Changed times

It never ceases to amaze me how tastes change.

When I was young I was indifferent to foods like Shepherd’s Pie, yet I’m eagerly awaiting tonight’s pie. The Fox used to hate mashed potatoes, now it seems to have become one of his great pleasures.

The same can be said of fashions. Skirt lengths have gone from just below the knee (1950s) through the mini (1960s) & the maxi (1970s) & back again. I seem to be seeing a lot of full length daytime wear once more at the moment. With wearing knee braces, my one conclusion is that my days of mini wearing are well & truly over whatever fashion says.

I’m indulging in a bit of nostalgia at moment. I’m reading about Paris as we will be visiting there next month. It’s over 40 years since either of us visited Paris & I can’t help being struck by how things have changed, or at least my memory of things.

One of my disappointments was the Jardin des Tuilleries. When I visited in April 1969, it just seemed like a scrap area, nothing to rave about, but the pictures in the guidebook show something quite different. Admittedly, it is partly the date I visited. During the riots of 1968, trees were cut down all along the Champs Elysées, including those in the gardens,  the better to control the people, so the gardens had barely had chance to recover.

So many things didn’t even exist – the Pompidou Centre, the Glass Pyramid in the forecourt of the Louvre for example. Some remain, like the Eiffel Tower & Notre Dame.  Names have changed. For me the Arc de Triomphe will always be found in the Place Etoile, not the Place Charles de Gaulle. It even seems a more appropriate name as the various roads radiate out from the hub of the Arc.

I wonder how I will find the city this time.