Inspired by Virginia

One of my favorite blogs is Virginia Jones' Paris Through My Lens. Virginia is a wonderful photographer and she uses her skills to illuminate Paris and other parts of France, a place she obviously loves as much as I do. Yesterday she inspired me with a post about the juxtaposition of the artwork and the architecture in the fabled Musée d'Orsay.

The d'Orsay isn't my favorite museum in Paris -- I'm much more of a modern & contemporary art person, so while I appreciate the beauty of all this gorgeous 19th Century (-ish) stuff, it doesn't really tug at me like the things you might find in the Palais de Tokyo or (my favorite museum on Earth) the Tate Modern. Or a new great favorite, the Modern in Ft. Worth -- I had a delirious afternoon there earlier this year, in a delighted stupor of architecture worship and art overload. If you can get there, GO!!

The most wonderful thing about the d'Orsay (to me) is that is used to be a real, live building before it was a museum -- it was a train station and thank heavens the resourceful Parisians decided it was better to save it and bung a lot of art into it than tear it down and lose an irreplaceable and extraordinary example of fin de siècle architecture.

Forthwith, some of my favorite photos from my visit there, in August of 2005.

Aristide Maillol -- The Mediterranean

Aristide Maillol -- Ile de France

François Pompon -- Polar Bear

I think the bear might have been my favorite thing in the whole building -- isn't he delightful? (Not to mention that his creator was named "Pompon!" How fun!) Click on the captions for more information about the works. As you can see, even in the Musée d'Orsay, my eye goes to the most modernistic of the artwork. Everyone raves about the passion and emotive qualities of Rodin's sculpture, but I'm much more moved by the serenity & simplicity of Maillol's.

So thanks, Virginia, for inspiring me to look back on these great works!

April 24

Look closely at the bikes in this photo.




I took this on my first trip to Paris, in August of 2005. For some unfathomable reason, I saw this several times while I was there -- bikes with hopelessly bent wheels chained to subway gates or some other structure.




Were they injured after they were locked to the gates? Are they waiting there for someone to pick them up & fix them, or perhaps scavenge them for parts? (They seem perfectly good other than the bent wheels, and the wheels can be replaced.) Are they abandoned? Are they art? I never figured it out.

April 15

This is my friend Billy, who lives in Paris.



I do not believe he was born in Paris, he went there when his person, Nicole, moved to the city.

He's a gorgeous fellow, incredibly sweet, and he's a Thumping Cat. Petting is all well & good, but if you really want to make Billy happy, you thump him. Smack him rather like a bongo drum all up & down his back. I don't know why it makes him happy, but it does. Good enough for me.




Billy lives here




with his person, Nicole. Nicole is the sister of my old & dear friend Dominique, with whom I often stay when I visit Paris. For years, this is the apartment where Dominique & her son lived, and on my first trip to Paris I stayed here with the two of them. Small apartment, very close quarters, and still -- amazing hospitality from my friend. Dom & Seiya have since moved two doors down to a much bigger place, and now Nicole is living in this apartment again (she'd sublet it to Dom while she was living out in the 'burbs for a while). I've stayed here a couple of times on my own, because Nicole is frequently out of town and when my visit coincides with her leaving I get to stay in her adorable little apartment in Montourgueil and pretend I'm an honest-to-god Parisian, and she gets someone who can take care of Billy while she's away. Everyone wins, especially me. The only thing better than wandering the streets of Paris all day long is coming home to a sweet cat who's happy to see me at the end of said day. He's got quite a good loud purr, does Billy.

This post is inspired by this cat



This is my angel, my darling, my beating heart, my Shine. Today is her 6th birthday. (Well, today is her birthday observed. She was a rescue cat and so I'm not sure of her exact birthday. Her vet & I made an educated guess.) Shine is not French, she is Texan through and through, but I do think she'd do very well in Paris. She's friendly and gorgeous, and black & white is always chic. Happy Birthday, my babycat.

April 10

This is a little English-style pub called le Bombardier just behind the Pantheon in the 5th. Before I visited Paris in October of 2006, someone I know who had just been there told me about this place and how much they'd liked it. Perhaps it's silly to seek out an English pub in the heart of Paris, but sometimes a good pint of Guinness hits the spot more than a glass of wine, and I like to have options.

My friend gave me a rough outline of where the pub was, but not the exact location, so I wandered around for a while trying to find it. But first, I visited the Pantheon, and I took this picture from the roof of that amazing building, not knowing that it's what I was taking a picture of. I just thought it looked picturesque, so I snapped a photo. Sure, I can read the sign now, but while I was taking the photo, not so much.




After I left the Pantheon, I wandered for a good hour searching for the bar, asking folks if they had heard of it & getting no info. I actually wound up pretty far afield and eventually went into a hotel lobby where the super-spiffy concierge looked it up on the computer, made ah-hah noises, and printed off a map for me. And yeah, I'd been mere steps away when I started the whole journey -- it's literally just around the back of the Pantheon. Had I turned right instead of left when I came out of the building I would have run right into it. Doofus.

I went back and had a couple of pints while I read a copy of the NY Times Sunday Magazine I was toting around in my purse. The bar staff were all British expats who of course spoke my language as well as fluent French. I find that I need to make a couple of little islands of English-speaking while I'm there to give my brain a rest from the effort of French, so I have stashed away a couple of location like this where I can duck in & not feel bad about speaking English for an hour or so. Sad but true. Maybe if I work a little harder my French will be better by the next trip. Need to break out the Pimsleur CDS again.

May 14

Last night I dreamed I was shopping for produce at an open-air market in Paris. Actually, last night I dreamed I was teaching people how to shop for produce at an open-air market in Paris: always say bonjour, never touch the produce unless the seller hands it to you, etc. I was very smug, in my dream, about my ability to communicate with le vendeur, and he was very charming and gave me some complimentary strawberries. Even in my dreams, Paris loves me.

Now I must buckle down and make this dream come true. No Buy still holding, although I have been tested by a big sale at Yoox.com. I got a decant of Tubereuse Criminelle in the mail yesterday from an advertiser on my Style Spy site, which was delightful and reminds me how much I want a full bottle of that fragrance, and I have to go to the Palais Royal for that. My first bell jar, although not my first Lutens. It's not a perfume for everyone, but oh, how I adore it. I plan on strolling out of the boutique with my shopping bag in my hand, positively reeking of slightly perverse tuberose chicness, and having a glass of wine at one of the sidewalk cafés here in the garden. Must hold onto that image.

It's going to be a long summer...


photo: Mary Twiss Connolly

May 10

Here's a good article about some architecture in Paris. Putting it here mostly to remind myself to check them out in October. I also need to explore the Institut du Monde Arabe, designed by Jean Nouvel, one of my favorite architects.




He's also responsible for the Fondation Cartier and the new Musée du Quai Branly, both of which are amazing. I can't believe I'm staring down the barrel at my fifth trip and have still never been to any of these places. Disgraceful.


photo:greatbuildings.com

May 8

A view of the Louvre from inside the Orsay. Paris is so filled with artistic masterpieces that you can throw a rock from one museum to the next. And a lot of it isn't even in museums



Fabulous sculpture & art everywhere you look, just lyin' about the place, as Eddie Izzard would say.


This was the most amazing installation in the Pantheon called Leviathan Thot, which I totally lucked into on my visit in October 2006. This? Was unbelievable. Huge and spooky and almost irresistibly touchable (I did not. I didn't wish to be hustled ignominiously out of the Pantheon.), it took up much of the main chamber and poor little ol' Foucault's Pendulum was dwarfed by comparison. The artist's name is Ernesto Neto, and the sculpture is made of what looked like the pantyhose of Gargantua, sewn together and filled with tiny styrofoam beads.

More from inside the Pantheon:



As we wended our way to the top of the Pantheon (the view from which is not to be missed -- there are not a lot of places to be that high up in central Paris), we passed many little secret alcoves and nooks. This image still haunts me -- a room full of spare sculpture parts, tucked away and waiting for... what? This image is much brighter than it was in real life, a flash was necessary to get any of the detail. A dark room filled with shadowy gestures and secrets.


All photos mine.