Quote:
Originally Posted by sopas ej
Among English speakers, an old nickname for Paris was "City of Light"... or was it "City of Lights?"
|
Yeah, "Ville-Lumière"... Admittedly. You know what this name would have come from? It's not that people over here would've ever been particularly enlightened, wise or smart, huh.
Popular beliefs and classic literature say that it came from gas lighting that was set up to the streets from the mid 19th century, so people could see gangsters standing on street corners to 1- cut their throats, then 2- take their money at night.
No kidding, it is said that robbers in the city wouldn't just mug you 150 years ago. They would first murder you, then take whatever you'd carry. I remember a novel by Émile Zola (l'Assommoir) talking about the screams of poor random strollers being murdered in the streets at night. I don't know how accurate popular sayings are in that matter. There may be some sort of legend and exaggeration in there, but life was surely much rougher back then anyway.
So, at some point, the local authority developed a lighting system based on gas, just to let people see what was hidden in the dark corners of the streets. This story is actually well known.
Maybe this gas lighting network was sort of early, innovative and original, which owed this nickname to the city.
But to be honest, "City of Lights" is a bit too much of honor, if not pompous.
We don't deserve to be called that name.