The Bois de Boulogne

Chuck and I decided to have a look at this park which we had not visited for more than 15 years.  Bois de Boulogne is outside the "walls" of Paris, which define the city of Paris proper.  It is one of the two biggest parks in the Paris area, the other being the Bois de Vincennes.  B de B is so large, it has parks within the park.  It took us a while to actually enter the park because the bus drop off is quite a ways from the main park of the park.  Here's Chuck as we got into the park.

We finally found the interior lake, a pond big enough for row boats.  Here's a view of the Lac Inferieur.

After some walking we found the pre-Catalan gardens, which held a great many picnickers and some lovely but unused buildings.

We walked on until we found the Bagatelle gardens, where we saw peacocks, small ponds and  found a nice restaurant to have lunch.  The peacock is in a tree that it flew into to avoid some kids who were annoying it!

The Bagatelle gardens also host the Rose Gardens, a wonderful collection of rose bushes in every color and shape one could wish for. 

Sightings around Paris

I decided to record some of the sights I see as I wander about Paris. First, a few of the many statues in Paris.  These are from the 6th arrondissement where I live.  The Jardin du Luxembourg itself is alive with statues, but those won't be in this entry.  The seated lady surprised me as I walked by it the first time--I thought it was a person!

In front of the Hungarian consulate on Rue Napoleon

A Zadkine work off Rue de Seine

A statue of Voltaire in a garden near Rue de Seine

There are many more statues, but I am always surprised at the Rodin works that are scattered about Paris:

The Kiss outside the Musee De L'Orangerie

Balzac at the corner of Port Royal

 Thomas Jefferson rates a statue right on the Seine near the Musee D'Orsay (few Americans rate one anywhere in Paris--Washington and Franklin are the other exceptions).

One of the distressing things about Paris is the number of beggars.  I found this one amusing, but many beggars have their pets, both dogs and cats, as they "work" the streets.

Begging with pet

The French are known for being more tolerant of the human form unclothed than we are in the US.  Here's a really good example of this.  Imagine seeing this site on the side of a building in the US!

The clock below belongs in a blog about the history of Paris, as it is set in the Conciergerie, a medieval, huge castle in the heart of the Île d'Cité at the edge of the Seine, and the place from which Marie Antoinette went to her death.  The clock is the oldest in the city and keeps correct time.

Oldest clock in Paris

Here's a view of the Seine as one looks out to the Louvre, taken from the Musee D'Orsay.

This romantic shot of the glass pyramid at the Louvre was taken by a friend.

I rarely take photos of food, but I recently got to eat lunch in an Ethiopian restaurant, a real treat for me.  This restaurant is La Reine Saba, 78 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud in the 11th district.  Great food and the company was special--two of my friends from classes at Allliance Francaise.

A Sunday Picnic in Parc Buttes-Chaumont

Last Sunday we decided to take the day off and visit a park I had heard about from several friends, called Buttes-Charmont.  So we packed a picnic lunch, figured out the Metro route there (not so easy as it involved 2 lines changes) and made our way there.  The park definitely worth the trip.

Buttes-Chaumont was created in 1867 from an old gypsum quarry during the period when Paris was being transformed.  It took a gardener, an architecture and an engineer to make the park, in part because of the way water runs through it.

The park is on a hilly area, as you can see from the picnickers in this photo.  It is cleverly designed with a waterfall the cascades down the hill to the pond.  Along the way there is an artificial brook that the kids play in when its hot, which it was the day we were there.

There are trails around the park.  The bridge in the photo is a walking bridge.

From the pond side, you can see the remains of this quarry, now turned into something quite magical, complete with the Temple of Sybille, a replica of a temple in Rome on this hill.

From the temple (I trudged all the way up there), you can see Montmartre in the distance.

The park is currently being refurbished with new plantings that will do well without a lot of daily care and work on the water system.

We had our picnic lunch by the pond. As the afternoon wore on, more and more people came to the park.  The atmosphere was happy and yet relaxed.  Families with children, like the ones playing in the brook and many more played about or wtried fishing in the pond (it has very big carp, but they are each to catch), teenagers hung out with their friends, old folks sat on benches and chatted together. The park has a full restaurant where we stopped for drink before leaving and several small stands for ice cream and, believe it or not, hotdogs! It was a relaxing and charming day to be out and about in Paris.

Late Spring in Paris

It's now June and while Paris is a bit rainier and cooler than usual, it's still lovely.  Flowers are in bloom in the Jardin du Luxembourg and on people's balconies.

Most of the chestnut trees (which you find everywhere in Paris) are past bloom, but this one above seems to not have gotten the message!

I took my sister up in the Tour Montparnasse.  This is me looking down on the Eiffel Tower.  As I am afraid of heights, this is rather daring of me.

Birds can be found in parks.  Paris has pigeons, like every other large city, but this fellow is the wild cousin of the normal city pigeons.  He's bigger, has different markings, stays in trees more and is much less willing to get close to you.

In the Jardin du Luxembourg, the fruit trees have fruited. They are grown in a special manner called espalier to produce a lot of fruit on trees that have branches only in one plane. The fruit is also covered with paper to protect it from various insects (a nice alternative to pesticides!).

There are concerts in the park:

And it doesn't get dark until almost 10 pm right now.  I think the long days are pretty wonderful!

Opera Garnier, May 2014

Taking my sister D. around Paris for a week, I decided it would be fun to see to see the Opera Garnier, Paris' Opera House of the Belle Epoque era.  Also known as the Palais Garnier, it was never a palace, but its style caused everyone to think of it that way. Here's a view of the building.

Designed largely by the architect Charles Garnier, it is about as over the top a building as you will find.  The entry halls are the most spectacular, and they were designed to let attendees to see and be seen while attending the Opera as well as to impress them with the building itself.

Grand Staircase

Ceiling of the Grand staircase

The auditorium is red velvet, and the domed ceiling now holds a painting by Chagall.  It's colorful and representational of the works of many composers including Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and ..  Oddly, none of the great Italian composers such as Verdi or Donizetti are included.  While a wonderful work, it's a bit too modern for the setting of this building.

Chagall's Ceiling in the Auditorium

One of the side halls where attendees paused for intermission is this hall of mirrors, designed after the hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, but even more grandiose.

Here I am at the Grand Staircase.  Garnier designed it so that ladies in their evening gowns would decorate the stairs like jewels.  No evening gowns on view today! 

In one of the hallways there are showcases of costumes worn by various Opera stars in performances.  This one is the one I liked best.  If I ever have a reason to wear any evening gown, I plan to copy this one:

D. and I were fascinated by the mosaic floors and took photos of the elaborate designs in them.  A few of these are here:

Nowadays Opera Garnier is mostly used for ballet performances.  Occasionally there are operas here but most are at the new Opera Bastille.  I have tried to get a ticket but they must go very fast!

Trip to Giverny, April, 2014

Giverny, located 45 minutes northwest of Paris, is home to two sites for anyone interested in Impressionism: the home and gardens of Claude Monet and the art museum of Giverny.  This spring the museum held a special exhibit of paintings by American Impressionists who are largely ignored in France.  Mary Cassatt, counted as one of the two women Impressionist painters, is represented by a single painting in the Musee D'Orsay, and John Singer Sargent's work (whose work I think is the best of the Americans) cannot be found in Paris except in a dark corner of Rodin's house (and the painting is not very good).  Art critics claim that American Impressionists tended to be more exact in their work and less abstract.  While I couldn't taken any photos, the exhibit covered the Americans well but briefly, with a painting or two by Whistler, Sargent, Cassatt, Tarbell, etc.  It was well worth the trip.

Chuck, my friends G., L. and I first went to Monet's house and gardens.  The gardens as the photos below show, were a riot of color.  It was pretty much like going to a flower show.  I took a lot more photos than the ones here in part because I will be able to paint some on pottery over the next year.

The property included the famous pond that Monet created and planted. It  was source of his paintings of waterlilies (like the ones at the Musee de l'Orangerie).  April is too early for the waterlilies to bloom but the trees, iris and many other flowers were lovely to behold.

While we were there, we listened to a special concert--the frogs in the pond, not very large, had loud voices and croaked out their frog songs as we walked around.  Both L and wished we could just hang out for a few days and paint!

Monet's home has been left as it was in his lifetime.  It's a small country cottage with his large studio, a big kitchen, various small sitting rooms that all have a view to the garden. I noticed lots of nice pottery around the house which I took photos of until I was told "no photos at all."

Most surprising to me were the Japanese wood cut paintings all over the house.  They were originals and just hang over walls everywhere.  I don't know Japanese woodcuts well, but they were complex and colorful, and the works of famous Japanese masters.  A real treat to see.  Too bad I couldn't take photos (and I couldn't find postcard copies) for my daughter and my niece who have worked in woodcuts

It's always best to make such a trip with friends!

G, L, Chuck and me