Riding to the Moon

Author’s Note

Author’s NoteIn the last ten years of the nineteenth century, Paris became the civilised world Capital of elegant living, pleasure and artistic genius.

In 1889 the Eiffel Tower, the highest metal structure in the world, symbolised for Paris a turbulent century of great achievements.

Paris was growing more prosperous and more bourgeois. It was also becoming increasingly democratic despite many social injustices. The war debts had been paid off to victorious Germany ahead of schedule and France’s colonial Empire was growing fast.

The areas in the City, which had been ravaged by fire and artillery, had been rebuilt, the Opera House was completed and there was little to show that Paris had suffered a siege and a Civil War.

For the sophisticated searcher of pleasure, there was nowhere in the world to rival Paris. Already famous for women’s fashions, a brilliant High Society life, its food and its music, it became the number one destination for the rich and famous.

Added to this was the allure of the Moulin Rouge, which opened its doors in 1889. The great red wooden sails of the windmill above its entrance began to turn and it was to become a Mecca for the libertines with money to spend for the next decade.

Writers and the artists of the time found a complete freedom in Paris. They could live, write, love and paint, as they liked amongst people with a passion for novelty.

There was freedom of the press, freedom to express political convictions, freedom to create and freedom to look to the future.

It was a new age which had a large number of troubles and difficulties, but which also had so much charm, vitality and colour, which, combined with an abundance of pleasure, has since become known as La Belle Époque.