Review: Footprints in Paris, a Few Streets, a Few Lives by Gillian Tindall
A few months ago I blogged about Gillian Tindall and I was pleased to say that I got quite a good response. While not strictly being a travel writer, Tindall is one of the best ’sense of place’ writers there is at the moment. I mentioned that I was eagerly awaiting Tindall’s next book on Paris. Well, I’ve now read it and I wasn’t disappointed.
This book focuses on the history of the Latin Quarter and on the people who have lived and worked there. The style here is similar to that of Celestine, a history informed by a particularly human story.
‘Footprints’ was set off by the discovery of a long ago relative who had lived, work and studied in Paris. This chance discovery caught the attention of Tindall who, herself, spent a couple of long stretches in Paris during her teens and twenties.
The relative in question was a young Irish Doctor who travelled from Edinburgh to Paris, in the years immediately following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, to work in what were then the leading hospitals in the world. Dr. Jacob eventually became a major figure in the Dublin medical world and there is an archive to his work in that city. But Tindall was fascinated by the life he would have lead in Paris.
Not much exists by way of a record of Jacob’s life in Paris but that hardly stops Tindall. Her technique is to throw herself in the area she is studying. She researches the world of the left bank and draws on contemporary accounts of life there to reconstruct the kind of life that Jacob would have had in Paris.
This is fine stuff that anyone with an interest in Paris will love. There is something really magical in concentrating on such a small, defined, area. The book’s maps are particularly fascinating as you are able to place the ‘action’ in a modern day context if you know the area well. Some of the places here still exist today and still retain something of the flavour of their ancient character.
Having made this one discovery Tindall then made others. Family connections grew through medicine into the world of medical publishing, the family retaining links with the same Parisian publishers for a number of generations. She un-earths a series of previously unknown relatives who would have — or did — stay in the same area in Paris. All of these characters lived and worked in the Latin Quarter Tindall uses this story to describe the changing nature of the city of the Left Bank in particular.
The family includes a self made business man who graduated from working on the coach routes of SE England and his son who sought refuge in Paris from a strict family but who’s life in Paris didn’t quite live up to a similar stint in Germany.
As Tindall works away on these histories more discoveries are made, the best of whom is her Aunt Maud. Maud was an English spinster who seems to have developed an alternative and less restrictive life in Paris. As we get nearer modern day there is more source material to be worked on but still figures like Maud remain something of an enigma. Maud probably worked as a nurse during the First World War. Tindall, again used contemporary data to recollect the kind of life that Maud would have led in Paris during that time.
And then there is Tindall herself, growing up with her mother who always promised her that one day they would both go to Paris as she had herself when she was young. Tindall’s mother was pretty mush estranged from much of the family and the young Gillian and no knowledge at all of these long standing Parisian connections.
The story is in no way contrived. One discovery leads to another and Tindall is quite amazed that her own love of Paris was part of such a long line of connections with that city.
The majority of the stories here are of young people and could also be seen as ‘rite of passage’ pieces. It may seem odd to write a history of the Latin Quarter in such personal terms but there’s no doubt that the stories of these English young people brings alive the history in a thoroughly riveting way.
Tindall must be now in her lid to late seventies but is writing at the top of her game. In Celestine she ended up giving the local community of a small town back their history. To a great extent she has done the same with the Latin Quarter.
If you know this area you will love this book. If you’ve ever walked from Notre Dame through to the Luxembourg Gardens then you’ll appreciate the richness of the history and the narrative here. If you’ve not visited these parts yet, read this book and I guarantee that you will!
Myself, I can’t wait to get back to the Latin Quarter and to take this book with me. Gillian Tindall has the very rare gift of bringing places — and people — back to life. She is a very special writer.
