Moonlight Over Paris (28 page)

N
EARLY ALL OF THE PLACES
I mention in
Moonlight Over Paris
still exist, in one form or another; in a few cases the original building has been destroyed and replaced with a modern structure, though the street address remains (Chez Rosalie is an example). If you're interested in seeing what the buildings look like today, or would like to get a sense of where they are in relation to one another, I've created a
Moonlight Over Paris
map via Google Maps. Feel free to visit (and use the Street View option to take a closer look). The url is goo.gl/t18Q75 and a link is also available via my website at
www.jennifer-robson.com

à demain
:
so long; literally “until tomorrow”

à la Véronique
:
a savory dish prepared with grapes

absinthe:
an aniseed-flavored liqueur that was infamous for its allegedly hallucinogenic and toxic qualities, it was banned in France and much of the world from 1915 onward, with restrictions on its sale removed only in the early years of this century

Aéronautique Militaire
:
original name of the French Air Force from its inception in 1910 to its renaming as the
Armée de l'Air
in 1933

allô
:
hello; less formal than “bonjour”

American Field Service:
established in 1915, the AFS provided ambulances driven by American volunteers to the French army until the entry of the United States into the war in 1917

ancien combattant
:
veteran; literally “old soldier”

Antibes:
a small town on the Mediterranean coast that was popular among the wealthy for winter holidays; in the 1920s it also became a sought-after destination in the summer months

aquarelles
:
watercolors

arrondissement
:
Paris is divided into a series of twenty administrative districts, with boundaries that rotate clockwise from the center rather like the segments of a snail's shell. Each arrondissement is numbered, and often people will refer to the number as a destination in and of itself: for example, “the Eiffel Tower is in the seventh.”

Belle Époque
:
literally “beautiful era,” it describes the period from the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, and is roughly analogous to the Gilded Age in the United States

Blue Train:
nickname for the Calais-Méditerranée Express, the Blue Train (
le train bleu
) was a luxury rail passenger service that ran from Calais via Paris and Lyon to the resort towns of the Mediterranean

Le Boeuf sur le Toit
:
the famed restaurant and cabaret, established in 1921, which was known for its jazz music; its audience was a who's-who of the Parisian cultural elite

boulangerie
:
bakery

boulevard du Montparnasse:
the central boulevard in the neighborhood of Montparnasse, along which many of its iconic cafés and restaurants were located

boulevard St.-Michel:
the boulevard St.-Michel ran north-south through Montparnasse, roughly parallel to the eastern border of the Luxembourg Gardens, and was known colloquially as the “boul' Mich'”

boulots
:
compressed egg-shaped lumps of coal dust that were often used in place of firewood or coal

les bouquinistes
:
booksellers of used and sometimes antiquarian stock whose stalls can be found along the banks of the Seine

brocante
:
type of market that sold used or antique furniture and household goods

bunkum:
useless talk or nonsense

cablese:
series of codes, almost a language unto themselves, used by telegraphists and newspaper editors to shorten telegrams, or cables, to save on the costs of transmission; since cables were priced by the word, great efforts were made to combine words, create memorable acronyms or mangle accepted rules of grammar to reduce costs

café allongé
:
literally a “stretched coffee,” an allongé is prepared espresso-style but with extra water. Other specialty coffees mentioned in
Moonlight Over Paris
are a
café au lait
, in which coffee is mixed with an equal amount of hot milk; a
café crème
, which is espresso combined with hot milk; a
café express
, equivalent to a shot of espresso; and a
café noisette
, in which a small amount of milk, sufficient only to turn the drink the color of a hazelnut, is added to a shot of espresso.

cami-knickers:
essentially a camisole and knickers combined into one garment, these had superseded combinations as the undergarment of choice for young women in the 1920s, and typically were worn along with a soft-cup brassière

carte d'étudiant
:
student card

chambre particulier
:
private room

Chez Graff:
a bohemian restaurant and bar in Pigalle known for its gay clientele

Chez Rosalie:
a modest restaurant in Montparnasse that was popular among artists and students looking for a cheap and filling meal

Côte d'Azur:
the stretch of Mediterranean coast from St.-Tropez to the Italian border; then, as now, a popular destination for the rich, famous, and glamorous

Cubism:
an avant-garde movement, at its height in the first quarter of the twentieth century, which sought to break up and reassemble objects as abstract forms, and thereby encourage multiple points of view and a greater understanding of the artwork as a whole. Its most famed adherents were Picasso, Georges Braque, and Juan Gris.

dépêche-toi
:
hurry up; literally, “hurry yourself”

deskmen:
term for the copywriters and/or editors at a newspaper; in the context of the Paris edition of the
Chicago Tribune
, Sam's employer, it was the staffers who spun short and often unintelligible cables into longer stories for use in the newspaper

désolé
:
sorry; literally, “desolated”

dessin
:
drawing or sketching

dessin à modèle vivant
:
live model drawing

devoré:
a type of fabric, often velvet, in which parts of the nap are burned away, leaving only the fabric backing; this produces a patterned effect on the fabric

Le Dôme:
properly Le Café du Dôme, this Montparnasse landmark was a favorite gathering spot for writers, Ernest Hemingway among them

Dona nobis pacem
:
translated from the Latin, “give us peace.” Here it refers to the final movement of Bach's
Mass in B Minor

Ecole des Beaux-Arts:
France's pre-eminent school of fine arts, based in Paris, and located in the Palais des Beaux-Arts in St.-Germain-des-Prés

Eighteenth Amendment:
enacted in 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution banned the production, transport, and sale of alcohol, though not its consumption, and marked the beginning of Prohibition in the U.S. It was repealed in 1933.

Élysée Palace:
analogous to the White House, it is the official residence of the President of France and is also the center for much official state business

en tout cas
:
in any event; at any rate

entrez
:
come in

European Edition:
the official title of the
Chicago Tribune
's eight-page Paris-produced newspaper; colloquially known as the Paris edition

fais des beaux rêves
:
sweet dreams; literally, “make beautiful dreams”

Fauchon:
luxury grocer, first established in 1886, and still in business today

La femme de fermier
:
farmer's wife; name of the painting Helena originally submits to the Salon des Indépendants

La femme dorée
:
the golden woman; name of the painting Étienne submits to the Salon des Indépendants

fine à l'eau
:
brandy diluted with water; one of Hemingway's preferred drinks when he lived in Paris

Fokker C.IV:
two-seat biplane introduced in 1924

“For He's a Jolly Good Fellow”:
immensely popular song at birthdays and most celebrations; the song “Happy Birthday to You” was not widely known in this period and would not have been sung at a birthday celebration in the mid-1920s

Fouquet's:
first established in 1899, this traditional Parisian restaurant (its name does include an apostrophe) was for many years the venue for the annual French film awards, the Césars

Gare du Nord:
one of the main rail stations in Paris in the 1920s, it served northern France and points beyond. Other stations in central Paris at that time included the Gare de Lyon (southerly destinations), the Gare d'Austerlitz (central and southwestern France), the Gare de l'Est (serving eastern France and Germany), the Gare Montparnasse (western and southwestern France), the Gare d'Orsay (since closed; now the Musée d'Orsay), and the Gare St.-Lazare (western France, including Normandy).

La Garoupe:
name of the beach in Antibes where the Murphy family and their guests would often gather in fine weather

Gillotte's:
officially called Le Rendezvous du Petit Journal, but known to all as Gillotte's, this small bistro was the favorite watering hole of the deskmen at the Paris edition

Grand Bassin:
a large octagonal pond in the Luxembourg Gardens; much favored, then and now, as a place for children to sail model boats.

Le Grand Duc:
a cabaret in Montmartre renowned for its American jazz music

Grand Palais:
an immense exhibition hall located just off the Champs-Élysées in central Paris

grand salon
:
in a private home this might be the largest of several drawing rooms; in a public space, such as a school, it would be the largest classroom or lecture hall. A
petit salon
was simply a smaller or less grand version of the same.

Guignol and Madelon:
puppet characters who are roughly equivalent to Punch and Judy in England

Les Halles:
for centuries the central market for Paris, the glass-and-ironwork buildings at Les Halles (literally “the halls”) were constructed in the mid-nineteenth century and demolished just over a century later. Today the area is a transit hub and shopping mall and in the middle of a large-scale redevelopment.

horaire
:
timetable

Hôtel de Lisbonne:
the small and exceedingly modest hotel where many deskmen for the Paris edition lived; rent for a single room in the mid-1920s was the equivalent of ten dollars a month

Île de la Cité:
one of two remaining islands in the Seine in central Paris, much of it is taken up by Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Sainte-Chapelle, and the Conciergerie

Île St.-Louis:
the second island in the Seine in central Paris, it is mostly taken up by residential buildings, many of which date to the seventeenth century and are among the most valuable and coveted real estate in Paris

impasto:
a painting technique whereby paint is laid on very thickly; can also refer to the paint itself when so applied

Jardin Luxembourg:
see Luxembourg Gardens, below

le jazz hot
:
French term for American jazz music, particularly that originating from New Orleans

Lapérouse:
one of the oldest restaurants in Paris, Lapérouse has been open since 1766 and is known for its luxurious private dining rooms and classic French cuisine.

Latin Quarter:
a Left Bank neighborhood in Paris, centered around the Sorbonne, that has long been a focus of student life and avant garde culture in the city

Luxembourg Gardens:
created in the early seventeenth century, the public gardens (“Jardin Luxembourg” in French) are known for their manicured paths and flowerbeds, children's amusements (puppet show, carousel, and pond) and displays of statuary. The Musée du Luxembourg is located at the northern end of the Gardens.

Magasin Sennelier:
an artists' supply shop, open since 1887

Maison Vionnet:
the fashion house of Madeleine Vionnet, the designer famed for her pioneering use of the bias cut. She closed the house upon her retirement at the beginning of the Second World War, though her name is currently used under license by a Paris designer.

maître
:
literally “master,” it is used as an honorific for teachers

Métro:
the Paris Métropolitain is the system of underground trains, first opened in 1900; the iconic Art Nouveau entrances and décor of its first stations remain as highly visible landmarks throughout much of central Paris

Montparnasse:
this neighborhood, center of much of the artistic and literary life of 1920s Paris, takes its name from the cemetery at its southern border