A compendium of good reads about Paris and France in English.
French art
In Hyperallergic, David Anfam, a curator and art writer, reviews the catalog for the exhibition Cézanne: The Rock and Quarry Paintings (shown at the Princeton University Art Museum but canceled at London’s Royal Academy because of the pandemic) and considers what stone meant to Cézanne and what Cézanne meant to him.
The Art Newspaper reports that the French Senate has approved a bill to return objects obtained by France during colonial times to Senegal and Benin.
Life in France
The Local asked its readers if French drivers are really as bad as they are cracked up to be.
Meanwhile, French teachers are not happy about the level of precautions being taken in schools during the lockdown period, and some plan to strike. France 24 reports.
Journalists are up in arms about a new law that would outlaw showing photos or videos “with intent to harm” in which police can be identified. Read about it in The Guardian.
Resistance heroes
Pierre Simonet, one of the last living World War II Resistance fighters, has died at the age of 99, according to The Local.
Albert Camus, another member of the Resistance, is the subject of an article in The New Yorker by Adam Gopnik, who describes the French philosopher and novelist as “the Don Draper of existentialism.”
Favorite