A Few Holbeins a Few Rembrandts, Ho Hum 12-18-15

We took a short trip to the Louvre today, we wanted to catch up on a couple areas that we sort of glossed over this summer.  There is an area on the third floor northwest and it turned out that the areas we missed on our first visit contained most of the Northern European paintings and within the rooms were paintings by Hans Holbein the younger and Rembrandt.  The problem with most of the maps and the like is that they don't really tell where any but the most popular works are shown on the maps so one is condemned to "wandering around" to find specific things.  
A bit frustratingly, paintings like the Holbeins are located in little dead end rooms and unless you really ferret out each corner they are easily missed.  Holbein was a court painter for Henry VIII of England and was in my opinion the premier portraitist of the that era.
Finding the Holbein paintings was tremendous but in the same room was a self-portrait by Albrecht Durer that is very famous.  It could be noted on a map and never draw any criticism whatsoever, and this is just in a small room off to the side of a main room.
We stopped at this point and decided on a little afternoon break, so we went to a small cafe inside the museum associated with Angelina, a restaurant noted for the most decadent hot chocolate in Paris. Deb ordered a little pastry and San Pellegrino, but I held out and ordered the hot chocolate.  It's almost like drinking hot chocolate syrup, so thick and delicious.
That break picked up both up and got us revved up for seeing the rest of the Northern European section where we came across the Rembrandt room.  It's so fun to see four Rembrandt self-portraits all in the same room and there are a further 10 or 12 paintings that fill the room with another feast for the eyes.
Both Deb and I were taken by the painting of "Bathsheba bathing in preparation for her meeting with King David", it is really moving to see the pensiveness in her face as she contemplates the coming liaison.
In sum we felt quite elated in finding so many world art treasures within such a compressed area. And the topping on the cake was walking into an extremely large room and find perhaps 20 gargantuan Rubens murals created for the De Medici family celebrating the marriage of Marie De Medici to Henri IV.

Large Shopping Day 12-18-15

Well what we've been putting off for the last few days came home to roost.  We had to do a large shopping day.  Usually we can get by with one of our little pull along carts to get our next few days provisions but today we had to use both of them, so it pretty much took up the hours right around mid-day when do our shopping.  After a big shopping we then have a big lunch so by 2:30 we were finishing lunch.  The sun goes down at 4:30 so you get the picture, the day was pretty much gone. We got some goodies from the butcher though, a slice of house made goose liver pate, and a duck breast liberally spiced with espelette. A special cheese, Mont D'Or, only made at this time of year and wrapped in spruce bark, there are only 8 producers in all of France.  Very tasty.

Chartres 12-17-15

Today we went out to Chartres, we've been once before when we had a house exchange with a family down in Antony, a suburb of Paris.  As I mentioned, we bought tickets yesterday so all we had to do was get to the train on time.  Since the sun rises after 08:00 getting to a 09:00 train meant leaving in the dark since the station was Montparnasse and it's clear across the city from us.
The trip out was interesting because it's all built up clear out to Versailles and then all country the rest of the way.  It's about an hour's duration and the countryside was a bit foggy this morning.   But the sun brightened up a bit when we arrived so our walk over to the cathedral was pleasant, and we were almost the only tourists to be seen.   But that bit of sun was almost the only hint we had all day and it was just a brief flirting gesture.
We spent the first bit of time on the outside of the North Portal admiring the Gothic doorway, so much over the top gothic carving, many figural representations.  Interestingly Chartres survived the French Revolution almost untouched.  Rather than destroying images, the revolutionists decided to blow it up and had procured the necessary powder.  But they were dissuaded by an engineer of the time who told them that it would create a pile of rubble that would take years to clean up and the streets of the city would be impassible for that period, so they rethought that plan.  Most of the damage occurred to the carvings that were readily accessible to people on the ground.  I wonder if this is the origin of the term to "deface" something?
Next we went inside and truth to tell it was much colder inside than outside, we could actually see our breaths inside, but not outside.  One of our major interests in coming today was the controversy surrounding the restoration and cleaning of the cathedral.  It began several years ago and involved the cleaning and repainting of what were originally polychromed surfaces.  The interior was so dark from the nearly 1000 years of accumulated layers of smoke from candle and incense burning as to be a mottled black, brown, and grey, quite sombre.  So they have cleaned off the grime, whitewashed the walls and columns and where they found previous polychrome, analyzed the paints and repainted in a manner that was supported by research.  What an uproar!  My personal opinion is that the restored part is very lovely and so what if the specific color is not exactly the correct hue.  Purists would want to outlaw any restoration whatsoever, while flaming revisionist would have gone for the Peter Max effect.  At any rate cleaning it up really lightens up the interior and lets its intrinsic beauty come through.
I climbed the bell tower to have a view of the city because it is far and away the highest point in the landscape, and the views are magnificent of the town and surrounding countryside.  Plus you get to see up close the stonework that is only imagined with binoculars or the naked eye.  Clear up the parapet next to the bells are carved vines with dragons and lions and other imaginary beasties, but the vines are carved out in full relief and twine up the indented flutes of the columns.  Clearly the dedication of the stone carvers to their metier is fully realized up here away from anything a pilgrim of yesterday, or today for that matter, would ever likely see.
After our visit we had a very nice lunch at a little restaurant away from the center (small town) where there seemed to be many locals and it was quite good.
For the afternoon we spent our time wandering through the old commercial center and observing several old medieval and middle age buildings.  At the end of the day we visited the museum of stained glass where they create new stained glass and restore very old stained glass creations before catching the train back to Paris.

A Missing Teahouse Found 12-15-15

Today was a day to find the missing teahouse we had wanted to see a few months ago.  It's the teahouse associated with the Grand Mosque down in the 5th arr.  The first time we went we were unable to find it, even though the description had it in the "corner" of the mosque.  However not long back we were on a bus and we spotted it, it was ON the corner of the mosque not IN the corner of the Mosque.
Our bus took us right to Gare d'Austerlitz which is next to the Jardin des Plantes, and the National Museum of Natural History (more on that later).  The jardin is right across the street from the teahouse.
So our plan was to go to the Museum of Natural History and then stop in at the teahouse for a late lunch.  We got off the bus and walked over to the museum only to find out that it's closed on Tuesdays, Deb has been having a problem with her translation of days lately, so we walked over to the teahouse and had a very good lunch.  Our walk through the jardin was very pleasant as the sun was out and there were a number of plants blooming.
At the teahouse we both had tagines for lunch, Deb's was kefta (meatballs) and I had chicken with plums and almonds, both delicious.  After lunch we walked around the neighborhood and found Tuile a Loup, which is a very famous shop selling hand thrown pottery. Deb read about it 15 years ago in Gourmet when it was still in print and had always wanted to see it.
We also purchased tickets for our field trip to Chartres tomorrow.

A Dry Run and Good Idea 12-14-15

I mentioned a few posts back that we are going to Sicily for a week after the end of the year and given my proven track record for a somewhat half-assed approach to maneuvering around we felt that a dry run out to Orly from the apartment would be a good idea.   I've never been to Orly and as usual it's completely simple on paper.
But nothing is simple when you have side issues, and ours are that we have our Navigo passes which allow us to travel throughout the Parisian network of trains, buses, and subways.  Our stated goal was to see how long it actually takes to get out there so that we can plan to be there before our plane leaves.  Also it will allow us to plan for little quirks that are never explicitly stated anywhere but exist in all their glory and will bite you in the tush if you don't know about them.
So the goal was to take the Metro down to connect with the RER (train) that connects to the OrlyVal which is the tram that branches off of the RER directly to the airport.  My electronic planner says that it should take around an hour and we wanted to test it.  Everything proceeded like clockwork right up to the point that we got off the train at Antony and went to get on the OrlyVal.  Turns out that they are not part of the system and require a separate ticket, which is as expensive as the ticket out to Charles De Gaulle airport on the north side.  So that means an additional 50 euros to get the last couple miles.
However the agent at the ticket window mentioned that our passes were completely good on the OrlyBus, a parallel bus connection that branches off the RER.  So that was our first gotcha sort of avoided, but we still weren't at the airport, in fact we had to go back into Paris several stops to Denfert-Rochereau where we could catch the bus.  So we had to time ourselves back to that stop and deduct that time and recommence from there.   We got back to Denfert and found the bus, it was just leaving as we came out of the train station.  So we have a potential up to 15 minute additional wait for the next bus.
We took the next bus and it seems to be very efficient, but there is a potential for heavy traffic congestion, and we were there in 20 minutes.  When we got to the airport we found the gates where our airline loads passengers.  So in about 2 hours we were able to get a pretty good idea of how we need to prepare for the trip.  So we took the bus back to Denfert and determined to walk over to our favorite Italian restaurant for lunch.
The sun had come out and burned off the heavy fog of the morning so it was a pleasant walk.  As we walked along we happened to look across the street and noticed a sign for "convent" created products, when we were in Madrid these little shops turned out to be a great source for cookies baked by the sisters.
So we crossed the street and went in and found quite a large shop selling any number of things that were created by monasteries from around France.  So there were food items, including cookies, liquor, beer, meats, and cheeses among other things.  There were hand made papers, preserves, perfumes (odor of sanctity?), painted porcelains, lots of things.  At the back of the shop there was a sign pointing down the stairs which just had to be explored.  My goodness there were another 4 or 5 rooms in the basement and each was filled with other offerings.
There was even one room with brocante like items that had been donated.  I bought a copper pan-lid really cheaply!  But they also had handmade leather goods, hand woven shawls, hand thrown pottery, and a room of antique linen and handmade lace, which were incredibly inexpensive, beautiful stuff.   So we bought a little bag of pasta as well.
When we finally made it to our restaurant (L'Osteria del Passepartout)  it was late for lunch but they were just as welcoming as if we had showed up precisely at noon.  We have developed quite a warm relationship with the owners and so it's always a treat to have a meal here.  The owner noticed that we had pasta and Deb explained buying it at the shop.  He responded, "Oh, the one down near Porte Royal" so he knew exactly where it was.  He also gave Deb a couple tips on cooking it properly. We mentioned that we were planning to go to Sicily and could they give us any favorite places, but alas nothing was forthcoming.  Ah well, the lunch was just as good as ever.
After lunch we walked over to Place Bastille to catch the Metro back for the apartment.

Sunday Lunch

Almost another Uncle Albert day, i.e. not a bloody thing done, except we did get up the necessary inertia to go to lunch.  However even that got a bit deflected.
We wanted to go to this little seafood bistro that sits in the shadow of the Tour Montparnasse, so Deb looked it up online to make sure that it was open.  So we caught a combination of bus, RER train, and Metro down to a stop nearby and had a 5 minute walk over to the bistro.  When we got there it was shut up tight so either their website is wrong or Deb misinterpreted the days they're closed.  Either way they were closed, but as luck would have it the mother ship restaurant is right next door and they were open.  So it's a lot more elegantly decorated and the prices are somewhat higher, but the alternative was going into a frantic search mode at 2:00pm on Sunday.  So we went in and it ably met our basic requirements.  The owner is a renowned oyster grower from lower Brittany whose has a very good reputation.  He deserves it!
I had a plate of oysters on half-shell for an appetiser while Deb had Calamari frits, both yummy. Then Deb had a poached Cod and I had grilled Lieu for the main course, they were perfectly cooked. Tender and flaky but not dry in any way.   I couldn't resist a Paris-Brest for dessert.
After our lunch we walked back towards the apartment along one of our bus lines looking at the lively shops along the Rue de Rennes, then caught a bus back to the apartment.  There was a specialty chocolate shop that had nice displays, these are chocolate 'Buche de Noel" on offer.

Christmas Program 12-12-15

Today was a pretty quiet day after yesterday, we went to a brocante market down in the 16th arr. near the Parc des Princes, where the Paris St. Germain football club holds their soccer matches.  It's also very near the Roland Garros stadium where the French Open tennis tournament is held each year.  It's in a suburb subsumed by Paris called Auteuil which was a haunt of the impressionist painters during the latter part of the 19th century.  A very posh district of Paris, very upscale.  We took the metro down to the Porte St. Cloud station and after getting out found the market and then cruised through it. Our idea was to see the market, get a bit of lunch and then go to the Candlelight Christmas Concert given at the American Church in Paris. So that's what we did, but we were a bit pressed at the end because lunch pushed in to our commute time back to the church.
The church was built around 1831 and was the first protestant American church built outside the U.S. and has been pretty influential in the life of ex-pat Americans since then.  There was a line outside waiting to pass through security, which has become an everyday part of Parisian life now.  Anyway we got into the church and our tickets to the peanut gallery didn't give us saved seats so we ended up sitting on long benches in one of the side aisles.  But no matter, since it was a choir concert the view was secondary anyway.  Our thanks to Mel Preusser for suggesting it as a fun holiday activity.  The choirs were very good and it ended with a sing-along of about 5 carols that almost everyone knows, although with a twist as some of the carols were also sung in French.
After the concert we walked back along the quais on the left bank to our bus stop near the Louvre for the ride home. Very mild night so the walk was a pleasure as we could look in shop windows all along the route.
People get on the bus with all kinds of crazy things but tonight was a first, at Republique a young woman, who couldn't have weighed over 110, carried a Sousaphone aboard. The bell was detached but she just laid everything on the floor and people were very careful about not stepping on it.  She got off at our stop and we wondered what she must have been doing at Place de la Republique.