POST-WAR PARIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 224, 21 September 1929, Page 16 (Supplement)

POST-WAR PARIS.

FEMININE EMANCIPATION. LOVTSJ OF SPORT. SOCIAL LIFE SIMPLER THAN IN ENGLAND. (By LADY ALLAN HORNE.) The Paris of tlie "boulevardier" has passed away; so has the London of the nineties. Paris has become an internationalised, cosmopolitan city, where English is heard more often in certain quarters than Parisian French. , How, then, do the Parisians live in suck a changed world? The "briglit young people," the French May fair; call them what you will. Tlia Faubourg, with its last tattered remnants of the "Ancien Regime"—the gratin, to use a slang Word—lives apart, aloof from the present-day world, having retired further into its .protecting shell, a haughty, impoverished victim of modernity and post-war conditions. Liberty up to a Point. Of what does the young French, set consist? A nucleus of people who enjoy themselves much as others do in the great capitals of Europe or the New World. There are sets within sets, wheels within wheels; the internationals, the industrials, the intellectuals; with sometimes a mixture of all three ingredients. The war and post-war conditions have spelt emancipation for tlie' feminine element, and although the French "jeune lille" does not enjoy the same liberty as her Anglo-Saxon sisters, yet her life is a much freer one compared to that of her mother. She can go shopping alone,' or with another girl friend. She can play golf with a man, without necessarily being followed by a duenna, though she would not be allowed to have luncheon or dinner or go to the theatre without a chaperon. Where Life is Simpler. Her brother's outlook has changed, too. The young Frenchman is a worker ; his one idea in life is to get a job and be busy; often in a bank, or some business firm. It is now quite fashionable to be dans les affaires.

Life in Franco is much simpler than in England. There is less entertaining, and, strange though it may seem to English ideas, more home life, actually, than in England. The Frenchman has the "esprit de famille" firmly engrained in him, and mamma and grandmamma still wield a firm influence in the family circle, which is generally, on the surface at least, ?>. united one. It is rare to meet a Frenchman or French woman who has not seen the latest successful play or popular film of the year, and has not some intelligent criticism to make about it. Theatres and cinemas are their chief amusements, and the "dancings," though many of these have now been closed by order of the police, and the remainder are so crowded—by foreigners chiefly, owing to the high prices—as to make dancing almost an impossibility, and the heat nearly asphyxiating! Then there is the new love of "sport" and an open-air life. Golf and tennis are quite accessible, even from the centre of Paris. There is the "Tir au Pigeon," in the Bois; the attractive golf courses with tennis courts at La Boulie, St. Cloud, and Fontainebleau; the polo at Bagatelle, the rendezvous of fashionable Paris in the summer, where one can dance at tea time, if so minded. The vie de chateau occupies the entire autumn, with shooting and, in some cases, hunting, in Tourainc ; or the "Landes," or in the neighbourhood of Paris, such as Chantilly and Compiegne. Different Social Customs. A day's hunting at Compiegne or Chantilly is procured by a personal invitation from the maitre d'equipage, or some Other member of the hunt, to those who do not already belong; there is no capping, as in England. r: After Christmas there is a general exodus to the south, for those who can afford it—to Cannes or Pau, or perhaps Italy. The Paris season is much shorter than the London one. It begins in May, and comes to an end after the "Grand Prix." During this time there are many private entertainments, though much fewer than in London, for the Parisian's purse is more restricted, and he is less fond of entertaining than the Londoner. * It is rare to find two dances on the same, night.

The remainder of the summer is spent at Biarritz, at the Lido, on the Riviera or 011 some "plage" like Deauville, Le Touquet or Dinard—though Deauville an'd Dinard are less fashionable than formerly—combined with visits to the family or to friends' houses in the country;' though, generally, speaking, there are very few house-parties in the English sense, and week-end parties are practically unknown. It is difficult to know the real Parisian Paris, and to understand the French outlook, unless one has lived in it and mixed with it most of one's life. The superficial picture is apt to give a false impression, and cannot really be summarised by just a series of fleeting impressions.