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AGBU Magazine | The People's Victory

French Accents

From public gardens and grand boulevards to wine country and cafes, post-soviet Armenia reveals its long held penchant for French sensibilities

Photographs by DAVIT HAKOBYAN

Yerevan Wine Days, an annual salute to local wines and cheeses of Armenia for one week in May.
Auguste Rodin’s sculpture of naturalist French painter Jule Bastien Lapage, located in Yerevan’s France Square.
Musaler, a museum and memorial of the Musa Dagh resistance during the genocide and the rescue of survivors by five French warships in the Mediterranean.
Lovers’ Park. In 2005, the Boghossian Foundation headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, assumed the renovation of the park. It was designed by French architect Pierre Rambach.
Northern Avenue. A pedestrian walkway reminiscent of Rue de la Republique in Lyon, France, it connects major streets of Yerevan’s posh downtown district.
Charles Aznavour Square.
Yerevan Ararat Brandy Factory. The art of brandy making was restored after Armenia regained independence in 1991. In 1877, when French cultural influences were strong throughout the Russian Empire, founder Nikolay Shustov sent samples of his brandy to an exhibition in Paris. So impressed were the judges that they granted him the rare privilege of putting the word “cognac” on his labels, although the name “brandy” was designated for all other “burnt wines” made outside of the French region of Cognac.
Missak Manouchian Street, connected to Aznavour Square, is a tribute to the leader of the French-Armenian Resistance during World War II.
Henri Verneuil Street, dedicated to award winning French-Armenian filmmaker best known by Armenians for his semi-autobiographical film, Mayrig. The street connects Yerevan’s Amiryan Street and Main Avenue.
Davit Hakobyan

Davit Hakobyan

Davit Hakobyan studied art and photography at the Armenian State Pedagogical University and has been photographing since 2002. He worked at the ARMENPRESS news agency from 2007, and from 2010, has served as the personal photographer of the President of Armenia. In 2017, his photobook Հողի դողը ոտքերի տակ Trembling Soil Under their Feet featuring Armenian and Artsakh soldiers was published in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Armenian Armed Forces. He has had many personal exhibitions in Yerevan, Moscow, Warshava, Stockholm, New York, and Montreal.

Originally published in the August 2018 ​issue of AGBU Magazine. end character

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