has been as follows: From Paris, I moved to Amsterdam, then on to Minneapolis, and finally to Sacramento. A straight-line descent, no doubt about it. Will my next stop be Lodi - the town immortalized by Creedence Clearwater Revival?
I was fourteen when my family and I left the City of Lights. It was my parents’ decision to move. I cried. I spent my next ten years in Amsterdam, which is nothing to sneeze at either. It’s a fine, groovy town. Amsterdam really swings, but it ain’t Paris.
Then, I moved on to Minneapolis. America was my Mecca, as it was for dozens of millions of others. I still don’t regret this move, but some might question it. That’s understandable. At least I could have moved to New York or San Francisco, right?
The next move was even worse: to Sacramento. The simple reason: a dynamite university position with all the bells and whistles. My income quadrupled and I soon had tenure. And don’t forget the allure of Golden California in the late sixties: far ahead of the rest of the world; palm trees, orange trees, and swimming pools in every backyard.
People don’t move to a different city, state or country because it has the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower or quaint canals or a Rembrandt museum. People move because of JOBS, geography, housing, a college scholarship, family, personal circumstances.
You should read this self-revelatory article with a sense of humor: I have been very happy in California for over forty years. There are probably more unhappy people in Paris than in Sacramento.
But when I watch the finish of the Tour de France on the Champs-Elysées, I get teary-eyed...to think that I could still be living in the City of Lights where I grew up! As Josephine Baker sang: “J’ai deux amours, mon pays et Paris” (I have two loves, my country and Paris). leave comment here
© Tom Kando 2014
7 comments:
thanks for the post, Tom!
bel hymne à la ville de Paris! salut, bientôt européenne la famille T.K ?
thanks, Gini and Charlie (who said: beautiful ode to the city of Paris. Soon Tom's family in Europe?)
Yes, Paris is beautiful. It is also over-crowded and dirty. There are the 'bidonvilles', where you wouldn't want to venture. Beautiful Paris is teeming with anti-Semitism.
I love Paris too. I love it BECAUSE I don't live there, because I can leave whenever I want to. But of course, nostalgia is a powerful emotion. Maybe Sacramentans who live in Paris feel it for their hometown.
Ha!
Touché, Madeleine!
Tom:
We are entering the final week of an eight week European tour.This is the first year in 12 that we have come to the Continent and not visited Paris, the most seductive city in the World. We stayed away precisely for that reason. If we visit Paris the remainder of the journey pales in comparison.
I generally agree with the majority of your positions and evaluations. However, no matter how wonderful the offer from Sacramento might have appeared, I cannot understand how a person with your background could have made such a life altering decision.
I was born in Sacramento and spent my teen years planning my escape. Berkeley offered me way out and I never returned until retirement and it was only the proximity to my beloved Sierras that brought us here and I must say that if it were not for my involvement with Sac State, even the Sierras could not have kept us here.
Once, when a friend and I were walking down Montgomery Street in San Francisco we bumped into some friends. Their greeting was, "well, it looks as if the bus from Lodi arrived" To me that was the ultimate put down.
C'est tout!
Best.
The first time I saw Paris, 40+ years ago, I thought: "Well, beautiful city. OK" The second time, I was gone. Lost forever in love for that city. The third time, even more so. When you're in Paris, the rest of the world is the provinces.
Chuck McFadden
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