Davidson Norris

Making Memories: French Lieux de Memoire in the Parisian Landscape

French historian Pierre Nora’s term, lieux de mémoire, can be translated as “sites of memory.” His three-volume treatise of the same name (1989) examining this term and its meaning in the context of French culture launched a new examination of how cultural memory crystallizes in the physical landscape. Obvious examples come to mind, monuments that have become symbols of Paris and France itself: the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and the Louvre are chief among them. These projects have had many years to become integral elements of Paris and make their impact on its cultural consciousness, but others have not had that luxury: this paper investigates how new monuments, such as the 1980s National Library building, and non-material symbols, like the personification of the French Republic, Marianne, are integrated into Paris’s built environment. By examining the political situation surrounding the implementation of these symbols and the urban development that accompanied it, as well as the popular reception of the new constructions in Paris’s physical fabric, this paper uncovers the processes that transform the spirit of the French people as their city changes. Investigating the public response and how it evolves is a key element of the process, since the creation of a shared cultural memory is a complicated, layered, and often messy process. Paris is marked by unique monuments that symbolize France and its people in ways that are constantly in flux. Through an understanding of how changing identity is reflected and reinforced through the physical environment, we can see more clearly how an urban fabric shapes and represents those within it.