Skip to main content

French Lessons from the Lower East 60s

In Truman Capote's novella Breakfast at Tiffany's, Holly Golightly sprinkles her conversations with just a little bit of French, or more typically, with a mélange of French and English. Par exemple, she decribes one of her suitors as "quel beast." Speaking a few words in French gives our self-made heroine, born poor in rural Tulip, Texas as Lula Mae Barnes, the air of charm and sophistication necessary to succeed in cosmopolitan New York. In an early passage in the book we learn that before she fled to New York a Hollywood agent named O.J. Berman aspired to help Holly make it in the movies. He thus sent Holly to French classes in order for her to sound less like a country girl. A little French seems useful in New York, too, especially if one aspires to move up in the ranks of Old New York.

French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)
FIAF offer programs for New Yorkers interested in French language and culture.


Since the late 19th century and early 20th, wealthy New Yorkers living on the fashionable Upper East Side near Central Park often mimicked the trappings of French royalty, establishing their tony neighborhood as the center of New York with a French accent. Many built their mansions in the highest French styles of the Ã‰cole des Beaux-Arts. Subsequently, New York luxury retailers followed suit, moving their stores from the once fashionable Ladies Mile district to areas uptown to be closer to their customers. In 1886 the pioneering Bloomingdale's opened its expansive emporium on 59th and Lexington Avenue. In 1928 Bergdorf Goodman built its Beaux-Arts store on Fifth Avenue, just south of the Plaza Hotel, on the site of the demolished Cornelius Vanderbilt mansion. Tiffany's was actually a late-comer to the trend, moving to its present location at 727 Fifth Avenue and 57th in 1940. In order to make one's way through this word, it helps to know a little French.

Speaking of sophisticated stores, Henri Bendel was born in Vermillionville, Louisiana in 1868. The town later changed its name to Lafayette.

Grand Army Plaza, Sherman Monument
Sherman Monument, designed by Beaux-Arts trained sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
Grand Army Plaza, 60th and Fifth Avenue. The Plaza Hotel is in the background.


Today, French is the official language of 29 countries, with expanding usage in Sub-Saharan Africa. (Wikipedia) In New York, a significant portion of the immigrant population speaks French, including people originally from Haiti and Quebec.

This website draws enthusiastically on several strains of French social and cultural thought, including Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America (published 1835 and 1840), poet Charles Baudelaire's idea of the flâneur ("a person who walks the city in order to experience it"), and works of the theorist and writer Guy Debord, the founder of the Situationist International.

• French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF). 22 East 60th Street
Major French cultural organization in New York hosts language classes, cultural events, a cinema, and more. fiaf.org

Paris Theater
Paris Theatre. 4 West 58th St.

• Paris Theatre. 4 West 58th St.
The Pathé Company opened this arthouse cinema on September 13, 1948. The company owned the theater until 1990.

• Sherman Statue. Grand Army Plaza.
Designed by Beaux-Arts trained sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, an Irish-American artist raised in New York City. His father was French. When he was 19 he left for Europe to study art in an atelier and also at the École des Beaux-Arts.

• Mon Petit Cafe. 801 Lexington Ave.
French classics served up in an informal bistro.
monpetitcafe.com

Mon Petit Cafe
Mon Petit Cafe. Lexington and E. 62nd St.

• Grolier Club. 47 East 60th Street
Club devoted to the bookmaking arts is named for famous French book collector, Jean Grolier (1479-1565)
grolierclub.org

• Eglise Française du Saint-Esprit. 109 East 60th Street
Diverse Episcopal congregation for a Francophone and Francophile community. The church's history can be traced to the French Huguenots in New Amsterdam.

17 E. 63rd St. French-inspired architecture (middle)
Find French-inspired Beaux-Arts architecture throughout the neighborhood.
Pictured here - 17 E. 63rd St. and neighbors.

• The Pierre. 2 East 61st Street
French inspired hotel constructed in 1929-1930. Founder and restaurateur Charles Pierre was born in Corsica and studied cuisine in Paris. After immigrating to New York in his twenties, Charles worked at several restaurants catering to the wealthy. Charles formed a business partnership to open the grand Pierre Hotel in 1930, but the hotel went into bankruptcy in two years. J. Paul Getty bought the hotel in 1938. Hotel website. The hotel's restaurant is La Caprice.


View French Lessons from the Lower East 60s in a larger map

• Beaux-Arts architecture.
Look for the French-inspired houses from the turn of the century throughout the Upper East Side.

• Rouge Tomate. 10 East 60th Street
Modern American cuisine with a Brussels provenance. In addition to the sit-down restaurant here, look for the Rouge Tomate cart outside the park on Fifth Avenue at 64th St.

Rouge Tomate cart
The Rouge Tomate cart

Stopping yesterday at the Rouge Tomate cart for a little lunch, the nice guy working in the cart explained that the name "Rouge Tomate" translates as "the color red," as opposed to a red tomato. Furthermore, he explained that "rouge tomate" is also an expression for blushing. See? French lessons extend beyond the classroom in these environs.

After school, especially in the autumn, it's nice to grab lunch and then sit in the park, n'est-ce pas?

Central Park October 13, 2011
le parc central

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple from Thursday, October 13, 2011.

Comments

  1. Tres bien, Teri. Je suis tres heureux decouvrer que tu viens de commencer tes etudes en francais!

    ReplyDelete
  2. We really enjoyed reading your article. It's incredible how much French culture has influenced NYC--the architecture, food, music...

    In fact, we recently launched a text message-based scavenger that takes players to specific locations in Manhattan that are tied to France in some way. Maybe this is something you would like to check out? If so, more information is available on our Facebook page.

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, Phil and Philip.

    And thanks, Sud de France NY. Your app looks fun.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A New York Spring Calendar: Blooming Times and Seasonal Events

See the UPDATED 2018 CALENDAR HERE . Updated for 2017 . At this time of year, thoughts turn to spring. Let's spring forward to blooming times, the best locations for witnessing spring's beginnings, and springtime events in the big city. While the occasional snow could blow through the city, we're just weeks now from callery pears in bloom and opening day at the ballpark. In The Ramble, Central Park. mid-April Blooming Times •  Central Park Conservancy's website  lists blooming times within the park. During the month of March we begin to see crocus, daffodils, forsythia, snowdrops, witch-hazel, and hellebores. Species tulips will emerge in several places, but the Shakespeare Garden and Conservatory Garden are particularly good places to catch the beginning of Spring blooms. Central Park near E. 72nd St., saucer magnolia, typically end of March. •  Citywide Blooming Calendar from New York City Department of Parks & Recreation April is u

Museums in New York Open on Mondays

Please see this post for current announcements of reopenings . Please consult the museum websites for changes in days and hours. UPDATED September 23, 2020 Advance tickets required for many museum reopenings. Please check museum websites for details. • The  Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)  reopened to the public on  August 27 , with new hours for the first month, through September 27: from 10:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday to the public; and from 10:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.  on Mondays for MoMA members on ly. Admission will be free to all visitors Tuesday through Sunday, through September 27, made possible by UNIQLO. See this  new post on WOTBA for a sense of the experience attending the museum . •  New-York Historical Society  reopened on  August 14  with an outdoor exhibition, "Hope Wanted: New York City Under Quarantine,” in the rear courtyard. The exhibit by activist Kevin Powell and photographer Kay Hickman will highlight how New Yorkers weathered the quarantine

25 Things To Do Near the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

(updated 2016) The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) at 11 W. 53rd Street is near many other New York City attractions, so before or after a trip to the museum, a short walk in any direction could easily take in additional experiences. Drawing a square on a map with the museum at the center, a shape bounded by 58th Street to the north and 48th Street to the south, with 7th Avenue to the west and Park Avenue to the east, proves the point of the area's cultural richness. (A map follows the list below.) While well-known sightseeing stops fall with these boundaries, most notably Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the great swath of famous Fifth Avenue stores, cultural visitors may also want to check out places such as the Austrian Cultural Forum, the 57th Street galleries, the Onassis Cultural Center, and the Municipal Art Society. The image above shows an intriguing glimpse of the tops of two Beaux-Arts buildings through an opening of the wall inside MoMA's scu

Taking a Constitutional Walk

A long time ago individuals going out for a walk, especially to get fresh air and exercise, often referred to the activity as "taking a constitutional walk." The word "constitutional" refers to one's constitution or physical makeup, so a constitutional walk was considered beneficial to one's overall wellbeing. (Or, as some would prefer to call it, "wellness.") The phrase is more common in British literature than in American letters. As early as the mid-nineteenth century, many American commentators expressed concern that their countrymen were falling into lazy and unhealthy habits. Newspaper columnists and editorial writers urged their readers to take up the practice of the "constitutional" walk. One such essay, " Walking as an Exercise," originally printed in the Philadelphia Gazette and reprinted in New England Farmer , Volume 11, 1859, urges the people of farm areas to take up walking. City dwellers seemed to have the

25 Things to Do Near the American Museum of Natural History

After visiting the American Museum of Natural History, explore attractions on the Upper West Side or in Central Park. Visitors to New York often run around from one major tourist site to the next, sometimes from one side of the city to the other, and in the process, exhaust themselves thoroughly. Ambitious itineraries often include something like coffee in the Village in the morning, lunch near MoMA, a couple of hours in the museum, a ride on the Staten Island Ferry in the afternoon, cocktails at the midtown hotel, a quick dinner, and then a Broadway show. It's a wonder people don't pass out at the theater. While sitting on the steps of the American Museum of History, consider exploring the Upper West Side and nearby sites of interest in Central Park. There's a better way to plan a New York trip. Consider grouping attractions together geographically. Several posts on this site address this recommended approach. The Wild West of the Tecumseh Playground Groupin

25 Things to Do Near the Metropolitan Museum of Art

(updated) Sitting on the steps in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of those iconic things to do in New York City. On a sunny day, the wide steps can become crowded with the young and old, the tourist and the resident. It's tempting to stay awhile and soak in the sun and the sights. Everyone has reasons for lingering there, with one being the shared pleasure of people watching along this expansive stretch of Fifth Avenue, a painting come to life. Certainly, just getting off one's feet for a moment is welcome, especially if the previous hours involved walking through the entirety of art history from prehistoric to the contemporary. The entrance to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue The Metropolitan Museum of Art should be a singular pilgrimage, uninterrupted by feeble attempts to take in more exhibitions along Museum Mile. Pity the poor visitor who tries "to do" multiple museum exhibitions in one day, albeit ambitious, noble, and uplift

The High Line and Chelsea Market: A Good Pairing for a Walk

(revised 2017) The advent of spring, with its signs of growth and rebirth, is apparent both on the High Line , where volunteers are cutting away the old growth to reveal fresh blooms, and inside the Chelsea Market, where new tenants are revitalizing the space. A walk to take in both can become an exploration of bounty and surprise, a sensual walk of adventure and sustenance. A good pairing for a walk: The High Line and Chelsea Market Walking the High Line for a round trip from Gansevoort to W. 30th and then back again adds up to a healthy 2-mile walk. Regular walkers of the elevated park look for an excuse to go there. Especially delightful is showing off the park, a model of its kind, to visitors from out of town. A stroll through Chelsea Market. Time check. If you haven't stopped into Chelsea Market lately, you may want to take a detour from the High Line at the stairs on W. 16th St. and walk through the market for a quick assessment or a sampling. Among the sampli

Introducing Birds of Inwood

Introducing a New Website It's been a moment since I posted last. Please forgive me. I have been in the forest down the street. After spending many of my leisure hours taking photographs of birds in my local neighborhood of Inwood, I am introducing to you a new website featuring these beautiful and often enigmatic creatures. It's called  Birds of Inwood . As I write there, "Inwood is my Amherst." With time, my advancing age, and the pandemic, I have learned to find depth and beauty in places close to home.  I have also found to my delight that designing a new website presents great opportunities. Birds of Inwood is pretty flashy! The birds are even larger than life on these new pages! Please visit. You'll be glad I didn't call it "Flying Off the Big Apple." Check out my forest home. - Teri

Visiting New York on a Monday

Mondays are OK. Let's have a look at some of the museums open Mondays - • American Museum of Natural History • Jewish Museum • Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) • National Museum of the American Indian • Neue Galerie • Guggenheim Museum • South Street Seaport Museum Any of these museums could be paired with a nearby restaurant or bar, making a complete full afternoon or day in New York. Monday is especially good for a museum visit, because the crowds tend to be thinner, and restaurants, too, tend to be less busy than on a weekend. A fun museum and bistro walk on the Upper West Side would be a combination of the American Museum of Natural History and the nearby Cafe Lalo on W. 83rd St. I also would suggest a pairing of the Neue Galerie with a nearby cafe, but the two cafes inside the musuem are so good, why go anywhere else? Image above: The Guggenheim on left and Beaux-Arts townhouse on right. View from E. 88th St. by Walking Off the Big Apple.

14 Useful Mobile Apps for Walking New York City

Texting and walking at the same time is wrong. Talking on the phone while strolling down the street is wrong. Leaving the sidewalk to stop and consult the information on a cellphone, preferably while alone, is OK. What's on Walking Off the Big Apple's iPhone: A List Walkmeter GPS Walking Stopwatch for Fitness and Weight Loss . While out walking, Walkmeter tracks routes, time, speed, and elevation. This is an excellent app for recording improvised or impromptu strolls, especially with many unplanned detours. The GPS function maps out the actual route. The app keeps a running tally of calories burned while walking, useful for weight loss goals. Another welcome feature is the ability to switch over to other modes of activity, including cycling. An indispensable app for city walkers. $4.99  New York City Compass , designed by Francesco Bertelli, is an elegant compass calibrated for Manhattan, with indications for Uptown, East Side, Downtown, and West Side. While facing a cert