1 00:00:15,606 --> 00:00:18,803 SANDRINE: After centuries of upheaval and evolution, 2 00:00:18,886 --> 00:00:21,878 France's capital was at last secure in its reputation 3 00:00:21,966 --> 00:00:24,799 as the most magnificent city in the world. 4 00:00:30,246 --> 00:00:35,274 In the 1890s, you could think that Paris was just perfect as it was, 5 00:00:35,366 --> 00:00:39,075 complete with nice boulevards, beautiful monuments. 6 00:00:39,566 --> 00:00:43,684 So the challenge for the next generation was what to do next. 7 00:00:52,966 --> 00:00:55,036 Parisians went underground. 8 00:00:56,486 --> 00:01:00,525 They turned the City of Light into a city of the night. 9 00:01:01,126 --> 00:01:02,445 (YELLING IN FRENCH) 10 00:01:04,966 --> 00:01:10,882 Full of exotic tastes, hidden worlds and forbidden pleasures. 11 00:01:11,686 --> 00:01:13,244 I love fake eyelashes. 12 00:01:14,446 --> 00:01:18,325 Home to the bohemian, the avant-garde, 13 00:01:19,726 --> 00:01:23,844 the refugee and the resistance fighter. 14 00:01:26,166 --> 00:01:28,361 -If Paris was old... -Scoop it in. 15 00:01:28,446 --> 00:01:31,483 ...these people fought to keep it young at heart. 16 00:01:33,646 --> 00:01:36,114 This is the story of that struggle. 17 00:01:42,126 --> 00:01:43,878 Welcome to my city. 18 00:02:10,166 --> 00:02:13,203 The dawn of the 20th century was fast approaching 19 00:02:13,286 --> 00:02:15,880 and Paris still didn't have a metro system. 20 00:02:17,606 --> 00:02:20,837 London and New York had had theirs for decades. 21 00:02:20,926 --> 00:02:23,281 The problem was Parisians couldn't decide 22 00:02:23,366 --> 00:02:27,803 what form the metro should take, overland or underground. 23 00:02:30,366 --> 00:02:31,845 The overground camp 24 00:02:31,926 --> 00:02:35,043 believed the underground system was fine for London 25 00:02:35,126 --> 00:02:39,005 but Parisians being Parisians, in love with light and beauty, 26 00:02:39,086 --> 00:02:41,042 would refuse to go underground. 27 00:02:45,806 --> 00:02:49,924 In places, you can get an idea of what Paris might have become. 28 00:03:02,846 --> 00:03:05,155 It's not hard to see what the concerns were. 29 00:03:05,246 --> 00:03:07,885 The overland system would ruin the look of Paris 30 00:03:07,966 --> 00:03:10,275 and cover its streets in darkness. 31 00:03:17,126 --> 00:03:19,720 Eventually the undergrounders won. 32 00:03:20,446 --> 00:03:22,596 They rushed to complete the first line 33 00:03:22,686 --> 00:03:25,519 just in time to welcome in the new century. 34 00:03:26,926 --> 00:03:29,360 It's true, the London Underground was up and running 35 00:03:29,446 --> 00:03:31,880 a long time before the Paris Metro, 36 00:03:32,766 --> 00:03:35,838 but we like to think it was worth the wait. 37 00:03:37,326 --> 00:03:40,477 The Paris Metro is cheaper, more efficient, 38 00:03:40,566 --> 00:03:42,397 and the trains have rubber wheels, 39 00:03:42,486 --> 00:03:44,716 so you're not deafened by screeching metal 40 00:03:44,806 --> 00:03:47,240 each time a train arrives. 41 00:03:53,006 --> 00:03:57,045 In the end, Parisians took to the underground pretty well. 42 00:04:28,886 --> 00:04:32,720 Now, I was told also that I shouldn't press on this big red button, 43 00:04:32,806 --> 00:04:35,036 -'cause otherwise we stop. -Right. 44 00:04:35,566 --> 00:04:37,204 Oh, my God! 45 00:04:42,326 --> 00:04:43,441 (HORN BLOWING) 46 00:04:43,526 --> 00:04:45,244 (EXCLAIMING) 47 00:04:55,806 --> 00:04:57,956 Paris was proud of its metro, 48 00:04:59,126 --> 00:05:01,515 and to show the world how modern it was, 49 00:05:01,606 --> 00:05:04,916 they had the entrances designed in the latest style. 50 00:05:15,126 --> 00:05:19,642 This was the new look of the city, in demand by all who could afford it. 51 00:05:26,406 --> 00:05:30,001 They call this movement Art Nouveau, simply New Art, 52 00:05:30,086 --> 00:05:33,317 and it's defined by these organic, flowing shapes. 53 00:05:36,766 --> 00:05:39,917 Among the shapely curves appear female figures, 54 00:05:40,006 --> 00:05:41,837 assumably Paris herself, 55 00:05:41,926 --> 00:05:46,283 showing her face and sometimes a little more. 56 00:05:49,446 --> 00:05:54,122 Art Nouveau is not about big statements like the Eiffel Tower, but decoration. 57 00:05:54,566 --> 00:05:56,443 Everything is in the detail. 58 00:05:56,526 --> 00:05:59,040 Even this gouttiere service pipe, 59 00:05:59,126 --> 00:06:02,721 sending the soiled water down to the sewers, is beautiful. 60 00:06:14,606 --> 00:06:18,884 Art Nouveau became all the rage, affecting every aspect of daily life. 61 00:06:18,966 --> 00:06:21,400 So you could shop Art Nouveau. 62 00:06:26,606 --> 00:06:28,119 Eat Art Nouveau. 63 00:06:32,126 --> 00:06:35,914 But my favourite example of Art Nouveau lies under the ground. 64 00:06:38,046 --> 00:06:39,445 (SPEAKING FRENCH) 65 00:06:58,726 --> 00:07:00,205 (TOILET FLUSHING) 66 00:07:01,286 --> 00:07:05,040 These public lavatories were built over 100 years ago, 67 00:07:05,126 --> 00:07:08,880 back in an age when nothing was allowed to be purely functional. 68 00:07:20,246 --> 00:07:22,282 You have to come. They're the cleanest 69 00:07:22,366 --> 00:07:25,597 and the most beautiful toilets in Paris, and in the world. 70 00:07:25,686 --> 00:07:27,517 And in the world. 71 00:07:35,606 --> 00:07:38,040 Paris was in the grip of a new fad. 72 00:07:39,126 --> 00:07:42,755 Turning their backs on the light and colour of the city streets, 73 00:07:42,846 --> 00:07:47,044 Parisians filed into darkened rooms to see those same streets 74 00:07:47,126 --> 00:07:49,321 in flickery black-and-white. 75 00:07:50,086 --> 00:07:53,123 This was courtesy of the Lumiere brothers, 76 00:07:53,206 --> 00:07:56,562 who debuted their cinematograph in 1 895. 77 00:08:07,486 --> 00:08:10,762 The invention of cinema was to change the world. 78 00:08:10,846 --> 00:08:12,757 Apart from the films themselves, 79 00:08:12,846 --> 00:08:16,680 there's nothing left in Paris to witness this great adventure, 80 00:08:17,246 --> 00:08:19,999 except, curiously, this church. 81 00:08:27,246 --> 00:08:31,125 Notre Dame de Consolation is no ordinary church. 82 00:08:31,206 --> 00:08:33,845 It is a temple of grief. 83 00:08:36,206 --> 00:08:37,924 Till the turn of the century, 84 00:08:38,006 --> 00:08:42,443 this was the site of a charity bazaar for destitute women. 85 00:08:44,566 --> 00:08:48,081 In 1 89 7, they held a fundraiser 86 00:08:48,166 --> 00:08:51,602 with the Lumieres' new invention as the main attraction. 87 00:08:52,486 --> 00:08:55,125 But a fire broke out around the projector 88 00:08:55,206 --> 00:08:57,845 and the wooden hall went up in flames. 89 00:09:00,446 --> 00:09:03,961 In the wreckage, the bodies of 1 40 people, 90 00:09:04,046 --> 00:09:06,765 mostly women and children, were found. 91 00:09:10,766 --> 00:09:16,841 This church was built to commemorate the lives of those who died in the fire. 92 00:09:19,366 --> 00:09:22,199 It's a rather moving space here. 93 00:09:26,806 --> 00:09:30,924 The church is filled with statues of grieving women. 94 00:09:33,926 --> 00:09:38,363 Lounging over them, the sated young Prince of Death. 95 00:09:59,406 --> 00:10:02,284 Inventiveness was key to the age. 96 00:10:04,166 --> 00:10:07,124 A bold act of bravado up in Montmartre 97 00:10:07,206 --> 00:10:09,766 would soon transform the streets of Paris 98 00:10:09,846 --> 00:10:12,201 without a single stone being turned. 99 00:10:15,566 --> 00:10:20,321 In 1 898, a young man bet his friends he could make a motorcar 100 00:10:20,406 --> 00:10:23,318 that would drive up the steep butte of Montmartre. 101 00:10:23,406 --> 00:10:25,761 It was quite an achievement in those days. 102 00:10:41,406 --> 00:10:44,284 The name of the young man was Louis Renault, 103 00:10:44,366 --> 00:10:46,118 and on Christmas Eve, 104 00:10:46,206 --> 00:10:49,164 his friends watched as he and his voiturette, 105 00:10:49,246 --> 00:10:52,875 the little car, began creaking up the steep slope. 106 00:11:04,646 --> 00:11:08,559 It would be faster on foot, but the bet was not about the speed. 107 00:11:30,166 --> 00:11:34,876 The voiturette survived the trip and pulled in, as Renault had promised, 108 00:11:34,966 --> 00:11:37,116 at the summit of Montmartre. 109 00:11:38,846 --> 00:11:40,598 Thank you very much. 110 00:11:43,686 --> 00:11:45,563 (CROWD CHEERING) 111 00:11:52,086 --> 00:11:56,045 Renault's adventure began one of France's largest industries. 112 00:11:58,286 --> 00:12:03,758 Today, Paris is clogged up with cars, and more than a fair share are Renault. 113 00:12:05,206 --> 00:12:07,117 Even the police drive them. 114 00:12:19,086 --> 00:12:22,396 Paris' love for underground worlds and innovation 115 00:12:22,486 --> 00:12:24,795 was about to take a new direction. 116 00:12:26,046 --> 00:12:29,834 At the heart of Montmartre, a subculture was bursting into life, 117 00:12:29,926 --> 00:12:31,325 Bohemianism. 118 00:12:31,406 --> 00:12:35,558 A way of life for the new generation of artists and libertines 119 00:12:35,646 --> 00:12:39,764 in search of cheap rent, inspiration and sexual adventure. 120 00:12:50,806 --> 00:12:54,003 Pretty soon the world recognised the Moulin Rouge 121 00:12:54,086 --> 00:12:58,159 as the centrepiece of the exotic kingdom of bohemia. 122 00:12:59,366 --> 00:13:02,199 The Red Windmill is the most famous nightclub in the world, 123 00:13:02,286 --> 00:13:05,915 but no self-respecting Parisian would be seen dead inside 124 00:13:06,006 --> 00:13:09,396 because it has become a fake, a tourist trap. 125 00:13:17,526 --> 00:13:19,756 Once described as ''the tavern of hell': 126 00:13:19,846 --> 00:13:23,521 this vast pleasure dome was the very symbol of bohemia, 127 00:13:23,606 --> 00:13:26,120 sexy, seductive and brash. 128 00:13:29,326 --> 00:13:33,683 It even had its own resident bohemian artist, Toulouse-Lautrec, 129 00:13:33,766 --> 00:13:35,643 whose posters and paintings 130 00:13:35,726 --> 00:13:39,002 helped immortalise the Moulin Rouge in popular culture. 131 00:13:47,846 --> 00:13:52,044 Today I can't see much evidence of the place that inspired him. 132 00:13:52,726 --> 00:13:57,880 Nobody seems to even be from Paris, including the dancers. 133 00:14:00,046 --> 00:14:02,162 DANCER: All of us auditioned in London... 134 00:14:02,246 --> 00:14:04,237 -Okay. -...and then, obviously, got the job 135 00:14:04,326 --> 00:14:06,237 and came to Paris straightaway to work. 136 00:14:06,326 --> 00:14:07,998 But why did you choose Moulin Rouge 137 00:14:08,086 --> 00:14:10,919 than maybe, I don't know, another type of band or... 138 00:14:11,006 --> 00:14:13,440 Because Moulin Rouge has so much history, 139 00:14:13,526 --> 00:14:17,758 and also you can be involved in the French cancan, 140 00:14:17,846 --> 00:14:20,565 which is an amazing thing to be involved in. 141 00:14:23,086 --> 00:14:24,963 I love fake eyelashes. 142 00:14:25,046 --> 00:14:27,435 I wanted to know, do you put them one by one or... 143 00:14:27,526 --> 00:14:29,721 No, they're a group. 144 00:14:30,446 --> 00:14:32,676 That's something else you can always practise. 145 00:14:32,766 --> 00:14:35,439 -Well, I'll come back for tips, then. -Oh, cool. 146 00:14:42,486 --> 00:14:45,205 To get a feel of the authentic bohemia, 147 00:14:45,286 --> 00:14:49,598 you have to head up Montmartre Hill to Au Lapin Agile. 148 00:14:51,446 --> 00:14:53,562 (ALL SINGING IN FRENCH) 149 00:14:56,726 --> 00:15:00,321 The haunt of pimps, anarchists and the avant-garde, 150 00:15:00,406 --> 00:15:03,921 this was where the real bohemians hung out, 151 00:15:04,006 --> 00:15:07,794 including a young painter called Pablo Picasso. 152 00:15:08,406 --> 00:15:11,364 He once painted himself drinking at the bar. 153 00:15:11,446 --> 00:15:12,765 Now worth millions, 154 00:15:12,846 --> 00:15:16,395 back then, the original paid for a few stiff drinks. 155 00:15:22,246 --> 00:15:24,123 While we're here, I may as well introduce you 156 00:15:24,206 --> 00:15:28,484 to the bohemian drink par excellence, l'absinthe, or the green fairy. 157 00:15:28,566 --> 00:15:31,922 To some people, it was just like the crack cocaine of the 1 9th century. 158 00:15:32,006 --> 00:15:34,474 I can show you a little demonstration. 159 00:15:34,926 --> 00:15:39,158 I take a sugar, you pour a bit of absinthe. 160 00:15:42,726 --> 00:15:48,005 What made absinthe notorious was what the bohemians put in it, opium. 161 00:15:50,006 --> 00:15:51,837 I prefer mine without. 162 00:15:51,926 --> 00:15:53,644 It's very nice. 163 00:16:03,246 --> 00:16:05,441 (PLAYING GYMNOPEDIE I) 164 00:16:11,126 --> 00:16:15,597 Another regular at Au Lapin Agile was the composer Erik Satie, 165 00:16:15,686 --> 00:16:19,645 who made a living tinkling the ivories of Montmartre's cabarets. 166 00:16:22,326 --> 00:16:25,477 His brain stirred with simple, haunting melodies 167 00:16:26,086 --> 00:16:28,805 that captured the other side of bohemia, 168 00:16:30,326 --> 00:16:33,318 the melancholy that comes once the crowds have gone 169 00:16:33,406 --> 00:16:36,478 and each must face his own thoughts and fears. 170 00:17:01,446 --> 00:17:03,402 (CHURCH BELLS CHIMING) 171 00:17:21,446 --> 00:17:24,677 Bohemianism was not just about having a good time. 172 00:17:24,766 --> 00:17:28,645 Behind it was a real passion for art, new art, 173 00:17:29,366 --> 00:17:32,164 ripping up the old and starting over. 174 00:17:32,846 --> 00:17:34,996 And the greatest iconoclast of them all 175 00:17:35,086 --> 00:17:38,044 was the young Spaniard from Au Lapin Agile, 176 00:17:38,126 --> 00:17:39,718 Pablo Picasso. 177 00:17:43,646 --> 00:17:45,955 I'm meeting his grandson Olivier. 178 00:17:51,526 --> 00:17:52,561 Hi, how are you? 179 00:17:52,646 --> 00:17:53,635 -Hello. -You okay? 180 00:17:53,726 --> 00:17:55,444 -I'm fine, and you? -Yeah. 181 00:17:55,526 --> 00:18:00,316 So tell me, how did your grandfather come to Paris to become an artist? 182 00:18:01,006 --> 00:18:02,758 All the Spanish young artists 183 00:18:02,846 --> 00:18:06,043 were thinking that everything was happening in Paris, 184 00:18:06,126 --> 00:18:08,117 so everyone was dreaming about coming to Paris, 185 00:18:08,206 --> 00:18:09,355 which was a long way. 186 00:18:09,446 --> 00:18:13,564 It took him about two days, a two days' journey to come to Paris. 187 00:18:13,646 --> 00:18:17,241 And his first visit was in 1 900. 188 00:18:17,326 --> 00:18:18,759 I mean, the real beginning 189 00:18:18,846 --> 00:18:21,235 -of the past century. -The turn of the century. 190 00:18:22,686 --> 00:18:24,199 Stone-broke and starving, 191 00:18:24,286 --> 00:18:28,518 Picasso could never have dreamt that one of the city's grandest buildings 192 00:18:28,606 --> 00:18:31,882 would one day become a museum devoted to his work. 193 00:18:32,686 --> 00:18:35,962 This is my grandmother, Marie-Therese. You can say hello... 194 00:18:36,046 --> 00:18:38,162 -Hello. -...before we go into the museum. 195 00:18:38,246 --> 00:18:39,759 (SPEAKING FRENCH) 196 00:18:40,766 --> 00:18:45,044 This is the very beginning, then, the blue and pink period. 197 00:18:48,046 --> 00:18:53,120 Picasso found his inspiration in the hidden underbelly of Paris. 198 00:18:53,206 --> 00:18:55,879 He was the ultimate underground painter. 199 00:18:57,766 --> 00:19:02,681 OLIVIER: This painting is typically the vision of Pablo Picasso of his time. 200 00:19:02,766 --> 00:19:05,803 Poor people living in a big city. 201 00:19:05,926 --> 00:19:07,598 She's very slim. 202 00:19:07,686 --> 00:19:09,916 -Not because she was on a diet. -No, of course. 203 00:19:10,006 --> 00:19:12,076 It's only because she had nothing to eat. 204 00:19:12,166 --> 00:19:14,157 And her gaze looks rather empty. 205 00:19:21,606 --> 00:19:25,394 Picasso soon evolved his own revolutionary style, 206 00:19:26,206 --> 00:19:29,323 but it wasn't always flattering for his sitters. 207 00:19:32,366 --> 00:19:36,245 So how did his wives feel about the way he was portraying them? 208 00:19:36,326 --> 00:19:38,476 I think they had to trust him. 209 00:19:38,606 --> 00:19:41,916 If they wanted to insist about being represented 210 00:19:42,006 --> 00:19:46,204 the way they wanted, they were not Picasso on the canvas. 211 00:19:46,286 --> 00:19:47,719 But the ones who trusted him, 212 00:19:47,806 --> 00:19:51,242 like Fernande Olivier or my grandmother, Marie-Therese, 213 00:19:51,326 --> 00:19:54,716 today you see their portraits in every museum in the world. 214 00:19:54,806 --> 00:19:58,196 So, in fact, they are immortal. 215 00:19:58,926 --> 00:20:03,636 Everything in Picasso is sincere, including the love for the woman. 216 00:20:03,726 --> 00:20:04,795 -Exactly. -Yeah. 217 00:20:04,886 --> 00:20:07,480 That's what I like about it, actually. Definitely. 218 00:20:26,806 --> 00:20:31,482 By the beginning of the 1 920s, the mood in Paris had changed. 219 00:20:31,846 --> 00:20:35,839 In the wake of the First World War, there was little to celebrate. 220 00:20:37,246 --> 00:20:40,761 Even the city itself was looking a bit downbeat. 221 00:20:46,286 --> 00:20:48,959 You know, the problem in Paris just after the First World War 222 00:20:49,046 --> 00:20:53,642 is that many buildings were just walls and not really equipped for modern life. 223 00:20:53,726 --> 00:20:56,320 And there were more and more people coming to Paris, 224 00:20:56,406 --> 00:20:58,397 coming from abroad and from the province, 225 00:20:58,486 --> 00:21:00,204 so space was really an issue 226 00:21:00,286 --> 00:21:03,756 and some places in Paris were just turning into slums. 227 00:21:09,126 --> 00:21:11,162 The English writer George Orwell, 228 00:21:11,246 --> 00:21:14,443 in his book Down and Out in Paris and London, 229 00:21:14,526 --> 00:21:18,519 describes streets like ''ravines of tall, leprous houses 230 00:21:18,606 --> 00:21:23,043 ''lurching towards one another, frozen in the act of collapse. 231 00:21:23,166 --> 00:21:25,236 ''Everywhere a sour reek, 232 00:21:25,326 --> 00:21:28,682 ''buildings bug-ridden, tuberculosis rife. '' 233 00:21:35,326 --> 00:21:39,160 In the window of this pest control shop, you can see these rats. 234 00:21:39,246 --> 00:21:42,875 They're quite huge. They were caught in the 1 920s. 235 00:21:42,966 --> 00:21:47,562 And in 1 921 there was a brief outbreak of the bubonic plague in Paris. 236 00:21:48,406 --> 00:21:51,364 It's a real throwback to the Middle Ages. 237 00:22:08,526 --> 00:22:12,565 But as old Paris crumbled, a new city began to emerge. 238 00:22:13,806 --> 00:22:15,762 During the 1 920s alone, 239 00:22:15,846 --> 00:22:18,644 the number of foreigners in the city doubled, 240 00:22:18,726 --> 00:22:21,365 people from all corners of the earth. 241 00:22:28,886 --> 00:22:33,801 During the 20th century, Paris became increasingly an international city, 242 00:22:33,886 --> 00:22:38,596 and I think that made it a magnet for influences and new ideas. 243 00:22:45,806 --> 00:22:47,876 The presence of immigrants in Paris 244 00:22:47,966 --> 00:22:50,799 was to challenge the traditional look of the city. 245 00:22:58,246 --> 00:23:00,282 This is the Grand Mosque of Paris. 246 00:23:00,366 --> 00:23:03,039 I wanted to show you this place because I just love it. 247 00:23:03,126 --> 00:23:04,605 You don't feel in Paris here. 248 00:23:04,686 --> 00:23:08,520 You think you could be in the Alhambra gardens in Spain. 249 00:23:08,686 --> 00:23:11,120 And I like it so much because it's peaceful here. 250 00:23:11,206 --> 00:23:14,243 I love the architecture. It's very elegant and stylish. 251 00:23:16,766 --> 00:23:19,997 But this peaceful place right in the heart of the Left Bank 252 00:23:20,086 --> 00:23:22,042 tells a sad story. 253 00:23:22,126 --> 00:23:25,198 The Grand Mosque was built in 1 926 254 00:23:25,326 --> 00:23:28,443 to honour the tens of thousands of French Muslims 255 00:23:28,526 --> 00:23:31,518 who died fighting in the First World War. 256 00:23:37,246 --> 00:23:41,080 It wasn't just Paris' architecture that took a new direction. 257 00:23:41,406 --> 00:23:44,716 People think of Paris as the home of French cuisine, 258 00:23:44,806 --> 00:23:48,958 but today it serves up the food of many other countries, too. 259 00:23:50,486 --> 00:23:52,442 Moussa l'Africain is a restaurant 260 00:23:52,526 --> 00:23:55,836 run by award-winning chef Alexandre Bella Olla 261 00:23:55,926 --> 00:23:57,678 from the Cameroons. 262 00:24:58,246 --> 00:24:59,520 Mmm! 263 00:25:17,766 --> 00:25:21,236 It wasn't just the promise of work that drew people to Paris, 264 00:25:21,326 --> 00:25:24,602 but its reputation as a place of tolerance and freedom. 265 00:25:25,566 --> 00:25:29,559 From Britain and America came struggling writers and artists. 266 00:25:31,366 --> 00:25:34,915 /ames Joyce, Ernest Hemingway and Henry Miller 267 00:25:35,006 --> 00:25:38,919 were able to write and publish seamy, shocking books 268 00:25:39,006 --> 00:25:43,397 that would raise eyebrows or even face censorship back home. 269 00:25:45,326 --> 00:25:48,443 My favourite expat artist was not a writer. 270 00:25:48,526 --> 00:25:50,517 She was a dancer and singer. 271 00:25:54,566 --> 00:25:56,602 (PLAYING JAZZ) 272 00:25:58,366 --> 00:26:01,836 /osephine Baker was an American, but the colour of her skin 273 00:26:01,926 --> 00:26:04,838 meant she could never be a leading lady back home. 274 00:26:04,926 --> 00:26:07,759 When she came to Paris in 1 925, 275 00:26:07,846 --> 00:26:11,077 her wild dancing entranced her newly adopted city. 276 00:26:12,126 --> 00:26:15,163 She became the belle of Paris. 277 00:26:15,246 --> 00:26:19,125 Her death 50 years later brought the city to a standstill. 278 00:26:21,606 --> 00:26:24,803 Today there is even a public square named after her. 279 00:26:27,286 --> 00:26:29,083 (SINGING IN FRENCH) 280 00:26:31,686 --> 00:26:33,916 She can still draw a crowd 281 00:26:34,006 --> 00:26:37,555 through American impersonator Nicole Rochelle. 282 00:26:46,926 --> 00:26:48,803 -Hi, Nicole. -Hello! 283 00:26:48,886 --> 00:26:51,525 -You're just great like that. -Hi, thank you. 284 00:26:51,606 --> 00:26:53,722 -A real Josephine Baker. -Thank you. 285 00:26:53,806 --> 00:26:56,639 So why do you think Josephine Baker came to Paris? 286 00:26:56,726 --> 00:26:59,638 Well, I think it was definitely a necessity 287 00:26:59,726 --> 00:27:03,685 because black people couldn't even, you know, sit with white people 288 00:27:03,766 --> 00:27:06,997 and drink at the bar after they did their show in the jazz, 289 00:27:07,086 --> 00:27:09,316 whereas here, Josephine came and she was free. 290 00:27:09,406 --> 00:27:12,876 She had her top off and nobody was saying, 291 00:27:12,966 --> 00:27:15,196 ''Oh, my God, she's got breasts!'' you know. 292 00:27:15,286 --> 00:27:17,402 But in the United States, sometimes it's like this. 293 00:27:17,486 --> 00:27:22,435 So I felt always free with my body and comfortable being naked. 294 00:27:22,526 --> 00:27:26,883 And in dance, she's also such a genius, naturally, in dance. 295 00:27:26,966 --> 00:27:29,275 -Would you like to show us? -I might. 296 00:27:29,366 --> 00:27:31,243 -Thank you very much. -I might like to. 297 00:27:31,326 --> 00:27:34,841 For me, I know she always goes, like, really high 298 00:27:34,926 --> 00:27:36,996 and she whips her leg in there, 299 00:27:37,086 --> 00:27:39,042 -and so whip the leg in. -Yes. 300 00:27:39,126 --> 00:27:40,161 -Come. -Yeah? 301 00:27:40,246 --> 00:27:41,918 -Yes, try this. -Do you think I can? 302 00:27:42,006 --> 00:27:46,158 You just go high and then put up and lift. 303 00:27:46,846 --> 00:27:49,121 Yes. Scoop it in. 304 00:27:49,206 --> 00:27:51,515 -Attends, let me see. -Scoop it that way. 305 00:27:52,126 --> 00:27:56,085 Yeah. You can go out, too. And then you gotta go really quickly. 306 00:27:56,166 --> 00:27:58,202 -You're much more stylish than me. -Cut it to the side. 307 00:27:58,286 --> 00:28:00,959 -And maybe twist a little. -A bit like twisting, like that? 308 00:28:01,046 --> 00:28:04,516 Yeah! She's all about twisting, twisting, Josephine. 309 00:28:04,606 --> 00:28:07,325 Just twist and to the side and twist and twist back, twist back. 310 00:28:07,406 --> 00:28:09,636 So I'm always like twist, twist, twist. 311 00:28:09,726 --> 00:28:12,160 So is it more shimmy or Charleston, you think? 312 00:28:12,246 --> 00:28:15,875 Shimmy? It's like both, all together. 313 00:28:15,966 --> 00:28:20,005 -Shimmy, Charleston, twist, you know? -And that was her whole creation. 314 00:28:20,086 --> 00:28:22,680 So if you try them all together, that's kind of like Josephine. 315 00:28:22,766 --> 00:28:25,439 Almost everything she did is everything all together. 316 00:28:25,526 --> 00:28:29,565 Clown, sexy, high, low, shimmy, Charleston. 317 00:28:29,646 --> 00:28:31,443 It's... I love her. 318 00:28:31,526 --> 00:28:33,801 The Parisian people were in love with her, definitely. 319 00:28:33,886 --> 00:28:35,160 -Yeah. -And still are. 320 00:28:41,806 --> 00:28:45,719 Paris'golden age as the cultural melting pot of the world 321 00:28:45,806 --> 00:28:47,922 was brought to an abrupt end. 322 00:28:52,246 --> 00:28:56,876 In June 1 940, shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, 323 00:28:56,966 --> 00:28:59,639 Nazi troops marched into Paris. 324 00:29:03,326 --> 00:29:05,317 The shock of invasion was profound, 325 00:29:05,406 --> 00:29:09,957 not only to Parisians and French people, but also to the whole world. 326 00:29:10,646 --> 00:29:13,956 Paris was the city of light, civilisation and freedom. 327 00:29:14,846 --> 00:29:16,916 Suddenly it was an occupied city. 328 00:29:18,846 --> 00:29:21,360 After a few weeks, Hitler himself visited 329 00:29:21,446 --> 00:29:25,405 and was photographed like a tourist in front of the Eiffel Tower. 330 00:29:27,246 --> 00:29:31,364 He casually remarked that he had thought about destroying the city 331 00:29:31,446 --> 00:29:33,676 but couldn't be bothered. 332 00:29:33,766 --> 00:29:38,920 Instead, after 20 years of Paris being a refuge to the people of the world, 333 00:29:39,006 --> 00:29:42,794 Hitler brought xenophobia and hatred back to the city. 334 00:30:01,326 --> 00:30:03,999 Here we're in the Marais. It's quite famous nowadays 335 00:30:04,086 --> 00:30:06,680 for all the nice boutiques and all the posh restaurants, 336 00:30:06,766 --> 00:30:09,678 but back then it was a Jewish working-class area 337 00:30:09,766 --> 00:30:11,438 also called the Pletzel. 338 00:30:11,526 --> 00:30:15,280 So here it's Rue des Rosiers. You can see all the falafel shops. 339 00:30:15,366 --> 00:30:19,245 And it's still, nowadays, the very heart of the Jewish community. 340 00:30:23,646 --> 00:30:27,400 /ewish people had been living in Paris for over 1,500 years. 341 00:30:30,286 --> 00:30:35,076 On the 1 4th of May, 1 94 1, on the orders from the Nazis, 342 00:30:35,166 --> 00:30:38,124 the city's police began to round them up. 343 00:30:42,166 --> 00:30:44,760 Rachel Jedinak was eight at the time. 344 00:32:04,046 --> 00:32:06,241 Along with thousands of others, 345 00:32:06,326 --> 00:32:10,842 Rachel's mother was taken to a housing estate in the suburb of Drancy 346 00:32:10,926 --> 00:32:14,282 which was used as a holding camp before deportation. 347 00:33:12,326 --> 00:33:16,797 While the city authorities collaborated, others resisted. 348 00:33:19,766 --> 00:33:21,518 (SPEAKING FRENCH) 349 00:33:32,526 --> 00:33:36,838 The Paris catacombs had often provided a home to underground movements, 350 00:33:36,926 --> 00:33:39,679 and during the war they did so once more. 351 00:33:45,646 --> 00:33:48,956 This was the command centre of the Paris resistance. 352 00:33:51,526 --> 00:33:55,439 Over 1 5,000 Parisian men and women risked their lives 353 00:33:55,526 --> 00:33:57,756 to overthrow the Nazis, 354 00:33:57,846 --> 00:34:02,044 from distributing propaganda and helping Jews to escape 355 00:34:02,126 --> 00:34:05,801 to assassinating Nazi officers and fighting in the streets. 356 00:34:08,806 --> 00:34:11,366 It's a real labyrinth here. 357 00:34:11,446 --> 00:34:15,883 It's just long corridors, small rooms. 358 00:34:16,446 --> 00:34:20,325 But it's rather suffocating because there is very little air, 359 00:34:20,406 --> 00:34:24,115 so they must have been living in very poor conditions, actually, 360 00:34:24,966 --> 00:34:26,604 as you might expect. 361 00:34:32,006 --> 00:34:35,157 Vandals have since covered the walls with graffiti, 362 00:34:35,246 --> 00:34:38,522 but you can still see some of the bunker's original signs. 363 00:34:42,406 --> 00:34:47,480 Well, just seeing them living here and planning their operations, 364 00:34:47,566 --> 00:34:49,124 I understand a bit better now 365 00:34:49,206 --> 00:34:53,085 why the resistance were called the ''army of shadows''. 366 00:35:11,526 --> 00:35:14,438 Allied forces, including the Paris resistance, 367 00:35:14,526 --> 00:35:16,960 liberated Paris in 1 944. 368 00:35:20,006 --> 00:35:22,918 And now a new generation of bohemians 369 00:35:23,006 --> 00:35:25,918 emerged to haunt the thin, winding streets 370 00:35:26,006 --> 00:35:27,883 surrounding the university. 371 00:35:31,326 --> 00:35:35,205 They came out at night and gathered in underground clubs. 372 00:35:35,846 --> 00:35:38,918 The press called them ''cellar rats'' and ''troglodytes': 373 00:35:39,006 --> 00:35:42,157 and yet even they had a strange sort of glamour. 374 00:35:45,966 --> 00:35:47,604 There are few places in the world 375 00:35:47,686 --> 00:35:50,883 which have the mythical status of the Left Bank, la rive gauche. 376 00:35:50,966 --> 00:35:55,198 You think of students, radical intellectuals, jazz and hedonism. 377 00:35:55,286 --> 00:35:57,959 And on the whole, the Left Bank delivers. 378 00:36:03,606 --> 00:36:05,403 Right, so... 379 00:36:06,086 --> 00:36:09,761 This is the only place in the world where you can find a machine 380 00:36:09,846 --> 00:36:13,680 which doesn't sell tobacco, cigarettes or candies, 381 00:36:13,766 --> 00:36:17,475 but books, just in case you have a need for enlightenment 382 00:36:17,566 --> 00:36:19,477 at 3:00 in the morning. 383 00:36:20,246 --> 00:36:21,565 Oops. 384 00:36:22,006 --> 00:36:25,681 And I've got a special need to refresh my English, 385 00:36:25,766 --> 00:36:31,159 so I'm going to choose number 24, the dictionary, 386 00:36:31,246 --> 00:36:33,521 French/English, English/French. 387 00:36:34,766 --> 00:36:36,119 Oh, I love it! 388 00:36:37,646 --> 00:36:39,477 (IMITATING CLATTERING) 389 00:36:43,366 --> 00:36:45,960 Ah, I feel much better. 390 00:36:53,046 --> 00:36:55,514 The heroes of the Left Bank were philosophers, 391 00:36:55,606 --> 00:36:58,439 like Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, 392 00:36:58,526 --> 00:37:00,835 known as the Existentialists. 393 00:37:01,046 --> 00:37:04,118 They worked and socialised in the cafes and bars, 394 00:37:04,206 --> 00:37:06,595 becoming almost permanent fixtures. 395 00:37:12,086 --> 00:37:15,601 Existentialism proposed that man is alone on the earth 396 00:37:15,686 --> 00:37:18,280 and he has to create his own meaning in life. 397 00:37:18,366 --> 00:37:21,881 ''That God doesn't exist, I cannot deny,'' said Sartre, 398 00:37:21,966 --> 00:37:25,515 ''but that my whole being cries out for God, I cannot forget.'' 399 00:37:25,886 --> 00:37:27,524 (ARGUING IN FRENCH) 400 00:37:27,606 --> 00:37:31,042 Even today, talking philosophy is a sign of cool 401 00:37:31,126 --> 00:37:33,003 and can be a bit of a come-on. 402 00:38:08,366 --> 00:38:13,121 I, too, lived the Left Bank dream as a student back in the 1 990s. 403 00:38:14,366 --> 00:38:16,926 I can't resist taking a trip down memory lane 404 00:38:17,006 --> 00:38:19,440 to Rue Mouffetard, where I had my digs. 405 00:38:21,966 --> 00:38:24,560 Imagine, I was this little provincial girl 406 00:38:24,646 --> 00:38:28,844 just leaving family comfort to live on my own in a big city. 407 00:38:28,926 --> 00:38:31,315 It was like a rebirth, actually. 408 00:38:31,406 --> 00:38:35,957 My flat was just here, Hotel de Carcassonne, 409 00:38:36,646 --> 00:38:39,206 a lovely little room of nine metres square 410 00:38:39,286 --> 00:38:42,642 without much water, without shower, without toilets. 411 00:38:42,726 --> 00:38:47,561 And I used to have, actually, my shower at public baths with beggars, 412 00:38:47,646 --> 00:38:49,955 so it was all very charming and bohemian. 413 00:38:56,646 --> 00:38:59,877 When I was a student, it wasn't only the bars I fell in love with, 414 00:38:59,966 --> 00:39:01,684 also cinemas. 415 00:39:01,766 --> 00:39:03,996 And on a day like this, let me tell you, 416 00:39:04,086 --> 00:39:06,361 it's nice to go to a tiny independent cinema 417 00:39:06,446 --> 00:39:10,234 and just watch all the movies you've ever wanted to watch. 418 00:39:14,726 --> 00:39:18,036 Paris is mad about film, and in the age of the multiplex, 419 00:39:18,126 --> 00:39:20,765 we fight hard to preserve our small cinemas. 420 00:39:20,846 --> 00:39:22,802 (SPEAKING FRENCH) 421 00:40:10,446 --> 00:40:14,280 It was here that I first fell in love with the films of the nouvelle vague, 422 00:40:14,366 --> 00:40:19,235 the Parisian underground film movement of the late '50s and '60s. 423 00:40:19,326 --> 00:40:22,477 Directors like Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard 424 00:40:22,566 --> 00:40:25,956 determined to wrestle cinema culture back from Hollywood, 425 00:40:26,046 --> 00:40:29,595 mixing militant politics with sex appeal and style. 426 00:40:30,806 --> 00:40:33,923 Their films presented an enchanting image of Paris 427 00:40:34,006 --> 00:40:37,396 that made the real place all the more exciting for me. 428 00:40:42,246 --> 00:40:45,761 I can't resist taking advantage of having a film crew at hand 429 00:40:45,846 --> 00:40:47,916 to show you how it's done. 430 00:40:50,966 --> 00:40:52,797 To make a nouvelle vague film, 431 00:40:52,886 --> 00:40:56,322 first of all you need one of these, a Renault 8. 432 00:40:56,406 --> 00:40:59,364 It's more than a car, it's a film machine. 433 00:40:59,446 --> 00:41:00,481 All right, boys. 434 00:41:02,526 --> 00:41:06,075 Nouvelle vague films were made in black-and-white on a shoestring. 435 00:41:06,166 --> 00:41:08,999 The Renault 8, since it had the engine in the back, 436 00:41:09,086 --> 00:41:11,759 offered a cheap way of filming people driving. 437 00:41:31,446 --> 00:41:33,960 Nouvelle vague films blend Hollywood glamour 438 00:41:34,046 --> 00:41:35,638 with Left Bank intellectualism. 439 00:41:35,726 --> 00:41:38,081 They take the gangsters and the femmes fatales 440 00:41:38,166 --> 00:41:40,680 and they put them into an existentialist setting 441 00:41:40,766 --> 00:41:44,759 to explore themes like loneliness and human alienation. 442 00:41:45,406 --> 00:41:49,479 New York Herald Tribune. Herald Tribune. 443 00:41:49,566 --> 00:41:52,558 Whether a sulker or a fun lover, 444 00:41:52,646 --> 00:41:56,321 the nouvelle vague hero is, at heart, always alone. 445 00:42:00,806 --> 00:42:04,082 Nouvelle vague techniques broke with traditional filmmaking. 446 00:42:04,166 --> 00:42:06,236 Most popular was le jump cut, 447 00:42:06,326 --> 00:42:09,124 chopping out sections from a continuous shot, 448 00:42:09,206 --> 00:42:11,845 destroying any sense of continuity of time. 449 00:42:13,326 --> 00:42:15,715 The audience should never be allowed to forget 450 00:42:15,806 --> 00:42:18,639 it's watching an artificial construct, a film. 451 00:42:18,726 --> 00:42:22,639 So sounds can be cut out, slogans flashed up onscreen, 452 00:42:23,046 --> 00:42:25,435 and the very mechanics of filmmaking revealed. 453 00:42:28,966 --> 00:42:32,561 But the real star of the nouvelle vague was Paris herself. 454 00:42:34,566 --> 00:42:36,796 Never was Paris so adored. 455 00:42:36,886 --> 00:42:41,402 Entire scenes consist of nothing but the passing array of the city. 456 00:42:48,086 --> 00:42:50,998 The nouvelle vague also did love and romance, 457 00:42:51,086 --> 00:42:53,316 but it was never simple. 458 00:43:40,886 --> 00:43:43,559 UE T'AIME MOI NON PLUS PLAYING) 459 00:43:47,086 --> 00:43:50,283 The nouvelle vague redefined Parisian cool, 460 00:43:50,366 --> 00:43:54,120 but the coolest of them all was a singer, Serge Gainsbourg. 461 00:43:57,286 --> 00:44:00,596 Right up until his death in the early 1 990s, 462 00:44:00,686 --> 00:44:03,280 he was the city's best-loved bohemian. 463 00:44:08,686 --> 00:44:12,565 In the '60s, he summed up the entire cultural revolution 464 00:44:12,646 --> 00:44:14,398 in one legendary song, 465 00:44:14,486 --> 00:44:17,239 sung with his muse and lover, /ane Birkin. 466 00:44:33,286 --> 00:44:35,595 When I first turned up in Paris, 467 00:44:35,686 --> 00:44:39,759 I went to Serge's parents' apartment in Avenue Bugeaud, 468 00:44:39,846 --> 00:44:43,725 where he put on Je t'aime moi non plus done by himself and Brigitte Bardot, 469 00:44:43,806 --> 00:44:46,195 whereupon I felt distinctly sweaty around the collar, 470 00:44:46,286 --> 00:44:48,481 and it was extremely attractive. 471 00:44:48,566 --> 00:44:51,205 He said, ''Would you like to sing that song again?'' 472 00:44:51,286 --> 00:44:54,676 So off we went to Marble Arch, enormous studio. 473 00:44:54,766 --> 00:44:57,485 You only had one take in those days. I think we did it in two. 474 00:44:57,566 --> 00:45:00,285 He was so frightened that I'd get the breathing thing wrong 475 00:45:00,366 --> 00:45:02,596 that I stop a tiny bit early, if you listen to it. 476 00:45:02,686 --> 00:45:04,278 Then it goes very high. 477 00:45:04,366 --> 00:45:06,004 (SPEAKING FRENCH) 478 00:45:06,406 --> 00:45:08,522 (HEAVY BREATHING) 479 00:45:20,966 --> 00:45:22,957 We sang it, we came back to Paris. 480 00:45:23,046 --> 00:45:25,276 We were in the Hotel des Beaux-Arts, just next door. 481 00:45:25,366 --> 00:45:29,518 So downstairs was the restaurant, and he put on the floppy record. 482 00:45:29,606 --> 00:45:32,200 And people were eating and then suddenly we put it on, 483 00:45:32,286 --> 00:45:35,119 and when I started singing the beginning, 484 00:45:35,206 --> 00:45:37,800 you noticed all the knives and forks went up, then complete silence. 485 00:45:37,886 --> 00:45:41,481 Then people stopped eating, and then you heard people sort of go... 486 00:45:41,566 --> 00:45:45,639 Like that. And Serge said, ''I think we've got a hit.'' 487 00:45:45,726 --> 00:45:48,559 (SPEAKING FRENCH) 488 00:45:48,646 --> 00:45:52,036 The Vatican banned it, the BBC banned it. 489 00:45:52,126 --> 00:45:53,445 I played it to my mother, 490 00:45:53,526 --> 00:45:56,199 and very craftily, every time the heavy breathing came, 491 00:45:56,286 --> 00:45:58,675 I took the needle off and put it a bit further down, 492 00:45:58,766 --> 00:46:01,963 so she only heard the singing and they thought it was rather sweet. 493 00:46:02,926 --> 00:46:04,757 (HEAVY BREATHING) 494 00:46:22,686 --> 00:46:26,042 Even though Paris could still shock and wow the world, 495 00:46:26,126 --> 00:46:29,118 it was in danger of appearing a little passe. 496 00:46:33,086 --> 00:46:37,238 Despite two world wars, Paris emerged almost unscathed, 497 00:46:37,326 --> 00:46:38,998 miraculously perhaps. 498 00:46:41,046 --> 00:46:44,083 Well, the temptation to leave it as it is, 499 00:46:44,166 --> 00:46:46,396 like a museum piece, was great, 500 00:46:47,046 --> 00:46:50,880 but fortunately the city was determined not to be left behind. 501 00:46:58,006 --> 00:47:01,123 The task of updating Paris fell to the students. 502 00:47:02,206 --> 00:47:04,401 For many of them, the city felt burdened 503 00:47:04,486 --> 00:47:07,637 with outmoded institutions and regulations, 504 00:47:07,726 --> 00:47:10,479 its ancient buildings, plain old-fashioned. 505 00:47:15,726 --> 00:47:18,923 The Sorbonne, the historic heart of the university, 506 00:47:19,006 --> 00:47:21,201 had been a hotbed for new ideas 507 00:47:21,286 --> 00:47:24,039 since its foundation in the 1 3th century. 508 00:47:27,206 --> 00:47:30,755 For the youth in the '60s, it wasn't a very easy situation. 509 00:47:30,846 --> 00:47:34,122 The old war hero Charles de Gaulle was still in power 510 00:47:34,206 --> 00:47:36,800 and couldn't engage very much with the youth. 511 00:47:36,886 --> 00:47:41,118 So you had lots of discontentment, I would say, 512 00:47:41,206 --> 00:47:43,162 and people wanted just to break free. 513 00:47:45,686 --> 00:47:49,804 It all began when the Sorbonne tried to expel some radical students. 514 00:47:50,486 --> 00:47:53,558 A peaceful protest was met by police brutality. 515 00:47:55,086 --> 00:47:59,238 The city rose up, not just students, but ordinary citizens, too. 516 00:48:01,566 --> 00:48:03,079 Their cry was freedom, 517 00:48:03,166 --> 00:48:07,125 freedom to be and say what they wanted without censorship. 518 00:48:08,566 --> 00:48:10,079 But to the outside world 519 00:48:10,166 --> 00:48:13,078 watching the riots and the destruction of the streets, 520 00:48:13,166 --> 00:48:16,681 it looked as if the rioters held Paris herself to blame. 521 00:48:20,046 --> 00:48:24,005 May '68 was as much a cultural as a political uprising. 522 00:48:24,806 --> 00:48:27,400 There were slogans graffitied on the walls here 523 00:48:27,486 --> 00:48:29,317 and on the streets outside 524 00:48:29,406 --> 00:48:33,399 saying ''Pouvoir a l'imagination': ''All power to imagination''. 525 00:48:40,726 --> 00:48:44,116 May '68 stopped short of full-scale revolution, 526 00:48:44,206 --> 00:48:47,642 largely due to the diplomacy of Georges Pompidou. 527 00:48:47,726 --> 00:48:50,320 When he was elected President the following year, 528 00:48:50,406 --> 00:48:53,125 he tried to bring the city into the modern age. 529 00:49:04,446 --> 00:49:07,677 Pompidou wanted to make Paris a high-tech city 530 00:49:07,766 --> 00:49:10,883 and gave his support to many schemes. 531 00:49:10,966 --> 00:49:14,561 Some things, like the siphoning of traffic along the Seine, 532 00:49:14,646 --> 00:49:16,364 are hard to love. 533 00:49:16,966 --> 00:49:21,403 Others, like La Defense, a business area on the edge of the city, 534 00:49:21,486 --> 00:49:23,795 have recently come into their own. 535 00:49:32,406 --> 00:49:36,035 The jewel in Pompidou's crown was the Pompidou Centre, 536 00:49:36,126 --> 00:49:37,957 a palace of modern art. 537 00:49:39,366 --> 00:49:41,197 Hated by many at the time, 538 00:49:41,286 --> 00:49:44,881 it's now accepted as one of the city's great attractions. 539 00:49:47,486 --> 00:49:50,478 Whatever the success of Pompidou's individual projects, 540 00:49:50,566 --> 00:49:51,840 his attitude was right 541 00:49:51,926 --> 00:49:54,394 because it created a precedent for modernisation 542 00:49:54,486 --> 00:49:56,954 which allowed Paris to continue evolving. 543 00:50:00,486 --> 00:50:04,718 Pompidou set a fashion that many of France's presidents followed. 544 00:50:04,806 --> 00:50:10,278 Paris is now dotted with grands projets, architectural prestige projects. 545 00:50:14,246 --> 00:50:17,238 Some Parisians love them, some hate them, 546 00:50:17,326 --> 00:50:19,078 but the grands projets are important 547 00:50:19,166 --> 00:50:21,555 because they're part of Paris as a modern city 548 00:50:21,646 --> 00:50:24,240 not content to simply rest on its laurels. 549 00:50:24,326 --> 00:50:27,045 Reposer sur ses lauriers, as we say in French. 550 00:50:32,526 --> 00:50:34,994 But for all of Pompidou's forward thinking, 551 00:50:35,086 --> 00:50:38,556 he was unable to face up to Paris'greatest challenge, 552 00:50:39,406 --> 00:50:41,636 the banlieues. 553 00:50:41,726 --> 00:50:43,796 Over the course of the 20th century, 554 00:50:43,886 --> 00:50:48,323 the population of Paris' suburbs soared from one to 1 0 million. 555 00:50:50,686 --> 00:50:53,154 Paris is becoming a tale of two cities, 556 00:50:53,246 --> 00:50:55,316 rich people occupying the centre, 557 00:50:55,406 --> 00:50:59,001 poor people and immigrants forced into the banlieues. 558 00:50:59,806 --> 00:51:02,161 This is not the Paris people dream of, 559 00:51:02,246 --> 00:51:05,556 but for three quarters of Parisians, it is reality. 560 00:51:08,486 --> 00:51:12,240 Filmmaker Alice Diop has lived in the banlieue all her life. 561 00:51:49,846 --> 00:51:51,723 After decades of growing tension, 562 00:51:51,806 --> 00:51:56,322 in November 2005 there was violent rioting throughout the banlieues. 563 00:51:58,246 --> 00:52:01,204 President Chirac declared a state of emergency. 564 00:52:02,966 --> 00:52:05,161 It was like May '68 all over again, 565 00:52:06,606 --> 00:52:08,801 but the motivation was different. 566 00:52:08,886 --> 00:52:13,516 These Parisians were angry at being treated as second-class citizens. 567 00:53:01,006 --> 00:53:02,883 Today visitors could be forgiven 568 00:53:02,966 --> 00:53:06,322 for thinking that only rich people live in the centre of Paris. 569 00:53:12,326 --> 00:53:15,602 It's a world of fine apartments and fancy boutiques, 570 00:53:16,886 --> 00:53:19,605 indulgence and exquisite pleasures. 571 00:53:34,406 --> 00:53:37,842 Even bohemianism, once an exciting artistic movement, 572 00:53:37,926 --> 00:53:41,680 seems to have become no more than a fashionable affectation. 573 00:53:42,726 --> 00:53:46,435 Around Canal Saint-Martin in east Paris, you find the bobos. 574 00:53:48,366 --> 00:53:50,118 A bobo is a bourgeois boheme, 575 00:53:50,206 --> 00:53:52,561 someone who can afford to live in the centre 576 00:53:52,646 --> 00:53:55,922 but who has the bohemian values and the romantic lifestyle. 577 00:53:56,006 --> 00:53:58,566 We call it ''avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre': 578 00:53:58,646 --> 00:54:01,524 in other words, having your cake and eating it. 579 00:54:08,766 --> 00:54:11,758 So how can you recognise a bobo in the street? 580 00:54:11,846 --> 00:54:14,155 So, usually it's by the appearance. 581 00:54:14,246 --> 00:54:16,601 Camper shoes, designer clothes. 582 00:54:21,566 --> 00:54:25,320 So, Chez Prune, definitely bobo, restaurant bobo. 583 00:54:34,766 --> 00:54:37,200 That's not bobo at all, 584 00:54:37,286 --> 00:54:40,961 but it could become bobo, because bobo likes kitsch. 585 00:54:51,846 --> 00:54:54,997 Actually, there are lots of wannabe bobos, 586 00:54:55,086 --> 00:54:58,317 because not many people have the cash to be bobo. 587 00:54:59,166 --> 00:55:00,519 Am I a bobo? 588 00:55:00,606 --> 00:55:03,803 Well, maybe not. Depends if I had a good month or not. 589 00:55:14,446 --> 00:55:17,165 Real bohemianism, which endured so long, 590 00:55:17,246 --> 00:55:20,443 even surviving the ravages of the Second World War, 591 00:55:20,526 --> 00:55:24,678 has met its greatest match in sky-high property prices. 592 00:55:28,766 --> 00:55:33,078 What has made Paris dynamic throughout the 20th century until now? 593 00:55:33,166 --> 00:55:37,000 It's what lies underneath. Its anti-conformism, the underground. 594 00:55:37,086 --> 00:55:39,725 And we need to keep this spirit alive. 595 00:55:43,526 --> 00:55:46,643 Parisians, in their rebellious, inimitable way, 596 00:55:46,726 --> 00:55:49,194 are already rising to the challenge. 597 00:55:49,286 --> 00:55:51,004 (SPEAKING FRENCH) 598 00:55:57,526 --> 00:56:00,757 You can see it in the many artists' squats, 599 00:56:00,846 --> 00:56:02,996 old warehouses illegally occupied 600 00:56:03,086 --> 00:56:06,442 by those who want to share in the city's artistic heritage 601 00:56:06,526 --> 00:56:09,279 but cannot afford studio space. 602 00:56:09,366 --> 00:56:12,756 This place is perfect for me. 603 00:56:12,846 --> 00:56:15,519 SANDRINE: What about London and Berlin, for example? 604 00:56:26,286 --> 00:56:28,561 You see this spirit outside, too. 605 00:56:30,486 --> 00:56:33,603 If you're out on a Friday night in Paris' streets, 606 00:56:33,686 --> 00:56:36,439 you might be treated to a special sight. 607 00:56:41,366 --> 00:56:44,802 Thousands of Rollerbladers bring the city to a halt, 608 00:56:45,846 --> 00:56:49,919 reminding us that Paris isn't just to be looked at and admired 609 00:56:50,006 --> 00:56:52,156 but experienced and enjoyed. 610 00:56:59,246 --> 00:57:03,717 This spirit will always be there because it is part of Paris' DNA, 611 00:57:03,806 --> 00:57:06,479 part of what makes Paris Paris. 612 00:57:13,966 --> 00:57:19,040 Over its long history, it has defined itself as a city of innovation, 613 00:57:24,006 --> 00:57:26,315 a breeding ground of ideas 614 00:57:31,086 --> 00:57:33,361 and a hotbed of revolution, 615 00:57:39,246 --> 00:57:43,558 but most of all, a lighthouse city attracting the people of the world 616 00:57:44,366 --> 00:57:49,486 to keep it ever-changing, ever-growing, ever-young. 617 00:57:59,366 --> 00:58:01,926 Paris is as alluring today as ever, 618 00:58:02,006 --> 00:58:04,076 not just because it has survived so well 619 00:58:04,166 --> 00:58:05,838 but also because it has evolved 620 00:58:05,926 --> 00:58:09,965 and Parisian people continue to keep her alive and exciting. 621 00:58:10,886 --> 00:58:12,842 Who could ask for more? 622 00:58:16,166 --> 00:58:17,918 (SANDRINE WHOOPS) 623 00:58:31,486 --> 00:58:32,919 For a free bilingual guide 624 00:58:33,006 --> 00:58:35,600 featuring one of my favourite walks in Paris 625 00:58:35,686 --> 00:58:38,837 and more about Open University programmes on the BBC, 626 00:58:38,926 --> 00:58:43,124 call 0870 900 958 1 627 00:58:43,206 --> 00:58:47,643 or go to bbc.co.uk/paris.