France & Louisiana

What France Can Learn From Its ‘Lost Province’ - New York Times

It conforms, in significant ways, to the French view of what the United States ought to be - that imaginary land of jazz and Jack Kerouac, John F. Kennedy and Woody Allen, against which Gallic disappointment at God-fearing American reality, George W. Bush and all, is measured.

"Louisiana is our poor lost province," Lebovics said. "It lives in the collective memory. There's even an Indian tribe, the Houma, that speaks some French. That's why the reaction to Katrina and the devastation here was so strong in France."

That reaction's impact is unmistakable in New Orleans these days. The city is full of posters saying "From France with Love." They refer to a fine exhibition at the city's Museum of Art called "Femme, Femme, Femme."

The women in question are caught in over 80 paintings offered by more than 30 museums as their response to the city's plight. Works by Millet, Degas, Daumier, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec and others chronicle changing female roles from the 19th to the 20th century. An astonishing little Picasso from 1918 - a bright beach scene painted on honeymoon in Biarritz - is alone worth the pilgrimage.
The French have also done much else. Aid worth more than $20 million has come from private French companies including Lafarge and Sanofi-Aventis. Books have been donated, schools assisted.