A flippant expose of the country and people hosting this year’s Paris Olympics. Senior Correspondent Mike Osborne abandons his inhibitions to indulge in the French art of j’adore.
The Paris Olympics are coming to a close after two amazing weeks, with the athletes, the fans, and even the media falling in love with all things France and, well, the city of love itself.
Down the ages Paris has been the setting for romantic literature, cinema and music.
In addition to being considered the language of love, the French also lay claim to being the only nation to have an act of sexual arousal named after them: ie the French kiss.
So how did France and the host city Paris come to be synonymous with desire, love and enchantment?
You have to go back to the 11th century and the Medieval knights from the French principalities including Burgundy, Provence and Aquitaine who pledged unrequited love to the fairest women of the court before riding into battle.
Known as l’amour courtois or the courtly love of a knight for an unattainable woman of high birth and nobility, this French concept of romance in the Middle Ages was aided and abetted by musicians and poets.
By the time the Renaissance rolled around in the late 15th century, the French addiction to romance was embedded in art, sculpture, music, poetry and literature.
Romance further benefited from the decline of religious power in France when various French kings established and sponsored the Sorbonne University. The famed institution welcomed students from across Europe to receive an education that was not purely biblically and scholastically focused. This popularised Paris as a destination for young fertile minds who returned home imbued with new learnings and romantic yearnings.
Next came the age of the free thinking, free living Libertines who decried sexual restraints. Their erotic activities were popularised by the Libertine writer Marquis de Sade and by novels including Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) published in 1782 by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. Prostitution became more common and French men publicly flaunted the company of courtesans.
The proletariat joined the sex boom in the mid 19th century after Emperor Napoleon III commissioned Baron Haussmann to clean up the slums of Paris by knocking down 12,000 buildings to make way for parklands and long, wide boulevards.
While this 17-year endeavour turned Paris into the magnificent capital it is today, it also required the labour of thousands of workers from across France and Europe who all needed to unwind after their hard day’s work. The city of love became littered with bars and brothels populated by labourers and single migrant workers who all needed to blow off steam. The Paris red light district remains an integral part of the Olympic city’s culture.
The French countryside wasn’t left behind with artists depicting and popularising quaint village scenes, rolling hills and picturesque landscapes and lakes draped with lovers’ trysts and exotic women in states of undress.
French champagne became the preferred liqueur of lovers and the drink used to seal and celebrate official and unofficial liaisons. French cuisine with its emphasis on decadence and rich flavours further aided the country’s romantic allure with intimate cafes and bistro settings cluttered with adoring couples feeding each other petit four.
Even the French language sounds romantic. It’s pleasing to the ear which linguists attribute to accent, pronunciation including soft consonants, rhythmic intonation and internationally-used terms of endearment including “mon amour” and “ma chérie”.
Anglos are yet to adopt France’s customary kiss-on-both-cheeks greeting for friends and family even if they have a copy of Robert Doisneau’s classic 1950 black and white photograph in Paris – The Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville – hanging in their bedrooms at home.
Other visiting couples prefer to celebrate their love with a cruise on the river Seine, getting engaged at the top of the Eiffel Tower, or placing love-locks on bridges and building across Paris.
The Romeo and Juliet of France are of course Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine whose love story of passion and power has been celebrated in literature and film, most recently by Hollywood director Ridley Scott. His 2023 film starring American Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon was panned by French critics for portraying their military hero as a brute.
The film does however accurately portray the powerful military leader and future emperor falling wildly in lust and love with the recently widowed Josephine de Beauharis, played by English actress Vanessa Kirby
The couple quickly married and while Napoleon was away on military campaigns, his many love letters clearly show that despite the affairs they both had, Josephine always had his heart.
Josephine, six years his senior, could not produce an heir and the marriage was eventually annulled despite both confirming their mutual love.
Napoleon then married Princess Marie-Louise of Austria to secure a political ally and eventually an heir, but he continued to provide for Josephine and remained in close contact with her until she died.
He reportedly whispered her name with his dying breath.
NOTE – This is the latest in a series of “Frivolous facts about France for Olympic bon vivants”. You can read other Frivolous Facts stories by clicking on these topics: French Art | French Architecture | French Sportscars | The French Language | French Wine | French hatred of the British | French Heroes | French Bread | French Inventions | French Olympic History | Famous French Athletes | The French Pacific | French Cafe Society | French Cuisine.
Michael Osborne has been a journalist for more than four decades including 35 years with the national news agency Australian Associated Press, rising from junior reporter to Editor.
He was AAP Editor for 11 years and served four years as Head of Sport and Racing. He was also posted to London and Beijing as AAP’s Bureau Chief and Foreign Correspondent.
He has worked at six Olympics and five Commonwealth Games, covered tennis grand slams, golf majors, international cricket, rugby world cups and numerous sporting world championships. He also co-ordinated and managed AAP’s teams and coverage at three Olympic Games in Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
Discussion about this post