Belle Epoque City

 

We live in The Belle Epoque City. 

The Belle Epoque City, my new city, is but a single city, and yet the very expression of an entire era!

Or so I've decided.

A dear friend of mine, Matthew, now dead for already an alarming amount of time (do people simply die and then stay dead forever? WTF), was my original introduction to the Belle Epoque. He was my first friend in art school, supremely talented, and posessed of a rich, florid aesthetic taste. And one of his main points of reference was the Belle Epoque. He had many other aesthetic points of reference, and I came to my own understanding of most of them, the Baroque, Rococo, Neo Classicism, as I studied and advanced my career into the world famous genius you see before you, but the Belle Epoque is the most important, and the last of them to click into place.

To be more specific, it clicked into place sometime yesterday, having taken just a smidge under 40 years to do so.

This is because The Belle Epoque is an invention and fabrication, named and made after its era was over, and perhaps with too much material to cover, it also suffered horribly from an immediate, glossy nostalgia. So even as it was named it was already lying about itself.

Which might cause one to think the whole "Belle Epoque" thing is useless.

But, strangely, no. 

Because despite all that, here it is, in my city, exactly the very definition of the thing. References to the Belle Epoque usually center on the bolder, grander city of Paris, but the Belle Epoque in Paris is a mere historical layer among dozens. It is swallowed up in Paris. Here it is the whole expression of the city, its heart and soul. It is in the old world cafes, the ornate and fanciful architecture, and in every of a million paintings by some of the best artists over 50 years all lionizing the place. It is in its famous buildings and dreams of beauty, the belle epoque! It is in the food and old candy shops, in the vibrant street life, in the grand old stores, and in the flood of tourism that, in strange contrast to other cities full of complaint about such things, curiously built this city. This isn't a city ruined or lessened by tourism. It is a city built by tourism!

Which is weird.

And, well, a bit Belle Epoque.

At this point you might want to know "What is The Belle Epoque then?"

Wikipedia doesn't know. I mean, their answer is basically: Late (very late) 1800's to WWI. A time of industrialization, stability, quality of life improvements for a new (not all that big) middle class, technological invention, and economic growth, but read between the lines a little and the answer is "We don't really know".

But I know! 

I know now. And I wish I could tell my friend Matthew. And I wish I could tell you. But I think you might have to come here. Cause you sort of have to see it to get it. And you'd probably get it right away.

But if not we could walk around and I could say "See all that building ornamentation." and "Let's have a coffee here at this cafe with a hundred fancy tables." and "Taste this pastry." and "That corner tower on that building" and "Note these colors, the pinks and oranges and brilliant umbers." and "See all these posters?" and "Check out all that marble" and  "Have a spritz, note the glassware." and before long you'd totally get it.

Or you'd feel nauseous and want to go home.