Caricaturing the Caricaturists in Paris: Then and Now.

A Sad Discovery About the Artistic Hub of Paris 13 years later.

A wee young Chatfield, Paris Circa 2010

December 27th, 2023
Montmartre, Paris

I first hit the summit of Caricaturist Everest 13 years ago. I had no idea what was waiting for me (or how naive I was about it.)

At the time I didn’t realize what a tourist trap it was, more akin to Times Square than some bastion of fine art held in high esteem. Still, Montmartre wasn’t a place I knew about beyond glimpsing it in Amélie, so I was very curious to see it for myself.

It was 2010, and I was on my way to the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival in the UK. I stopped in France for just two days. I’d never been to Europe so everything I experienced was so mind-bendingly new to me. I read my naive diary entries from back then and laugh at how the smallest things sent me into raptures; cartoons on billboards, movie posters, bookstores full of comics (bandes desinée), and exhibitions dedicated to comic art.

I’d only just moved to Melbourne from Perth, my only exposure to other working artists being at the annual shi…