Naked defiance

Erospolis delights in the defiance of artists, writers, jurists and other intellectuals, particularly if it involves a flash of skin and demands an end to the state of emergency ... in ParisThe weather is freezing but who cares? The women of Paris stride in down-coats or luxurious furs out through the sales; long lines wait before the top two exhibitions, "The Images of Prostitution" at the Musée d'Orsay and Picassomania in Grand Palais. Paris, despite the heavy wounds inflicted in 2015, first in the Jan. 6 Charlie Hebdo attack, then in the Nov. 13 attack that killed 130 people, still keeps her head up. Fluctuat nec mergitur/Hit but not sunk. Feast along with fear.

The League of Human Rights has already appealed to the Council of State to end the state of emergency in Paris that was put in place after the November attacks. A lawyer for the league said on Jan. 19 that the state of emergency was seen as a short-term measure when it was first launched: "If it needs to continue, then it may need to be more relaxed on certain issues, such as the right to public meetings," he asserted. Some 69 percent of the French, however, favor the continuation of the state of emergency to protect the citizens against terrorism, according to a survey by YouGov for the Huffington Post.

Feast and fear

But neither the measures nor the military in commando uniforms near the Louvre Museum and other touristic spots seem to have deterred the tourists or the natives.  The best word to describe the mood of the city is "defiant." The symbol of this defiance is Ernest Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast" - his memories as a struggling young expatriate in the 1920s.  

The French translation "Paris est une Fête / Paris is a Feast" has become a best-seller since...