Russians in France of the 20th century – this is one of the most dramatic and vibrant pages of our culture. And, first of all, this concerns the capital of France.
In Paris there is a number of unique churches and the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, through which the entire Russian emigration passed. Icons of the White Guard units are still kept in the cathedral; the Russian Tsar came here, Picasso and his Russian wife were married here, princes, counts, poets, writers, artists, military officers had funeral services here...
The Montparnasse region is no less significant for the Russian emigration. Vladimir Mayakovsky, Ilya Erenburg and Alexei Tolstoy met in his restaurants with those who did not want to live in the USSR, in the very restaurants where they had recently seen Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky… In the painting schools of Montparnasse one could meet Marc Chagall, Zinaida Serebryakova, Mikhail Larionov, Natalya Goncharova… One of the most fashionable hotels hosted evenings of Ivan Bunin, Vladislav Khodasevich, Boris Zaitsev… Descendants of the Grzhibins, Benois, Rachmaninov and many others still live in Montparnasse.
While traveling through the streets located in the 8th and 16th districts, you are literally haunted by memories associated with our compatriots. Here is the theater where Ivan Bunin was honored with the Nobel Prize, the street where the famous Onegin lived, here they tried to revive the traditions of Russian opera, here Savenkov made his plans to fight the Bolsheviks, in this house Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Zinaida Gippius gathered for famous literary evenings, and here is a memorial plaque in honor of Ivan Bunin, who lived here…
No less is connected with the central districts of Paris: the murder of Petlyura, the first Diaghilev Seasons, the addresses where Marina Tsvetaeva, Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelstam lived… Names, events, dates, destinies - all this is inscribed in the enchanting beauty of the city, which is more than 23 centuries old…
The history of Mount Parnassus (which is what the word "Montparnasse" literally means) began in the 16th century, when students expelled by the construction of the monastery from a favorite place of meetings and duels - Pré-aux-Claires - moved here, calling the ancient stone quarries the mountain of muses.
Since the era of the French Revolution, many cafes and cabarets have sprung up in this quarte...
In the old quarter of Paris, next to the 12th-century fortress wall and fashionable mansions of the 16th and 17th centuries, is the cozy Museum of Magic.
The history of this art is represented by various devices, devices - all kinds of means that were used by magicians and magicians in Europe. A short performance awaits you showing tricks and revealing the secrets of some of them.
After walking arou...
It is located at the border of two regions - Brittany and Normandy. These areas are most visited by European tourists, especially English ones. For our compatriots they still remain “terra incognita”. Meanwhile, there is something to see here: before us, in fact, there are not two regions, but two original countries, each of which is a fairy tale.
Mont Saint-Michel is an island monastery where eart...