Paris in the 1920s

My heart aches for Paris.  I may be married to The Big Apple, but Paris is my secret lover. So I thought I'd revisit my beloved city of light and love through a time that is often thought to be one of the most enchanting periods in french history: Paris in the 1920s. 

It's a very romantic notion, what it must have been like to sit at a little cafe and listen to great American jazz or see Josephine Baker do a little fan dance, first hand. Free thinking Americans flocked to the banks of Paris, where a person's race, sex, AND sexual orientation were accepted facts of life. So many of our greatest American artist, were once considered ex-patriots, all having spent a considerable amount of time in Paris, feeding off each ones creativity.  To frequent the cafes of Montparnasse, you would likely run into Ernest Hemingway, Man Ray or Gertrude Stein...or the quintessential flapper du jour, Zelda Fitzgerald.

It was the roaring 20s! The age of prohibition; visible knee caps and collar bones; Ziegfeld Follies and the Charleston; Cole Porter and Louis Armstrong!  And if you were lucky enough to be an American in Paris, it became a world of Picasso and Dali; Les Deux Magots and Cafe de Flore; joie de vivre; Folies Bergère; Art Deco and Haute Couture; La Garconne...Mademoiselle Coco Chanel!!!

How lovely it must have been to be a modern woman in 1920s Paris.  Oh how it must have been.  Maybe if I click my heels three times...