A little bit of it all 6-19-15

Today we had a classic tourist day (for us), a little bit of it all.  We took the bus over to Montmartre for a visit.  Our goal was a visit to the museum of Montmartre.  It has a museum where some of the impressionists had studios, the works on display are mainly lesser known lights, such as Suzanne Valadon, Alfred Utter, Theophile Steinlen, & Maurice Utrillo but the paintings, engravings, lithos, and ephemera are so very interesting.
Artists who worked there included the above but also Renoir, Degas and likely others.  Suzanne Valadon and her husband Utter, lived in the main house along with Utrillo her son.  They have reconstructed the apartment in which they lived long with the studio she where she worked.

There is a garden between the two museum buildings created by Renoir when he lived in the second building.  It coincidently is the oldest house in Montmartre still in existence, dating back to the 17th century.

Attached to the property is one of the last surviving vineyards in Paris, and they still make wine with the grapes.  Each year after the wine has been created they have an auction to support the local community and sell it by the half-bottle.  I guess it's pretty low grade but they have pretty spirited contests to own it.


We had lunch at the Maison Rose which is an historic restaurant just down the hill a bit from the Place de Tertre, and just above the Lapin Agile.  Of course after we ordered lunch I noticed a sign hat stated that no credit cards or checks were accepted and since our wine basically ate the entire cash hoard we were in trouble.  I had to trot up the hill and find a cash machine to get the money to pay for lunch, oops. The Lapin Agile is a cabaret where artists such as Picasso, Van Dongen, Braque, and others partied the nights away and where occasionally Picasso was known to shoot his pistol into the air.  This part of the hill is much quieter than the top but still many walking tours come through, seeing the sights.

Back to D'Orsay 6-19-15

Today was a rainy until late afternoon so we headed down to Musee D'Orsay to continue our little campaign there.   Today was mainly early surreallism and post-impressionist sculpture (if there is such a thing).  I was very impressed with Odilon Redon, and also August Strindberg, I don't associate either of this artists with surrealism, ignorance on my part.  After looking at the paintings we went up to the cafeteria for a little break and a glass of wine, it's a fun space because it's on the top floor behind one of the gigantic clocks.
We then headed down a couple floors to see the sculptures of Rodin, Maillol, and some other lesser known sculptors, like Francois Pompon who created this owl, titled Grand Duc.  I wonder if it's a reference to Marcel Pagnol's classic movie,



La Gloire de mon Pere?

So much to be learned so little time 6-17-15

Many years ago while traveling in England we learned a little truth, almost anywhere you go there will be something of interest to be seen, no matter how small and insignificant the place may seem to be.  Today another case in point here in France.   We took a day trip about 90 minutes southeast by train to a little town called Provins.  It is literally at the end of the tracks on a one track spur off the mainline.  
But the interesting thing about Provins is that it has so much of the medieval town still intact, it was originally the seat of the Counts of Champagne and Brie (yes that Brie). It was a significant market town throughout Europe for couple hundred years beginning around 1300.  There is still a castle tower of sorts, called Cesar's Tower, on a hill next to a truncated cathedral and overlooking a delightfully ancient town center.  The town is criss-crossed with small streams flowing through which supplied power for the mills that were in operation then. We arrived around noon and walked into the center to find a bit of lunch, after which we climbed the hill to view the upper town.

 You walk up a hill on a narrow one lane street overlooked by old buildings with gated fronts and old wood doors.  Periodically there are stairways between buildings that allow you to take a steep shortcut up.

At the top there is a parvis (small square) in front of the church surrounded again by walled buildings, very medieval in feeling.  It has two rows of trees giving shade to benches where you can catch your breath and cool off after the climb.
Cesar's Tower was begun in the 14th century as a defensive castle but evidently was a poor design because instead it was turned into a prison for a while.   In the 18th century the church's bell tower was destroyed in a fire so Cesar's Tower was converted into a belfry which function it still serves, as well as being a monument you can visit.
I love to visit these places for their romantic associations but I absolutely would not choose to try and live in one, they are dark and dank and colder than a welldiggers ass in the winter, I'll bet.  This place has only one fireplace in the entire structure and it's in a small room off to one side on an outer wall. Lots of stone steps taking you up to the main vaulted room probably 30-40 feet in diameter and 30 feet tall with openings leading to small cell like rooms on the exterior walls.  This portion of the building is square but the next story up was built in an octagon so visually it's quite interesting.


To reach the upper story you have to climb a very narrow staircase built into the walls, it's so narrow that my shoulders were in constant contact with both sides as I climbed a steep set of stairs.   The belfry is lodged in the upper part which is roofed over with a large timbered "pepperpot" roof.  The views from the top are beautiful as you can see for probably 20 miles in any direction, it would have been a very good spot to keep track of the neighborhood during those times.

On a bit of a sombre note, there are many plaques in Paris denoting where various people were born, died, lived and worked to give a flavor to the area, well here the plaques are for residents that were captured, deported, or killed by the Nazis a sad note.





After our visit to the tower we visited the church, it is a truncated affair due to the count running out of money.  The lectern is mounted on a column that is behind all of the part of the nave where the congregation now sits and right next to the front doors, in order to use it they would have to turn all the seats away from the altar.  The church was originally designed to completely fill what is now the square in front but as I mentioned the count ran out of money.  The ambulatory has a mixed set of arches from the floor up to the gallery, with pointed gothic arches for the main floor and romanesque arches for the gallery above, actually a pretty combination of styles.
We decided to have a fairly short day today so after the church we headed back to the rail station for the trip back, but there are many other things to be seen here and we will make another trip back.

A travel to the Sunny South (a suburb) 6-16-15

Today we headed down to the south of Paris to L'Hay les Roses the site of a renowned rose garden and it was quite lovely even if we were about a week late.   The problem with this climate is that everything blooms and ripens much earlier than in Denver so when we think that things must be at their peak we find that "that was last week".  Luckily we don't let little things like this become much more than a mistimed footnote.

The garden is on the edge of a larger town park and consists of several separate areas where roses are grouped by their types and geographical regions.  There are also areas where historically older species are grouped and others where modern species are grown in close proximity.   We spent a couple hours just wandering and sitting down to enjoy that colorful palettes and fragrances.  We joked about how Deb's mother, Flavia, would have enjoyed the garden while sowing cosmos seeds in all the beds because "they needed a little perking up".  
We took a turn around the park after the garden and enjoyed all the old plane trees and the wonderful shade cast all around the park, it was created in the 1860's and has been lovingly cared for since then.

It's not a vacation here, ya know - 6-15-15

Today was a day for taking care of chores. Deb undertook her Monday cleaning while I headed out to do outside chores.  Dinner however was entirely different situation.
A few days ago I made reservations for a train trip, we are going to accompany our friend, Don Dalby, out to La Rochelle at the end of his visit with us in Paris.  The reservations were online but I mis-read the French text on the site and thus had to go to the Gare to pay for them, plus I wanted to make sure that our seats were together for the trip out.  When I got to Gare du Nord I found that it was a zoo with long lines snaking everywhere so since Gare de l'Est is nearby I decided to go there instead. I've gotten somewhat nonchalant about taking the buses around town, so when I jumped on the bus it took me a few minutes to realize it wasn't going where I wanted and go into a little Keystone Cops routine of hitting the button for the next stop and retracing all the bus route on foot. So I got to the other station and went to the ticket office, took my number, and waited.   About 10 numbers before mine I realized that I needed the confirmation numbers to identify the reservations, no problem as I had entered them on my phone memo.  Great!  Except I removed Don's several minutes earlier so I wouldn't be confused, Crap!   I called Deb and asked her to get the number off my emails, but of course that cosmically forced the reservations clerks to become super efficient and before she could get the confirmation number, they called my number.  So I got my tickets paid for and left.   Deb called back a few minutes later and had the confirmation, so since I was still in the station I decided to finish the business.  After all, given my track record today, I shouldn't be out on my own unsupervised. I did have a bit of a walkabout and found an interesting building and a great little passage chocked full of Indian restaurants.   But all ended well, except I almost got on the right bus to go home but going the wrong way, AGAIN!  Still I made it just fine.

In the evening we had a date to have dinner with some friends from the states, Hank Tomlinson and his wife Donna.   I met Hank and Donna last year on Ride the Rockies, he was a new member of our riding group.   He's on a retirement tour for his company and is in Paris for a few days so we decided to meet for dinner at the Blue Elephant, a really good Thai restaurant.   Hank and Donna were ex-pats with Chevron for many years so they understand living in foreign places way more than Deb and I. During our planning Hank repeatedly asked if there was anything we needed over here and I repeatedly said no, but last week I had a revelation and asked for something.   Deb's favorite!  THANKS HANK AND DONNA!!

I hit the motherlode - a trip to (what else?) the brocantes 6-14-15

Today being Sunday so many stores are closed but those little enterprises known as brocantes always seem to be doing business somewhere and today was no different.  So we headed over to Marche Paul Bert which is loosely affiliated with the big flea market at Clignancourt, but with more pretensions to real antiques and art.  But around the edges of this are the little dealers who can't or don't want a permanent space and that's where the fun is to be had.   I've been on the hunt for cycling medals for the past several weeks and they seem to be very scarce, either beneath the radar or deemed not worth the effort, but tough to find nonetheless.  However today I hit the jackpot and scooped up 13 additional medals for very little money, less than 2 euro apiece.  Now these aren't going to be the creme de la creme but they are still fun to have and will make interesting conversation pieces in the future.  Most are from the late 70's and early 80's around the southern suburbs of Paris and fun to have.  Also I do have plans for them.

Deb's comments - the Parisian Coat of Arms (don't all coats have arms?) 6-13-15

***On public buildings all over the city are represented the coat of arms of Paris. First mentioned around 1180 (think the time of the building of Notre Dame), the symbols of Paris have evolved along with the city. Since the survival and prosperity of Lutetia (Paris' early name) were dependent of the river that surrounded and protected its island communities, water and a ship are the coat of arms' earliest components. The ship was also a reference to the powerful Guild of Watermen, the most prosperous and forceful guild in the city. Other additional symbols have included a crown for Paris' stature as the royal capital, and bees, stars and fleurs de lys, depending on who was currently in power.

***The motto of the city, Flutuat nec murgitur (("She is tossed by the waves, but does not sink") was added at the end of the 16th century, referencing not only the boat, but the resilience of the city.








***What I love about the coat of arms (the "coa") is how individual the renditions are. Coming from a society where the sanctity of a trademark is an obsession (think all the lawsuits over any perceived trademark infringement by Coke, Disney, Apple, etc.), the idea of a coa that is markedly variable seems iconoclastic (pun intended.) As near as I can tell, the attitude of the city seems to be "if you've got the basic coa ingredients included and it's recognizable, full speed ahead on creativity." We've seen versions in plaster, marble, bronze, brick, wood and plastic. Warren is probably bored to tears photographing them for me, but I'm asking him to post several for your perusal. I'll be adding more to the collection as we find them in our flaneuring.