Tucked
away in a remote corner of the Bois de Vincennes, sprawls a delightful
mini-golf course in which every green is graced with the miniature of
a famous Paris monument.
In an off-season pleasure park, these grand icons of cultural and political
power are fading, paint-peeling, diminished, and striped from the lively
chaos of their urban homes. But, in the grey hibernation of winter grasses
and concrete lots they still retain a monumentality, dignity, even grace.
Are they symbols of the decay and diminishing grandeur of Western civilization
in the hands of a decadent and pleasure-driven culture? Are they proof
of the aesthetic power and harmony of classical Western architecture
in even the most constricted of environments? What a fabulous game is
this mini-golf; one where we can putt-putt around the course, playing
slight-of-hand with our ideas, emotions and imagery.
