March 1, 2017
The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs
Elaine Sciolino
Visiting Ferris Professor of Journalism, Princeton University
Elaine Sciolino and Patricia Taylor
Minutes of the 22nd Meeting of the 75th Year
First, let me say that I promised John Riganati, our Recording Secretary, that I would speak no longer than 300 seconds. When I finish this sentence, I will have 285 seconds left.
On March 1, 2017, 107 Old Guardians attended the meeting at the Friend Center. Jock McFarlane presided, Charles Clark led the invocation and Alfred Kaemmerlen read the minutes of the last meeting.
Robert Tewles brought three guests, his wife, Karen Dandurand, and Candace and Marvin Preston; Ruth Miller brought Gail Ullman; Henry Von Kohorn introduced George Bustin and proposed him for membership; John Kelsey brought his wife, Pam Kelsey; and Beryl McMillan, Marcia Van Dyke.
Speaking on March 8 at the Friend Center will be Dr. Ronald G. Hahass and Kathleen Seneca on “Curing an epidemic: The Keys to Eliminating Hepatitis C.”
Patricia Taylor introduced our guest, Elaine Sciolino, Visiting Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton and a former Paris bureau chief of The New York Times. She previously served as the newspaper's chief diplomatic correspondent and United Nations bureau chief.
Ms. Sciolino began her career in journalism as a Newsweek researcher but as a girl she worked for what she described as her family’s little Italian food store in Niagara Falls, which perhaps piqued her interest in writing “The Only Street in Paris.” It “taught me about having pleasures through food,” she said. “I take this spirit with me.”
She is the author of two widely read books on the Middle East. Seven years ago, she spoke to the Old Guard – which she described as Masters and Mistresses of the Universe – about her first book on France and again last week, when she discussed life on the Rue des Martyrs.
Now, let’s take a walk down Martyrs Lane. Ms. Sciolino, a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, has lived in Paris for 15 years, with her husband, Andrew Plump, a member of the French bar.
“What a pleasure it is to be here,” she said after finessing some issues with our audio system. She added that it was also a bit challenging to be speaking about a street in Paris between Old Guard talks on infant mortality and infectious diseases.
Ms. Sciolino went on to give us an insider’s travelogue of a street that’s just a half-mile long and has remained unchanged for well over 100 years. To be sure, horseless carriages have replaced the real thing and Thomas Edison has made inroads in the lamp-oil business, but the point she made is that the more the world has changed around her street, the more the Rue des Martyrs has stayed the same. For example, a hardware store at No. 1 Rue des Martyrs today was a hardware store a century ago.
What makes the Rue des Martyrs better than, say, Nassau Street – other than the fancy French name?
It is “a half-mile celebration of a city and its diversity,” she said of her Rue. “It has two fish stores, 28 restaurants, three cabarets, three independent bookstores and 12 bakeries,” among other attractions.
It also has a long history. Its name, she explained, comes from what happened to a man she called a “rock star missionary,” St. Denis, the first bishop of Paris, who was decapitated by unappreciative Romans. Legend says the saint picked up his head and traveled the length of the famous street before falling dead.
“It’s weird that I wrote a whole book about one street,” Ms. Sciolino said, adding that it really is the people who make the street:
“They gave me lessons about food and wine and history and religion and family. They gave me lessons about gilding old wood and sharpening knives and collecting books – and even about trapping mice. But most of all they gave me their trust, and that’s what turned into a book.
One of our number worried that Rue des Martyrs might be a street for insiders, that tourists might not get the same feeling of the city as experienced by Ms. Sciolino.
“Merchants have told me that American tourists come into the shop and ask for their autographs,” she said.
It has long been a special street, with its artists, writers and musicians. Degas and Renoir both painted scenes from the circus that was resident on the Rue des Martyr, and Picasso bought a Rousseau for five francs that he kept on his wall for the rest of his life.
She spoke briefly of French politics, saying among other things that “We’re at a very strange moment in France” and suggesting that the far-right candidate, Marine Le Pen looks “terrific in a two-and-a-half-minute video. “She looks like Joan of Arc,” Ms. Sciolino said, seriously. “She could be the next president.”
The French are horrified by the America First movement and by Islamophobia, she added.
One of the few bad things about “The Only Street in Paris”: “This book was written and published just at the time of the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris,” Ms. Sciolino said.
Some closing advice from Elaine Sciolino: “Revel in every magical moment.” And keep in mind that Ms. Sciolino wants to establish an Old Guard chapter in Paris and invited all of us to stop by for espresso, a baguette and conversation. After all, she said, she would be the chapter president.
Respectfully submitted,
Roland Miller
On March 1, 2017, 107 Old Guardians attended the meeting at the Friend Center. Jock McFarlane presided, Charles Clark led the invocation and Alfred Kaemmerlen read the minutes of the last meeting.
Robert Tewles brought three guests, his wife, Karen Dandurand, and Candace and Marvin Preston; Ruth Miller brought Gail Ullman; Henry Von Kohorn introduced George Bustin and proposed him for membership; John Kelsey brought his wife, Pam Kelsey; and Beryl McMillan, Marcia Van Dyke.
Speaking on March 8 at the Friend Center will be Dr. Ronald G. Hahass and Kathleen Seneca on “Curing an epidemic: The Keys to Eliminating Hepatitis C.”
Patricia Taylor introduced our guest, Elaine Sciolino, Visiting Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton and a former Paris bureau chief of The New York Times. She previously served as the newspaper's chief diplomatic correspondent and United Nations bureau chief.
Ms. Sciolino began her career in journalism as a Newsweek researcher but as a girl she worked for what she described as her family’s little Italian food store in Niagara Falls, which perhaps piqued her interest in writing “The Only Street in Paris.” It “taught me about having pleasures through food,” she said. “I take this spirit with me.”
She is the author of two widely read books on the Middle East. Seven years ago, she spoke to the Old Guard – which she described as Masters and Mistresses of the Universe – about her first book on France and again last week, when she discussed life on the Rue des Martyrs.
Now, let’s take a walk down Martyrs Lane. Ms. Sciolino, a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, has lived in Paris for 15 years, with her husband, Andrew Plump, a member of the French bar.
“What a pleasure it is to be here,” she said after finessing some issues with our audio system. She added that it was also a bit challenging to be speaking about a street in Paris between Old Guard talks on infant mortality and infectious diseases.
Ms. Sciolino went on to give us an insider’s travelogue of a street that’s just a half-mile long and has remained unchanged for well over 100 years. To be sure, horseless carriages have replaced the real thing and Thomas Edison has made inroads in the lamp-oil business, but the point she made is that the more the world has changed around her street, the more the Rue des Martyrs has stayed the same. For example, a hardware store at No. 1 Rue des Martyrs today was a hardware store a century ago.
What makes the Rue des Martyrs better than, say, Nassau Street – other than the fancy French name?
It is “a half-mile celebration of a city and its diversity,” she said of her Rue. “It has two fish stores, 28 restaurants, three cabarets, three independent bookstores and 12 bakeries,” among other attractions.
It also has a long history. Its name, she explained, comes from what happened to a man she called a “rock star missionary,” St. Denis, the first bishop of Paris, who was decapitated by unappreciative Romans. Legend says the saint picked up his head and traveled the length of the famous street before falling dead.
“It’s weird that I wrote a whole book about one street,” Ms. Sciolino said, adding that it really is the people who make the street:
“They gave me lessons about food and wine and history and religion and family. They gave me lessons about gilding old wood and sharpening knives and collecting books – and even about trapping mice. But most of all they gave me their trust, and that’s what turned into a book.
One of our number worried that Rue des Martyrs might be a street for insiders, that tourists might not get the same feeling of the city as experienced by Ms. Sciolino.
“Merchants have told me that American tourists come into the shop and ask for their autographs,” she said.
It has long been a special street, with its artists, writers and musicians. Degas and Renoir both painted scenes from the circus that was resident on the Rue des Martyr, and Picasso bought a Rousseau for five francs that he kept on his wall for the rest of his life.
She spoke briefly of French politics, saying among other things that “We’re at a very strange moment in France” and suggesting that the far-right candidate, Marine Le Pen looks “terrific in a two-and-a-half-minute video. “She looks like Joan of Arc,” Ms. Sciolino said, seriously. “She could be the next president.”
The French are horrified by the America First movement and by Islamophobia, she added.
One of the few bad things about “The Only Street in Paris”: “This book was written and published just at the time of the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris,” Ms. Sciolino said.
Some closing advice from Elaine Sciolino: “Revel in every magical moment.” And keep in mind that Ms. Sciolino wants to establish an Old Guard chapter in Paris and invited all of us to stop by for espresso, a baguette and conversation. After all, she said, she would be the chapter president.
Respectfully submitted,
Roland Miller