More peeps in stone

Another day at the Louvre yesterday, beating the summer crowds although by the end of the day I couldn't tell you how to shoehorn another person in there. Rachel was interested in sculpture and so we wandered through the lovely light of the Cour Marly and Cour Puget and strolled through the Grande Gallerie to prepare for another visit to view paintings. Rachel's favorite: Athena holding an Apple. Joshua gave us the rundown on the myths behind the sculptures although he refused to get involved with the story of Psyche and Cupid. He also noted that we have not toured the Mesopotamian galleries so that will be next on our list. My favorite? Diana of course. Lisa I will post a picture soon for you to share with your Diana...

And we ended our afternoon with a well-placed exit at the Metro across the street from a lovely Italian chain ice-cream shop that has become our favorite. Coconut and passionfruit go well together.

Louvre

First day at the Louvre and Rachel is learning about positioning herself for access to photograph. Today we ventured through the Egyptian, Greek and Roman galleries - Joshua's choices. And we made a jib to the Mona Lisa since we were close by. I have to say she's in better digs than the last time I saw her...1985...the children were surprised that the actual painting is not very large. We'll return another day for French Flemish and Italian paintings...etc etc...in the meantime I'm pleased that my singular lifetime skill of collecting unrelated facts has come in handy. I can answer questions about egyptian gods, mummification, the book of the dead, animals in the Nile, Greek religious thought and on and on. I did not know, and please chime in if you can help, how they got that lovely blue finish on the porcelain hippos, exactly what Horus did, and why the dog on the ceiling was breathing fire. There are only so many answers you can make up.

I love the Josef Kosuth installation on the medieval level. I will post a picture later.

In other news the trend of pantyhose or stockings under shorts is more widespread than I had hoped. Are we seeing this elsewhere? Besides in horrid flashbacks? But I have to say if it's going to work in any city, it's Paris.

Life

A quick visit to St. Sulpice on Sunday and a candle for the Virgin, while the organist played in the afternoon. We had just entered and were letting our eyes adjust when this organ chord came out of nowhere and we nearly jumped out of skins. I wanted to take a look at the crypt. A side door was open but I didn't feel like just stealing in there. Recall this is the da Vinci code church - I can't imagine how tired they are of all that, even years later. We came back to the hood and walked around the Marais later in the day and found chocolate and gemstones. There is also a wonderful store just up the street from us on Tournelles with strange objets including felt rolled into pillows and mats and carved cow skulls.

We put aside museums and churches for a couple of days...a few housekeeping and work things to attend to, and the fact that almost every museum is closed on Tuesdays.

Monday took us to Monceau - it is really quite lovely with all the trees. But it was cooler than we expected and even with a brisk walk we decided to pack up early. I think it will be a great choice as the spring heats up. It has the fakey ruins that are either really lovely or in the case of the brick pyramid - kind of broken and unkept.

Today Rachel and I had some time so we headed to the department stores. Printemps is really its own living museum - both in terms of clothes and those who shop. One woman, covered head to toe in sequins, I'm telling you in the middle of the day on Tuesday, was being followed around by an entourage. Who was she? Clueless. A few other serious dressers, more women in those ankle-buckled sandals, and a few Kiki de Montparnasse types back from the dead with the skin that has never seen the sun and the black cropped hair and red red lipstick. And one with her dog. Although I have no idea if the real Kiki ever had a dog. Rachel asked if dogs were allowed in stores; I ventured that that was the type of women who would not be told where she could take her dog...really it's something women here do not take to at all. The cashier told the woman who walked up behind me that he was closing his drawer. She responded, "Really?" and didn't move a muscle...I heard him say the same thing as he started checking her items and I was leaving and another woman walked up. Poor guy is probably still there.

Catching up

The bells are ringing all over the city...we have 2 windows facing rue de Tournelles, tall with those iron latches, that we open each morning. No screens to hold out the world, it's very pleasant to feel the breeze and sometimes smell the steaks that the neighbors seem to be forever grilling. I've planted some herbs in the windows so I can keep up my pretense of thrifty french housewife...and again, another sunny day. We plan to explore a little more into the Marais today since a lot of shops and restaurants remain open on Sunday.

Yesterday our educational visits brought us to St. Chapelle (under renovation!! one side is cleaned and bright, the other is the usual dingy stained smoky stained glass...and about 4 sections are blocked while they remove sections and clean them...very disappointing to not find yourself bathed in light.) The rose window was not covered. Robin maybe you can move here to practice conservation and preservation...it must be a tedious and heart stopping job.

The usual yesterday, crepes, a stop for ice cream...we found a Ms. Butler present in the Ms. Butler store. We must love our home very much since we find so many things that remind us of it.

A friend has asked about fashion, because, as she puts it, she finds herself in the world of sweater sets. So in short: options. Boots, heels, flats - it doesn't matter. A wry sense of combining colors - teal suede boots and a teal jacket sent me over the edge yesterday - gorgeous color, gorgeous texture - and skirts/dresses everywhere, especially with leggings (Kiki are you with me?) or skinny jeans. A few layers. Always a jacket of sorts, I am at a disadvantage here, poor packing. The younger guys are still in that semi-hip hop thing, with those ridiculous hats. The more dressy guys are wearing these very pointed shoes. Very independent. It is a matter of slowly collecting things that work together - hunting them down. Don't we all enjoy the chase? There is even a Museum of the Hunt here in the marais - maybe it involves searching for shoes...

The boring weather

Paris, fall on your knees and thank me later. Build an altar, a church, a cathedral of thanks. Throw a thousand rose petals in my wake. Bring me a meringue dusted with gold leaf every hour on the hour, an oyster with a pearl of great value. I know how much you appreciate the stunning weather I packed up in the USA and brought to you in my Jack White/Dalai Lama bespoke shoulder bag – the only remotely cool thing I seem to be wearing. I can hear it in the uncorking of lunchtime champagne by picnickers in Place des Vosges, listen to you casually drop a word or two about it in boulangerie conversations, see your texting to each other about – how boring - but really everyone has had to comment about it - the sunshine day after day after day following my arrival. I know it was heartless to suck all it up and take it away from Tennessee, but Paris, after a winter of snow, I thought you deserved no less. Enjoy! C’est superb!

Spring Rituals

only one note today: at the menagerie de Jardin du Plants: flamingos in flagrante. C'est la vie de Paris...

Going Medieval

So yesterday's stab at culture was to Cluny - the Museum of the Middle Ages. I think the children expected to see dungeon racks and more knight stuff. Joshua pointed out that it should be called the Museum of the Art of the Middle Ages...Rachel pointed out that all the statues were of saints. At least she can now recognize St. James with his scallop shells.
The Museum itself is incredibly lovely, an oft-missed stop for visitors. The pieces have a lot of room to breathe in this former abbey/roman bathhouse. The light is sublime. The big draw are the chicks with unicorns, as I call them. I was really surprised at how lovely they are. They are stretched across a round room with plenty of space for adoration. I did not know (having not paid attention in unicorn studies 101) that they are a contemplation of the 5 senses + compassion/love.
My great interest is from a little earlier time: the pillar of Nautes with the image of Cernunnos, a guardian of the underworld. This was discovered in 1710 in the foundations of Notre Dame. Those crazy Celts.

We had a picnic in the garden where a lot people seem to pop in for lunch - it rather reminded me of finding a secret alcove garden in DC, a little oasis. Our afternoon included, as the children will never let me forget, getting coffee and hot chocolate (I thought I had ordered ice cream, it seemed VERY clear to me) and ended up with a walk around our neighborhood. Some guys were actually playing boules in the court on Richard Lenoir. It seemed like something out of my french 101 book. What a surprise.

le Jardin

A quick note to say that watching your children push the boats around the fountain at Jardin du Luxembuorg is a real joy, a letting go of time and of expectations. As Rachel said, the boat goes where it wants to...
To set the scene, if you are not here, Paris weather has been stunning and it is all strangely accompanied by the empty skies. The tuplips are in full riot. By the way, who let that Tour Montparnasse be constructed? It really ruins the backdrop...oh btw that Sewanee things happened. Some college girls asked me directions at the Jardin, and turns out one of them is the daughter of a Sewanee graduate. She was with a group who had chartered a bus back from Madrid where they had been for a weekend trip. She was waiting to go take a train to Nantes. In all the conversation we forgot to introduce ourselves. Well, good luck college girls in Nantes!

The Importance of Humiliation

I turned to my children in the metro today and announced: I need to tell you something. Everyday while we are in Paris you are going to be embarrassed by something we do. I may not know where to go, how to ask for something, how to find what we are looking for. It will be embarrassing and we will be humiliated at least once a day. Now get over it and let's have fun.

What a relief for them. We had just spent way, I mean way too long, finding out about getting a long-term metro card today. It involved having a passport picture made at a photo booth in the metro. It cost 5E, the picture. I wasn't sure I had enough change. We were digging around in bags. It took an ungodly amount of time. But finally like little butterflies we emerged with our pictures and bought cards and made our way to Tuileries for a short lunch and to L'Orangerie so we could be tourists of all tourists and see Monet's still-engaging water lilies. We also saw these paintings by Marie Laurencin of ballerina-mermaids morphing into deers. The strange thing is that they all had long gray hair - and Just the day before I had seen one of the talked-of young ladies of Paris who dye their hair gray - while we were picnicking in Place des Vosges.

Yesterday's humiliations involved visiting the ginormous food market on Richard Lenoir to buy said picnic packings. You have to ask the grocer for each thing. You should, if you are not rude, ask pertinent questions about legumes and fruits. I just noted that the young man in front of me asked a lot of questions then bought pears and the strawberries on the left, so, I bought pears and berries. What a delight when Ms. Scott's 12th grade French came rolling back with that list of grocery items. Thank you Ms. Scott, because you were right, you never know when you might need to know the word for raspberries. I forced Stephen and Joshua to split up from us and buy a few things - mostly because I didn't want them to see me absolutely fail if I mispronounced fraises, and also because everyone should know how to ask for something when they don't have any words.

What ash?

OK we are beginning to realize just how lucky we were to land in Paris and not be sitting at Newark for days on end. We are hoping Stephen's writer will be able to make it here - when? Monday? the end of the week? What if this volcano erupts again and we're trapped in Paris? As Stephen says, what a pity...
OK today was in no way anything except relaxing after getting some work out of the way. We went all tourist and had crepes for lunch and took the boat taxi Batobus from Notre Dame all the way to the Eiffel Tower to lounge in the sun all afternoon. Wispy girls were having long talks about boys, kids were kicking soccer balls, the police were asking women to pull their shirts down over their stomachs. Propriete! We had no urge to walk up the steps to the observation decks.
The view from the river reminds you that the city is really unified by this ribbon of water, and centered even from ancient times by the Ile de la Cite. It could not have been more beautiful, trees blossoming in yellow and pink. All the stone that was removed from the quarries was used to build this empire intertwined of rock and nature.
We bought groceries on the way home and I made chicken with leeks and tarragon. You have to watch those french ladies, they will try to cut in line... tomorrow we will look for the food market by Bastille, it should be interesting. Watch out ladies!
The sun streams into our apartment in the evening so it is a real pleasure to be here and watch the sun set and the lights flip on on the Tour Eiffel... bon nuit...

Haze of ash and Jetlag

Wow. So were we super lucky not to get caught in the shut down of every major airport in Europe? Thank you universe for being kind. I feel for everyone waiting...and waiting.

We are settling into our urban life...but first we had to deal with housekeeping so to speak. Wireless seems unworkable so Stephen's assistant was on the phone with the internet company for quite a while. We are now truly wired - cords everywhere. How 1997. Plus trading down to a cheaper phone. Friends you recall I've been jaded about my iPhone? I am now texting on a number pad again...o.m.g. Hilarious. That banking? The nice man at reception explained that the person I needed to see would be available...on Thursday, at 10 am. How...quaint? I shall move my ducats from one account to another until she is disposed to speak with me. I forget that although we are in one of the world's foremost metropolitan areas, bureaucracy is king. I had to smile. But my franglais is coming along - I managed to buy wine, groceries, and those meringues as big as our heads today with no problem.

The kids are learning to sit patiently while we have a quick coffee. We struck out on own and ended up at Musee Carnavalet, which is right in our neighborhood. I meant to just sit in the little garden but we ended up fascinated by the permanent collection - it's the attic of Paris, a museum of the City's history. Strange paintings of grand vistas or Emperors or Kings, many many models of the Bastille, and even some of the Templar complex, which comes in handy to explain the history of our neighborhood. What I didn't expect was an emotional note - the haunting portrait of seven year old Louis XVII - the lost dauphin. The painting is not artistic nor even skillful, and the helmet head haircut doesn't help matters. Oh but those eyes. The fear follows you. It's as if that child's spirit came to rest in those painted eyes. I expected to see ghosts in the catacombs and crypts of Paris, not in a history museum. The boy died after nearly four years of imprisonment, and his heart is saved somewhere in the crypt of St. Denis. Paris has such a visceral history...I was glad we walked home through Place de Vosges, every square inch of grass covered by a living, breathing person delighted to soak in the sunlight.

Arrival

yes we are here! Friends in Paris, beware, if you have not heard from us yet you will soon! Fortified by a quick nap after our flight, today we soldiered on to a work lunch at the lovely Merci, a little piece of California in a seemingless endless building offering clothing and kitchen goods (after first making our way through a bookstore type entrance reminiscient of a Carlos Ruiz Zafron novel) Yummy green soup, fresh fresh salads including a quinoa herb mix...and the children indulged in kiwi/ginger/apple juice fizzy things (Keri are you with me?). Tooled around the neighborhood which has no less than 5 bakeries within spitting distance. Once has ENORMOUS meringues which I've promised to buy on Friday. We spent the late afternoon in our 5th floor walkup (I will have a great ass in 2 months) swilling wine and picking out the Eiffel tower top, Notre Dame and Sacre Couer in the horizon. Quick jaunt in that killer light between sun and rain to the Seine to look around Notre Dame before a good old French cheezburger. Stephen has more work in the morning, and I'll be banking. Except for the little lump that sticks in my throat about leaving home all is perfect. I would like all friends to show up NOW, thank you, I miss everyone at home. bon soir.

Paris Parks

With the daffodils at peak here in Sewanee, my mind keeps thinking of the outdoors in Paris in Spring. What parks to visit?

I love Jardin des Tuileries. You can find a chair, take off your shoes, and pull out a book, one with paper pages. (I’ll be taking Chris Bachelder’s Bear V. Shark and Thomas Lakeman’s Chillwater Cove.) I hope the kids can occupy themselves with a rereading of the Percy Jackson series. The great thing about Tuileries is that you can even study a map without feeling too foolish – it doesn’t matter, so many tourists are pouring out of the Louvre. Of course the more I study a map, the more lost I become.

I found a lovely park mentioned at saffronandblueberry.blogspot: the Albert Kahn Garden. Kahn was a banker/philanthropist in the early 1900s. After the invention of color photography, he sent photographers around the world from Paris to document cultures and monuments, and the Kahn Collection of color glass plate autochromes numbers over 75,000 plates.

What parks would you visit? And you Parisians, what parks do you intend to visit more often but never have the time?