The Persistence of Memory

This city surprises me everyday. Last Saturday I went to the Salvador Dali museum in Montmatre, a permanent exhibit of over 300 pieces of art by Dali. There were his famous sculptures of melting watches on tree branches, his symbolic representation of the fluidity of time. There were his series on Alice in Wonderland, Romeo and Juliet, and his Old and New Testament interpretations. The walls were all black and as a whole the place was in every way modern. However, the museum is underground and as they were hollowing it out they found an ancient chapel, dating before 1000 AD. There, right behind Dali's erotic elephant was a stone chapel with a broken Virgin Mary somewhat reconstructed. At first this seemed so unreal, but that kind of fit with Dali. This was just one of the many examples of what my professor calls 'the layered city'. Paris is at the cutting edge of fashion, politics, philosophical ideas, and cuisine, but there is an ancient, traditional, and sacred side of the city too. In so many ways this museum left nothing wanting - it was a live example of the fluidity of time. Showing that we will forever be connected to the past and always trying to control the future. Paris is an ancient city, but it also holds so many ideas that will reach the rest of the world tomorrow.