SimBlog Table of Contents
Of masks and figures
When the person closed their eyes for good, their descendants were often keen to create a final memento. Photographs were not available, so an artist was brought in to make a mask. The face was »straightened« a little, cleaned and prepared before the plaster was applied so that it could be removed later. This created the negative for the mask.
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Pause: Nation
As a transportation hub between the 11th and 12th arrondissements, »Nation« appears again and again and has a similar charm to Châtelet: none at all. It's only when you emerge from the depths that you see what you've been missing. The Place de la Nation is a huge square surrounded by a traffic circle with a monument in the middle. Very typical ...
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Intermission: The chicken affair
We've been to Paris from time to time. So we've already covered the highlights for normal tourists in previous years. But my wife still wanted to visit Montmartre on a Saturday and take a look at Sacré-Cœur in particular. Instead, we saw crowds of people. So we turned our attention to the other side.
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Break: Rest in peace
I have been visiting the city again and again for over thirty years. Over fifteen years ago, I stayed in a hotel next to one of the most important Parise cemeteries and from my room I could look out over the graves. That was the Cimetière de Montmartre. The Cimetière du Pére Lachaise is even bigger and I visited it for the first time yesterday. It was my second attempt.
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Pause: G7
A little thought experiment: you're in Paris and your partner suddenly pulls out their smartphone and wants to take a picture, a little frantically, and you look around the area and see nothing but a few people and a few cars. There's not a single celebrity among those walking along the street. Maybe it's the car you can see above.
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Break: To Dr. Paul
We currently live in an apartment on Rue de Buzenval. It's in the 20th arrondissement of Paris. People live here. It's a bit different in the city center, where there are mostly offices. Here it's one normal store after another - no fancy paper bags, people carry bread home here. Interestingly, I haven't placed any Maigret markers here yet.
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Break: The furniture company Spoiler
Here is a break from the usual business. It consists of little text and a few pictures. What could be the reason for this? Exactly, a vacation. Whenever possible, I try to sprinkle a few Simenon-Maigret discoveries into our vacation routine. Of course, I can't overdo it, especially as the results are sometimes dubious.
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The election (II)
In his Simenon biography, Fenton Bresler wrote in relation to »Maigret contra Picpus« that the occupation by the Germans was never an issue. There is no doubt about this, but it applies to every one of the Maigrets - nowhere was there a change of boss due to the occupation or a situation in which the Gestapo interfered in Maigret's business.
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Bold claim
After the coronavirus pandemic, the media reported that a statistical indicator had taken a turn for the worse: life expectancy. Personally, I am not happy about this and am only glad that I have become part of the kink. The two world wars in the last century caused a much more significant drop in this indicator.
Read more The election (I)
When the Germans invaded Paris in June 1940, they did not fail to seize a journalistic power: The newspaper »Paris-Soir« was the medium with the highest circulation in Paris. They used it for their propaganda. The manoeuvre did not go unnoticed by the Parisians. Circulation plummeted to a third. Who wanted to read the occupiers' communiqués?
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Happy coincidence
In Carlsen's print catalogue it is proven to be correct, but since I had visited the publisher's online presence, I was very confused: Who would translate the comic »The Passenger of the Polarlys«? The question was answered - the translation was done by Christoph Haas. Over the past few days, ambiguities relating to the subject have been cleared up.
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Strange at first
For twenty minutes I wondered what the screenwriters were up to. Then came the phase of acceptance: nothing would bring the story back to the path of Simenon's original idea. So I entered the phase of curiosity and the question of how the story would end was at the forefront of my mind. Surprisingly, the ending is very clever and more than acceptable.
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