We also saw clubs and theaters where many greats from the jazz era played and the Bobino, the theater where Josephine Baker gave her final performance.
We also passed several literary sites, including Falstaff, a bar that Hemingway and Fitzgerald liked to go to. (Fitting name, right?) What may have been most exciting, though, was passing La Closerie des Lilas, the restaurant that served as the setting for a crucial scene in James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, one of the texts from the course.
It was exciting to see the very places that inspired great moments in literature, to see the sites where renowned musicians performed, and to see the very places where artists lived and painted. It added a rich layer to their work.
We ate Korean barbeque in the area, and after we finished, we ended our second day in Paris with Nutella and banana crêpes. So good. So good.
Today was devoted to Langston Hughes. We read his autobiography The Big Sea while on campus, and though he only spent about ten months in Paris, it was clear that the city meant a great deal to Hughes. He thoroughly enjoyed his stay, and today was focused on seeing the Paris that Hughes saw.
We retraced his first few days in the City of Lights. Hughes stayed in the Montmartre area of Paris. We started our tour where Hughes started his journey in Montmartre: Notre Dame de Lorette.
While walking the streets, we saw where Hughes worked as a bouncer and a dishwasher and the jazz clubs Hughes used to frequent.
While walking the streets that Hughes walked, his autobiography—his words—started to come to life for us.
Today was devoted to Josephine Baker. We started at L’église de la Madeleine, where her funeral was held in 1975. In addition, we passed many theaters where Baker used to perform, including Pierre Cardin and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. The Théâtre des Champs-Elysées was also where Langston Hughes’s The Prodigal Son debuted and where, more recently, Quincy Jones has played.
We also walked the block where Baker lived at one point, and we stopped at l’Hôtel Claridge, where W.E.B. Du Bois was honored.
To some of us, Josephine Baker was the hero of the course, even though some of her artistic choices could be (and were) debated. She loved Paris, and she also became a fixture in the city’s culture. She was a black woman, so she had a lot working against her, but she still became a millionaire and was loved by the public. It was thrilling to see the very places where she performed.
Today we took the metro to the Barbès-Rochechouart stop, located in the area known as Little Africa. We walked through an outdoor market and passed many shops selling African-inspired fabrics, which Professor Leonard explained were actually imported from other European countries. We found out that many incoming immigrants pick this area to live when first moving to Paris. We also noted that (like many urban areas) the parts of the city that are monopolized by marginalized groups tend to be more run down and less developed than other areas of the city.
A close-up of Sacré Coeur's façade.
This led to a discussion of assimilation and identity, which were both themes of the course. We talked about how geography contributes to who we are as individuals and whether or not it should. We also talked about the lure of Paris, and what exactly it represented to the African-American artists we studied.
We had today all to ourselves, and we could explore the city as we wished. During our free time, some of us went to Musée d’Orsay, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and Notre Dame. Me? I went to Roland Garros. I love tennis, and I have always wanted to go to the French Open. Although the Open ended a few weeks before our trip, I still wanted to see the red clay. I was lucky because there was a juniors tournament being played, so I was treated to a few matches.
I also went to the Centre Pompidou with my free time. There was a great exhibit about spirituality, the role it plays in society, and its relationship to religion. It was a diversified collection, and it reminded me of the role religion plays in some of the writing of Richard Wright and Langston Hughes.
It was our last day in the city, and we went back to Montmartre, the area Langston Hughes called home while he was in Paris. We strolled by the Moulin Rouge on our way to Sacré Coeur, a church that serves as the highest point in Paris. There were many artists painting the view (or painting tourists for a fee).
It was a fitting last stop for our trip. We were on top of Paris, looking at the city that inspired so many African-American artists, who then inspired us. There was something poetic about being there.
Of course we couldn’t leave Paris without another crêpe. So we went back to Montparnasse for some Nutella and banana wrapped in a very thin pancake. Oh, how I will miss them.
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