#Mark Sutcliffe

[allthecanadianpolitics]

During his time as a local newspaper columnist, mayoral candidate Mark Sutcliffe advocated for the elimination of all funding to community festivals that rely on support from the City of Ottawa.

Singling out Capital Pride, Festival Franco-Ontarien and the Tulip Festival, Sutcliffe argued community festivals were a bad “investment” that produce little economic value.

“It’s too much like a parent handing out more and more cash to a teenager who never learns how to look after himself,” Sutcliffe wrote.

“The city should give the festivals fair warning and wean them off the grant program over the next three years.”

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[mythserene]

HAMBURG I: It's not just that the narrative becomes so ridiculous, it's that as usual all the other evidence we have contradicts it. George talking about punching Stuart. Stuart's letters. The sourcing voids. “The logbook recorded” nonsense, but a few pages before that the “logbook” is long lost, “unfortunately.” It's like Lewisohn forgot his continuity notebook.

But mostly it's the pictures that put the lie to “Stuart was all and Paul was off moping in a corner.” (And incidentally, very jealous of Pete getting all the best birds.)

I'm sorry but give me a fucking break.

One of my favorite AKOM Fine Tuning eps btw

[emilybeemartin]

Me, watching the Eagle: COS-TIS COS-TIS COS-TIS COS-TIS

100% who I referenced for RotT pieces. Also damn Mark Strong was in every aughts historical epic, wasn't he?

Film exec: Is this script set before 1850?

Casting: Yes sir

Film exec: Swords?

Casting: Yup

Film exec: So we need Mark Strong

Casting: Correct

Intern: Why do we need Mark Strong?

Film exec:

Casting:

Film exec:

Casting:

Intern, scribbling hurriedly: need... Mark... Strong...

[insertpoetryhere]

The idea was eating me alive so of course I had to draw it.

[wingsoverlagos]

Lewisohn vs. Cynthia Pt. 3 of 3

Part 1 // Part 2 // Other Sources

Quite by accident, this final section of citations from Tune In referencing Cynthia Lennon's memoirs have something of a theme. There are three citations of A Twist of Lennon (1978, aka Twist) and two to John (2005) to dissect here, and all but one have a commonality: the cited source is either altered or directly contradicted in Tune In.

The odd citation out is the one I'll deal with first, and then we'll dive into the citing-a-source-that-contradicts-what-you-wrote section under the cut. This first citation includes a classic Lewisohn Donut, in which he omits a section of the source quote without using an ellipsis to indicate it. When comparing Tune In to the source, this wasn't my biggest takeaway; what was far more glaring was the context Lewisohn had chosen to cut when adapting the anecdote for his book. Let's get into it.

John p.38 vs. Tune In 11-53

The topic here is John hitting Cyn, so there's a lot to unpack. We'll start with the usual citation comparison, and then we'll zoom out to see what Lewisohn does and doesn't include as context. Here's the source:

And here's Tune In:

Immediately, we see that Lewisohn has omitted a large part of the source without indication, and smushed two different sentences together into one. He should not do this, but, honestly, I was just glad Lewisohn covered John's history of domestic violence instead of glossing over it, so I wasn't too fussed...until I looked at the broader context in Tune In.

Lewisohn is skirting a hairsbreadth away from two pertinent stories. Here's the leadup to the quote used above, where Lewisohn describes the events that led John to slap Cyn:

There’s the quote we just looked at in green at the bottom, with some pertinent context highlighted in pink at the top—we’ll get to the world’s ugliest orange circle in a second.

John was insecure, so he hit Cyn when she danced with a man at a party. “The exact circumstances have varied with retelling,” Lewisohn tells us. Maybe that’s true. If you folks are aware of other versions of this story, please let me know—they may well be floating around! Here’s how Cyn describes it in John (p.37):

Two notable details here that didn't make it into Tune In: Cyn's head being knocked into pipes when John hit her, and the identity of the man she was dancing with: Stuart Sutcliffe.

Even if the details are different in other accounts, it is absolutely WILD to me that Lewisohn wouldn't mention that the cause for John's jealousy, according to Cyn's account, was Stuart. Even if he can't be 100% certain, would it not be worth mentioning that Cyn herself says Stuart was the man she was dancing with when John became incensed?

John’s relationship with Stuart was hugely important and influential in this period of John’s life. Lewisohn doesn't have to state it as fact, but I'm gobsmacked he wouldn't mention the strong possibility that John was enraged by Cyn dancing with his best friend. For someone as jealous and insecure as nineteen-year-old John Lennon, would that not have some lasting effects on his feelings towards Stu? Given how central the John-Stuart relationship is in Tune In, I don't know why Lewisohn wouldn't at least take a sentence or two to explore this possibility and the repercussions it might have had on their dynamic. Maybe this influenced John bullying Stu, or the purported attack on Stu described by Pauline Sutcliffe? Is none of this worth mentioning?

Now, the ugly orange circle. That citation refers to a passage in Hunter Davies' The Beatles (1968) where John and Cyn discuss his violent behavior. Here's some of that section from Davies (1968) p.52-3.

The quote Lewisohn uses is underlined with orange. If you read down to the pink-underlined passage, you'll see an account of John's violence towards Cynthia.

This is a very different account than the one we see in John or Tune In. This incident is distinct enough that I doubt it’s a retelling of the jealousy-induced slap described in Tune In, so there’s a inconsistency here: either the abuse in Hunter Davies’ work didn’t happen, or Cyn’s assertion that the art school slap was the single time John hit her isn’t entirely true.

I’m not trying to attack Cyn’s credibility or honesty in recounting her abuse, but I lean towards her downplaying events in her 2005 memoir. This might be a conscious choice—her ex-husband had since been martyred, and perhaps she didn’t want to tarnish his memory, or dredge up unwanted controversy that might affect her son—or a reflection of the amount of time that had passed, nearly 40 years since she and John got divorced. I don’t see a reason to disbelieve the story in Hunter Davies—John read the manuscript and had to sign off on it, so he could have had the story removed.

Lewisohn is certainly aware of this passage. In addition to the “I was just hysterical bit,” he cites the paragraph directly after Cyn’s account of John hitting her elsewhere in Tune In (see citation 10-10). I’m sure Lewisohn has his reasons for favoring the account from John, but I worry those reasons stem from trying to make John look as good as possible, not from trying to portray the most historically accurate version of events.

Twist p.80-82 vs. Tune In 31-12

(p.81 and p.82 pictured below)

Onto the wedding of John and Cyn. There are two issues here.

First, the witnesses. Cyn gives her brother and sister-in-law as witnesses; Lewisohn gives Paul and Cyn’s sister-in-law as witnesses. I would not be at all surprised if Lewisohn has the facts straight here—Cyn actually gives the wrong year for her wedding on p.80 of Twist—but Lewisohn only gives Cyn’s memoir as a source for “[d]etails of the wedding.” Don’t cite something with a source that contradicts it.

The second bit I’d like to discuss is the description of John et al. in the waiting room before the wedding, highlighted/underlined in purple. This isn’t straight CTRL+C/CTRL-V plagiarism, but Lewisohn leaned heavily on Cyn’s phrasing and word choice here, switching around a few clauses and molding two sections into one. He’s changed this passage less than many of the passages he actually quotes, so I’m not sure why he didn’t put this one in quotes as well.

Twist p.84-87 vs. Tune In 33-35

This passage mostly lines up with the account in Twist, but the highlighted section stuck out to me: Cyn never mentions Dot living in the same building as her at this point. By Cyn’s account, after Paul broke up with Dot, Dot moved out of the bedsit where she and Cyn were neighbors, and the two barely saw each other. Here’s Cyn on p.77 of Twist:

Cyn also doesn’t mention Dot’s residency in the basement flat in John (2005)—but it seems she got the story wrong. On the It’s Only Love webpage (see Lewisohn vs. Cynthia Part 2 for some discussion about this source), there’s a quote from Dot about living in the flat beneath Cyn and John’s. In Bob Spitz’s The Beatles: The Biography (2005), he also says that Dot lived in the basement flat based on an interview he conducted with her. He even says that John helped Dot with rent! (Spitz 2005 p.357)

Don’t take this as an endorsement of Spitz’s version of events—I’m not going to write several pedantic tumblr posts criticizing Mark Lewisohn only to uphold Bob Spitz as a paragon of truth! But Cyn is fallible, and there are at least two sources out there that contradict her version of events. The problem here is that Lewisohn only cites Twist for his passage about the Falkner Street flat. You can’t credit information to a source that directly contradicts that information.

Hmmm, there’s a word for using information from a source without proper attribution, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. I think it starts with ‘P’…

Twist p.87 vs. Tune In 33-37

Lewisohn uses Twist as his source for the section of Tune In where John and Cyn move to Mendips. The difference lies in how that move came about. Cyn says that she encouraged John to visit Mimi since she hated to see family members fall out, then credits Mimi as proposing they move in when she hears about their current living situation. In Lewisohn’s version, John makes the request.

We’ve established that Cyn got some facts wrong in Twist (though not more than one might expect in a Beatles autobiography), so she might have things mixed up here. I know I’m a broken record at this point, but Lewisohn needs to cite his source if he has contradictory information here.

In this case, I think Cyn probably has things right. If you read her memoirs, it is clear that Cyn does not like Mimi, and she doesn’t hide this. I don’t think she would give Mimi credit for a generous act like this if it didn’t happen that way—but that’s just my sense of things, and rather beside the point.

John p.29-30 vs. Tune In 11-21

A minor change, but Cyn’s account has Mimi instigating the fight with Lil only joining when provoked, while Lewisohn draws no distinction between the roles the women played in the argument.

Thank you for reading! Next up...maybe All You Need Is Ears?

Sources:

Davies H. 1968. 2009 Edition. The Beatles. New York (NY): W.W. Norton & Company. 408p.

It's Only Love [Internet]. c2005? Dot Rhone. [cited 2024 Feb 2]. Available from: https://sentstarr.tripod.com/beatgirls/rhone.html

Lennon C. 1978. A Twist of Lennon. New York (NY): Avon Books. 190p.

Lennon C. 2005. 1st American Edition. John. New York (NY): Crown Publishers. 294p.

Spitz B. 2005. The Beatles: The Biography. New York (NY): Little, Brown and Company. 984p. [ebook]

[mydaroga]

This was Stu and Astrid’s first separation, and though brief – she was coming to join him in Liverpool for two or three weeks at the start of February – he sent her long love letters…

Tonight I play once more with the Beatles my beauty, and I will play in your jeans, and your blue pullover and your hempt and will close my eyes and think always of you. As I play, I think of the days that keep us apart.

Reproduced in Hamburg Days, by Astrid Kirchherr and Klaus Voormann (Genesis Publications, Guildford, 1999), p126. Quoted in Tune In by Mark Lewisohn.

[oc-transpo-unofficial]

here at OC Transpo, we want to provide you the best service we can! but we don't want you to have to pay $7.00 to ride the bus/train. so please email your city counselor and the mayor and express you don't want a 75% increase in fares for the 2025 city budget.

[bapydemonprincess]

Picrew used: https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/2432499

Every day is Kiss Mey Mey Day for Grelle Sutcliff 💕🩷💖❤️

[mthguy]

The Original Broadway cast of Ragtime performs on the 1998 Tony Awards

“The sound of distant thunder Suddenly starting to climb... It was the music: Of something beginning, An era exploding, A century spinning In riches and rags, And in rhythm and rhyme. The people called it ragtime... Ragtime! Ragtime! Ragitme!”

[cosmiclion]

Gonna start redrawing memes more often, it’s great for art block lmao.

As I said before, I’m a sucker for height differences in relationships, HUGE height differences. Also Grelle always needs to be the smol one 👍🏻 I haven’t made a proper height comparison chart with all the characters yet but I think B would be the, or at least one of the, tallest ones. I know I wanted her to be at least taller than Sebastian because someone needs to put him in his place.

[blondeaxolotl]

I have the headcannon that Grell and Sebastian are very passionate with each other in every aspect of their relationship. They fight with passion, make out with passion, argue with passion, but no matter what they do, It always ends with passionate and steamy nights in the bed... or the floor... or against the wall... or basically anywhere

What do you think? 🤭

What else do you want me to say besides "you're so right" you basically described their whole relationship in one ask HEHA

[demifiendrsa]

Seven Kings Must Die | Official Trailer

The Last Kingdom sequel film Seven Kings Must Die will stream on Netflix on April 14, 2023

Poster

[nessrealta]

And then behind the rest, with some kind of great fur collar round his neck, he saw a man holding back, taking his time; watching him out of eyes that seemed, even in the gloom beyond the torchlight, to be oddly set - one a little higher than the other. ...

Their gaze met, and Phaedrus saw in that instant that the fur collar had eyes too. A striped-gray-and-dark thing with eyes like green moons. The young man made a sound to it, and the thing rippled and arched itself into swift, sinuous life, became a wild cat, poised and swaying for an instant on his shoulder, and leapt lightly to the floor, advancing beside him with proudly upreared tail, as he came forward to take his place among the rest.

Rosemary Sutcliff, The Mark of the Horse Lord

[thesiltverses]

A bit of a Monday surprise for you, folks. Today's episode of The Silt Verses actually ended up being so big - clocking in at very nearly two hours - that it made sense to split it up into two separate chapters, both of which we are releasing today!

(We've also turned the ads off on Chapter 42 so that anyone who wants to listen to both chapters at once doesn't have to wade through a big chunk of advertising at the one-hour mark.)

Really hope you enjoy the listen, as ever, and take care!

Chapter 41: But As My Last Breath Splits My Throat

Episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chapter-41-but-as-my-last-breath-splits-my-throat/id1547222295?i=1000657666166

Transcript: https://www.thesiltverses.com/transcript-season-3-chapter-12

Episode description: As Paige's encampment continues to grow, she sets out to rescue a stranded batch of pilgrims in the polluted lands - and has an unexpected encounter at the end of a long and lonely road.

Content warnings: This episode contains a detailed car crash sequence.

This episode features: Lucille Valentine, Jimmie Yamaguchi, Ishani Kanetkar, Laurence Owen, Kale Brown and Sarah Golding, with additional voices by Madeleine Turley.

Chapter 42: I'll Wheeze Through Splintered Teeth

Episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chapter-42-ill-wheeze-through-splintered-teeth/id1547222295?i=1000657666269

Transcript: https://www.thesiltverses.com/transcript-season-3-chapter-12a

Episode description:

At the river's wellspring, a prophet realises that he's come to loathe his station, his followers, his faith - and himself. In Glottage, three renegades plot to overthrow the government. Across the channel, a saint attempts to become a god.

Content warnings:

This episode contains suicidal ideation, multiple scenes of body horror, and murderous infants.

This episode features:

B. Narr, H.R. Owen, Alex Nursall, Rhys Lawton, Erika Sanderson, Méabh de Brún, Sarah Griffin, Jimmie Yamaguchi, Marta da Silva, and William A. Wellman.

Additional voices by Gabriel Robinson, David Ault, Lou Sutcliffe, AJ Fidalgo, Erika Sanderson, Kale Brown, Jesse Syratt, and Rae Lundberg.

[insertpoetryhere]

Yesterday’s Grelle posting had some unforeseen consequences which acted as spring cleaning for my blog. So I’ll be doing it again.

I think it’s weird that the fandom only ever mentions Grelle’s queer identities when they want to make content surrounding queer suffering. Like wether it be the implied bisexuality or the factual trans identity, it is really only mentioned in fan works as part of the “woeful queer woman” trope. Where is the silly goofy antics of being a trans woman in a friend group just your male coworkers? Or Grelle calling someone homophobic/transphobic n the way that she uses the “you hit women? You hit women in the FACE? Jail” types of lines in canon? Like we could actually be having a little bit of fun with Grelle.

Obviously pieces that explore the difficulties around queer identities (especially trans fem identities since they are so often under attack) can and should exist. Queer creators deserve to share their experiences through fandom. But when most of the content that mentions her queer identities is just the suffering of queer women, then it implies a different kind of issue.

[mclennonlgbt]

Paris in John and Paul’s life

30th September 1961:

“John and I went on a trip for his twenty-first birthday. John was from a very middle-class family, which really impressed me because everyone else was from working-class families. To us John was upper class. His relatives were teachers, dentists, even someone up in Edinburgh in the BBC. It’s ironic, he was always very ‘fuck you!’ and he wrote the song ‘Working Class Hero’ – in fact, he wasn’t at all working class. Anyway, one of John’s relatives gave him £100 for his birthday. A hundred smackers in your hand! That was a real windfall. None of us could believe it. To this day if you gave me £100 I would be impressed. And I was his mate, enough said? ‘Let’s go on holiday.’ – ‘You mean me too? With the hundred quid? Great! I’m part of this windfall.’” - Paul McCartney, Anthology

“We planned to hitchhike to Spain. I had done a spot of hitchhiking with George and we knew you had to have a gimmick; we had been turned down so often and we’d seen that guys that had a gimmick (like a Union Jack round them) had always got the lifts. So I said to John, ‘Let’s get a couple of bowler hats.’ It was showbiz creeping in. We still had our leather jackets and drainpipes – we were too proud of them not to wear them, in case we met a girl; and if we did meet a girl, off would come the bowlers. But for lifts we would put the bowlers on. Two guys in bowler hats – a lorry would stop! Sense of Humour. This, and the train, is how we got to Paris." - Paul McCartney, Anthology

“And Paul and I also did the same thing, once. We just cancelled. We’d made it, in Liverpool. We were making good money, for those days. I can’t remember what it was – maybe a couple of hundred dollars a week – but enough that you’d have a little extra. You’d have it in your back pocket. And Paul and I just— A relative of mine gave me a hundred pounds, for my birthday, which I’d never seen that much money in me life. Paul and I just canceled all the engagements, and left for Paris… And George was furious, because he needed the money – to work, you know. But that was another time when the group was in debate as whether it would exist or not.”  - John Lennon, 1976, an interview with Elliot Mintz

“Last night I heard that John and Paul have gone to Paris to play together – in other words, the band has broken up! It sounds mad to me, I don’t believe it…” - Stuart Sutcliffe, Anthology

"They were brothers. They were the Nerk Twins, and now they were taking a break from the Beatles and going off to Spain. En route, they’d stop a day or two in Paris, to size up the Brigittes, check out the kind of clothes Jurgen Vollmer wore, and perhaps see Jurgen himself, if he was around. [Johnny] Gustafson happened to bump into them the day they left, Saturday 30 September. “They both had bowler hats on, with the usual leather jackets and jeans. They said they were off to Paris, so I walked down to Lime Street station with them and watched them go. They were an incredible pair: always great fun, irreverent, and so close.” - Mark Lewisohn, All These Years: Volume One

“We’d never been there before. We were a bit tired so we checked into a little hotel for the night, intending to go off hitchhiking the next morning. Of course, it was too nice a bed after having hitched so we said, ‘We’ll stay a little longer,’ then we thought, ‘God, Spain is a long way, and we’d have to work to get down there.’ We ended up staying the week in Paris – John was funding it all with his hundred quid.

We would walk miles from our hotel; you do in Paris. We’d go to a place near the Avenue des Anglais and we’d sit in the bars, looking good. I still have some classic photos from there. Linda loves one where I am sitting in a gendarme’s mac as a cape and John has got his glasses on askew and his trousers down revealing a bit of Y-front. The photographs are so beautiful, we’re really hamming it up. We’re looking at the camera like, ‘Hey, we are artsy guys, in a café: this is us in Paris,’ and we felt like that.

We went up to Montmartre because of all the artists, and the Folies Bergères, and we saw guys walking around in short leather jackets and very wide pantaloons. Talk about fashion! This was going to kill them when we got back. This was totally happening. They were tight to the knee and then they flared out; they must have been about fifty inches around the bottom and our drainpipe trousers were something like fifteen or sixteen inches. We saw these trousers and said, ‘Excusez-moi, Monsieur, où did you get them?’ It was a cheap little rack down the street so we bought a pair each, went back to the hotel, put them on, went out on the street – and we couldn’t handle it: ‘Do your feet feel like they are flapping? Feel more comfortable in me drainies, don’t you?’ So it was back to the hotel at a run, needle and cotton out and we took them in to a nice sixteen with which we were quite happy. And then we met Jürgen Vollmer on the street. He was still taking pictures." - Paul McCartney, Anthology

“Jürgen had a flattened-down hairstyle with a fringe in the front, which we rather took to. We went over to his place and there and then he cut – hacked would be a better word – our hair into the same style.” - John Lennon, 1963

Interviewer: I heard you took a trip to Spain before once, didn’t you? On Holiday? Paul: I didn’t go to Spain, no. I tried once to make Spain but… and John and I were gonna hitchhike. We hitchhiked down from Liverpool… We didn’t hitchhike. No, we got the train down from Liverpool ‘cause we thought we won’t hitchhike down the first bit. And we got the boat over to Paris. Then we got the train into Paris ‘cause we thought: “Well, it’ll be too hard to get a hitch here”. And we just stayed in Paris all week. And eventually… I mean, all the time trying to get out of Paris and make Spain! We never made it, we just flew home at the end. What a lazy hitchhiking Holiday!

“The thing was all the kissing and holding that was going on in Paris. And it was so romantic just to be there and see them even though I was 21 and sort of not romantic. But I really loved it, the way the people would just stand under a tree kissing. And they weren’t not mauling at each other, they were just kissing.” - John Lennon

"John’s 21st birthday was a month away, and he knew he was getting money — 100 pounds cash, more than he or Paul had ever seen in their lives. (…) Bob Wooler was party to their planning, and fought with them:

They were bored, and decided they would go away for a month. I thought this was disastrous because they would be away from the scene too long and lose their fans, Fans were very capricious: they moved from one group to another. And anyway, what about the other two members, George Harrison and Pete Best?. What about them, what do they do? We argued a lot about this — we argued in the back room of the grapes pub to a large extent —- and they said ‘Well, we’ll go away for a fortnight only’

(…) Equally, the promoters who paid the Beatles over-the-odds to present them every week had to “lump it” (….). To a man, and woman, they were incensed by it - but John and Paul hadn’t a care. They didn’t mean to be rude about it but basically it was tough shit.

it was tough too on Dot and Cyn, Dot simply had to accept the situation, but Cyn had a greater case of grievance. John was heading off without her when he could so easily gave waited for the art school holidays. (…).

That John was taking Paul, no one else, accentuates the renewed closeness since Stu quit The Beatles. They were the Beatles force, an unstoppable and authentically powerful pair. “Lennon had the attitude”, Wooler said, “and taking his lead from Lennon, McCartney could be similar. At times they reminded me of those well-to-do Chicago lads Leopold and Loeb, who killed someone because they felt superior to him. Lennon and McCartney were superior human beings”

"You’d always see them together, in the pub or walking along the street", says Johnny Gustafson of the Big Tree. "They were a duo, and seemed each other’s equal". Bernie Boyle, the young lad hanging around with them at every opportunity, says, "They were like brothers, with John as the elder and Paul’s mentor. They were so tight it was like there was a telepathy between them: on stage, they’d look at each other and know instinctively what the other was thinking"

They were brothers. They were the Nerk Twins, and now they were taking a break from The Beatles and gofin off to Spain. 

Gustafson happened to bump into them the day they left, Saturday, September 30. “They both had bowler hats on, with the usual leather jackets and jeans. They said they were off to Paris, so I walked down to Lime Street station and watched them go. They were an incredible pair: always great fun, irreverent and so close. - Mark Lewisohn, Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years (2013)

As was written in this post: That last picture is one Paul took of John sleeping in Paris. From what I remember of a performance he did of ‘Here Today’, and earlier comments, this picture hangs framed on a wall in Paul’s house.

Unconfirmed quote (may or may not be true): 

"He must have been fond of me to spend that money. He let me have all the banana milkshakes I wanted.”  - Paul McCartney

In January 1964, only a few scant weeks before the Beatles took America by storm, the band mates settled in for an extended stay in Paris. For the group, the Parisian visit proved to be a magical experience, with the Beatles playing 18 shows at the Olympia Theatre between Jan. 16 and Feb. 4 (source).

The Beatles were staying at the George V Hotel at the time. John and Paul composed "Can't Buy Me Love", "I Should Have Known Better" and "If I Fell" on the piano.

The photo Paul took of John (in the "Eyes Of The Storm" book):

1966: Paul, his girlfriend Maggie McGivern, John and Brian Epstein spend 5 days in Paris. "All of them flew into France separately — Lennon had been filming abroad and Epstein had been away on business. Maggie and Paul, she says, traveled apart ‘as part of keeping the relationship secret’. During the five-day trip the foursome stayed at the same Paris hotel where she and Paul shared a luxury suite. ‘It was a marvelous holiday,’ she says. ‘. . . just walking around the streets of Paris.‘My abiding memory is of me, John and Paul lying under the Eiffel Tower, gazing up at it. We couldn’t go up because we would have been recognised, and we were masters at the art of avoiding people." [x]

1969:

Hoping to get married in France, John Lennon and Yoko Ono flew to Paris on this day [16th March].

The couple had decided to marry on 14 March 1969, two days after the wedding of Paul McCartney to Linda Eastman; whether it was in response to this event on some level is open to conjecture.

On McCartney’s wedding day Lennon and Ono were travelling to Poole in Dorset, where he introduced her to his Aunt Mimi. During the journey he asked his chauffeur Les Anthony to go to Southampton to enquire about the possibility of the wedding being held at sea, on the cross-channel ferry to France.

(source)

“On March 12, Paul married Linda Eastman at Marylebone Register Office in London, amid scenes of hysterical grief from his female fans. None of the other Beatles was present. The news reached John as he and Yoko were driving down to visit Aunt Mimi in Poole. Yoko’s divorce decree had become final a few weeks earlier, and, in a resurgence of Beatle copycat, John told her they, too, must get married as soon as possible” - Philip Norman, John Lennon: The Life (2008)

"We chose Gibraltar because it is quiet, British and friendly. We tried everywhere else first. I set out to get married on the car ferry and we would have arrived in France married, but they wouldn’t do it. We were no more successful with cruise ships. We tried embassies, but three weeks’ residence in Germany or two weeks’ in France were required." - John Lennon

1974:

“After a late lunch, Linda launched into a long paean to the joys of living in England. When she was finished, she turned to John and said, “Don’t you miss England?”

“Frankly,” John replied, “I miss Paris.””

— May Pang, Loving John (1983)

1978:

Wings album "London Town" is released. It includes the song "Cafe on the Left Bank", the lyrics of which clearly refer to John and Paul's trip to Paris.

Late 1970s (maybe 1978?): John is singing to Paul about Paris in a home recording. Longer version

1970s: John writes "Skywriting by Word of Mouth", a book that would be released in 1986. One story is about sex he had with a woman in Paris. Here it is. As anon noticed here: "...the woman is called Amie L'Nitrate and Amyl Nitrate is a reference to poppers. He talks about grabbing her 'pomme de frites.' Her potatoes? He uses the term 'tread lightly on some loafers' which is an old euphenism for being gay. Amie says they should have sex to God Only Knows. Then John says their relationship ended in a seething rage but he still thinks of 'her.'" @sgtsaltsband concluded in the same post: "so he writes a story about PARIS ( where he and paul went on a trip for his 21st bday and never stopped talking about it ) , in the HOTEL where the Beatles stayed later on [Hotel V in 1964] , names the girl after POPPERS ( a drug commonly used by gay men during sex ) , the girl wants to have sex to PAULS fave song and he uses this PHRASE." Also: this is an excerpt of the story:

"Boogie" is a slang word for sex or dance (also, "Born to Boogie" is a 1972 movie starring Marc Bolan, Elton John and Ringo Starr). "Band on the Run" is a Paul McCartney and Wings' album which John loved. "Sue you sue me" can be a reference to to the Beatles' legal and business disputes and the fact that Paul sued John, George and Ringo in December 1970, and to "Sue Me, Sue You Blues", a song by George.

(thank you @menlove for uploading the story and pointing out interesting words!)

1994 - Paul inducting John to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

“And then on your 21st birthday you got £100 off one of your rich relatives up in Edinburgh, so we decided we’d go to Spain. So we hitch-hiked out of Liverpool. And we got as far as Paris, and decided to stop there for a week. And eventually got our haircut, by a fellow named Jürgen, and that ended up being the ‘Beatle haircut’.”

I also remember watching an interview with Paul about his album "Memory Almost Full" (2007). Thank you for adding, @ringompreg!

(it's like 7 minutes in) Interviewer: There is a very beautiful song called "The End Of The End", the way you talk about your whole ending, and the lyric goes: "It's a start of a journey to a much better place." You mean, better than England? Paul: It's basically a start of a journey to France. Or Spain through France. Yeah, that's what it is. It's a much better place, Paris.

Also worth mentoning:

"All You Need Is Love" begins with La Marseillaise.

"Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)" contains French-language speech by BBC broadcaster Pierre Le Sève.

Bonus