Paris [antikvár]

t's little wonder that so many wistful songs have been permed over the years about Francé's capital What city experienees cotild be more seductive than sitting in the gardens of NotreDame beneath the drifting cherry blossom, strolling the riverside quais on a summer evening, sipping coffee and cognac in the early hours to the soimd of the blues, or exploring the ancient alleyways and cobbled lanes of the Latin Quarter and Montmaitre? Paris has no problem living up to the painted images and movie myths with which we're all familiar. Nor does Paris faltér in its reputation as a great hive of artístic and intellectuai stimulation. World-elass art collections at the Louvre and Musée d'Orsay, as well as the great many smalier museums devoted to indhidual artists and coLlectors, underscore an impressive roster of talents linked to the city - DelacroLx. Ingres, Seurat, Degas. Van Gogh. Picasso. Braque and Gris are but a few. The new National Library. open to all. embodies a eultural attitűdé that both proclaims Parisian cleverness and invites you to share in it. And it is only the latest in a line of grand and often ground-breaking modern buildings - the Pompidou Centre, the Arab World Institute. among others ~ that assen modern architecture and design. For the greatest work of ait has to be the city itself. Two thousand years of shaping and reshaping have resulted in monumental buildings. sweeping avenues. grand esplanades and historic bridges. The fabric of the city has been fortimate throughout its history. spared the ravages of ílood and fire and saved from Hitler's intended destruction. And it survives with a sense of continuity and liomogeneity, as new sits eomfortably against a backdrop of old. old against new - the glass Pyramid against the grand fortress of the Lou\Te. the Column of Liberty against the Opera Bastille. Time has acted as judge as buildings once swathed in controversy - the Eiffel Tower. the Sacré-Coeui*. the Pompidou Centre - have in their turn become symbols of the city. Yet for all the tremendous pomp and