Is Paris Burning?: Touring America’s “Good War” in France

Abstract

Growing numbers of American travelers are making their way to the landing beaches of D-Day where they find places such as the Normandy American Cemetery that reproduce distinctly American visions of World War II. Travelers passing through Paris also find opportunities to explore sites relevant to French memories of the war—sites that have the potential to disrupt as well as validate dominant narratives. This article discusses a walking tour that constructed its history around the story of the liberation of Paris. The analysis explores the interactive construction of historical understanding as the tour’s dominant narrative of liberation intermingles with questions about French complicity, resistance, deportation and the Holocaust.