(Love never dies of want, but often of indigestion.)* -Ninon de Lenclos, seventeenth
century writer and courtesan
Romance is of course, a matter of personal taste. One person's favourite love song will send another diving for earplugs. Couples who met during a blizzard probably find it highly romantic to spend the occasional evening with their feet up while devouring a big tub of ice cream. That's the great thing about romance. It's completely personal.
Most people. however, seem to agree on one thing - That Paris is inherently romantic. There's something about the combination of riverbank sunsets, snug restaurants, effortless elegance and affordable champagne that strikes a chord in almost everyone's heart.
When we look at Robert Doisneau's famous photo of a couple snatching a kiss on a Paris street, something subconscious convinces us all that if we could only be walking past the Hotel de Ville right now, we would too feel the urgent need to grab our loved one and clamp ourselves to their lips. Like the tousled young guy in the photo, we might even take the cigarette out of our mouth to do so.
Doisneau snapped hundreds of Paris street scenes (I strongly recommend checking his photographs, link at the bottom of the blog), some of them impromptu, others less so, but it's no coincidence that 'The Lovers' is his best known photo. Their clinch seems to sum up the city in one primal gesture
It doesn't matter that the picture was posed - Doisneau took it in 1950 as part of a photo report for life magazine, and pragmatically chose the Hotel de Ville as a backdrop that would be easily recognisable to foreigners. So it's art, not life, but who cares? It is an image created by someone who loved the city and what it stood for, and it's brilliantly acted too - the male model is squashing his nose against his partner's face so passionately that she hangs almost breathless in his arms.
And the backdrop is perfect - the heat of the embrace is set against the dull, damp weather and the disapproving glance of a lady passer -by (who was not posing), while behind the couple, an office worker buttoned up tight in his overcoat, a beret clamped over his knitted brow, suddenly seems to have realised what is missing from his life - romance. The lovers, meanwhile, turn their backs on the dullness around them and live the Parisian dream. And we all want to be right there, right now.
What is it about Paris that does this to people? Is this the sheer density of kissing couples per square kilometer, or the almost infinite number of viewpoints where you can stand with your loved one and gaze out across glittering lights? Or is it simply expectation - you're almost obliged to feel romantic in Paris the same way that you laugh before a famous comedian even opens his or her mouth?
Well, yes to most of those rhetorical questions, but they aren't the only reason for the city's success.
Links :
An english site about Robert Doisneau
See Robert Doisneau's amazing portfolio
Find me on Twitter and on LinkedIn
*Advice, perhaps, for couples planning a romantic candlelit dinner in Paris...
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