(It's nice to know I am still popular today!)
Havre, Montana
September 17, 2024
I have posted earlier about meeting a pastor in Chinook. He asked about my travels and I gave him the 30 second version of the story. He asked me a question I have not been asked -- "What does Paris mean?" I am sure I had a puzzled look on my face after he asked that question. What does any city's name mean? My mind faced for an answer -- and while not an answer, it came across Paris is the City of Light (or is it Lights? I've seen it both ways). And my mind then took the word "light" and recalled that my name means "light." No wonder I have been going to all these Paris' -- they are the city of me!!
PARIS: CITY OF LIGHT
Paris was named the City of Light (Ville lumière) at the beginning of the nineteenth century after becoming the first city in Europe to use gas lighting to illuminate its streets. Progress came along with technological advances, such as the cinema, electric light for outdoors and indoors, steel manufacturing, and new means of transportation. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the modernization of public spaces with the electric lighting of streets and monuments quickly spread to leisure spaces. In the 1930s, the use of neon light became widespread as it was employed to advertise iconic places of Parisian nightlife, such as café-theaters and cinemas. This technology was at its peak during the International Exhibition of Art and Technology in Modern Life in 1937, when the Eiffel Tower, a symbol of modernity, was spectacularly illuminated.
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