Another Quiet Saturday 11-28-15

Deb is still really tired today and wanted to stay in, but I was getting a bit stir crazy so I decided to go to another brocante down in the 14th arr. near Place d'Italie.  It lies down in the southeast part of the city.  The brocante was located at the base of Rue de Mouffetard, a very popular tourist street during the summer filled with small merchants of every sort, clothing, shoes, cheese, wine, small cafes, etc. It is still popular with the residents as well because there are always interesting things to see.
The brocante was the same way, lots of interesting things to see, always a variety of offerings.  This market was larger than the ones I've been going to lately so that was nice.  I found a cute watercolor that had it all, barges on the Seine, a steam powered loading crane, the Parisian quai, but unfortunately it was quite water-stained and I'm sure it would have cost a multiple of the painting itself to have it cleaned, so no sale.  I've gotten quite focused on finding something "barge" related ever since my trip to the barge museum at Conflans-St. Honorine last weekend.  We have a small half-bath in Denver which contains a virtual gallery of small works that represent locations where we have visited in the past and an artwork on barges would be perfect.
In 1977 on our first visit to London, literally on our first night in the city I helped push a car out of traffic along the Thames embankment near Chelsea.  The man with whom I worked was living on a houseboat in the Thames that had been converted from an old barge, The Mallard.  So my attachment to them goes back a number of years, it was a magical evening as an introduction to England.
So really no luck, but as ever with this street market habit the hunting is at least as much fun as the actual finding.  And nothing is, as yet, so serious that a person would question their sanity for buying. Another note, those large paintings I referred to last week as having been purchased at Drouot and then being offered two days later, were at this temporary market this week.
Christmas decorations are going up all around town now.

Deb's First Full Day 11-27-15

Deb is quite tired from her trip to Denver so we're easing back into Paris time.   We got to bed around 10:00 but at 3:00am we both woke a bit.  Her from jetlag and me because I seem to do that anyway.  I drifted back to sleep, while she read a little to get drowsy again.  She'll have a bit of work readjusting to Paris time.
Anyway we had a leisurely breakfast with some new cheese, a seasonal variety that is soft like brie or camembert but is banded in tree bark and has a very pleasurable tang to it.  Along with that we shared a melon and a persimmon.  A nice pot of tea and we were set.  It was quite foggy this morning and so we waited until the sun burned off the overcast to get out.

We took a walk in the neighborhood and went to a speciality shop for cooking to have a look around. Yet a third grapefruit knife and an Eiffel Tower shaped cookie cutter later we exited and walked down Jaures towards town and all of our usual market shops.  We didn't actually buy any food, as I had stocked up a little in anticipation of her return.  There are many street artists in Paris and I have been trying to document some and just capture images of others.  We have one who has been busy in our neighborhood and today we spotted a new one (to us anyway).  He did another one a few blocks away but some unenlightened asshat started defacing it after a very short time.  Sorry about the angle there was a truck parked close to it and I couldn't get a good perspective.
It was pretty cool and I'm glad Deb listened to my advice to wear a scarf, and she is too.  Tomorrow we have plans to get out more, stay tuned.
Also Deb mentioned that several people told her that they were entering comments and never seeing any responses.  This is to the people she mentioned, I've not seen any comments and I'm sorry for that because I like to hear what your thoughts are.  I can't guess why you're not appearing on my comments page, I get comments from several other people.  If you would please send them directly to either me or Deb I would be more than happy to respond.  Thanks.

We are United Again 11-26-15

Spent the morning "tidying up" preparatory to Deb's return early this afternoon.  Two weeks of being by myself had led to a bit of sloth in the maintenance department.  Not a lot, but I did wash down the counters in the kitchen, and make the bed a bit more presentable.
I got out to the airport around 1:15 and Deb's flight was scheduled for 1:45 so a bit of time to wait but not too much.  Once I determined that the flight had landed I walked along the various carousels until I found the one that showed her flight.  They are still in a secured area so I couldn't actually go to pick up her luggage, but I waited until I saw her and then paralleled her walk over to the exit doors and met her there.
Her time in Denver was pretty demanding and she regrets that she couldn't see friends this time, but it was quite important that she helped get a good treatment path for Mary Ann started.  In this she feels as if she had some success, as Mary Ann seems to have stabilized and may be on the road to some recovery.
She was quite tired so we took a taxi back to the apartment, traffic was fairly light and we made very good time going back.  We had a bit of a welcome home lunch and then passed a quiet early afternoon.  She had a bit of a nap and then we had a quiet evening before retiring at a reasonable time.   All in all a nice homecoming to Paris.  The airports weren't very busy, of course this is not Thanksgiving in Europe, and there was a bit more security but not excessively so, at least visibly.

Parc de la Chapeau Rouge 11-25-15

Today I resolved to explore one of the little parks that we have passed by any number of times when we took the tram around to the Porte de Vincennes.  It's only two stops down the line and it faces the tramline so it always looked kind of inviting when we would go by.
It was created in 1939, out of land that had originally been part of the outer Paris defensive emplacements created by Thiers in the late 19th century.
It's not hard to believe that it was part of a defensive ring around Paris because as I was walking around the park I noticed that there were 3 sort of built up plateaus, now planted with trees, that would have been ideal for bombarding down into the valley below.  That is all built up with apartments and buildings now but in the 19th century it was likely all forested.
 It is in a neoclassical design with a wide open lawn going up the hill to the top of the park.
At the bottom main entry there is a fountain created brick and surmounted by a sculpture titled "Eve" that was in one of the Paris expositions contemporary to that period.  As I walked along a thought occurred to me.  How great it is that a society chooses to exalt the beauty and grace of it's accomplishments in the form of Naked Women!

It was nice to finally see the park, but I had to cut it short because it started raining, again, and I was walking home and didn't want to get too wet.

Unfinished Business Finished 11-24-15

But why today?  Why not yesterday?  Good questions that I asked myself.  The only answer I could come up with was I didn't consider it yesterday.   Yesterday was sunny and cool, today is rainy and cold.  So today I should have gone to the Cabinet des Medailles, and yesterday I should have gone up the Eiffel Tower, but NO....  I guess it could be blamed on the television news yesterday where they showed the tower and nobody in line.  They were saying that so many things are slow right now. I caught a bus over to Charles de Gaulle Etoile (Arc de Triomphe) and then walked down to the tower. On the way I passed the Place de Des Etats-Unis where there is a memorial to the many U.S. citizens who volunteered and died helping France in the two world wars.
I figured why not, I always wanted to climb the tower, but the last time I didn't because Deb was waiting for me on the ground and I didn't think I'd have the time.  Today, with the weather I figured that at least I wouldn't overheat climbing the stairs, and I was right. I was winded, and except for my hands, not cold.  I climbed to the second platform, which as it turns out is as far as one can climb, and then rode the elevator to the top.  I stopped on the second platform to get a cup of hot chocolate and a chocolate croissant, to fortify myself for the climb to the top before I found out that one can't make that climb.
I also wanted to go up because they recently finished restoring Eiffel's personal apartment which he built up there as the tower was being completed. It became a sensation in Paris at the time and people were always angling for an invitation, but few actually received one.  One who did was Thomas Edison and they have him, Eiffel, and a woman, shown as manikins,in the apartment visiting.  Of course with the rain and clouds I could only get rare glimpses of the city below, and the wind was at least 40 mph on the top.  I wandered around for maybe 10 minutes and then went below into the covered area at the top before going down the elevator.
I was pretty damp by the time I got down, so I walked over to where I could catch one of my busses and made my way back to the apartment.   I've been snickering at the people wearing the heavy coats, but not today, today I wanted a couple more, over what I already had on.

The Cabinet de Medailles 11-23-15

Richelieu Reading Room

There are not many museums open on Monday, as Deb has alluded to in the past, so today I wanted to visit a museum.  But being Monday my choices were limited, so I found a little known museum called the Cabinet de Medailles which is open in the afternoon every day of the week.
It's a department of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France and is located in their main library in the heart of Paris on Rue de Vivienne directly behind the Palais Royale downtown.
It focuses on collections of French nobility beginning in the reign of Charles V in the 1400's all the way up through Louis XIV passing from king to king, and into the 19th century when it became part of the French National Heritage.  It is not very large at all comprising about 4 rooms, but most of the objects are small, small enough to fit into a series of vitrines.

Largest Cameo

One of the really impressive things to be seen is what is reputed to be the largest cameo in the world, 24 figures fully modeled and done at the time of Tiberius in Rome.

Papal Lineup

Another were two trays of papal portraits done in miniature with micro mosaic using pearls, diamonds, gems, etc. from St. Peter forward there must have been 80 portraits.

A side note, Deb is back on Thursday the 26th, not the 23rd I probably said earlier.  Everyday is Tuesday in Paris.

Caesar Augustus
life portrait

Ivory chess set

So coins, medals, precious stones, carved seals, small vessels in silver and gold make up the largest part shown but there are also bronzes and stone sculpture to be seen as well.  It is a charming little museum.  There is currently a temporary exhibit that focuses on red and black Greek pottery dating back to the 6th to 4th century B.C. from the duc de Luynes' collection put together in the early 1800s.

Ivory Knight

Sunny Sunday 11-22-15

No clouds today, it was cold and sunny.  Cold being around 34 degrees, not really cold by Colorado standards but cold here with the humidity.  I decided to go to a couple of brocante markets, one down in the 14th arr. near Denfert-Rochereau and the other in the 4th arr along one of the bus routes that we take when we want to go downtown between the Hotel de Ville and Place Bastille.  It goes through the heart of the Marais, a block from Place des Vosges.
But to the first, I wanted to see how the brocantes were set up, were there very many security changes, etc. and it turns out that it's pretty much the same as before the attacks.  The vendors set up their booths along the sidwalks, with their backs to the traffic and the shoppers all stream by between them and the storefronts.
I also got confirmation of my beliefs on where the brocantes are getting their merchandise.  At least in part they are getting stuff from the satellite auctions of Drouout.  I know this for certain because when I was there on Thursday there were about 20 paintings, all very large, that were offered in about 5 lots and all bought for less that 100 euros each.  They were being offered this morning at the sale, but I didn't ask the price as I didn't want to get the vendor's hopes up.  But an insight on the way this sort of small business works in Paris.
After going through this market in the 14th, I headed up to the one in the 4th.  It was located within a catholic church, interesting in that it's Sunday today and there were services going on concurrently with the sale.  They had strung sheets between the pillars to segregate one side aisle from the rest of the church and things were setup in there.  In some ways this was really a church rummage sale, it had the same feeling.  But to be fair there were some interesting things on sale for brocante type prices not garage sale prices.
After this sale I got on the bus to come home and as we came to a stop called "Richard Lenoir" I realized that the BaTa Clan theatre was only a very short block off the bus route.  There was a small sea of flowers along the fencing next to the bus stop.   I wasn't going to visit these sites but, I impulsively got off to get a feel for how people were reacting after a week's time.  Many people were still in a state of shock, as might be imagined, were visiting the small shrines that had been created with pictures of fallen friends surrounded by candles and flowers.
There were also flags from the countries of the victims, a revealing commentary on the international flavor of Paris.  The ground floor of the venue is still draped in white tarps to shield the scene of the carnage inside.  People just stood in front looking at the white tarps and were wrapped in their own thoughts of what the events meant to them.  A few tears, a few smiles, and an occasional bit of nervous laughter, a city in shock and mourning.  Many signs said, "Pray for Paris", if you do pray then this is worthy of your thoughts.