Wandering Paris in September

 France, Paris
Sep 282025
 

September 2025

There is so much of Paris that just pops up while wandering.  These are some of the moments I caught on Camera.

A murl in the RER Foch Station

Metro station Palais Royale

It is not often you get a view over the tracks in a metro station.

A model in a hair salon in the 2nd

A mural on a random street in Paris

Inspired by Edmond Goyard’s real-life dog of the same name and breed, Hulot the dog has served in advertising since the 1890s.  Here he rules over the Goyard Store on Rue St. Honore.

I had a lot of fun with these. The first Space Invader mosaic appeared in Paris in 1998. The mysterious artist, known only as Invader, chose pixelated characters from the 1978 video game Space Invaders as his inspiration.  Each one of these “invasions” is carefully documented and cataloged. There is an App – Flash Invaders that I downloaded and had so much fun with documenting the “invaders” I found around Paris.

Not all the pixelated things you see are Invaders, but they are so fun and creative that I can’t pass them by.

The Girl with the Pearl Earring on Rue de la Perle

A Smurf

The floor at restaurant Bouillon Racine in the 6th

Halloween comes to France whether they want it or not.

A new installation at 59 Rivoli

Just a sampling of the stunning Art Deco/Art Nouveau in Paris.

*There was always Champagne on the table in Paris!

A part of the Euphoria exhibit at the Grand Palais

A Stroll through The 1st Arrondissement

 France, Paris
Sep 282025
 

September 2025

The First Arrondissement is also called The Louvre

The Cauldron

The Cauldron

Two years after the Paris 2024 Games, the cauldron, designed by Mathieu Lehanneur, was lit up in the Tuileries Gardens. French President Emmanuel Macron has said it will fly over the Tuilleries each summer until the Los Angeles Olympics.

The Cauldron from the Louvre

The Cauldron, being deflated to be taken out of the Tuilleries until next year

Les Cuisiniers of France

I took a picture of this building because I loved the Caryatids.  I then discovered its history. This is 45 Rue La Roch, the home of Les Cuisiniers de France. The building was originally purchased by the renowned chef Leopold Mourier, inventor of the Lobster Thermidor and owner of the famous “Fouquet” restaurant, located on the Champs-Élysées, which remains in existence today.

Headquarters of the French Ministry of Culture

This building underwent a major renovation from 2002 to 2004.  The latticework is made up of 12 mm-thick stainless steel panels wrapping around all the facades facing the street. The model drawing for the design of the latticework is based on the frescoes of Giulio Romano at the Te Palace in Mantua, from which six motifs were selected and created by a computer program. Each one of the motifs covers one level, extending over stone, glass, and aluminum.  The latticework is formed by 450 laser-cut panels made of an alloy rich in nickel, which resists pollution.

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Fontaine de la Croix du Trahoir

Built in by architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot, this building served to distribute water to the Palais-Royal and the ministers’ hotels. It was powered by the Samaritaine pump located on the Pont-Neuf. There were fountains here until the middle of the 20th century, which were restored in 1965.

This crossroads was situated at the intersection of the main north-south and east-west routes leading to Paris. For several centuries, it was one of the liveliest crossroads in Paris. It owes its name, “trahoir”, formerly “drawer”, to the fact that the fabrics were pulled on the square.

Fontaine de la Croix du Trahoir

The crossroads also has a very bloody past. Up until 1698, the spot where the Fontaine de la Croix-du-Trahoir now sits was an execution ground. Traitors, counterfeiters, and Lutherans were beheaded or sometimes even burned alive as the public watched. A cross, or croix, once stood next to the fountain where the condemned could say any final prayers they might have. The cross was later destroyed during the French Revolution.

Walking the 1st at night

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Strolling in the Second and Third Arrondissement

 France, Paris
Sep 282025
 

September 2025

The 2nd – The Bourse

The Bourse refers to the Palais Brongniart, the seat of the Paris stock exchange, dating from 1826. This arrondissement is also the smallest in the city, with only 99 hectares.

Tour Jean-sans-Peur

The Tour Jean-sans-Peur or Tour de Jean sans Peur is the last vestige of the Hôtel de Bourgogne, the residence first of the Counts of Artois and then the Dukes of Burgundy. The tower was completed between 1409–1411 by Jean sans Peur. Now located in the courtyard of an elementary school. It is one of the best surviving examples of medieval residential architecture in Paris.

Marché de Montorgueil

There are so many great streets to stroll in Paris.  Montorgueil is one of the highlights.

Rue Montorgueil dates back to the 13th Century.

Throughout the years, Rue Montorgueil has become a hub for food and culture. One notable establishment is La Maison Stohrer, one of the oldest bakeries in Paris, which opened its doors in 1730. It is said that baba au rhum was invented here.

The street was an inspiration and subject for  Claude Monet. In 1878, Monet painted “The Rue Montorgueil in Paris (Celebration of 30 June 1878)”.

It should be of no surprise that the façade of Au Planteur, at 10 rue des Petits-Carreaux, remains a controversial subject. Installed on the facade of a 19th-century building to advertise a store selling “exotic products,” of which coffee was the main commodity offered. Classified as a historical monument on May 23, 1984, the painting on ceramic dates from 1890 and represents a black man in the service of a colonialist white man. It is one of the rare testimonies of the French colonial period in the capital.

Like most every street in Paris, there is also great street art

L’homme au bras leve by Olivier Brice (1933-1989)

This intriguing statue stands on Square Caire very close to the Passage du Caire.

Most people have explored the many delightful passageways of Paris.  Passage du Caire is the oldest in Paris, and the interior is not very inviting.  It was never meant to be a showpiece; it was covered for the convenience of the neighbors in the community. Built in 1798 it is the longest passageway in Paris.

Rue Damiette is not a street one goes searching for; there is little of interest on the street.  But the area has a very dark history. The street was once part of the Court of Miracles.  The Court of Miracles under the Ancien Régime was a set of lawless areas of Paris. The beggars that made their home amongst these streets would go out to beg with the most horrible of infirmities, only to return home and watch their (fake) infirmities miraculously disappear.

Lovely little girls at 39 rue Réaumur

The Bibliothèque nationale de France – Richelieu

The BnF, or National Library of France, underwent a ten-year renovation. The restoration of the 300-year-old site included facade restorations, installation of an interior garden, and facilities maintenance.

 

The Labrouste reading room of the Richelieu National Library

The reading room is jaw-dropping in its beauty.  Designed by Pierre-François-Henri Labrouste, it is a stunning domed room with sixteen iron pillars. The light filters from a series of skylights, and the five-story room seems much larger because of it.

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The ventilation system of the library has an interesting nautical look.The National Library is also an amazing museum.  I went because I wanted to see two very specific things, but walked out in awe of their collection.

Voltaire

I had very much wanted to see the reading room, but also this statue of Voltaire.  If you look closely, you will see a gold heart on the white box to the right of Voltaire. Voltaire’s heart is said to be in his statue.  According to the New York Times of February 21, 1929:

In the presence of the Minister of Fine Arts, a bronze plate bearing the inscription “The Heart of Voltaire,” found on a pedestal designed for a plaster statue of the great French thinker in the National Library, was removed this afternoon, and disclosed a hollowed space containing a small wooden box. This was opened, and a large gilded wooden heart was found inscribed, “Heart of Voltaire—Died Paris—30 May, 1778.” When the receptacle was shaken, a liquid was heard in its cavity, undoubtedly that in which the heart is preserved. The Minister refrained, however, from opening the wooden heart. The bronze plate bore an inscription indicating that the pedestal in which the heart was found was donated to the National Library by the heirs of the Marquis de Villette in 1864.

The Ceiling of the Mazarin Gallery

The Mazarin Gallery underwent a complete restoration in 2018 and 2019. The Gallery was designed by François Mansart between 1644 and 1646 at the request of Cardinal Mazarin to host his rich collections of paintings and sculptures.

The ceiling was frescoed in 1646-1647 in the Baroque style by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli and Paolo Gismondi. The ceiling’s iconography was inspired by Greco-Roman mythology, particularly Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The center of the ceiling features Jupiter striking down the Giants. The other iconography is Apollo and Daphne, the Judgment of Paris, the Abduction of Helen, and the Fall of Troy.

I will return to the National Library, it was the end of the day, and I was exhausted, and I did not give it enough time.

Near the BnF is the Galerie Vivienne.

Galerie Vivenne

The gallery was built in 1823 by Marchoux, President of the Chamber of Notaries, at the location of the Hôtel Vanel de Serrant and the Passage des Petits-Pères. It was based on plans drawn up by the architect Francois Jean Delannoy. Opened in 1826 under the name Marchoux, but it was soon renamed Vivienne

The 3rd – The Temple

The 3rd, called the Temple, takes its name from the vast Templar compound that once stood there. This was the headquarters of the Knights Templar in France, a fortified district with its own laws and treasuries.

Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis

I have walked past this church time after time without appreciating its history. The present building was constructed from 1627 to 1641 by the Jesuit architects Étienne and François Derand, on the orders of Louis XIII. It was the first church in Paris to break away entirely from the Gothic style and to use the new Baroque style of the Jesuits

In September of 1792, during the French Revolution, five priests were killed in the church during the September Massacres. The church was closed and turned into a storehouse and a temple of the Cult of Reason and the Supreme Being, before being restored to Catholicism in 1802 under the Concordat of 1801

“République française ou la mort” (French Republic or death).

Not much is known about this graffiti on one of the pillars of the church, except that it was written during the Paris Commune, probably the first days of the “bloody week” (May 21-28, 1871). When the Versailles troops entered Paris to put an end to the insurrection of the communards, one of them would have written this message.  It was the attempted cleaning that made this graffiti more visible.

Christ in the Olive Garden – Eugène Delacroix – 1827

This is one of two shell holy water vessels, donated by Victor Hugo to mark the occasion of the baptism of his first child.

The back of St Paul and Saint Louis

The Charlemagne Fountain, at the south end of the church

Near the Arts and Métiers is this giant angel, purported to be the largest caryatid in Paris.

At Theodor-Herzl Square, in front of the angel, is this truly lovely modern sculpture.

Harmony by French sculptor Antoniucci Volti (1915-1989)

 

Exploring the 4th Arrondissement

 France, Paris
Sep 282025
 

September 2025

The 4th is called Hôtel-de-Ville. It refers to the city hall at the corner of rue de Rivoli and rue de Lobau. The site has been the center of municipal authority since the Middle Ages.

Maison de Victor Hugo

I am always so embarrassed when I realize how close Victor Hugo’s home was to my rental years ago, and I never got there. It is a magnificent home.  The house is where the artist lived for 16 years between 1832 and 1848. However, it is not exactly like his home at the time; it is an amalgam of his home in Paris and his home in exile in Guernsey, as well as serving as a museum to show works of art about and by the artist.

Marble bust by David d’Angers

At a very young age, Hugo had made a name for himself with poetry (Les Orientales [Eastern Poems]), drama (Hernani), and prose (The Hunchback of Notre Dame).

The Chinese Room

This room showcases the décor and furniture he designed for Juliette Drouet’s (his mistress’s) house, Hauteville II.

The Chinese-style panels were designed by Hugo in 1863-1864 and painted with the help of Tom Gore, a craftsman who was already working on the refurbishment of Hauteville House.

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The panels are peppered with his and her initials

An anonymous sculpture of Quasimodo in the Maison

The Fourth is one of those Arrondissements that is so full of amazing things to explore that it takes days and days.  This is a quick compilation of those days.

Wandering

Jardin de 13 November 2015

On November 13, 2015, Islamic terrorists attacked Paris in several of its neighborhoods, killing 130 people and injuring nearly 500. In tribute to the victims of the attack, a memorial garden was inaugurated at Place Saint-Gervais, a stone’s throw from Paris City Hall.

The landscaping recalls the six locations affected by the attacks: the Stade de France, Carillon and Petit Cambodge, Bonne Bière and Casa Nostra, Belle Équipe, Comptoir Voltaire, and the Bataclan.

Hôtel de Sens

The Hotel Sens has many things to draw you to it. The first being that it is famous for having a cannonball stuck in its wall that hails from the French Revolution.  It is also the oldest mansion in the Marais. Built at the end of the 15th century, it was commissioned by the Archbishop of Sens, Salazar. Building work began in 1475 and took 27 years to complete. It now houses the Forney Library, which specializes in the decorative arts.

This is number 4 on Rue de la Colombe, or Dove Street. The story goes that around 1225, this place was occupied by a dilapidated one-story house. The first floor was inhabited by a sculptor who used to shelter a couple of tamed doves. When the house collapsed in his absence, the two doves were trapped in the stones.

The male dove managed to escape, but he did not want to leave without his companion, and he continued to feed her with seeds and water from the river Seine.

The dove’s loyalty attracted the neighbors’ attention, who helped remove the stones one by one to free the female dove.

Today, this plaque at the end of the street recalls this legend.

But this is not all.  In a block that is not very long it has quite a history.

This is apparently the oldest bistro in Paris. Dating from the 16th century, the bistro changed hands many times until 1954, when new owners took over the business and turned it into a cabaret named La Colombe. The cabaret went broke in 1964, and today it is a restaurant named Les Deux Colombes.

Then at Number 6 is this plaque, which recalls the discovery of the remains of the first wall in Paris, raised in 276 AD to resist the Barbarian invasions. The walls were called the Lutetia walls.

Between 52 BC and the late 5th century, part of today’s French capital was the site of a modest Gallo-Roman city, then called Lutèce (Lutetia in English).  One way to see some of the remains is to visit the Arenes de Lutece in the 5th, which I did in 2021.

Speakers Corner by Christian Delécluse

Near the Eglise Saint Merri church is this sculpture entitled Speakers‘ Corner.

According to the artist, the books published by DIS VOIR form the flesh of the work. Having become unsaleable due to the negligence of their distributor, these books were normally destined for the scrap heap. The books have been reworked with gold leaf, a timeless material that evokes kintsugi, a Japanese technique used to repair and embellish porcelain.

The books are presented open, suspended inside the sculpture in the shape of a raised fist that has become the symbol of minority voices trying to make themselves heard in the face of dominant discourse. 

 

What a surprise I got, wandering the 4th and finding a tribute to a famous San Franciscan.

Some of the oldest buildings in Paris are in the 4th.

These two houses, on rue François Miron (n°11-13) and another at the corner of rue des Barres and rue du Grenier-sur-l’Eau, are typical medieval houses, erected around 1327.

These gabled houses are narrow, with only two windows per floor. Their sides protrude from corbelling, and their facades end with triangular pediments and are topped with high-pitched roofs that allow rainwater to drain down the sides of the buildings. These houses are easily recognizable thanks to their half-timbering, which was uncovered during restoration work in the 1960s.
In 1607, Henri IV (1589-1610) ordered that visible wooden elements be covered with plaster as a means of fire prevention.

Notice how the bottom floor slopes inward

Peaked roofs were the norm in Paris before Baron Haussmann’s 19th-century urban renovations, which replaced many older peaked roofs with the characteristic zinc Mansard roofs.

Within the Joseph Migneret garden lies one of the 77 towers of the Wall of Philip Augustus, built between 1190 and 1213.

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Notre Dame has been restored.  I was there on a Friday to see the Veneration of the Holy Crown of Thorns. The restoration will be a little jarring for those who had spent a lot of time in the Cathedral before the fire, but it is still a majestic piece of architecture.

The Crown of Thorns

The Billettes Cloister

The Billettes cloister in the 4th Arrondissement is Paris’s only remaining cloister from the Middle Ages. The cloister was built in 1427 for the convent of the Brothers of Charity Hospital of Our Lady, also called Billettes.

The cloister and the adjoining church were desecrated during the French Revolution. In 1808, Napoleon authorised the City of Paris to acquire the church and its cloister to be a place of worship for the Lutheran community in the French capital.

Today, it is used more for exhibit space.

The Tower of St Jacques

The Tower of St Jacques

The Tower sits on the Rue de Rivoli, and yet, it is really easy to miss.

The Tour Saint-Jacques is the last remaining element of the Gothic church Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, which was first mentioned in books in the 12th century. However, the tower dates from between 1509 and 1523.

The church, once a significant stop on the Pilgrimage to the Camino de Santiago, was destroyed during the Revolution.

The church was the patron of the butchers, which makes sense since Les Halles is just around the corner.

The tower was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998

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12 Rue Massillon

Twelve Rue Massillon was designed in 1893 by the architect Ernest Papinot. Today, it houses the Louis-Lépine Foundation, the social services of the nearby police headquarters.

Tile work on 12 Rue Massillon

Place de Louis-Lépine

Near the Police Prefecture is Place de Louis-Lepine. It is named after Louis Lépine, Governor General of Algeria from 1897 to 1898, Prefect of the Paris Police from 1893 to 1897, and again from 1899 to 1913.

Foundation from the 1700s

While digging to plant trees along the sides of Notre Dame, the archeologists came upon this wall dating from the 1700s. They will soon be buried in dirt and housing shade trees for all to enjoy.

1910 Flood

Quai de l’Archevêché sits at the tip of the Île de la Cité where the Seine splits to surround the isle.  There, you can find a 1910 flood marker.  It is a little more digestible than those found in the middle of the city, as you can see how high the Seine rose.

 

A Slow Stroll in the 5th Arrondissement

 France, Paris
Sep 282025
 

September 2025

 

The 5th is called Panthéon. The name comes from the grand monument on the hill built for Louis XV and later turned into a national mausoleum after the French Revolution.

One of the more important and fun things to do in the 5th is to stroll Rue Mouffetard.

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This pedestrianised street, which Parisians call “la Mouffe”, is one of the oldest streets of Paris with a great history. There has been a road here since the Romans, 2000 years ago. Most importantly,  it is home to a beautiful street market.

Mouffet means “skunk” in French. The street was popular as a location for animal skinners, and mofettes is related to the word meaning “odors of pestilent”, referring to the smells emitted by the process of skinning.

134 Rue Mouffetard

One of the first buildings you encounter is ornamented with this facade, which was in effect an advertisement for the 1930s boucherie at ground level. The building dates from the early 17th century; the fresco, however, was made between 1929 and 1931 by an Italian bricklayer, Adigheri, using sgraffito, a technique widely used during the Renaissance period, which Art Nouveau brought back at the beginning of the 20th century.

Between the mezzanine windows, four cartouches are adorned with panels depicting rural scenes.

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122 Rue Mouffetard

At 122 rue Mouffetard, there is a sign that reads “A la Bonne Source. It is left from when a wine merchant in the 18th century was here. The scene is a play on words. The two figures are drawing water from an “endless well”, refers to “a powerful wine.” The friendly jokes were intended to attract more customers because of the merchants’ humor.

Saint Medard Church

Legend has it that the initial iteration of the church dates back to the 7th century. However, marauding Norman invaders razed the structure during their 9th-century raids, leaving it in ruins for centuries until it was reconstructed in the 12th century.

St Medard is the most invoked of the patron saints concerning weather-related matters in Paris. Something that could have been used on this rainy day.

‘Le Vieux Chêne’ (The Old Oak)

At 69 Rue Mouffetard is a small bar called ‘Le Vieux Chêne’ (The Old Oak), it is one of the oldest watering holes in Paris, dating from the early 18th century.  In 1848, it served as the seat of the  Revolutionary Committee whose aim was to finally overthrow the monarchy, which they did.

Fontaine du Pot de Fer

The “fountain” or water source on the corner with Rue du Pot-de-Fer was built in 1671 by Michel Noblet, royal architect and guardian of the city, and is today the only public water source from this period in the district to have escaped the modernization of the city.

Place de la Contrescarpe

Place de la Contrescarpe served as the opening setting of Ernest Hemingway’s novel, A Moveable Feast. Hemingway lived not far from the square during the 1920s at 74 rue du Cardinal-Lemoine. At the time, the neighborhood was outside the city walls and not nearly as nice as it is today.

71 Rue du Cardinal Lemoine

James Joyce spent a considerable part of his life in Paris.  He lived here, in Valery Larbaud’s apartment, at 71 Rue du Cardinal Lemoine from June to September 1921.

The Wall of Philip II Augustus

The Wall of Philip Augustus is the oldest city wall of Paris (France), whose plan is accurately known. The wall was built during the struggles between Philip II of France (called Philip Augustus) and the Anglo-Norman House of Plantagenet. The French king, before leaving for the Third Crusade, ordered a stone wall to be built to protect the French capital in his absence.

The walls of the Left Bank (the location of the 5th) were destroyed under Henry IV in 1590. By the 1680s, the wall had become completely invisible.

Here are some random fun shots from my stroll.

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A Gorgeous Day in the 6th

 France, Paris
Sep 282025
 

September 27, 2025

The 6th is called Luxembourg. It takes its name from the palace built by Marie de Médicis in the early 1600s, which today serves as the seat of the Senate.

The 6th Arrondissement is probably my favorite.  I lived in the 6th for a while in the 70s and always find myself gravitating to it when I visit. For that reason, I decided to end my exploration of the arrondissements in the 6th.

I have popped in and out of the 6th throughout my stay, for example, when my niece, friends, and I had dinner at Le Deux Magots.

The patrons of this bar over the years support the fact that this is a very arty area. People such as Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Albert Camus, Pablo Picasso, James Joyce, Bertolt Brecht, Julia Child, James Baldwin, Chester Himes, and Richard Wright. It is now pretty much filled with tourists, but the food and champagne are still very good.

Peace Plaque

I began with a few things I wanted to find, the first was this peace plaque. This place marks the spot where, on September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and John Adams, John Jay, and Benjamin Franklin of the US. The signing officially ended the War of American Independence and recognized the Thirteen Colonies.

I also wanted to walk along the Seine one last time before I left.

This gave me a chance to walk past the Paris Mint.

The Monnaie of Paris

The Monnaie de Paris (Paris Mint) was established on June 25, 864, by Charles the Bald, Carolingian king of France. At more than 1,150 years old, it is not only the oldest official institution in France but also the world’s oldest continuously-operating mint. The building was designed by architect Jacques Denis Antoine and completed in 1775. Today, the Monnaie de Paris is responsible for producing coins and medals that are used in France, including the famous 2-euro and 1-euro coins. It is also now the home to the Conti Museum.

That was going to be all I did today.  I had all the intention in the world of making my way to Luxembourg Gardens and sitting and enjoying the glorious weather.

The Luxembourg Palace, now the home to the French Senate

Alas, so had everyone in Paris.

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The Medici Fountain in the Luxembourg Garden

A serious Bocci Ball game where the ruler is brought out to check the distances.

A day to rent small boats and sail them in the pond

The lovely thing about this garden is that I am certain there is a chair or bench for every citizen in Paris, so I did sit for a while and soak up the crowd.

I decided to make my way to the Zadkine museum instead, with hopes of sitting in their sculpture garden.

While the museum was filled with sculpture, it was also entirely too small to sit for long.

Ossip Alexeevich Zadkine (January 1888 – November 1967) was a Russian and French artist of the School of Paris. Zadkine served as a stretcher bearer in the French Army during World War I and was wounded in action. He spent World War II in the US. His best-known work is probably the sculpture The Destroyed City (1951–1953), representing a man without a heart, a memorial to the destruction of the center of the Dutch city of Rotterdam in 1940 by Nazi Germany.

My journey continues:

Fountain Saint Sulpice

The Fontaine Saint-Sulpice, located in front of the church of the same name, was constructed between 1843 and 1848 by the architect Louis Visconti, who also designed the tomb of Napoleon.  I had visited St. Sulpice on a prior visit, as it has a fascinating astrological measuring device called a gnomon.

Not far from Saint-Sulpice is the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the oldest church in Paris. The church underwent a restoration that took many years and was completed in 2023.  I wanted to see the results.

They were amazing.  The blue ceiling, with its stars, columns, and murals, all restored and gorgeous.

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Strolling through the 6th

From 1957 to 1963, at this site, one of the cheapest and filthiest hotels in Paris, key members of the Beats —Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso, and Brion Gysin — produced some of their finest work. The history of the hotel, the Beat Poets, and Paris is worthy of a book.

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Zadkine outside of Saint Germain des Prés

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Eclectic Mix of Things in the 7th and 8th and 9th Arrondissements

 France, Paris
Sep 272025
 

September 2025

The 7th

The 7th is an interesting Arrondissement. It is called Palais-Bourbon in reference to the seat of the National Assembly. It is also one of the most affluent and prestigious arrondissements of Paris.

It includes some of the more well-known tourist attractions, the Eiffel Tower, the Hôtel des Invalides, the Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, as well as a concentration of museums such as the Musée d’Orsay, Musée Rodin, and the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac.

So this means I have seen and written about a goodly portion of the 7th.  Here are some highlights from my stroll in the 7th this year.

The Rodin Museum is a must-visit stop for me whenever I am in Paris.  Here is one (of many) of my favorite sculptures in the garden.

According to Rodin, the sculpture aims to portray the writer’s persona rather than a physical likeness. In 1939 (22 years after the sculptor’s death), the model was cast in bronze for the first time and placed on the Boulevard du Montparnasse at the intersection with Boulevard Raspail. It also sits in the Rodin Museum Garden.

The Eiffel Tower

This will have been my 5th visit to the Eiffel Tower.  What is different? Since my last visit, they have installed glass floors in the corners of the 2nd floor, where I took this shot.  This trip, I walked up to the 2nd floor, 1655 steps.  Sensibly, I took an elevator to the third floor.

Paris is known for its stunning Art Deco metro stations.  That is why this one caught my eye. While still carrying the architecture of the 1920s, in particular Art Deco, it is so different.

 

The 8th

The 8th is called Élysée. Its name comes from the Élysée Palace, finished in 1722 and turned into the official presidential residence in 1848.

Over the years, I have wandered the 8th and seen its most well-known sites.  The Flame Of The Statue of Liberty, Madeleine Church, Place De La Concorde, and, of course, the Arc de Triomphe.

This trip I visited two famous places on the 8th: the Petit Palais for a special exhibit on the clothes of the House of Worth and the Grand Palais for the exhibition Euphoria.

The Grand Palais

The Grand Palais is specifically an exhibit space, so it is not a place you wander into.  The exhibit was fun, but seeing the inside of the Grand Palais was an even bigger thrill for me.

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If you have the opportunity have lunch on the terrace at the Grand Palais, it is a chance to stare at the stunning art work that surrounds you.

 

Maison de Loo

Maison de Loo

Sometimes you are brought up short in a rainstorm, and this building did that.  It is a private Asian art museum called Maison de Loo.  It is the creation of an Asian art Merchant and collector, Ching Tsai Loo, transformed into a pagoda by the architect Francois Moch in 1925- 26.  The collection houses “1,300 books, 3,000 exhibition catalogs, 3,000 original photos and many rare objects”. The building was placed on the historical monument list in 2002.

The 9th

The 9th is called Opéra. But not because of the Palais Garnier. It was named after the Opéra Le Peletier, the city’s main opera house from 1821 until it burned down in 1873.

Coming out of the Saint Georges Metro I was greeted with this charming building and the statue in the roundabout in front of it.

Fondation Dosne-Thiers

The Fondation Dosne-Thiers is a history museum open to members of the Institute of France.

French artist, illustrator, and caricaturist Paul Gavarni (1804-1866)

Paul Gavarni was the pen name of Sulpice Guillaume Chevalier, a French illustrator born in Paris.

Also on Place St Georges were these lovely ladies looking down from the Hôtel de la Païva

International Visual Theater

This 347-seat theater was built in 1890. It began as a chapel store selling religious items, and then it became the studio of painter Georges Rochegrosse.  From 1898, it was the home of Theater du Grand Guigno under the direction of Max Maurey, known for “a little humor, a lot of horror.” Apparently, his shows with their bloody tricks were a real threat. The Grand Guigno closed in 1962, and it was refurbished into the theater of today.

Exploring the 10th and 11th Arrondissement

 France, Paris
Sep 272025
 

September 2025

The 10th

The 10th is called Entrepôt. The arrondissement once contained the central customs warehouse on rue Léon-Jouhaux. This depot processed goods entering the capital and shaped the area’s working-class identity.

The 10th is home to Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est, so many people pass through the arrondissement even if they don’t stick around.  The Canal Saint Martin, however, is a reason to hang around.

Canal St Martin

Constructed in the early 19th century under Napoleon Bonaparte’s orders (apparently paid for by a new tax on wine), Canal Saint Martin was initially designed to supply Paris with fresh water and facilitate the transportation of goods. The Canal connects the Canal de l’Ourcq to the river Seine.

Nearly half its length was covered in the mid-19th century to create wide boulevards and public spaces.

The canal is drained and cleaned every 10–15 years, revealing hundreds of tons of discarded objects.

The locks on Canal St Martin

The canal’s 82-foot drop is navigated through a series of nine locks and two swing bridges, which adjust to the gradual slope of the terrain.

Porte Saint Martin

Porte Saint-Martin was designed by architect Pierre Bullet on the order of Louis XIV in honor of his victories on the Rhine and in Franche-Comté. Built in 1674, it replaced a medieval gate in the city walls constructed by Charles V. The gate was restored in 1988.

Porte Saint Denis

Not far from Porte Saint Martin is Porte Saint Denis. The Porte Saint-Denis was originally a gateway through the Wall of Charles V, which was built between 1356 and 1383 to protect the Right Bank of Paris. The walls were eventually partly torn down in the 1640s to make way for the larger and more fortified Louis XIII Wall. In the 1670s, the remaining walls of Charles V were entirely demolished when Paris spread beyond the confines of its medieval boundaries.

Cour des Petites Écuries

Just down the street from Porte Saint Denis is Cour des Petites Écuries, which translates to the courtyard of the little stables. Constructed in 1769, and by its name, I assume you have figured out that horses were stabled here. Following the industrialisation of Paris, the street was transformed into a street lined with restaurants and pubs.  It was morning and quiet when I walked through, but I did get a kick out of this one restaurant.

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Théâtre de la Renaissance at 20 boulevard Saint-Martin

This gorgeous building stopped me in my tracks. Charles de Lalande designed this ‘théâtre à l’italienne’. It opened in 1873 with La Femme de feu by Adolphe Belot. It is still a very active theater.

Johann Strauss

Place Johann Strauss was undergoing major work, but apparently they saw fit to make sure the man could view the work as it occurred.

Marche Saint Quentin

Marche Saint Quentin was built in 1866 to replace another market located further south. It is what one would expect of a covered market, just do not enter if you are hungry, it is filled with delicious aromas and food.

Some random shots around the 10th

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The 11th

The 11th called Popincourt. The name comes from Jean de Popincourt, president of the Parliament of Paris in the early 1400s. He built his manor here, and a hamlet grew around it.

The 11th is one of the most densely populated urban districts of any European city. The area is filled with very popular restaurants and nightclubs.  On November 13, 2015, the arrondissement was the site (among others) of coordinated Islamic shootings and bombings, particularly at the Bataclan theatre.

A funky store called LaBeL RéCuP’ – The chairs are made from bottle caps.

I have already written about the Circus in the 11th.  The other two major attractions in the arrondissement are the Place de Bastille and the Place de la République.

Place de la République

Place de la République was originally called the Place du Château d’Eau, named after a huge fountain designed by Pierre-Simon Girard and built on the site in 1811. In 1867, Gabriel Davioud built this fountain in the square, which (like the first fountain) is decorated with lions. The square took its current shape as part of Baron Hausmann’s vast renovation of Paris.

Saint Ambroise Church

Saint Ambroise Church was designed by the architect Theodore Ballu. who was designated by Napoleon III as the official city architect for religious buildings.

The 11th is huge, and over the years, I have walked some of it.  It was Saturday, so I just strolled and found what may be.

A rather interesting apartment building

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You have to love a neighborhood that still has an entire store dedicated to selling records

Right next door is a store selling nothing but puzzles

It was a good day for Bocci Ball

And a good day for a flea market

It is interesting to move beyond the tourist areas of Paris and discover the areas of those who live, work, raise their families, shop, and dine in Paris.

 

Vineyards of Paris

 Paris
Sep 262025
 

August 2025

Paris has five vineyards within the city limits.  This trip, I made it a goal to see all 5.

Close Montmartre – the 18th Arrondissement

The Vineyards of Montmartre

I have visited the vineyards of Montmartre many times, thinking they were the only ones in Paris.  I was wrong, there are currently five. So this trip, I set out to find all of the others.

Clos Montmartre stands as Paris’s largest and most esteemed vineyard. It has a modest annual yield of about 1,500 bottles.

None of the vineyards are legally able to sell their wine.  So every year, an auction is held to sell all of the bottles of wine produced, with the profits going to the local community.

Clos de Belleville – The 20th Arrondissement

I could smell the red ripening grapes before I saw the Clos de Belleville.

Clos de Belleville is the smallest vineyard in Paris. Planted in 1992, this vineyard of Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay has a production of from two to three kilograms of grapes per foot, depending on the year.

The clos des Chaufourniers – The 19th Arrondissement

The clos des Chaufourniers (named after the street to which the hill descends) was planted in 1995. It sits in the Park Butte Bergeyre.
It is said that this small vineyard was planted by a gardener from the City of Paris to see what would result. The first harvest took place in 2010, and as of 2023, there were over 240 vines, with a mixture of Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Muscat, and Chasselas, as well as Pinot Noir.

Clos des Morillons – The 15th Arrondissement

Up to the 18th century, a huge vineyard covered the southern slopes of the Hauts de Vaugirard: vines made up more than half of the cultivated area of the Vaugirard plain. The grape variety of the day, named Périchot, was harvested by the monks of the Clos des Morillons.

Clos des Morillons

When George Brassans park opened, the idea to replant some of the area with vines arose. In 1982, since Périchot had disappeared, 700 Pinot Noir vines were planted, along with around twenty Pinot Meunier vines. In 2022, the harvest was 300 kg of grapes.

Clos de Bercy – The 12th Arrondissement

In the 19th century, Bercy was the biggest wine and spirits market in the world. Today, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay vines grow at Clos de Bercy in the Parc de Bercy. Planted in 1996, the grapes from this Paris vineyard produce about 350 bottles per year.

Finding all five vineyards took me to places in Paris I would most likely have never visited, this was a real treat.

Ambling the 13th Arrondissement

 France, Paris
Sep 262025
 

September 2025

The 13th is called Gobelins after the Gobelin family, whose factory is described below.

I got off the raised metro at the Chevaralet station and began my walk along this gorgeous promenade under the metro tracks.

My first stop was the hospital for nothing more than to set eyes on a very historical spot and a horror of a place for women.

A very modern entry to a hospital with an ancient history

The Hopital Universitaire La Pitie Salpetriere has a fascinating history. The Salpêtrière was originally a gunpowder factory. In 1656, at the direction of Louis XIV, it was converted into a hospice for the poor women of Paris as part of the General Hospital of Paris. This main hospice was for women who were learning disabled, mentally ill, or epileptic, as well as poor. In 1657, it was incorporated with the hospice of the Pitié, designed specifically for beggars’ children and orphans. Sheets for hospice and military clothing were produced there by the children. In 1684, a women’s prison was added to the site with a total capacity of 300 convicted prostitutes. It provided wretched living conditions for its inmates.

By the Revolution, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospice had become the world’s largest hospice, with a capacity of 10,000 “patients” and over 300 prisoners. Until the French Revolution, the Salpêtrière had no medical function.   During the September massacres of 1792, the Salpêtrière was stormed by a mob from the impoverished working-class district of the Faubourg Saint-Marcel, with the avowed intention of releasing the detained prisoners: 134 of the prostitutes were released; twenty-five madwomen were less fortunate and were dragged, some still in their chains, into the streets and murdered.  The world began treating its patients a little bit better by the 1700s and from there things improved.

In my perpetual wanderings to find hidden neighborhoods, today’s stroll took me to Butte-aux-Cailles. This very arty district owes its original name to Pierre Caille, the first owner of this hill covered, at the time, with meadows, vineyards, woods, and windmills, acquired in 1543.

My main reason for heading to the 13th was to see Corbusier’s Cité de Refuge.

The building was designed for the Salvation Army and opened in 1933. Since that time, it has been occupied by the French Salvation Army.  The building, one of Le Corbusier’s first urban housing projects,  was designated a National Historical Monument of France in 1975.

There is a considerable number of fascinating modern buildings in this area of the 13th.

Tours Duo are two skyscrapers designed by Jean Nouvel.

Watt Tower by Vincent Lavergne Architecture

The Gobelins Manufactory

The Gobelins Manufactory is a historical tapestry factory. It was originally established on the site as a medieval dyeing business by the Gobelin family. It is best known as a royal factory supplying the court of the French monarchs since Louis XIV. The French Ministry of Culture now runs it.

The Revolution Will Be Trivialized

The 13th is often overlooked, and there is so much more to explore than I had a chance to get to.  So much to see in Paris, so little time.

Small Neighborhoods in the 14th

 France, Paris
Sep 262025
 

September 2025

The 14th is called Observatoire. It refers to the Paris Observatory

Plaisance

The little area of Plaisance contains the street Rue de Thermopylas and Cité Bauer. It is a quiet, quirky neighborhood you would expect in such an arty arrondissement.

Rue de Themopyles

Rue des Thermopyles was a private road until 1959, when it opened to the public. It was named after the Battle of Thermopylae, between the Greeks and the Persians in 480-479 BC. It is said that the people gave this name to the street because it was as narrow as the passage of Thermopyles in Greece. The Greek historian Herodotus said it was so close that only one chariot could pass in one direction at a time.

I was somewhat surprised to find a park in this small neighborhood, but I got a kick out of the fact that it is named after the sculptor Alberto Giacometti.

Square Alberto-Giacometti

*There is a sign on the fence surrounding this house with the sign out the window saying Viva La Commune.

The sign reads: It is a wonderful story that began in 1997. When the owners of this house refused to allow it to be restored. But no matter! The tenants, who love Greece, rolled up their sleeves. With the help of some hard-working paintbrushes, they gave their home a holiday feel with walls plastered white and shutters painted blue…just like on the Greek Islands. The nickname “Greek house” was naturally adopted by the people of the 14th. Protected from destruction, it is a popular and unmissable feature of the Rue des Thermopyles.

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Rue des Artistes

In keeping with the artistic theme of the 14th, I visited Rue des Artistes.

At number 6 is this mural “Momiji: Kingyo et feuilles d’érable d’Automne” (2019) by the artist Antoine Bertrand. The mural incorporates two traditional symbols of Japanese culture: the “kingyo” (goldfish) and the maple leaves that fall in autumn (momiji).

Other colorful houses on Rue des Artistes

Rue des Artistes was opened in 1853 under its current name. The name came about because several young painters and sculptors lived here at the beginning of the 19th century.

7 Rue Mechain

7 Rue Mechain

Way off the beaten path is this interesting building by Robert Mallet-Stevens. Built in 1928-29 at the request of Jean Deschamps.

The two circular windows at the entry are a definitive mark of the 1920s Parisian Art Deco.

Sites around the 14th

Let’s pass, let’s pass, since everything passes, I’ll often turn around, Memories are hunting horns, whose noise dies among the wind

The Fury of Words

This mural is the collaboration of a painter and a photographer forming a group called Treize Bis.  One explanation is that the piece consists of images recovered from the 19th century, primarily engravings whose images recall dreamism and surrealism.


A Chimney Sweep headed to work

Peeking through a wall, I looked down at this construction project, astonished to find trees acting as a construction element.

The 14th is primarily known for The Catacombs, The Observatory of Paris, Notre Dame du Travail, and the Montparnasse Cemetery, all of which I have visited. It was fun to get off the beaten path.

Villa Seurat in the 14th Arrondissement

 France, Paris
Sep 262025
 

September 2025

In 2021, I took a walking tour with Flo through some artistic areas in both the 15th and 14th Arrondissements.  We didn’t hit them all so I wanted to go back and explore a few in the 14th in more detail.

Villa Seurat

Villa Seurat was a focal point for Parisian artistic and intellectual life during the early 20th century. Created in 1926, it was named Cité Seurat in homage to the renowned post-impressionist painter Georges Seurat.

The homes were designed by the influential figures in Modernist architecture, André Lurçat and the Perret brothers, Auguste and Gustave. The Villa Seurat boasts a distinctive architectural style that defied the traditional norms of its time.

André Lurçat (1894-1970) crafted a series of eight studio-houses located at numbers 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, and 11 within Villa Seurat.

Number 4 Villa Seurat

The inaugural structure, erected in 1924, was intended for Jean Lurçat, his brother, a designer renowned for his revival of tapestry artistry in France. No. 4 is an L-shaped villa, encircling an inner courtyard, a style that embodies Lurçat’s architectural ingenuity.

The neighborhood has seen more than its share of very famous artists.

Number 1 Villa Seurat

Number 1bis Villa Seurat

No. 1 was once inhabited by Frank Townsend (1869-1937), an accomplished Impressionist painter celebrated for his plein air portraits, landscapes, and figure studies. In 1929, the American Surrealist painter Eugene MacCown (1898-1966) briefly resided there.

#3 and 3bis Villa Seurat

 

 

 

No. 3, with its unique curved front, and 3bis housed Marcel Gromaire (1892-1971) and his studio mate Edouard Goeg. Marcel Gromaire (1892-1971) was a Social Realist painter. Edouard Goerg (1893-1969) saw fighting during World War I. The harrowing experiences led to a shift in his art from Cubism to Expressionism, characterized by dark hues and anguished compositions.

#5 Villa Seurat

No. 5 was once inhabited by the painter Pierre Bertrand (1884-1975). Bertrand served as the official painter for the French Navy.

#7 Villa Seurat

#7 was built in 1926 for sculptor Chana Orloff; the building served as her residence and studio until 1942. It was seized as a Jewish asset during the war, but Orloff managed to reclaim ownership in 1945 and continued to split her time between Israel and Paris until 1968.

The house is distinct in its use of reinforced concrete; the upper story is adorned with protruding bricks.

Number 8 – Villa Quillet, one of the original homes by André Lurçat

Number 11 Villa Seurat

Number 11, the white building in the center, was the home of figurative sculptor Arnold Huggler.

Number 18 Villa Seurat

No. 18 holds a special place in Villa Seurat’s lore. Here, American writer Henry Miller penned “Tropic of Cancer” in 1931 while sleeping on the sofa of a fellow artist. Nicknamed Villa Borghese by Miller, this residence also hosted Anais Nin (1903-1977) and Salvador Dali (1904-1989).

#19 Villa Seurut

#14 Villa Seurat

Villa Seurat is the epitome of an artist colony in Paris.

Two Gardens of the 15th Arrondissement

 France, Paris
Sep 262025
 

September 2025

The 15th is called Vaugirard, a commune annexed in 1860.

Parc Andre Citroen

70 Years of DS in Living Wicker marks the 70th anniversary of the Citroen DS

In 1915, Citroën built its factory on the banks of the Seine. It operated there until the 1970s. The abandoned space ultimately gave rise to the Parc André Citroën. The park was designed in the early 1990s by landscape designers Gilles Clément and Alain Provost, and architects Patrick Berger, Jean-François Jodry, and Jean-Paul Viguier.

The park is built with this rectangular lawn as its anchor. There are six serial gardens, each associated with a metal, a planet, a day of the week, a state of the water, and a sense.

The green garden: tin, Jupiter, Thursday, spring water, and the sense of hearing.

The red garden: iron, Mars, Tuesday, waterfalls, and the sense of taste

The two greenhouses

A fountain sits between the two massive greenhouses

Since 1999, the park has hosted the Paris Balloon (Ballon Generali), a tethered helium balloon that, if one has the right weather, can lift a maximum of 30 visitors 1000′ above Paris. It was empty when I took this picture.

Parc George Brassons

Parc George Brassons sits on the site of a former fish market, horse market, and slaughterhouse, and preserves some of the old market structures. It is named for the French popular singer Georges Brassens (1921–1981), who lived in the neighborhood.

A bull stands as sentry at the main entrance to the park, sculpted by Isidore Bonheur

The markets and slaughterhouse had been built on the site between 1894 and 1897, and were gradually closed down between 1969 and 1979. The city of Paris considered first using the site for public housing or a sports complex, but engineers discovered that the ground was unstable due to the presence of abandoned quarries, so it was decided to build a park instead.

The park was designed by the architects Ghiulamila and Milliex and the landscape architect Collin. After the public outcry that followed the destruction of the structures of the old Paris central market, Les Halles, the architects decided to keep some of the original structures of the old market. This included the iron-framed shelter of the horse market, which serves as a used book market on weekends.

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Another remnant from the bygone era that was saved was the bell tower from the fish market.

Commissioned by the City of Paris and installed in 1991, Albert Bouquillon’s Meat Carrier

Paris has more than 421 municipal parks and gardens, covering more than 7500 acres and containing more than 250,000 trees. Considering my neighborhood in San Francisco is fighting the city to maintain a number of our trees, I find Paris to be far more ecologically in tune.

 

 

Wandering the 15th Arrondissement

 France, Paris
Sep 262025
 

September 2025

Exploring the 15th is exhausting. At 3.3 square miles, it is the third-largest arrondissement in Paris; it would be the largest if the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes were not counted as part of the 16th and 12th arrondissements, respectively.  It is also the most populous.  So it isn’t hard to say I only saw a fraction of the 15th.

 

I began at Pont de Bir-Hakeim.

The bridge was built between 1903 and 1905. It was renamed in 1948 in honor of the Battle of Bir-Hakeim during World War II, where French troops fought the Germans in North Africa.

It is unique in that the upper part of the bridge is reserved for the metro, while the lower part is for pedestrians and vehicles.

The elegant statuary on the Bir Hakeim Bridge. Designed by French sculptor Gustave Michel, this one is known as the ironsmith riveters.

The Bir Hakeim Bridge spans the Ile aux Cignes.  At the end of the Ile is a replica of the Statue of Liberty.  I first saw this replica when I was a student here in the 1970s.  It was fun to hunt her down and photograph her.

Replica of the Statue of Liberty on the Île de Cignes

Next was Pont Mirabeau with its gorgeous statuary.

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It wasn’t far to Square Bela Bartok with its unique fountain.

Cristaux by Artist Jean Yves Lechevallier

Art

Paris Murs Murs by Da Cruz. Paris Murs Murs by street artist Da Cruz. The title of this mural is a play on words. Literally translated, it means Paris Walls Walls, while spoken, it sounds like Paris Whispers.

Another painted tower that stands in the 15th is by Keith Haring.

The Keith Haring Tower at the Children’s Hospital

At more than 88 feet, the Keith Haring Tower is the second largest Haring piece in Europe. This was originally a fire escape in a defunct building.  In a visit to Paris in 1989, Haring painted the tower to entertain the children at the hospital where the tower sits in the middle of the gardens.

The Garden Djendi

The Garden Djendi is a very special place. It is technically a part of the Andre Citroen Garden, but it sits alone off to a corner. The garden’s name is a tribute to Sub-Lieutenant Eugénie Djendi (1923-1945), a former radio operator with the Corps féminin des transmissions d’Afrique du Nord, who was parachuted into occupied France by the special services in Algiers. A notorious Resistance fighter, she was arrested and deported in August 1944, before being murdered at Ravensbrück in January 1945.

Monument aux Morts pour la France en opérations extérieures (OPEX) pays tribute to the soldiers who have fallen since 1963 on missions outside France.

The garden is a series of sunken gardens that let you wander almost af in a maze.

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The 15th does not have a lot of tourist attractions, so exploring it was a great way to get to see a Paris that many people do not see.

Balzac and a Chambre de Bonne with a Killer View in the 16th Arrondissement

 France, Paris
Sep 262025
 

September 2024

Called Passy, the 16th was once a spa village known for mineral springs and countryside retreats; it was absorbed during Haussmann’s expansion.

The 16th is home to the Arc de Triomphe, the Bois de Boulogne, the Maison de Balzac, and a lot of really great museums.  From there, it is a primarily quiet residential arrondissement.

Maison de Balzac

The Home of Balzac at 47, rue Raynouard

The modest house, with its courtyard and garden, is located within the residential district of Passy near the Bois de Boulogne. Having fled his creditors, Balzac rented the top floor from 1840 to 1847, under his housekeeper’s name (Mr. de Breugnol). It was acquired by the city of Paris in 1949, and is the only one of Balzac’s many residences still in existence.

The museum displays are all in French, but it is still a wonderful spot. It is here that he edited La Comédie humaine and wrote some of his finest novels, including La Rabouilleuse, Une ténébreuse affaire, and La Cousine Bette.  You learn a lot about all of those at the house.

Chambre de Bonne

This year I took an apartment in the 16th, just a block and a half from the Arc de Triomphe.  It was a Chambre de Bonne or Maid’s Room.

When standing outside of a building, you can spot the Chambre de Bonne at the top.

The Chambre de Bonne is a room in the attics of the residential buildings from the Hausman Era of Paris. It is estimated that there are well over 100,000 chambre de bonnes in Paris.  While small, and when modernized and upgraded, they can be lovely; they can also be bleak. The Parisian public has always been aware that the conditions in the rooms were bleak as far back as Émile Zola’s 1882 novel Pot-Bouille; writers have been deploring them for some time.

My one window is not quite so large as the ones in the two pictures above.

That is mine – the porthole way at the top

But it does have a killer view.

The city has tried to regulate the rooms for over a century. As early as 1904, the city banned the rental of maids’ rooms smaller than 86 square feet, a limit that was extended in 2002 to a minimum of 97 square feet.

The view from my room

Mine has a small but upgraded bathroom with a washing machine.  It has a kitchen with both an oven and a microwave and an undercounter refrigerator, which is all one needs to be perfectly honest.  The bedroom is separate from the living room, which has a fold-out couch.  The window is just exactly what you expect, a classic porthole window.  Annoying because I have to stand up to look out.  However, in my case, I could not complain.

I am here for the month of September.  While the heat the first week or so was uncomfortable, it was not overwhelming.  Then fall set in, and the weather has been delightfully crisp.  The Chambre de Bonne is not a place you want to rent or live in during the summer.  The famous zinc roofs of Paris, which the Chambre de Bonne sits directly under, become sizzling frying pans, exceeding 158 degrees Fahrenheit. In 2023, the heat wave killed nearly 15,000 people in Paris, and most of them lived in Chambre de Bonnes.  The city is doing what it can, but these are usually units rented to the very poor, and the way to make them habitable as global warming becomes more severe is a true challenge.  I loved my little space on the 7th floor, but only because it was a lovely time of year.

Views from my room throughout September.

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The Eiffel Tower’s lighting system dates back to 1985. Designed by lighting engineer Pierre Bideau, it has  336 1kW high-pressure sodium lamps that are changed every 4 years (the last replacement took place in the spring of 2019).

These lights are both for aesthetic and safety purposes since they light the route for visitors and ensure the proper operation of the monument at night.

A beacon located at the top of the Tower also comes on at dusk. On a clear evening, its rays can reach up to 50 miles. It is reminiscent of the beacon that was installed on the monument in 1889. However, today the current beacon (which dates back to 1999) consists of 4 marine-type projectors, one on each side of the monument. These 4 projectors make a 90° rotation and turn on and off in sync, creating the illusion of a 360° rotating beam.

The night of the blood moon

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This last picture is highly unusual.  The lights to the tower turn off at midnight during the winter and at 1:00 am during the summer.  I took this photo at 4:30 in the morning.  It did, however, happen on my birthday – thank you, Paris!

Touring WWII Sites in Paris

 France, Paris
Sep 242025
 

September 2025

I once again had the pleasure of taking a walking tour of Paris with Flo.  It was a private tour of what it was like to be in Paris during the occupation.

On May 10, 1940, when Germany attacked France, the French government moved its headquarters to Vichy. From there, a nominal French authority led by Marshall Philippe Pétain ruled under the evil eye and control of the Germans.

The Marais

We started in a garden in the Marais, which was and to an extent, still is, the Jewish Quarter of Paris. At the beginning of the war, it housed the largest Jewish population in Paris.

Jardin des Rosiers Joseph Migneret

This area faced devastating persecution as the war progressed. Movement was restricted, and a 9.00 pm curfew was imposed in many areas.

The garden was named for Joseph Migneret, the director of the “École élémentaire des Hospitalières-Saint-Gervais”, a boys’ school located nearby. During World War II, Migneret was actively resistant in providing false papers to fleeing Jews and sheltering many of his former students, saving them from deportation and death.

On one wall is this plaque.

It reads:

Arrested by the police of the Vichy government, an accomplice of the Nazi occupation forces, more than 11,000 children were deported from France and murdered in Auschwitz because they were born Jewish. More than 500 of these children used to live in the fourth arrondissement. Among them, 101 were so young that they didn’t have a chance to go to school.

Passerby, read their names. Your memory is their only tombstone. We must never forget them.

The garden is divided into four parts. This is a lovely planted area.

Throughout Paris, as the needs of the German war effort took priority, much of the food being produced was sent out of the country, leading to severe food shortages. There was also a shortage of fuel, as that was being diverted to help the German War effort. Coal for heating was scarce, as was gas for cars. Many people were no longer able to drive, and the number of cars on the roads dropped dramatically. Public transport, including the Metro, still ran but was much less reliable, and the number of buses dropped from 3,500 to just 500.

A boulangerie in the Marais specializing in Yiddish food

Many Parisians left the city. During 1940, it is estimated that more than one million Parisians headed out to the provinces. Others were forced to leave the country. Under a forced work program known as the Service du Travail Obligatoire, many French workers were deported and sent to provide labor for Germany.

Au Petit Versailles du Maries boulangerie, with a stunning interior in the Marais

Above Au Petit Versailles is this plaque.

On August 20, 1944, around 1:30 p.m., in Place Baudoyer. The 4th arrondissement guard, Charles Pezin, died while standing watch at the corner of Rivoli Street. He was shot by German soldiers who were firing from a truck.

FFI is the French Forces of the Interior (FFI; French: Forces françaises de l’Intérieur). They were French resistance fighters in the later stages of World War II. Charles de Gaulle used it as a formal name for the resistance fighters.

Here lived Yvette Feuillet Sergent. FFI – cited by the order of the resistance assassinated by the Nazis at Auschwitz at the age of 22

Some things don’t change. The plaque reads: Anti-Semitic attack on August 9, 1982. Here, in the Goldenberg restaurant, a shooting and a grenade explosion left six dead and 22 injured. In memory of Mohamed Benemmou, Andre Hezkia Niego, Grace Cutler, Ann Van Zanten, Denise Guerche Rossignol, Georges Demeter – Victims of Terrorism.

The Holocaust

It was only a matter of time before French Jews met the same fate as German and Polish Jews. In July 1942, they were rounded up and taken to the concentration camps. More than 75,000 Jews were deported to death camps, where about 72,500 were killed.

Memorial de la Shoah

Mémorial de la Shoah is Paris’ Holocaust Museum. It was opened by President Jacques Chirac on January 17, 2005. The day was chosen to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The Wall of the Righteous

Since 1963, the Museum Memorial of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem has awarded the title “Righteous Among the Nations” to non-Jewish people who helped save Jews during the war. As of 2014, this wall lists 3,300 people, either French or acting in France, who have been awarded this title.  This is one wall of the Memorial de la Shoah.

Hotel de Ville and Prefecture of Police

Signs of fighting during the liberation on the Hotel de Ville

During the Liberation of Paris, which started on August 19th, 1944, street fights occurred everywhere in the city. Many buildings still bear the traces of the fights of the time. Especially those in the center of the city, such as City Hall (Place de l’Hotel de Ville), and the Prefecture of Police (Police headquarters) near Notre Dame.

Prefecture of the Police, signs of fighting can be seen on the right-hand wall.

Bullet holes, traces of shells, and bombs are still visible.

Hotel de Ville

The Jardin de l’Hôtel de Ville was renamed Jardin des Combattants Espagnols de la Nueve to honor the Spanish Catalan combatants who were the first liberation troops to arrive at the Hôtel de Ville in August 1944. The Nueve was primarily composed of Spanish Republicans who continued their fight in France after the victory of Franco in Spain.

Art Galleries

Jeu de Paume Museum

Early in the occupation, the government moved many of the city’s art treasures out of Paris to chateaus in safer parts of the country. However, many great works of art remained in Paris, and the Germans, especially Goebbels, had their pick.

Their recovery after the war is the result of a true heroin in the art world, Rose Valland. Valland was a French art curator, member of the French Resistance, captain in the French military, and one of the most decorated women in French history.
With an understanding of German, Valland would converse with truck drivers and learn about artwork being ransacked and taken directly to the railway stations. She regularly informed Jacques Jaujard, the Director of the Musėes Nationaux, about the status of Nazi art looting.  For four years, she kept track of where and to whom in Germany the artworks were shipped and provided this information to the French Resistance. After the war, the information she had gathered led to the discovery of multiple repositories of looted art.

Saving Paris Architecture

Paris was liberated on August 25, 1944, following the Battle of Paris.

When Paris was about to be freed in the summer of 1944, the German general in charge of the city, von Choltitz, received orders from Hitler to destroy all the bridges and some monuments of Paris. It is said that bombs were placed, and Nazi soldiers were waiting for orders, which were never given. Much of the credit for this is given to Swedish diplomat Raoul Nordling, who spent the night at the Hotel Meurice convincing von Choltitz not to destroy Paris.

Paris was not a strategic target and therefore did not suffer from bombings by the Allies either. The factories were outside of the city, and Paris was not, unlike the German cities, a hub where railways would cross.

Place de la Concorde

Led by the second Armored Division and the FFI, an attack began at 1:15 p.m. on Rue de Rivoli. Captain Branet, Captain Julien, and Lieutenant Bricard headed the operation that gave rise to the most violent fighting of the liberation of Paris. After several hours, the Place de la Concorde and the Tuileries Garden were finally taken over, precipitating the German surrender.

At the very end of Rue de Rivoli, right before the street meets the Place de la Concorde, and on the wall of the Tuileries Gardens, are ten plaques honoring people who died on August 25th, 1944, during the liberation of Paris.

Those who died on August 25th, 1944

Tank chief (chef de char) Marcel Bizien was riding a Sherman tank, the “Douamont” in Place de la Concorde on August 25th.  He rammed a German tank and pierced it at close range with four shells, setting it on fire. Upon getting out to inspect the damage, Bizien was shot by a German sniper.

Bullet holes riddle the walls of the Tuilleries

Remembrances

In Europe, the two World Wars are periods in history that are remembered every day in so many ways. I have shown such a small sampling, this one is in the Metro.

On August 16, 1944, 3,000 Paris Metropolitan employees launched a strike banned by the occupier and marched from Saint Paul to City Hall in Nazi-occupied Paris. This demonstration took place at the dawn of the general uprising launched by the French Forces of the Interior to liberate the capital. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of this event, the RATP staff assembly pays tribute to these 3000 modest, unknown, and courageous employees who contributed to Paris regaining its freedom.

Parc de Bercy and Frank Gehry

 France, Paris
Sep 242025
 

September 2025

I went to Parc de Bercy to find its vineyard and found oh so much more.

Parc de Bercy is located along the Right Bank in the 12th arrondissement. Development of the park began in 1994 on the site of a former wine depot (the wine warehouses of Bercy, which in the early 20th century was the largest wine market in the world).

The rose garden

The gardens were designed by architects Bernard Huet, Marylène Ferrand, Jean-Pierre Feugas, and Bernard Le Roy, assisted by landscapers Ian Le Caisne and Philippe Raguin between 1993 and 1997:

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The Chai de Bercy is a storehouse from when the area was a wine warehouse complex. Most of the storehouses were demolished from the 1950s to the 1980s, but this one – formerly used for bottling wines – was restored and repurposed as an exhibit space.

A rill of water runs down the center of the stairway leading to the Seine

An old cobbled road and railroad tracks left from its wine industry days

There are unique sculptures throughout the garden

The back of the House of Gardening

This 19th-century building formerly housed a tax office. It opened in 1977 and is now the Maison du Jardinage (House of Gardening).
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In the northeast of the park stands the Cinémathèque Française (the former American Center), designed by Frank Gehry. After opening in 1994 with shaky funding, the American Center closed in 1996, and for the next nine years, the structure stood empty. Eventually, it would house the Cinémathèque Française. The Cinémathèque Française was established in 1936 and dedicates itself to the preservation of film reels, cameras, props, costumes, and memorabilia.

Cinémathèque Française by Frank Gehry

 

Overlooking the park above the waterfall are 21 sculptures by Rachid Khimoune. Titled “Children of the World,” it was created in 2001 to honor children’s rights.

Three of the twelve sculptures

The park is linked directly to the François Mitterrand site of the Bibliothèque nationale de France by the Simone de Beauvoir footbridge.

One building of the Mitterand Library

View of the Seine from the footbridge

More interesting buildings seen from the footbridge

Palais Omnisports

In the park is Palais Omnisports, designed by the architectural firm Andrault-Parat, Jean Prouvé, and Aydin Guvan. The pyramidal arena’s sloping walls are covered with a lawn. It can seat 7,000 to 20,300 people, depending on the event.

The Musée des Arts Forains is also located in this area.

Céleste Boursier-Mougenot at the Bourse

 France, Paris
Sep 242025
 

September 2025

I try to visit The Bourse de Commerce if for no other reason than the exhibitions that they have under the rotunda never cease to amaze.  This time, I was able to see clinamen, an aquatic and musical installation by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot.

The installation was so soothing that one could sit all day and simply relax.

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The rotunda skylight sits directly above the installation

Notice how the light from the skylight is reflected in the bowls

From the other side of the pool, and due to the light, the bowls appear to float on the surface.

The installation from the second floor of the building

 

Biography of Céleste Boursier-Mougenot from the Bourse Website

Born in 1961 in Nice, Céleste Boursier-Mougenot lives and works in Sète. His works, which have been exhibited in contemporary art spaces for the last thirty years, both in France and abroad, should be seen primarily as those of a musician. After being the composer for author and director Pascal Rambert’s company Side One—Posthume Théâtre from 1985 to 1994, Boursier-Mougenot began to give an independent form to his music by creating installations. Starting with the most diverse situations and objects, from which he extracts their musical potential, he develops systems that extend the notion of a musical score to the most heterodox configurations of the materials and media he uses to generate, usually as a live performance, forms of sound that he describes as alive. Created in resonance with the architectural and environmental features of the exhibition space, each system provides the ideal framework for a listening experience that, offered up to the visitor’s eyes and ears, reveals the process that generates the music.

Clowns in the 11th Arrondissement

 France, Paris
Sep 242025
 

September 25, 2025

The Cirque d’Hiver

The Cirque d’Hiver was inaugurated by the newly crowned Napoleon III on December 11, 1852, and is said to be the oldest circus in the world.

Duc de Morny, half-brother of Prince Louis-Napoleon, obtained a building permit to build on the site of an old water tower on the boulevard du crime, the nickname of the Boulevard du Temple. Its sponsor, Louis Dejean, entrusted its construction to Jacques Hittorf, architect of the Gare du Nord and the Place de la Concorde. It was then named Cirque Napoléon in homage to the new Emperor of the French.

 

The ticket gate

On November 12, 1859, Jules Léotard from Toulouse, known as the “flying artist,” made history by performing a flying trapeze act for the first time in the world.

The Clown Bar

Next to the Cirque is a very unique restaurant—the Clown Bar.

The ceiling of the clown bar

The bartender has the very best seat in the house in this tiny establishment, meaning pictures were extremely hard to take.

If you look closely you can see the original zinc bar

Founded in 1902, it is situated two doors from the Cirque d’Hiver. The Circus Bar was once an old dining room used to feed performers from the circus next door.

The delightful tile wall

The bar has a frieze of ceramic panels showing clowns, put together in the 1920s by a factory in Sarreguemines.

In 2014, Sven Chartier and Ewen Lemoigne,  acquired the bistro and hired the Japanese chef Sota Atsumi. The food is outstanding.

The Mobster Bar

Nothing to do with clowns, but around the corner is another extremely unique find.

The Mobster Bar

It is rather difficult to find, and entry is not that easy.

There is no address, and this telephone is set back from the street, making it a tad difficult to find. – Entry is granted once you answer a history question. The only way to get the question is to lift the receiver and listen.

It is a very, very small and intimate bar, with highly unique cocktails.  The bar, created by brothers Francisco and Javier Lozano, features an art deco interior designed by the wife of one of the brothers.

Musee Des Arts Forains

 France, Paris
Sep 162025
 

September 2025

This is one of the more magical places you will step into. Unfortunately, like so many magical places, the pictures will not do it justice; you just have to go see for yourself.

When you approach the entrance, the doors lure you in with these acrobats  by street artist Jérôme Mesnager

Your introduction to this experience begins in the courtyard. You have no idea what awaits behind the giant doors that surround you

Le Musée des Arts Forains, Paris, is dedicated to fairground arts, theater, and other curiosities. This is a step back in time to the funfairs of the Belle Époque, with objects from the 19th and 20th centuries.

The first thing you are greeted with is an elephant carrying a snow scene from the Alps suspended from a hot air balloon

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The museum is primarily a creation of Jean Paul Favand, a collector of items in the performing and fairground arts, as well as an exhibition designer.

After drifting across Paris it finally found a permanent home in 1996 in an ancient wine storage facility in Bercy, the “Chais Lheureux”

In order to make these objects accessible to guests, each item in the museum is selected among the thousands in storage. After choosing the pieces, Jean Paul Favand worked on positioning and staging them, using lighting effects to give the visitor a peek into his ethereal world.

The museum is an immersive experience divided into three main rooms, each with its own flavor and focus: La Fête Foraine, Le Théatre du Merveilleux, and Les Salons Vénitiens.

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To see the museum, you must be on a tour. However, each person gets to participate in each of the events that are offered.

Playing the ancient game of advancing your horse at the race course to win a prize

There is even one representing the famous Paris Waiters’ Race

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An Homage to Josephine Baker, one of the very few things in the museum that are behind glass

This is a Mortier organ. At the end of the 19th century, Theophile Mortier ran a pub in Antwerp, where he installed dance organs manufactured by the Parisian firm of Gavioli. His business survived until 1952.

A Dance Organ built by Hooghuys

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*Carnaval games that are recognizable even today.

 

A recreation of the Rialto Bridge in Les Salons Vénitiens

These are just 4 of several automatons that perform an opera for the crowd

The museum specializes in restoring and recreating Merry-Go-Rounds like this manège de gondoles

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One of the more unique objects can be found in La Fête Foraine, which features 19th-century games, including this manège de vélocipèdes, a pedal-powered bicycle merry-go-round.

manège de vélocipèdes

This velocipede ride was manufactured in 1897 by Caillebaut and Decanck in Ghent, Belgium.

Twenty thousand hours of restoration were necessary to get it back into working order, thanks to artisans from 18 different trades. Every year, the ride undergoes a three-day maintenance routine where the bikes are disassembled and the rail carefully checked.

Powered by the people pedaling, it goes really, really fast!

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Tours are available throughout the year, with most being given in French.  English version tours are available, but on a more sporadic basis.  Check their website to book tours.

The museum occupies a structure that was once part of the wine warehouses of Bercy, a commercial district that was once the largest wine market in the world.

The area of Bercy is historically very interesting, the museum simply a world of magic.

A Day in Reims – Champagne

 France, Reims
Sep 162025
 

September 2025

 

Notre Dame de Reims

The cathedral was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and was the traditional location for the coronation of the kings of France. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991.

It is hard to grasp how large the cathedral is.

 

The cathedral is considered to be one of the most important works of Gothic architecture, and the  Sculptors were pioneers of the Gothic style. The most striking aspect of the cathedral is its façade. Carved between 1236 and 1245, the “Smiling Angel” embodies this style.

The Smiling Angel on the far right

More of the Annunciation Sculpture

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I was enamored with the gargoyles

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Reims was the site of 25 coronations of the kings of France, from Louis VIII in 1223 to Charles X in 1825.

 

After Henry V of England defeated Charles VI’s army at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, most of northern France, including Reims, fell to the English. They held Reims and the cathedral until 1429, when it was captured by Joan of Arc, allowing the dauphin Charles to be crowned king on July 17, 1429.

For this, Joan of Arc is memorialized at the Cathedral with two statues: an equestrian statue outside the church and another within the church.

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Le Tresor

On the site of the Cathedral sits this 12th-century building that once housed the Paymaster General, a high-ranking dignitary who was responsible for religious spending and watching over the church’s treasure, such as its relics, liturgical items, and vestments.

Carnegie Library in Reims

This lovely Deco building, designed by French architect Max Sainsaulieu, was built with monies supplied by Andrew Carnegie after World War I.

Some fun street art in Reims
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Visiting Wineries

Most go to Reims to do some champagne tasting.  I was with three friends and we managed to visit Maison Ruinart, owned by LVMH and Taittinger.  The photos are of Ruinart as the process and their cellars are similar.

Maison Ruinart

In anticipation of their 300-year anniversary in 2026, Ruinart had architect Sou Fujimoto design this new tasting room.  The gardens are also filled with a considerable amount of Modern art.  The relationship between the artists and the winery is evident throughout the tour.

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Underneath Reims are miles of complex tunnels, hidden rooms, and vast subterranean caves, some dating as far back as the Roman occupation. Dug into the solid chalk that underlies the region, they are used for maturing countless bottles of champagne in the cool, underground air.

During World War I, however, they served a very different purpose. These tunnels were transformed into small cities. During the war, the people of Champagne made schools, hospitals, and sleeping quarters, where the citizens lived for years, hiding from the horrors above them.

The German army descended on Reims on September 4th, 1914. The citizens fought mightily, and eventually the Germans retreated. However, they took up new positions on the hilltops of the Champagne vineyards overlooking the city; if Reims could not be taken, the German high command decided to destroy it.

German artillery began to pulverize the historic city, entrenched in a front line that would barely move for the next four years. On one day alone, nearly 3,000 shells would fall on the town.

A view of a tunnel dug to reach the chalk below

In the Middle Ages, chalk was mined for blocks to construct the buildings of Reims.

So why does chalk soil make such great wines? Some 80 million years ago, the Champagne area was a warm, shallow sea. Once the area dried up, it consisted of a very pure limetone comprised of more than 90% calcium carbonate. It is this chalk that gives champagne its finesse, lightness, and minerality. It also acts as a sponge, draining away excess water when it rains and, conversely, during heatwaves, it draws up water stored in the depths by capillary action.

This empty space was once occupied by a bottle of champagne whose glass was too weak, allowing the bottle to explode.

There is grafittie everywhere in these very soft chalk caves

The first advertising poster of Ruinart is painted on one of the many stairs you climb when visiting the winery.

 

Versailles Gardens

 France, Paris
Sep 162025
 

September 8, 2025

This will have been my third visit to Versailles.  I seem to put between 2o and 30 years between each visit, and yet, nothing has changed.

I came with some friends who had never been, so I left them to tour the house while I decided to concentrate on the gardens.

Looking at the South Parterre, Thye Orangery and the Lake of the Swiss Guards

I walked over 11 miles just to see the gardens, so I am going to share some of my favorite spots.  I will add that the fountains were most of what I could find; there are countless fountains on the grounds.  The Gardens and Groves, where many are located, are mazes, and I got lost more times than I can count.

The Palace of Versailles has over 50 fountains, and they use an estimated 1,200 gallons of water per minute. That means that in an hour, the fountains use about 72,000 gallons of water. In a day, they use about 1.7 million gallons, and in a year, they use about 630 million gallons. They are actually operated by gravity through a network of pipes and pumps, bringing water from a nearby river.

Apollo’s Fountain

I have such a vivid memory of this fountain from my first visit in the 1970s.  It still remains one of my favorites.

Charles Le Brun designed the centerpiece depicting the Greek god Apollo rising from the sea in a four-horse chariot. It was created by Tuby between 1668 and 1670.

The lead sculpture comprises 13 statues and weighs some 30 tons. At the centre of the piece, Apollo stands on his four-horse chariot, accompanied by a cherub. Tritons mark the four cardinal points of the composition, while dolphins are perched in the spaces between them.

Bassin d’Apollon was fully restored in 2024 in anticipation of the Olympics

The fountains do not run all of the time. I was lucky to catch this for the 15 minutes it was running.

The Pond of Ceres dates from 1673 and represents Summer

Pond of Ceres in operation

Fountain of Flora represents Spring

Fountain of Bacchus represents Fall

The Fountain of Saturn, representing Winter

The Giant Enceladus

This was absolutely one of my favorites! The Enceladus Fountain was made of lead by French sculptors, Gaspard and Balthasar Marsy, between 1675 and 1677. The subject is borrowed from the fall of the Titans, buried under the rocks of Olympus by the gods they had wished to dethrone. The sculpture portrays the giant Enceladus half-buried under a pile of rocks, struggling to survive.

Latona’s Fountain

Latona’s fountain was inspired by The Metamorphoses by Ovid. It illustrates the story of Latona, the mother of Apollo and Diana, protecting her children from the insults of the peasants of Lycia and pleading with Jupiter to avenge her. The god obliges by turning the inhabitants of Lycia into frogs and lizards.

The Water Theatre Grove was laid out between 1671 and 1674 and enabled the hydraulic engineers François and Pierre Francine to utilize the system to its fullest. The area was designed as an open-air theater for spectators to enjoy the fountain show.

Water Theater Grove Fountain

In 2009, the Palace of Versailles launched an international competition to restore the grove. The project submitted by landscaper Louis Benech and artist Jean-Michel Othoniel won, and the new grove was inaugurated in 2015.   These two artists had a show in the Petite Palace when I was here in 2021.  I have very mixed emotions.

Collonade Grove

The Collonade Grove was created by Jules Hardouin-Mansart in 1685.  The sculpture is the Abduction of Proserpine by Pluto.

Bosquet des bains d’Apollon

The Baths of Apollo are interesting.  The grove itself is beautiful, but to me it feels like the sculptures are toys and that any minute a giant child is going to reach down and rearrange them like chess pieces. The current grove dates from the reign of Louis XVI and was built between 1778 and 1781. The central point is a large artificial rock decorated with waterfalls and hollow caves. It houses the sculpted groups of The Horses of the Sun standing on either side of Apollo Served by Nymphs, by François Girardon and Thomas Regnaudin.

The Queen’s Hamlet

It has now been in the neighborhood of four hours of exploring the gardens it was time to head to the Trianon.

The Petite Trianon, built between 1762 and 1768, stands empty. It was a place for Marie Antoinette to escape her royal duties. We completely ran out of time to see the Grand Trianon, which was good because exhaustion had set in.  However, we did get to one of my favorite areas, the Queen’s Hamlet.

In 1783, Marie-Antoinette ordered her architect Richard Mique to construct a set of factories. It was completed in 1786 along an artificial pond.

It was for Queen Marie Antoinette a place of receptions and walks. This small rural village consisted of pleasure buildings, but also housed a farm, used as a teaching tool for children.

Needless to say, during the Revolution, the Hamlet suffered. Napoleon ordered a full restoration between 1810 and 1812, but in doing so had the most dilapidated structures torn down, including the barn and the working dairy.

A second round of restoration work took place in the 1930s, thanks to a donation from John Rockefeller.

Part of the hamlet was restored again in the late 20th century, with some buildings returned to their original configuration. The farm, which almost totally disappeared over the course of the 19th century, was reconstructed in 2006 and is now home to a variety of animals looked after by the Foundation for Animal Welfare.

Versaille takes many visits to see, so getting to just a small portion this day was not surprising.

 

Visiting Friends Outside Paris – Herblay-Sur-Seine

 France, Paris
Sep 092025
 

September 6, 2025

I have met so many lovely expats on this trip.  Peter and François invited a group of us for lunch on a hot, but lazy Saturday with a little tour of the area.

Looking out on the Seine from a park at the top of the hill

Church of Saint Martin of Herblay

The Saint-Martin d’Herblay church was built in the 12th century in the Gothic style, on a Latin cross plan. The transept dates from this time, while the nave was built at the end of the 12th century or the beginning of the 13th century. The aisles were built in the Renaissance. The choir was replaced in the 16th century in the flamboyant Gothic style.

Stations of the Cross

I was charmed to see that the stations of the cross were done in such a modern way in this ancient church.

Wonderful carvings on the archway caps

From the church we walked to the Seine.

The Home of Victor Madeleine

Apparently, painter Victor Madeleine fell under the spell of architecture while visiting the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900. He built this house on the banks of the Seine in the Arab-Andalusian style. It now belongs to the city of Herblay-sur-Seine. Madeleine was mainly known for his Parisian scenes and his market scenes. He is buried in the Montmartre Cemetery.

We took a fun little ferry to the Island of Herblay.  The island is a lovely park and the ferry was filled with families with bikes to take advantage of that fact.

Stepping off the boat, I was greeted with this faux bois fence, one of my favorite art forms.

Mirrors of the Sky by Jean Paul Phillipe – 2010

A sign showing how high the Seine rose in 1910

The 1910 Great Flood of Paris was a catastrophe. The Seine, carrying winter rains from its tributaries, flooded Paris and its surrounding communities. The Seine water level rose more than 26 feet above its ordinary level.

Estimates of the flood damage reached about $1.5 billion. What I found fascinating is that despite the scale of damage, no deaths were reported, and no outbreaks of diseases occurred.

It was a delightful way to spend a hot and muggy day in France.  Thank you, Peter and François.

The Gardens of the 17th Arrondissement

 France, Paris
Sep 092025
 

September 2, 2025

Parc Monceau is one of my favorite parks in Paris.  I had written about it when I was here in 2021.

Parc Monceau

Today I found other parks in the 17th.

Square des Batignolles

The 17th is named after Batignolles-Monceau. A pair of former villages merged into Paris as it grew.

Square des Batignolles

The Square des Batignolles is 4 acres and was designed in the English Country Style. The origin of the name “Batignolles” may be the Latin word “batillus”, meaning “mill”, or it may be derived from the Provençal word “bastidiole”, meaning “small farmhouse”.

 

The square was established at the request of Baron Haussmann, under Napoleon III. Napoleon III had acquired a taste for the English garden during his exile in England, prior to 1848.

Vulture statue

The Square des Batignolles was created by Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand, assisted by the engineer Jean Darcel, the architect Gabriel Davioud, and the horticulturist Jean-Pierre Barillet-Deschamps, on a tract of land that had been described as “a vast wasteland”. This was the same team that had been assembled to design and execute the Bois de Boulogne on the western edge of Paris.

A faux bois bridge railing. A passion of mine.

Parc Clichy-Batignolles – Martin Luther King

Parc Clichy-Batignolles – Martin Luther King

Parc Clichy-Batignolles – Martin Luther King is a 130-acre park first developed as part of the Paris bid for the 2012 Olympics. The city wasn’t awarded those games, but the park and the surrounding development went ahead. Built on land formerly owned by SNCF (The French national train company), Parc Clichy Batignolles – Martin Luther King was designed to achieve a close-to-zero carbon footprint by including things like wind turbines and solar panels, rainwater harvesting, and waste management. The plants in the park consume little water and require minimal fertilizer.

The name of the park is derived from: proximity to the site of a nineteenth-century Porte de Clichy, a gate in Paris’ Thiers wall that opened to the commune of Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine; proximity to the former SNCF Batignolles station; and a tribute to the legacy of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

The wavy building on the left is by MAD+Beicher Architects

The area surrounding the park is a mixed-use area center with the intention of almost being a city within itself.  The architecture of the buildings maximises the benefits of the park, the railway landscape, and opportunities to build apartment buildings up to 15 stories high.

Skate Park

The right-hand building is a Multipurpose School, Student Housing, and Central Kitchen, Paris 17 by Atelier Philéas.

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The building on the left is UNIC by MAD+Biecher Architectes

The building on the far right is Plot o8 / TVK + Tolila Gilliland. The wavy in the foreground is 06A Lot Housing / SAM Architecture+Querkraft.

 

The 17th Arrondissement

 France, Paris
Sep 092025
 

September 2, 2025

The 17th is known as the Batignolles-Moncea, a mouthful for sure.

The 17th is anchored by the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc sits on a plaza known as L’Étoile due to the eleven streets that lead off of it, like rays from the sun.

During the second half of the 19th century, Napoleon III ordered his chief city planner, Baron Haussmann, to modernize Paris. And so, in 1854, a massive rebuilding began. Thousands of old buildings were torn down; wide, straight boulevards were plowed through the ancient neighborhoods of Paris. Parks were built, sewers were constructed, and thousands of new five-story buildings were placed side by side along the new thoroughfares. This was also when Paris doubled in size by annexing surrounding towns and villages — including bringing in the rural enclave of Batignolles-Monceau to create the new 17th Arrondissement.

At L’Etoile a number of new wide, straight streets were created, radiating out from the center. Among them were the avenues Wagram, Kleber, Monceau, and Mac-Mahon.

Avenue Carnot

Avenue Carnot was to be the eleventh radial. However, when only the first block of Carnot was completed, Haussmann fell from power (followed soon after by Napoleon III himself) and work was abandoned, so that today the wide Avenue Carnot, with its side boulevards and its 5-story buildings, abruptly halts after one block.

The Seventeenth is primarily a residential area. It is three times the size of the 1st, yet it also has three times the population density.

Cité de Fleurs

One street that defies the hustle and bustle of such a large population is Cité de Fleurs.

The creation of the Cité des Fleurs was due to two landowners, Jean-Edmé Lhenry and Adolphe Bacqueville de la Vasserie, who opened the 1050-foot-long cobblestoned street in 1847. They combined both of their possessions to create a private housing development.

Cite de Fleurs

At the time, the street was outside the limits of the Wall of the Ferme générale. It was then included in the commune of Batignolles-Monceau until the latter was annexed by Paris in 1860.

Looking over the fence at one of the many houses on Cité de Fleurs

Each pillar on the fence line was topped with a Medicis’ vase

The Banque de France

Citeco

The Banque de France has converted its former branch in Paris’s 17th arrondissement into a museum called the Cité de l’Economie, or Citéco for short.

The building is in the neo-Renaissance style and was completed in 1882. It was built by the architect Jules Février.

Sarah Bernhardt statue in front of Citeco

‘The queen of attitude and the princess of gestures’ is how playwright Edmond Rostand characterised the French actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844–1923).  She is considered the most portrayed woman ever.  So finding a statue of her here in the Jardin de la Lituanie isn’t that unusual, I suppose.

Art on Boulevard Malesherbes – Solitude Garden

Solitude

Born in 1772, Solitude is the daughter of an African slave, raped by a sailor on the boat that deported her to the West Indies.  She is holding up Louis Delgrès’ proclamation of May 10, 1802, which calls for the fight against the restoration of slavery in Guadeloupe.

The statue, inaugurated on May 10, 2022, is the first statue of a black woman in Paris.

Fers

“Fers” is a tribute to General Dumas. It was commissioned in 2009 by the City of Paris and intended to pay tribute to Thomas Alexandre Dumas, a mulatto and father of the writer Alexandre Dumas. Created by the sculptor Driss Sans-Arcidet, the work is a monumental sculpture in rusty iron. General Dumas, born to a slave, became a general under Napoleon I.

Petite Ceinture

Petite Ceinture

There is a nice stretch of the Petite Ceinture in the 17th. The Petite Ceinture is a former double-track railway line that used to run around Paris within the boulevards des Maréchaux. It is slowly being pieced together to form a greenbelt and a walking path.
Some fun things spotted while walking the 17th:

I loved the faces on this building

Gare de Pont Cardinet

Rail lines are rather prominent in the 17th century, and in several places must be crossed via elevated foot bridges. In 1922, the station Pont Gardinet was rebuilt in concrete, replacing an old wooden structure. The building was gradually abandoned. While it is once again seeing some usage, it is still worse for wear.

A lovely wrought iron railing on a random window

The 17th is also crammed with parks.  That is for the next post.

 

 

 

 

18th Arrondissement

 France, Paris
Sep 092025
 

August 2025

The 18th is called Buttes-Montmartre. The name refers to the hilly terrain shaped by gypsum quarries long before artists arrived.

The 18th is best known for Sacre Coeur and the Moulin Rouge.  But there is more.

Moulin de la Galette

The windmill Moulin de la Galette, also known as Blute-fin, was built in 1622. The name Blute-fin comes from the French verb bluter, which means sifting flour for the separation from bran.

Since the 17th century, the windmill has been known for more than just its milling capabilities. Nineteenth-century owners and millers, the Debray family, made a brown bread galette, which became popular and was adopted as the name of the windmill. Artists such as Renoir, van Gogh, Ramón Casas, and Pissarro have immortalized Le Moulin de la Galette, probably the most famous example being Renoir’s festive painting, Bal du moulin de la Galette.

An association, Friends of Old Montmartre, saved it from destruction in 1915. In 1924, its owner moved the windmill to the corner of Girardon and Lepic streets. It was restored in 1978, but it no longer runs.

Église Saint-Pierre de Montmartre

Hidden in the shadow of Sacre Coeur is Église Saint-Pierre de Montmartre one of the oldest in Paris, built in the 12th century. Built on the site of an old Roman temple dedicated to Mars and replacing a later Merovingian church from the 7th century,

Wandering around the area of Sacre Coeur can be exhausting due to the prolific tourism; however, once in a while, you see something different.  This is a tea-making machine. What caught my eye was the dragon.

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Saint-Jean de Montmartre

Another lovely church farther down the hill is Saint-Jean de Montmartre. The new church was designed by architect Anatole de Baudot (1834-1915). The reinforced concrete structure followed a system patented by the engineer Paul Cottancin in 1892. The church was the first religious building in France to be built from reinforced concrete.

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Fourier’s Fourth Apple

This has a rather interesting story. For decades, the pedestal featured a bronze statue of Charles Fourier, the French philosopher and social theorist who stood for utopian socialism and workers’ rights. Then, during WWII, the statue was melted down by the Germans for metal.

The apple, as depicted by artist Franck Scurti, symbolizes an idea that sparked Fourier’s core critique of industrial society. At some point in the early 19th century, he realized that an apple in Paris cost many times more than an apple in his hometown of Besançon. As the apple changed hands from farmer to seller to reseller and so on, it gained exponential value at no gain to the man or woman who actually grew the fruit. This inequity was the “fundamental disorder,” as he wrote, of any industrialized society.

The Wall of Love

The Wall of Love was created in 2000 by artists Frédéric Baron and Claire Kito and is composed of 612 tiles of enameled lava, on which the phrase ‘I love you’ is featured 311 times in 250 languages, including Navajo, Inuit, Bambara, and Esperanto.

Vincent Van Gogh lived here on Rue Lepic with his brother Theo from 1886 to 1888.

This was the home of Dalida from 1962 to 1987. Initially an actress, she made her debut in the film A Glass and a Cigarette by Niazi Mustapha in 1955. She later became a singer, achieving her first success with “Bambino”. Following this, she became the top-selling recording artist in France between 1957 and 1961, selling over 140 million records worldwide.

Villa Leandre

This dead-end street, with its Art Deco, English-inspired houses, comprises Villa Leandre. The street is named for a local comedian, Charles Léandre. This is proof that there is quite a bit of Montmartre that has not been invaded by tourists.

Some fun things I captured walking around.

The Chateau d’eau of Montmartre (the water tower)

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Lunch atop of Terrass Hotel afforded these views, a great way to wind down in the afternoon.

Paris Courthouse by Renzo Piano

That is the Montparnasse Tower looming over the skyline

Montparnasse has a split personality. It is swarming with tourists to see Sacre Coeur and shop, but it also has a lovely, quiet side that should not be missed.

If you are looking for a fabulous hidden five-star hotel in Montmartre, I suggest the Hotel Particular Montmartre

My niece Molly and her friend flew over to spend an all-too-short 4 days with me.  She suggested the Hotel Particulier ( 5 5-room suite hotel) for dinner, and it was a magnificent treat.  The food was exceptional, the service and the people were kind and efficient, and the grounds were a hidden gem.

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Montmartre Cemetery

 France, Paris
Sep 092025
 

August 30, 2025

I had been to Montmartre Cemetery many years ago, so it was a pleasure to return and refresh my memory.  I had always liked this cemetery for its calmness and beauty.

In the mid-18th century, overcrowding in Paris’s cemeteries had created numerous problems, ranging from impossibly high funeral costs to unsanitary living conditions in the surrounding neighborhoods. In the 1780s, the Cimetière des Innocents was officially closed, and citizens were banned from burying corpses within the city limits. During the early 19th century, new cemeteries were constructed outside of Paris: Montmartre in the north, Père Lachaise Cemetery in the east, Passy Cemetery in the west, and Montparnasse Cemetery in the south.

 

I always say that cemeteries are more than gardens. They are history books and sculpture gardens.  The sculpture is never more so than in Paris.

Jean-Baptiste Greuze (August 1725 – March 1805) was a French painter of portraits, genre scenes, and history painting.

Gustave Achille Guillaumet (March 1840 – March 1887) was a French painter best known for his paintings of North Africa.

The grave of Henri Meilhac (February 1830 – July 1897) was a prolific French playwright and opera librettist.

Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville (May 1835 – 18 May 1885) was a French academic painter who studied under Eugène Delacroix.

The grave of Victor Brauner (June 1903 – March 1966) was a Romanian painter and sculptor of the surrealist movement, and his wife

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Jacques Louis Eugène Rouché (November 1862 -November 1957) was a French art and music patron. He was the owner of the journal La Grande Revue and manager of the Théâtre des Arts and the Paris Opera.

There are some graves with lovely sculptures, and yet I have no idea who they are.

Otto Klaus Preis 1936—2003

The sculpture is a replica of the first character of the group “The Children of Cain” installed on the terrace of the Tuileries. The replica was acquired by Otto Preis during his lifetime, and it was by his will that it was placed on his grave. This lover of Paris and French art came to live in the capital when he was only 24 years old. He was gifted in drawing, as shown by the cartoons he made for Nina Ricci, with whom he worked until the end of his life.

Jean Bauchet

In 1941, Jean Bauchet was the athletic partner of the singer Odette Moulin. The Germans, interested in this type of show, asked him to tour Germany. He accepted on the condition that he could take a ham with him to feed himself, in which he had hidden a radio set to inform the Allies.

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François Roland Truffaut (February 1932 –October 1984) was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave.

Actor Jerome Richard

Mieczysław Kamieński (February 1833 – September 1859) was a Polish émigré serving in the French army.

Edgar Degas

The Montmartre Cemetery opened on the 1st of  January 1825. It was initially known as the Cemetery of the Large Quarries, referencing the cemetery’s location in an abandoned gypsum quarry. The quarry had previously been used during the French Revolution as a mass grave.

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Antoine-Joseph November 1814 – February 1894) was a Belgian inventor and musician who invented the saxophone in the early 1840s, patenting it in 1846. He also invented the saxotromba, saxhorn, and saxtuba, and redesigned the bass clarinet in a fashion still used in the 21st century. He played the flute and clarinet.

Vaslav or Vatslav Nijinsky (March 1889- April 1950) was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish ancestry. He is regarded as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century.

I have no idea who is interned here, but I found the site charming.

Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (April 1840 – September 1902) French novelist, journalist, playwright,

A lovely family sepulchre

Montmartre Cemetery, worth as much time as you can give it, contains over 20,000 tombs and is home to 50 stray cats!

Revisiting the 19th Arrondissement

 France, Paris
Aug 292025
 

August 28, 2025

The 19th is Buttes-Chaumont. It takes its name from the steep heights that later became the park inaugurated under Napoleon III.

In December of 2021, I explored the Buttes-Chaumont and more and wrote about the 19th Arrondissement.  I went back today to spend a little more time.

Parc De La Villette

La Geode

La Géode was designed by architect Adrien Fainsilber, supported by engineer Gérard Chamayou as an Omnimax theater. The geodesic dome is composed of 6,433 polished stainless steel triangles that form the sphere and reflect the sky.

The dome stands on a reinforced concrete base, which is attached to, the largest science museum in Europe.

 

The Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie is constructed around the vast steel trusses of an abattoir sales hall whose construction was halted in 1973. The transformation was designed by the architect Adrien Fainsilber. It was opened on March 13, 1986, and inaugurated by François Mitterrand on the day of the encounter of the Giotto space probe with Halley’s Comet.

The Parc de Vallette is the third-largest park in Paris. The park was designed by Bernard Tschumi, on the site of the huge Parisian abattoirs (slaughterhouses) and the national wholesale meat market, as part of an urban redevelopment project.

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The “Jardin du Dragon” (The Garden of the Dragon) is home to a large sculptural steel dragon that has an 80-foot slide for children to play on

Probably the most iconic pieces of the park, the follies act as architectural representations of deconstruction. In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting by its appearance some other purpose

A walkway to a small flower garden and farm

The Garden of the Mirrors, by Bernard Tschumi

A historic cast iron & glass abattoir

Fontaine aux Lions de Nubie

The Fontaine aux Lions de Nubie was designed by engineer Pierre-Simon Girard, renowned for his work on the Canal de l’Ourcq. This huge fountain was erected in 1811.  The basin is constructed of stone from Château Landon, and the lions are cast iron.

Philharmonie de Paris

The stunning Philharmonie de Paris was designed by architect Jean Nouvel and commissioned by the French Government.

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Riding the escalator, looking at the exterior ceiling of the Philharmonie de Paris

The theme of birds is carried throughout. This is the exterior paving

The Mouzaia Neighborhood

A brisk walk uphill from La Vallette is the Rue de Mouzaïa, named after the Algerian mountain pass of Mouzaïa, where the French army fought in 1839 during the French conquest of Algeria.

Mouzaïa district consists of 250 terraced houses. They were built along small streets and cul-de-sacs on either side of rue de Mouzaïa, rue Miguel Hidalgo, and rue du Général Brunet.

Today, Mouzaia is a town of 52,000 inhabitants.

The houses were limited to two stories because of the unstable soil. Each terraced house usually has a small front garden

This was the former site of gypsum quarries, which extracted stones that were used to build houses in central Paris. In fact, the quarries encompassed a much larger area called Quartier d’Amérique (America District). An urban legend said that the extracted plaster was shipped to America to build the White House… hence the name.

In the 1890s, affordable housing in the working-class district was built to house workers and their families. In the 1960s and 1970s, most of the Quartier d’Amérique, which consisted of terraced houses, factories, and guinguettes (a type of popular tavern in the suburbs of Paris ), gave way to high-rises.

Canal de l’Ourcq

The Canal de l’Ourcq is the longest of the Parisian canals, running for 81 miles. It turned 200 years old in 2022, and its initial purpose was to supply the capital with drinking water.

On May 19, 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the creation of the canal. Specifically, he decreed that the Seine be diverted from below the Bassin de l’Arsenal to the Bassin de la Villette. The canals would have the dual purposes of providing shipping channels that avoided the Seine and bringing water to Paris.

It is the end of summer and the end of the beaches of Paris

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A lovely walking bridge over the canal

The Tram Ligne T3b

I got to the 19th on the T3b.  The T3b is also known as the Tramway des Maréchaux because it follows the Boulevards of the Marshals, a series of boulevards that encircle Paris along the route of the former Thiers Wall (built from 1841 to 1844). The boulevards are, with three exceptions, named for Napoleon’s First Empire marshals.

I am very lucky to have the T3b run very close to where I am staying.  Something that only happened in April of 2024.

The City of Paris won a hard-fought battle to have some of the stops named after women.  Americans, Ella Fitzgerald, Diane Arbus, and Rosa Parks are included. Also, Anna de Noailles (poetess and novelist) Anny Flore (singer and actress), Thérèse Pierre (World War II resistance fighter), Marquerite Long (pianist), Marie de Miribel (nurse and founder of the Croix Saint-Simon), Adrienne Bolland (French test pilot), Delphine Seyrig (actress and film director), and  Colette Besson (winner of the 400 m at the 1968 Summer Olympics).

The 19th takes some time to get to from the center of Paris, but it holds a lot of unique things to explore.

La Campagne à Paris – the 20th Arrondissement

 France, Paris
Aug 292025
 

August 2025

La Campagne à Paris means “The Countryside in Paris” in English. This little neighborhood was founded as a cooperative intended for working-class families by pastor Sully Lombard in 1907, and consists of 92 charming garden houses built of bricks or millstones.

The site chosen for this venture was once a gypsum quarry, abandoned for decades, and eventually, Mother Nature took over, and it transformed into a small, wooded hill.

Construction began in 1911, with designs by the architect Pierre Botrel, who was inspired by the Garden City movement in England.

The first residents moved in in 1926.

Strict rules were put in place: no extensions, no noisy or smelly businesses, and gardens were to be kept free from unsightly constructions. This wasn’t to be just a neighborhood; it was a community bound by a shared commitment to preserving its character.

The First World War halted construction, and costs skyrocketed from 16,000 francs per house to 37,000 francs by 1923.  They run in the multi-million Euro range today.

All the houses were completed by 1928.

The streets, once privately managed by a syndicate of homeowners, became part of the public domain in the 1990s.

The most convenient way to get to the neighborhood is up two staircases.  I entered by climbing this one off Rue Geo Chavez just past Place Sully Lombard, and left by the set that returns to Rue Geo Chavez near Rue Martin Garat.

 

A Walk Through The 20th Arrondissement

 France, Paris
Aug 292025
 

August 2025

The 20th is called Ménilmontant. A hillside hamlet named for its rising slope (“montant”). It was once known for vineyards and windmills.

I spent the day walking the 20th.  As I said, it was in the 80s,  a temperature I do not fare will in.  I have written about the parks I took refuge in; here is a bit more of what I saw.

Edith Piaf

Edith Piaf was born Édith Giovanna Gassion. Her family home was in the 20th at 72 Rue de Belleville.

Statue of Edith Piaf by artist Lisbeth Delisle

The statue of Edith Piaf is in Place Edith Piaf.  It was dedicated on the 40th anniversary of her death.

Place de la Reunion Fountain

In 2010, the town hall had the fountain painted bright yellow, then gave schoolchildren in the neighborhood carte blanche to cover the newly painted bronze with multicolored “dot” stickers. The statue was repainted, and the process was repeated in 2013 to refresh the paint and stickers. Before being uniquely decorated, this fountain was one of the many fountains of the same type and style built by the prolific Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, under Napoleon III. Carrier-Belleuse produced a substantial number of statues, fountains, and decorative bronze pieces throughout the city in the late 19th century.  The square holds a farmers’ market 2 days a week.

Random Architecture in the 20th

Matters relating to daily life in each arrondissement (administration, culture, sport, local life …) are managed by the local town halls or Mairies d’arrondissement. Jacques Hittorf undertook the construction of the Mairie du 1er Arrondissement in the 1850s. It is a mix of neo-Renaissance, French Renaissance, and Flamboyant Gothic.

The fountain in front of the mairie is made of glass and steel. The fountain was created in 1992 by architect Alfred Gindre in cooperation with sculptor Jean Dixmier and Jean-Louis Rousselet, a master glassmaker.

Near the Mairie is this theater that caught my eye for its deco touches. The Gambetta Palace was designed by Henri Sauvage, a French architect and designer in the early 20th century. His major works include the La Samaritaine department store in Paris.

I have a passion for faux bois, so when I spotted this on Place Martin Nadaud, I had to go see it.  There is little information about it. It has housed the secular crib of Pere Lachaise from the beginning, with a purpose to: “welcome in a secular and republican spirit the children of working-class families, generally very poor, whose mothers work in the factories of the neighborhood. And thwart the strong presence of the Catholic Church in education and early childhood at the beginning of the 20th century.”

The architect was Charles-Jean Delacroix (1854-1907),

I include this not for its architecture, but for the store, Le Petite Librairie.  It is a fabulous little bookstore and one of those that serve the neighborhood with readings, plays, and other things that hold neighborhoods together.

Nearby, you will find this: It is told in the legend that a salamander… after passing through the square where it would have left a long trace, would have headed towards Albert Marquet Street and stopped to rest in a corner of Vitruve Street.  However, I can find nothing more about this adorable guy.

Red Wallace Fountain

The Wallace fountains are all over Paris.  They are usually blue, but some neighborhoods have begun to paint them.  This is near the mairie in the 20th. The original fountains were a gift to the people of Paris in 1872 to provide clean drinking water courtesy of Sir Richard Wallace, an Englishman.

This lamppost, which sits at Porte de Bagnolet, is called the Twisted Lampost Star. It was created by American sculptor Mark Handforth.

Some street art that caught my eye:

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20th Arrondissement – The Parks

 France, Paris
Aug 292025
 

August 2025

I am back in Paris for 5 weeks.  It is in the 80s, not something I am very UNcomfortable with.  So I decided to start my exploration in the 20th because it is known for its parks, and I had hoped it would be slightly cooler than the 16th, where I am staying.  It wasn’t, but it was still a great day.

Parisians don’t always call the arrondissements by their numbers.  They are too big to use as a defining neighborhood. The 20th is sometimes called the Ménilmontant after one of its neighborhoods.

The 20th is most famous for Père Lachaise Cemetery. I had been there before, so today was an exploration of as much of the 20th as I could bear in 80-degree heat.

So I started at Pere Lachaise, sort of.

Jardin Naturel Pierre-Emmanuel

This is one of the entries to Pere Lachaise. However, on the right before you enter is a small park.

Jardin Naturel Pierre-Emmanuel

The park was created in 1995 to honor Pierre-Emmanuel (1916-1984), a French poet and writer, member of the French Academy, whose tomb is in Père-Lachaise.  As it says, it is a natural park, it is planted with wild plants characteristic of different natural environments of Paris, and its meadows are only mowed two or three times a year.

There is a delightful little pond filled with goldfish in front of this concrete drive.  I have no idea what that drive is.

Outside of Pere Lachaise

If you walk along Avenue Boulevard de Ménilmontant, you can walk a strip of park that follows the walls of Pere Lachaise.  If you do, you will find this haunting piece of art. Sculptor Paul Moreau-Vautier created this work in memory of the many victims of revolutions, regardless of which side they fought. The primary objective was reconciliation and open discussion for the sake of peace.

Look at the haunting faces and hands barely visible.

The piece was created in 1907 from the stones of the wall, with traces of the original bullets on the stones where the Versailles Communards (the 1871 Paris Commune) were shot after the Franco-Prussian War.

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On the lower left-hand side is a quote from the French author and novelist Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885): “What we ask of the future, what we want from it, is justice, not vengeance!”

Paris Petite Ceinture

La Petite Ceinture is a circular railway built in 1852 as a means to supply the city’s fortification walls, and as a means of transporting merchandise and passengers between the major rail-company stations in Paris. The rails have a very long history of serving Paris in many ways throughout the years.  It reached its height of popularity in 1900 during the Exposition Universelle, when it transported 39 million passengers.

There is a project underway to transform the Ceinture into an urban park.  They are doing that piece by piece.  This one is in the Belleville neighborhood, and not easy to find.

Parc de Belleville

Parc de Belleville is the highest park in Paris. Built in 1988, it was conceived by the architect François Debulois and the landscaper Paul Brichet. There are amazing views from many places in the park.

There are walking paths galore and stairways to strain even the most adventurous.

Pavillion de l’ermitage

I needed a rest and came across this park with this wonderful building. It was built between 1723 and 1727 and is the only remnant of the Bagnolet domain, which was the property of the Duchess of Orleans, daughter of Louis XIV and the Marquise de Montespan.

Sitting on a bench looking at this water was exactly what I needed

The park even had a lending library

Square Édouard-Vaillant

Miles of walking, and I needed another bench.  This greenhouse lured me in. The square Édouard-Vaillant runs alongside the building that has housed the Tenon hospital since 1878. It is named after the surgeon Jacques-René Tenon (1724-1816). He reformed the Paris hospital service under Louis XVI and gave his name to the garden. Later, the garden was renamed “Édouard-Vaillant” (1840-1915), after the city councilman of the district.

I walked over 8 miles to see the 20th.  These are just the gardens. I will write about the other things I saw next.

Giverny

 France, Giverny
Aug 152025
 

August 1, 2025

What is there to say about Giverny that hasn’t already been said by far more eloquent people than I?  So I am going to do something I never do, and frankly abhor, a photo dump of my pictures.

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The tour of the house is really special, and I was surprised to view the extensive collection of Japanese prints that Monet collected.  I also was enamored with this cat.

According to the Smithsonian, “Claude Monet’s Giverny abode was once home to a glazed biscuit cat, which friends remember was positioned to appear as if it was curled up on a pillow in the artist’s dining room couch. After the Impressionist icon’s death in 1926, the terracotta feline went to Monet’s son Michel. But following Michel’s own death four decades later, the little white figurine appeared to have vanished.”

“It turns out, Michel Monet, who was believed to have died childless, actually fathered a daughter that he never formally acknowledged, but to whom he’d gifted many objects from her famous grandfather. “ The cat was eventually restored to its rightful place.

Japanese Block Prints and Monet

On April 1, 1867,  the Exposition Universelle opened on the Champ de Mars, the massive Paris marching grounds that now lie in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. It featured, for the first time, a Japanese pavilion, and its showcase of ukiyo-e prints revealed the depth of Japanese printmaking to French artists for the first time.

Monet was at the exhibition, and eventually, Monet acquired 250 Japanese prints. In Claude Monet’s collection, there are forty-six prints by Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806), twenty-three prints by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), forty-eight prints by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), as well as many others.

Katsushika Hokusai South Wind Clear Dawn

It is said that Monet’s series of grainstacks and poplars, of Rouen Cathedral and Waterloo Bridge, owes a great deal to Katsushika Hokusai’s earlier experiments of depicting a single subject over dozens of images. The influence ran from Monet’s art into his life. His wife wore a kimono around the house. His garden at Giverny is modeled directly after a Japanese print, right down to the arcing bridge and bamboo.

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Driving to Giverny

 France, Normandy
Aug 152025
 

August 1, 2025

It is a lovely country drive from Rouen to Giverny with some sightseeing along the way.

Chateau Gaillard

Chateau Gaillard

Château Gaillard is a medieval castle ruin overlooking the River Seine above the commune of Les Andelys. Construction began in 1196 under the auspices of Richard the Lionheart, who was simultaneously King of England and feudal Duke of Normandy. It took a mere two years to build.

In his final years, the castle became Richard’s favourite residence, and writs and charters were written at Château Gaillard, bearing “apud Bellum Castrum de Rupe” (at the Fair Castle of the Rock). Richard did not enjoy the benefits of the castle for long, however, as he died in Limousin on April 6, 1199, from an infected arrow wound.

After Richard’s death, King John of England failed to effectively defend Normandy against the ongoing campaigns of King Philip II of France between 1202 and 1204.

The Seine and white chalk cliffs near the Chateau Gilliard

Statue of Liberty by Dali

 

Statue of Liberty by Dali

Located at the Vascoeuil Castle, a modern art sculpture museum, Salvador Dali’s statue of liberty with not one but two flames sits within view of the road.

Chateau Vascoeuil with a 17th-century dovecote to the left.

The fence of Vascoeuil Castle

I was intrigued by the stone used to build the walls in the area of Vascoeuil Castle. It is flint, which can be found as nodules within the upper part of clay formations and is formed of pure silica, better known as quartz. The outside is dull, but once split, the inside is lovely and glossy.

 

The Town of Rouen

 France, Normandy
Jul 312025
 

July 31, 2025

The town of Rueon is absolutely magical, and I wish I had many more days to explore.

The Church of Saint Joan of Arc was completed in 1979 in the centre of the ancient market square, known as the Place du Vieux-Marché, where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for heresy in 1431.

A small garden outside these windows, Le Bouchet, marks the exact spot where Joan of Arc was put to death.

I found the church just stunning. Designed in 1969 by architect Louis Arretche, the sweeping curves of the structure are meant to evoke both the flames that consumed Joan of Arc and an overturned longship. Many early Christian churches were designed in the shape of an overturned longship.

The stained glass windows originate from the 16th-century Church of Saint Vincent, an old church that was almost completely destroyed in 1944 during World War II. The windows had been removed and stored in a safe location during the war and were then incorporated into the Church of Saint Joan of Arc. The 13 window panels depict Christ’s childhood, Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection, and the life events of St.Peter, St. Anne, and Saint Anthony of Padua.

The elegance of the pews took my breath away.

Rouen traces its origins to the fifth century, with Rouen becoming self-governing in 1150. The 12th century saw a significant growth in population, reaching around 30,000, which transformed the city into one of the most populous urban centers in medieval France.

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The size of the medieval portion of the town is astounding. It is hard to believe this many medieval buildings survived in any one location.

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Notice the leaning of the buildings from the Medieval ages

A medieval building is being restored.

Half-timbering is a way of constructing wood-frame structures with the structural timbers exposed. This medieval method of construction is called timber framing.  The wooden wall framing, including the studs, crossbeams, and braces, is exposed to the outside, and the spaces between the wooden timbers are filled with plaster, brick, or stone.

Gros Horloge

This gold-faceted Gros Horloge (an astronomical clock from the 14th century) is a functioning street clock that symbolizes the wealth generated by the wool industry in Rouen’s past centuries. The clock is installed in a Renaissance arch crossing the Rue du Gros-Horloge. The mechanism is one of the oldest in France, having been made in 1389.

Aitre St. Maclou

Of course, my love of the macabre was satisfied in Rouen.

Aitre St. Maclou

Aitre St. Maclou dates back to the Black Death of 1348.  It is one of the few examples of an ossuary of this type remaining in Europe.

The aître Saint-Maclou takes its name from the old French aitre, meaning  “cemetery”, from the Latin atrium, which designates the inner entrance courtyard preceding the entrance of a Roman villa.

The wooden frames of the buildings were ornamented with macabre details: skulls, bones, shovels, pickaxes, cult objects, and other reminders of the airtre’s purpose. In 1705, the buildings were emptied and were destined to be a school for poor boys. Despite damage from war and revolution, the site remains a fine arts school.

Tower of Joan of Arc

Tower of Joan of Arc

This 13th-century tower is the sole surviving relic of the medieval castle of Rouen, built by King Phillip II of France after his victory over the English. The castle played a crucial role in the Wars of the Hundred Years, the  War of the Roses, and the religious conflicts between French Catholics and Huguenot Protestants. Still, its most infamous role was as the place where Joan of Arc was imprisoned and interrogated before being burned at the stake in 1431.

Musee Le Secq des Tournelles

Musee Le Secq des Tournelles

I finished my day enjoying this charming museum. Located inside the Gothic church of Saint-Laurent, the Musée Le Secq des Tournelles hosts a rare collection of metal signs and wrought iron objects.

Henri Le Secq des Tournelles and his son created the museum from their personal collection, intending to donate it to the Louvre. However, they were concerned that the unusual objects would be lost or forgotten by the museum. In 1921, the family established the museum, donating their works to the church.

 

Wine openers

Sites around town

A fountain

Fun “graffiti”

An intersection in Rouen

René-Robert Cavelier was a 17th-century French explorer and fur trader in North America. He explored the Great Lakes region of the US and Canada. He is best known for an early 1682 expedition in which he canoed the lower Mississippi River from the mouth of the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico, where he claimed the Mississippi River basin for France. La Salle was slain by Pierre Duhaut in Texas.

I fell in love with this building across from the Rouen Cathedral.  It is the Finance Office. It is an excellent example of civil architecture of the Louis XII style of the first decades of the sixteenth century.

The front of the Finance office.

I must come back to the magical town, as I said, it has so, so much more to offer.

La Couronne

I finished the night in La Couronne. La Couronne was first established as an inn in 1345. This makes it the oldest continuously operating auberge in France and one of the oldest in all of Europe.

Julia Child’s first meal in France was at this restaurant in 1948. Her first meal, which introduced her to the joy of butter, was Sole Meunière.

My friend Susan had the Sole.

The dinner was spectacular, and the space was truly fun – a stop I would highly recommend, and reservations are a must.

 

Rouen Cathedral

 France, Normandy
Jul 312025
 

July 31, 2025

Rouen is absolutely magical.

Rouen Cathedral

One of the more popular sites in Rouen is the Rouen Cathedral.

The Cathedral is renowned for its three towers, each in a distinct architectural style. The cathedral, built and rebuilt over more than eight hundred years, features elements ranging from Early Gothic to late Flamboyant and Renaissance architecture.

It is from this angle that Claude Monet painted more than thirty images of the Cathedral between 1892 and 1893.

The West front is framed by two tall towers: Tour St. Romain to the left and Tour de Beurre to the right. Between these is seen the spire of the Lantern Tower, which rises from the crossing of the transept.

The Lantern Tower

The lantern tower is topped by a cast iron spire, the highest in France. Destroyed by lightning in 1822, it was architect Jean-Antoine Alavoine who proposed using cast iron, a very modern material for the time, as it would be less combustible than wood and lighter than stone.

The Cathedral has been undergoing renovations since 2016. That is the reason for the white protective covering.

The space between the two towers is covered with arcades adorned with lacy Flamboyant Gothic stonework and topped by open canopies and pierced gables.

The tympanum is decorated with statues forming a ‘Tree of Jesse’, the Family Tree of Jesus. The Calvinists heavily damaged it during the Wars of Religion. Some statues were decapitated during the French Revolution.

This is the Porte Saint-Étienne dedicated to St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr. The tympanum is comprised of two registers. The lower register depicts the stoning of St. Stephen in the presence of Saul, and the upper register shows Christ in majesty.

I took this specifically because I was fascinated with the construction of the brown and white marble above the tympanum.  In researching, I found that most of the historical photos do not include this element. And I have been left at a loss as to how it was actually constructed.

The rose window is found above the central portal and is partly concealed by the great gable. It was created at the end of the 14th century by the cathedral’s master architect, Jean Périer. The pattern of the rose window represents flames, which directly refers to the Flamboyant Gothic style.

There are a myriad of gargoyles on the Cathedral. These two caught my eye. It is unusual to see gargoyles with humans at their chests, and yet I have no idea why these two do.

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The inside of the cathedral is nowhere near as flamboyant.

The Nave

The nave is covered with four-part rib vaults, supported by colonettes that reach down the walls to the massive pillars on the ground floor.

The ceiling

These stunning 15th-century stairs, called the booksellers’ stairs, lead to the library. In 1562, during the start of the Wars of Religion, the library was ransacked by Calvinists.

As was the tradition of the time, after he died in 1199, King Richard I of England (Richard the Lionheart) was divided up. As a result, the heart of King Richard the Lionheart lies in Rouen Cathedral.

Damage Done. Over the Years:

In the late 16th century, the cathedral was severely damaged during the French Wars of Religion: in 1562, the Calvinists attacked the furniture, tombs, stained-glass windows, and statuary. The cathedral was struck by lightning in 1625 and 1642, then damaged by a hurricane in 1683.

In 1796, during the French Revolution, the new revolutionary government nationalized the cathedral and temporarily converted it into a Temple of Reason. Some of the furniture and sculpture were sold, and the chapel railings were melted down to make cannons.

In the weeks before D-Day in Normandy, the cathedral was hit twice by Allied bombs. In April 1944, seven bombs dropped by the British Royal Air Force struck the building, narrowly missing a key pillar of the lantern tower, and damaging much of the south aisle and destroying two windows. In June 1944, a few days before D-Day, bombs dropped by the U.S. Army Air Force set fire to the Saint-Romain tower. The bells melted, leaving molten remains on the floor.

To do the Cathedral justice, one needs many, many hours, which sadly, I did not have.

 

 

Driving to Rouen

 France, Normandy
Jul 312025
 

July 30 and 31, 2025

It was a long day driving from Bayeux to Rouen, but it was filled with gorgeous things along the way.

 

Medieval construction in the town of Tourgeville

When Americans think of Normandy, they think of WWII and the beaches.  It is, of course, so much more. Normandy is divided into five official départements—Eure and Seine-Maritime in Upper Normandy; and Calvados, Orne, and Manche sharing Lower Normandy and the thin crescent of territory that includes Caen and Alençon, known as the Pays d’Auge.

Many homes in the area are Longères, which means a “long wall” or “gutter wall”. Traditionally built in a rectangular shape, the longère is oriented with the back of the house facing the dominant wind direction. The properties are often only one story high, with thatched or slated roofs.

I could not stop oohing and aahing and finally stopped in this small town for a photo.

The Pont de Normandie/Normandy Bridge

The Pont de Normandie/Normandy Bridge is a cable-stayed road bridge designed by Michel Virlogeux, spanning the River Seine. It is 7,032 ft long in total, with a 2,808-foot span between the two piers. It is also the last bridge to cross the Seine before it empties into the ocean.

Etretat

Chalk Cliffs of Etretat

A stop in Etretat for the stunning Chalk cliffs was slightly marred by dark clouds. But it is a stop worth the time.

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If you look closely, you can see that there are a number of bunkers in Etretat. The one above is a special construction anti-tank gun bunker and an observation position. It is linked by an underground tunnel cut into the chalk cliff to other bunkers.

If you are familiar with the stories of the gentleman thief and master of disguise, Arsène Lupin, you will likely be familiar with Etretat. Etretat was the home of the creator of the series, Maurice Leblanc, who wrote the adventures of Lupin beginning in 1905.

There are 35 replicas of the Statue of Liberty throughout France. The one above is in the town of Berentin. It was originally made for the 1969 film The Brain ( Le Cerveau), a French comedy directed by Gérard Oury.  We spotted her standing on a small mound of dirt and grass at the centre of a roundabout, “Carrefour de la liberté.” She is about 12 feet tall and weighs approximately 3.5 tons.

Rouen

 

The Architecture of Bayeux

 France, Normandy
Jul 312025
 

July 2025

Bayeux Cathedral

With its combination of Norman and Romanesque architecture, as well as Gothic spires, the Cathedral dominates the skyline of Bayeux. 

The site is an ancient one and was once occupied by Roman sanctuaries. The present cathedral was consecrated on July 15, 1077, in the presence of William, Duke of Normandy.

Following serious damage to the cathedral in the 12th century, it was rebuilt in the Gothic style, most notably in the crossing tower and transepts.

Despite the crossing tower having been started in the 15th century, it was not completed until the 19th century.

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The Cathedral is rich in Grotesques and Gargoyles

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The Crypt

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The town boasts of its walking tour where you follow these trees, taken from the Bayeux Tapestry. Sadly, it is poorly mapped and has no explanations, despite what the tourism office says.

This street radiates from the cathedral. The stone dwellings date from the 13th and 14th centuries.

Just some of the Medieval architecture of the town.

The development of bobbin lace making in Bayeux is due to the arrival of a few nuns at the end of the 17th century.  The city had a lace-making training center, originally intended to provide employment for poor young girls, and it ran from the 17th century until 1905. The Maison Lef’bure, which was run from 1890 to 1915 in the above building, was one of the finest lace-making establishments in Bayeux.

Founded in 1646, the Bayeux community of Benedictine nuns was installed outside the city at the foot of the ramparts. At the time of the Revolution, the nuns were thrown out of their convent. In 1812, their former convent was transformed into a porcelain factory that by 1870 employed 140 people. All traces of porcelain manufacturing have disappeared, but the craftsmanship can still be found in the street signs of Bayeux.

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Place Charles de Gaulle

This park commemorates the role Bayeux played during the liberation of France in World War II. On the 14th of June 1944, just days after D-Day, de Gaulle arrived from London and delivered his first major speech re-establishing republican law on the national soil. He set up his headquarters in Bayeux, which became the administrative capital of France. De Gaulle is the center of the fountain that stands in the middle of the park.

In our Normandy, glorious and mutilated, Bayeux and its surroundings witnessed one of the greatest events in History. We testify that they were worthy of it. It was here that, four years after the initial disaster for France and the Allies, the final victory for the Allies and France began.

 

This water wheel, originally constructed for milling grain, can be found along the banks of the Aure River.

 

 

The Town of Bayeux

 France, Normandy
Jul 312025
 

Scenes From Around the City of Bayeux

The City Crest of Bayeux

The city of Bayeux is on the English Channel, a mere seven miles from the English Coast.

Bayeux was founded as a Gallo-Roman settlement in the 1st century BCE under the name Augustodurum,

The building below is the side of the building belonging to the Bayeux Augustinian Hospital Order convent,  a community founded in 1644.

Behind the door is a turning table, which allowed the nuns who resided in the building to communicate with the outside world without actually coming face to face.

The city was largely destroyed during the Viking raids of the late 9th century, but was rebuilt in the early 10th century.

The River Aure flows through town.

During the Second World War, Bayeux was the first city of the Battle of Normandy to be liberated by British troops of the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division with only light resistance.

There are bikes everywhere in Bayeux

The buildings in Bayeux were virtually untouched during the Battle of Normandy.
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The Liberty Tree

In 1792, the French Revolutionary government adopted the symbol of the Liberty Tree. The idea was based on a similar concept that developed in the United States during the American Revolution. Liberty trees were planted all around Bayeux. In 1797, similar smaller trees were replaced by a lone Liberty Tree that grows in Place de la Liberté today.

Tour de France

The Tour de France is occuring while I am here, although I have not been any town it was riding through

Kevin Vauquelin is a hair stylist in Bayeaux when not in the Tour de France

Bayeux is a delightful town worth a few days of time.

Restaurants that were over-the-top exceptional:

Moulin de la Galette

Le Pommier

 

Bayeux Tapestry

 France, Normandy
Jul 312025
 

July 29, 2025

The Bayeux Tapestry

Making headquarters in the small town of Bayeux for 3 nights is a lovely thing to do.  It is a quaint town, albeit filled with tourists.  Some to see the beaches of Normandy and some to see the Bayeux Tapestry.

Photos are not allowed in the gallery of the tapestry, so I have borrowed these photos from Wikipedia.

The tapestry is actually an embroidered cloth nearly 230 feet long and 20 inches high. It depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, led by William, Duke of Normandy, who challenged Harold II, King of England, and culminated in the Battle of Hastings. It is thought to date to the 11th century, within a few years of the battle. Now widely accepted to have been made in England, perhaps as a gift for William, it tells the story from the point of view of the conquering Normans and has been preserved in Normandy for centuries.

The gallery in Bayeux. Photo from NYT.

The big news is that with the advent of the expansion of the museum, the tapestry will return to London after 900 years and remain there for eleven months starting September of 2026. It will be packed up on September 1st, so my timing was perfect.

Bishop Odo

According to the British Museum, it was likely commissioned by William’s half-brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeux.

This is my favorite panel. It was on this site that William may have forced Harold Godwinson to take an oath of support to him. Harold is swearing on all that is holy to the Normans (two altars)  that he will remain loyal to William. He then heads back to England to break his oath. – This scene is said to have taken place in the Bayeux Chapel

Coronation of Harold, seemingly by Archbishop Stigand

 

Haley’s comet

When William of Normandy was assembling a fleet to cross the Channel, to finagle his way into the succession crisis that was brewing in England, Haley’s comet raced through the sky. Sky viewers throughout Europe reported it as a bad omen for England. William took heart from the omen and launched his invasion.

A battle scene. It is here that the marginalia becomes so interesting. Notice the dead and decapitated bodies on the bottom.

The tapestry was occasionally used to decorate the cathedral in Bayeux. It was threatened during the French Revolution in the 18th century,  in one case, when revolutionaries sought to use it to cover ammunition wagons. Later, it was briefly exhibited in Paris by Napoleon in 1803, before being moved back to Bayeux.

As I left the museum, I spotted this worn but excellent piece of graffiti of a Norman painting the tapestry with spray paint.

The Tapestry Museum is in the former Grand Séminaire de Bayeux, a training center for diocesan priests from the late 17th century until 1969. The first stone for the seminary was laid in 1693.

The tapestry has been displayed in the building since 1983.

Omaha and Utah Beach and La Pointe du Hoc

 France, Normandy
Jul 282025
 

July 28th 2025

This was a full box of Kleenex, mascara running day.

Omaha and Utah Landing Sites

I am standing at the Omaha landing site, approximately where the Western and Eastern Task Force dotted white line is on the above map, at the far end of the American landings.

This is looking towards the Ponte du Hoc.

This is looking towards the Gold, Juno, and Sword Landing sites.

It is impossible to take all that you know of this battle and then put that onto the sheer scale of the five miles of beach where American blood was spilled.

“No Mission Too Difficult, No Sacrifice Too Great, Duty First”

The memorial on this stone, standing on the sand of Omaha Beach, is to the Combat Medics of the 1st Infantry Division.
It was here that SSGT Arnold ‘Ray’ Lambert set up the first casualty collection point on Omaha during the D-Day landings on the morning of June 6, 1944.

These men placed their lives on the line to save their comrades, and their professionalism and dedication gave their units the confidence to prevail in the face of extraordinary danger.

As you leave the beach, you pass the insignia of the 1st Infantry Division.  They were in charge of the assault on Omaha Beach with the 29th Infantry Division.

La Pointe du Hoc

Pointe du Hoc is located between Utah and Omaha Beaches and sits atop overhanging cliffs up to 100 feet in height. On D-Day, Colonel James E. Rudder and his force from the 2d Ranger Battalion, made up of 225 soldiers, would carry out their mission to scale the cliffs before dawn  and neutralize enemy positions atop Pointe du Hoc. As happened at Omaha and Utah, it was a disaster due to the weather.

The above memorial monument honors the 2nd Ranger Battalion.  The memorial consists of a granite pylon representing a commando fighting dagger, and it sits atop a German concrete bunker with tablets in both French and English at the base.  I could not access the tablets as much of the site is roped off due to erosion on the cliffs and other safety concerns. This was the site og President Ronald Reagan’s famous “Boys of Pointe du Hoc” address given on June 6, 1984

One of the bunkers encountered at Pointe du Hoc

Some 20,000 Normandy civilians were killed in the invasion, and as Allied forces fought their way inland. 80% of the town of Caen was bombed, and 90% of the town of St. Lo. Allied casualties in the Normandy campaign were also appalling, with 73,000 troops killed and 153,000 wounded. On the 80th anniversary, a woman commented, “For Normans, D-Day and its aftermath were ‘a bit of a confusion of feelings. We cried with joy because we were freed, but we also cried because the dead were all around us.”

The cliff scaled by the Rangers

That was just part of the morning.  Next was the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial

Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial

 France, Normandy
Jul 282025
 

July 28, 2025

Looking back at the memorial with the reflecting pool in front

Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves by Donald De Lue

The pebbles at the base of the statue are all from Omaha Beach. There was a wreath ceremony as we stood there.

Map of the landings on the Normandy beaches

Map of the military operations in Western Europe

Looking over the reflecting pool to the chapel and the graves

The Ceiling in the chapel

The mosaic is by Leon Kroll. Completed in 1953, it comprises 500,000 tiles and tells a full round story “of war and peace.” One side depicts Columbia (Goddess of Liberty) allegorically representing America blessing “her rifle-bearing son before he departs to fight overseas. Above him, a warship and a bomber push through sea and air toward land on the opposite side of the dome. There, a red-capped Marianne figure, personifying France, bestows a laurel wreath upon the same young man. His now lifeless body leans against her as she cradles his head in her lap. Above them, the return of peace is illustrated with an angel, a dove, and a homeward-bound troop ship.”

On June 19, 2018, Julius H. O. Pieper, whose bones were identified with DNA, was laid to rest next to his twin brother, Ludwig J. W. Pieper, and became the 9,388th servicemember buried at the Normandy American Cemetery.
The cemetery contains the graves of 45 pairs of brothers (30 of whom are buried side by side), a father and his son, an uncle and his nephew, two pairs of cousins, three generals, four chaplains, four civilians, four women, 147 African Americans, and 20 Native Americans.

These burials are marked by white Lasa marble headstones, 9,238 of which feature Latin crosses (for Protestants and Catholics), and 151 of which feature the Star of David (for Jews). Since these were the only three religions recognized at the time by the United States Army, no other type of markers are present

The Cemetery is divided into ten plots. It forms a Latin cross, with the chapel at its center.

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The Cemetery looks over Omaha Beach

The cemetery is on French soil, so should anything happen, it will be French police that respond.  However, the cemetery has perpetuity and sits here tax-free.  It is run by the American Battle Monuments Commission, but the guards and groundskeepers are all French citizens.

The care taken to maintain the stone markers is heartwarming.

At the very front of the cemetery is this time capsule. It contains news reports of the June 6, 1944, Normandy landings. In the center of the slab is a bronze plaque engraved with the following inscription: “In memory of General Dwight D. Eisenhower and the forces under his command. This sealed capsule containing news reports of the June 6, 1944, Normandy landings is placed here by the newsmen who were there, June 6, 1969.”

 

Driving the Normandy Coast

 France, Normandy
Jul 282025
 

July 27, 2025

The day began with a stop in the town of Avarnches, and in particular, the Scriptorial. The Scriptorial Museum is the only museum in France dedicated to the presentation of ancient manuscripts and in particular the collection of manuscripts of the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel.

A book on geometry

A book with a labyrinth, I have no idea what it is about

And a book whose writing is so small I do not know how one reads it, let alone how one wrote it.

A butterfly in the Park of Flowers in Avranches

Hombye Abbey

The Abbey of Notre Dame of Hambye was founded around 1145 by William Painel, Lord of Hambye, and Algare, bishop of Coutances (the Diocese of place). The monastery was established by a group of Benedictine monks.

The construction took place in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. The religious community reached its apogee in the 13th century and then, after a long decline, over the following centuries, when the abbey was down to seven monks, it disappeared in the 1780s.

Like all French abbeys, it became national property at the beginning of the French Revolution. Eventually, the abbey was sold in 1790. The abbey church was used as a quarry from 1810 and was gradually dismantled.

The abbey was saved in 1956 through the acquisition of the monastic buildings by a local couple.

The abbey church, the gatehouse, and the lay brothers’ building were bought by the County Council of La Manche in 1964. Considerable work to restore and stabilize the remains of the abbey has been done.

Graffiti through the ages

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The cloisters are fairly ruined, but you can see the remnants.

Grain Mill

This part of Normandy is known for its apples, Calvados, and Apple Cider

The Cider Press

How to turn the cider press

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Normandy is known for its rich, creamy butter and great cheeses.

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Mont Saint Michel

 Brittany, France
Jul 282025
 

July 26, 2025

It is hard to believe, but I had never been to Mont Saint-Michel.  Sadly, we arrived late in the evening, and the monastery was not open; however, there was still plenty of time to explore the island.

Mont Saint Michel from my hotel room

The island was originally called Mont-Tombe but became known as Mont-Saint-Michel in the 8th century, when St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches, built an oratory there after having a vision of the archangel St. Michael. It rapidly became a pilgrimage center, and in 966 a Benedictine abbey was built there. In 1203, it was partly burned when King Philip II of France tried to capture the mount.

The drawbridge into the city

The island, which was fortified in 1256, resisted sieges during the Hundred Years’ War between England and France (1337–1453) and the French Wars of Religion (1562–98). The monastery declined in the 18th century, and only seven monks were living there when it was dissolved during the French Revolution (1787–99). It became a state prison under Napoleon I (reigned 1804–14/15) and remained a prison until 1863. In 1874, it was designated a historic monument and subsequently restored.

The commercial part of the city

Mont-Saint-Michel is almost circular (about 3,000 feet in circumference) and consists of a granite outcrop rising sharply (to 256 feet out of Mont-Saint-Michel Bay (between Brittany and Normandy). Most of the time, it is surrounded by vast sandbanks and becomes an island only when the tides are very high.

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You can see the granite of the mountain that all of this sits upon

One of the smaller chapels on the island

St Michael in the Small Chapel

A 3,000-foot causeway was eventually built, connecting the island to the mainland. Before that, it was particularly difficult to reach because of quicksand and very fast-rising tides.

The causeway, however, had become a barrier to the removal of material by the tides, resulting in higher sandbanks between the islet and the coast.

So this dam was built to alleviate the problem. The sluice gates are closed 1.5 hours before high tide.  The first flow hits the obstacle, and the sediment is deposited downstream from the dam. Eventually, the sluice gates are opened gradually six hours after high tide, creating a progressive water release without waves of breakers lasting from thirty minutes to three and a half hours.  The longer the water release, the more effective the transporting of the sediment back out to sea.

There are many historical references on the bridge. The shells from the bay are symbols of the pilgrimages which led to the mont.

Mont Saint Michel from the town of Avranches across the bay

 

Driving The Brittany Coast

 Brittany, France
Jul 282025
 

July 26, 2025

Temple of Lenleff

Lanleff’s temple is a pink sandstone ruin in Brittany. It is a round church said to be reminiscent of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

The exact age and the exact usage of this building are unknown. The earliest known references to the building date back to 1148, when the Lord of Châtelaudrien donated it to the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Magloire de Léhon. Although not confirmed, it is likely to date back to the early 11th century.

Only a few parts of the church remain. Two out of three chapels and parts of the exterior wall. The structure was built in a primitive Romanesque style and consists of two concentric walls separated by a corridor. Twelve ornamented pillars support a series of arches.

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More than 140 decorative elements can be seen in the ornamentation of the capitals and the bases of the columns. These include geometric motifs, animals, and people. One of the better-known pieces at the temple is known as “modest Adam.”

A reproduction of Modest Adam

A reproduction of a column capital called Courtship

A reproduction of a column capital with Adam and Eve

A reproduction of the column capital titled The Projection?

Hydrangeas are everywhere at this time of year

Driving to Mont Saint Michel

The town of Cancale as the tide goes out

Oyster beds off the tip of Cancale with Mont Saint-Michel in the background on a cloudy day

Oysters are everywhere in this part of France. Normandy is the largest oyster and mussel farming region in France and a huge part of their economy.  It is easy to pull off to the side of the row and find a myriad of places offering oysters and other seafood.  Should you arrive after closing, there are still options.

Thank you Susan for grabbing this show while I was inside drooling over the fresh oysters anticipating lunch.

In case you have no taste for oysters, there is always an instant pizza machine somewhere.

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Moulin de Moidrey, a Norman windmill

The Pink Granite Coast – Brittany

 Brittany, France
Jul 282025
 

July 25, 2025

This stop was probably more about relaxing than visiting and sightseeing. We are staying at the Grand Hotel Perros-Guirec with rooms right on the sea.

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The Pink Granite Coast spans approximately 18 miles and is aptly named due to the immense pinkish-gold granite boulders.

The Men Ruz Lighthouse sits on a promenade in Ploumanac’h (monk’s pool in Breton)  and is a fabulous example of the stone.

I stole this off of Wikipedia – my photo just didn’t do the lighthouse justice.

The first Ploumanac’h Lighthouse dates from 1860. It was destroyed by German troops and replaced by the current lighthouse in 1946. The present-day version was designed by architect Henry Auffret.

Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-la-Clarté 

Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-la-Clarté de Perros-Guirec

Another spectacular pink building is the Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-la-Clarté de Perros-Guirec. Sadly, it is under restoration and closed for safety reasons. 

Notre-Dame-de-la-Clarté is a Chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Built in the 15th Century, the story goes that a certain lord of Barac’h, in Louannec, was at sea with his squadron near the Sept-Îles. The mist was so thick that the sailors felt death was inevitable. They made a vow to Notre-Dame: The commander would build her a chapel if she created a saving hole in the fog. Of course, the fog broke, and thus the chapel.

The mist changes history again. In August 1944, American troops threatened to bomb the city to dispose of the 600 Nazis who were pointing their guns at Perros. Mist covered Perros-Guirec, preventing the bombing, and thus the destruction of the church.. On August 10th, the Nazis surrendered without resistance.

The architecture of the church is in the flamboyant Breton style.

The lintel of the porch is stunning, with a representation of the Annunciation facing a Pietà.

I must admit that I had no idea what Flamboyant Breton style architecture is. Flamboyant style is a phase of late Gothic architecture in 15th-century France and Spain. Its most conspicuous feature is the dominance of stone window tracery of a flamelike S-shaped curve.

A grave stone I found in the cemetery of the church that was very unique. The beret is very French, the seashell an insignia of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

Moulin de la Lande du Crac’h

It is believed that this windmill dates back to the 1700s.  It is an egg cup type windmill, made of rubble with lively joints. Its tower is representative of a rather rare category of old mills in this part of Brittany.  It was just a funky thing to go search for on a lazy afternoon.

 

Garden of Sculpture

Also in Perros-Guirec is a sweet park dedicated to the art of sculptors Christian Gad and Daniel Chhé.

This was my absolute favorite. The detail was stunning

The sculptures show off the pink granite of the area.

Kerguntuil megalithic site

And then, we found more megalithic burial sites.

The Dolmen on the site

From the Neolithic period, Kerguntuil became a source of interest in the early 1930s, when the Dutch acquired a vase found there. In 1939, the tourist office decided to excavate and rehabilitate the passage grave before the foreign archaeologists returned. They did so with the help of local volunteers and local granite quarry workers or simple volunteers; the slabs were raised and replaced in what is assumed to be their proper location.

On the same site is this passage grave – a site that contains more than one burial chamber

Inside the passage grave

The Tides of the Area are immense.  While searching for a spot for lunch, we stopped at this inlet, where you can truly see the difference between high and low tides. You can not even see the sea from here.

The one thing that just pops up everywhere in Brittany are hydrangeas.  They are in every color but these purple almost red are just stunning.

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Coke from Brittany

The Valley of Saints

 Brittany, France
Jul 242025
 

July 23, 2024

I read about this site without conducting enough research.  When we arrived, I was surprised to find it was a modern site of sculptures of Saints.  After just a short time, I went from being disappointed at being lured into what felt like a tourist trap to having a fascinating and fun visit.

This vast project consists of 200  (and growing) statues of Breton Saints. They overlook the Monts d’Aree and Central Brittany. Some are whimsical, some are stunning interpretations in modernist angles, some sappy, and some childish.  I couldn’t stop snapping pictures.  However, I did not see them all, and I did not photograph all that I saw. So…..here goes.

Eodez and Gurguy live with their father in the 6th century. When he comes of age, Gurguy leaves home, but Eodez has to stay with her wicked stepmother, who is wildly jealous of Eodez’s many suitors and banishes her to the countryside.

Saint Tangi (formerly Gurguy) decapitated his sister after falling for a trick by their stepmother. He has been told his sister was sent away due to immodest behaviour. A 40-day fast was imposed upon him as a form of penance, and after he was named Tangi. He went on to become an abbot.

The amount of statuary is overwhelming.

This was my favorite.

And this was the description of the above “Saint.” (It is blank.)

Saint Goneri lands with his mother Eiboubane in the 5th Century. One day, lost in prayer, he fails to hear the local landowner greet him. The landlord orders his servants to beat him, but god punishes them instead. Then a prayer from Goneri brings everything to order. Tradition tells that he saved a wedding party from being crushed beneath rocks split by the devil by holding them aloft with a simple wave of the hand

Saint Ke was born in the 5th century in Great Britain. He was a priest, then a bishop, and then a hermit. Ki is called upon to cure toothaches, to protect cattle, and for fair weather to ensure a good harvest. The Saint-Ke fountain in Cleder is said to offer help to pregnant women.

Saint Aziliz (Cecilia) was a Roman martyr from the 2nd and 3rd centuries. She took a vow of chastity despite being forced to marry. During a period of Christian persectution she turned her home into a place of worship. Condemned to death by her husband Valerian, she survived an attempt to drown her before being beheaded. She is depicted playing the harp and accordion as a tribute to the centenary of the Festival de Cornouaille.

 

Saint Jean-Marioe de la Mennais was born in the 18th century into a family of shipowners. He dedicated his life to the development of schools in Brittany. The statue represents a gannet, capable of traveling long distances, just like his ideas. He is represented as a child with his arms around the bird.

Sainte Riwanon was born in the fifth century and was raised by her two older brothers. God ordered her to marry the bard-Hoarvian. An angel told her that their son would become a great servant of God. Saint Riwanon prayed that her child would never see the lies and deceits of the world. Thus Saint Herve was born blind. Riwanon raised her son alone until he was seven, then she left seeking isolation. She died on the 19th of June in 535.

According to a sign at the statue, the Fountain of the People in Breton is a grandiose sculpture of Saint Michael the Archangel slaying the dragon.

Saint Marie Martin, named St. Pataude, was murdered in 1795 because of her republican commitment. Raped and tortured, she was tied up to, or hanged from, a tree. Numerous miracles are attributed to her, in particular the cure of paralysis in children.

Saint Uzec was born in the 7th Century. His cult spread to Brittany. He set up his hermitage on the banks of the Canche river. He is the patron saint of pilgrims. He carries a bag and wears a pilgrim’s hat adorned with scallop shells, a reference to the pilgrims of Santiago de Compostela. Here he is giving milk to a child for strength.

Known as the Nantes Children or the Nantes Martyrs. Saint Donasian and Rogasian are regarded as the first Breton martyrs and patron saints of Nantes. They were arrested, refused to recant their faith, and were imprisoned. They were beheaded and their bodies are buried in a tomb beneath the basilica of Saint-Donaties in Nantes.

Twina ar Mor was unable to marry her beloved. She prayed to god, and during her sleep, an angel revealed a potion to her. Unfortunately, the drink turned her loved one to ice. As compensation, she was granted three wishes. That her lover would be freed, that all true lovers would find joy, and that she would never marry. She is the patron saint of lovers.

Saint Andrev was born between 5 and 10 CE in Bethsaida. Both he and his brother Simon Peter were fishermen called by Jesus to spread the gospel, making them “fishers of men”. He deemed himself unworthy of crucifixion in the same way as Jesus, so he was crucified bound with ropes to an X-shaped cross. He is the patron saint of fishermen and rope makers.

The views are stunning.

Saint Klervi was born into a holy family. A goose tore Klervi’s eye out; her father, forewarned by an angel, came to her rescue. He disemblowed the animal to retrieve the eye and placed it back, and her sight was restored.

Budoc’s mother, Princess Azenor, was falsely accused of infidelity by her jealous stepmother, which enraged her husband, the King, who ordered that the pregnant Azenor be thrown into the sea in a cask. The cask washed ashore on the coast of Ireland. A villager who found the mother and newborn child summoned the abbot, and the child was christened the next day. Azenor became the washerwoman of the monastery, and Budoc was raised there

Saint Goustan was born in 974. At the age of 18, she was captured by pirates and then abandoned on an island. Every day she ate a slice from a fish, which miraculously reappeared whole each morning.

Saint Odile. As the patroness of ocular afflictions and ear diseases, St. Odile is often depicted with a pair of eyes on a book

The back of Saint Odile

There were many statues I could find no explanation of.

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The Cairns of Petit Mont and Gavrinis

 Brittany, France
Jul 242025
 

July 22, 2025

The day was spent wandering between Le Petit Mont and Gavrinis and visiting sites in between.  Gavrinis requires a reservation, and the last we could capture was 6:30 at night.  The sun does not set until nearly 10:00 pm at this time of year, so it wasn’t as late as it seemed.

A few vocabulary words:

Cairn: The dry-stone architectural structure covering a burial chamber.

Dolmen: Refers to the burial chamber structure, which is composed of vertical stone slabs (orthostates) supporting one or more covering stone slabs. During the Neolithic Age, this structure was not visible. It was covered by a tumulus.

Tumulus: An artificial mound made of stones or earth.

Neolithic Age: Prehistoric period during which farming and sedentary lifestyle began.

The Kernours Tombs

The angled dolmen, which you enter, is rare for this area. The architecture of this type appeared towards the end of the fourth millennium BCE. It is not known how many bodies were laid to rest in the area due to the acidic nature of the soil.  The tombs are circular and composed of 36 stones that support 14 tables.

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Almost 2,500 years later, Iron Age communities located several graves near the Kernour tombs. These too were circular. The receptacle containing the human remains was placed in the center of a dry set stone circle, and then the entire arrangement was covered with a mound of earth.

Petit Mont

The stepped cairn of le Petit Mont is thought to be one of the most significant chambered tombs in Brittany. The cairn is located on the very tip of the Rhys peninsula. This strategic location made the site vulnerable to the Nazis during World War II, who built a typical bunker into the prehistoric structure, making it part of the Atlantic Wall defences.

The concrete ramp and the concrete seen to the left on the third tier are the location of the Nazi bunker

This dolmen dates from c 3900 BCE and was robbed in 1943.  A dig in the 1980s led to the discovery of eleven engraved stone slabs. The floor of this burial chamber is made of a single slab of stone.

Notice the drawing on the upper right-hand corner of the large stone.

There is a set of feet at the lower bottom right

The spiral is thought to represent a circle of axe heads

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Gavrinis

Gavrinis is a small island in the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany. The name is believed to be derived from the Breton words gavr (goat) and enez (island).

At one end of the island is the Gavrinis tomb, a Neolithic passage tomb built around 4200–4000 BCE, making it one of the world’s oldest surviving buildings.

As you approach the site, it appears to be a simple mound of dirt.

As you walk around to the other side of the mound, the underlying stones reveal themselves.

The entry to the Gavrinis tomb

Of the 29 orthostat (squared stone) slabs that form the sides of the passage, 23 are decorated with carved symbols and patterns. Some of the symbols appear to represent non-abstract objects, such as axes and staffs. A common horn-like motif may symbolize cattle, and a shape conventionally referred to as a shield may be a highly stylized representation of a human figure. More abstract motifs include zigzag lines, lozenges, and snake-like lines.

The axe shape referred to in the circular motif in the Petit Mont.

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Er Lannic

As you leave Gavrinis, you can take a quick boat ride past Er Lannic. Er Lannic is a bird reserve and also the site of two stone circles, one of which is submerged as the water levels when these were built were considerably lower. The change in water happened with the ending of the ice age.

The smaller standing stones of Er Lannic can be seen on the left. The mound in the back is Gavrinis

The largest stone on Er Lannic

 

Visiting Britanny Between Cairns, Tumulus and Dolmen

 Brittany, France
Jul 242025
 

July 22, 2025

It was another full day of cairns, lovely towns and gorgeous scenery.

Auray and Le Bono

The day began with a little American history in the Port of Saint Gustan.

In 1776, when Benjamin Franklin set foot on French soil to seek support in the American War of Independence, he came ashore in the tiny Breton port of Saint-Goustan, forced off course by the wind.  His intended destination was  Nantes. I am rather sure the town has made a bigger deal of it than most Americans.

On the front of the above building that houses the mural of Franklin is this plaque.

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The Bar Franklin

The town is situated on the banks of the River Loch

An adorable marking in the road to show a tourist trail of the area

The remnants of an old bathhouse at the foot of town

The old suspension bridge of Le Bono

On May 22, 1837, an order from King Louis Philippe I ordered the building of the Le Bono Bridge. Heavily damaged, it was restored on November 6, 1871, and duties were collected. The bridge was decommissioned in January 1879, and after years, it now serves as a charming footbridge.

Harvesting Hay

Ever since I have been seeing round hay bales in fields, I have wondered how they went from field to barn.  I learned today.

Putting giant round hay bales on tractor trailers

It is only fitting that hay bales in Brittany are perfect Monet paintings.

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Alignements of Carnac

 Brittany, France
Jul 242025
 

July 21, 2025

I am traveling with my friend Susan.  You know you have a good travel buddy when you both get excited about spending the day looking at rocks.  Today, we spent the day driving from one end to the other of an area of Brittany known for its stone structures—the Alignements Du Carnac.

Alignements de Petite Menec

The stones in this alignment consist of 101 menhirs (individual stones), arranged in 10 rows. Seven of them are oriented to the east, and the last three are oriented northeast.

These stones date back to approximately 4800 to 3000 BCE According to experts, these stones represent the last phase of the Neolithic era (era of polished stone).

The stones of Carnac consist of more than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones, hewn from local granite and erected by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany, forming the most extensive such collection in the world.

It is safe to say that no one truly knows the what or why of the stones.

Recent preventive excavations in the vicinity of Carnac have yielded dates that range for the most part between 4,800 and 3,500 BCE.  But it isn’t easy to be precise. Despite their actual age, modern beliefs associate them with 1st-century CE Roman and later Christian occupations.

A Christian legend associated with the stones held that they were pagan soldiers in pursuit of Pope Cornelius when he turned them to stone.

Alignment of Kerlescan

This alignment is enormous, but a fence surrounds the entire site. The site consists of thirteen rows with 555 stones.

In Brittany, local versions of the Arthurian cycle include the Carnac Stones. This tradition claims that the reason they stand in such perfectly straight lines is that they are a Roman legion turned to stone by Merlin the Wizard.

Some theories of the stones are that they served as astronomical observations aligning with celestial events like solstices and equinoxes.

Geant Et Quadrilatere Du Manio – The Giant of Du Manio

Menhirs vary in height from knee high to taller than the average human.  The most impressive of all, Le Géant du Manio, stands around 20 feet tall.

Alignments of Menec

 

There is a small, but not particularly impressive, museum at the Memec site called the Maison des Mégalithes. You drive through almost one mile of the largest menhir field with 1099 stones to get to the Maison.  It is absolutely impossible to capture the majesty and the feeling of being overwhelmed with the size of the site.

Personal Details:

Three days at Hotel La Maison OBONO Hotel.  The service was excellent. The one dinner I ate in the dining room was fabulous, and their wine selection excellent.  I ate Brittany oysters as often as possible.

Vienne, France

 France
May 182022
 

May 2022

Vienne is a mere 18 minutes by train from Lyon and yet it is a million miles away.

Vienne sits on the Rhône River where it eventually joins the  Gère River, about 20 miles south of Lyon. In ancient times Vienne was the capital of the Celtic tribe known as the Allobroges. It was conquered by the Romans in 121 BCE and became one of the most important towns of Gaul until Roman rule of the area ended in 275 CE. Late in the 9th century the town became part of the Holy Roman Empire, and it was transferred to French sovereignty in 1450.

The Roman Theater

The Roman Theater was built in the 1st century CE and was one of the largest in the Roman world.  It could hold 11,000 spectators who could watch chariot races or singing and poetry performances.  In the 4th century, due to disapproval by the church, the emperors banned theater productions and so the theater was abandoned.  It became a quarry and dump in the 3rd century and was eventually buried underground.  Work began on its restoration in 1922 and today it is home to theater and Vienne’s Jazz Festival.

Under restoration and completely covered in scaffolding is the Saint-Maurice Cathedral

Originally a roman temple dating from the early 1st century CE. Saint-Maurice Cathedral became a Christian church in the 5th century. It was used as a club for the Jacobins during the French Revolution (1787–1799).

The 9th-century church of Saint-André-le-Bas, was rebuilt in the 12th–13th century.

The abbey of Saint-Andre-le-Bas was founded in the 8th century by Duke Ansemund. The church was originally a chapel of the palace of kings of Burgundy built in the end of the 9th century and flourished in the High Middle Ages.

The Hundred Years’ War and the competition of new religious orders reduced the power of the convent and it never recovered from the Wars of religion. The monastery was dissolved in the late 18th century.

Cloisters of Saint-Andre-le-Bas church.

A fun little character hidden on a column base in the church of Saint-André-le-Bas

The abbey relied on income from the privilege of being buried there. This is an obituary plaque dating to the 6th century.

The Temple of Augustus and Livia

The Temple of Augustus and Livia was built sometime between 20 and 10 BCE, although some features of the Temple date to the 1st century CE.  The temple’s excellent state of preservation is largely the result of it being incorporated into a church as early as the 5th century and later restored in the 19th century. The temple is dedicated to the imperial cult honoring Emperor Augustus and his third wife, Livia.

At the end of the Middle Ages, this house sat next door to the pillory where criminals who were condemned by the Justice of the county were exposed and tormented.  The building is attributed to the end of the 15th century with its timber frame facade.  There is a spiral staircase leading to the room at the top of the tower.

 

The archeological garden of Cybele. It is thought that these walls were likely former homes of Roman forum council members.

The Hotel de Ville

French in style, the Hôtel de Ville is in the heart of the city. It was the private home of Marquis de Rachais until 1768 when the property was acquired by the city.

Interesting Architectural Sightings

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Dogs and their accoutrements of Vienne***

Read the sign on the far right – Espace Canin

World Wars and Vienne

France entered World War I when Germany declared war on August 3rd 1914.

A mural at the train station honoring the dead of WWI – This mural was very gut wrenching.

Dedicated to the dead of WWII

The piece at her feet, while difficult to see is rather poignant.

Passing by you often.  The memory of the combatants of the grand war.

Vienne sits on the Rhone river

While an ancient bridge once connected the two parts of Vienne

Ruins tower over the city with a cascade of vineyards below

During Antiquity, the village of Saint-Romain-en-Gal was a residential and commercial district this is some of the archeological site that remains.

Saturday morning Vienne hosts the second largest market in France.

White asparagus is in season

 

Vienne is a nice train ride from Lyon, it makes for a lovely one day excursion, especially if you time it with market day.  I went for the Roman ruins and was not disappointed.

 

 

 

Picture Postcard Perfect

 Annecy, France
May 182022
 

May 2022

Annecy, France is one of those towns that simply stepped right off of a movie screen.  It has an historic district that sits on a clear blue lake and hardly seems real.

Annecy is billed as a city of Art and it does have a considerable amount of lovely public art, but I also believe that nickname came from its very classic architecture. Brightly colored old buildings sitting upon charming canals, bedecked in flowers and criss crossed with small bridges, it seriously is a little too perfect.

In the heart of the old town, the Île palace, a former prison and the Palais de Justice (law courts).

On the left is the Île palace sitting in the middle of the river

The castle of Annecy is the former residence of the Dukes of Genevois-Nemours.  It looms over the city and is an eclectic museum with art exhibitions and galleries dedicated to archaeology, ethnology, history and the life of and on alpine lakes.

The castle of Annecy

Through the ages the castle had many masters which gave it a rather interesting architectural style.  A blend somewhere between medieval defense and elegant French Renaissance.  Used as a military barracks until 1947, it was acquired by the town in 1953 and turned into an art gallery, tourist attraction and cultural center.

Looking out a window of the Castle of Annecy down upon the town

The large hall in the castle and some of the art that found a perfect setting in this huge room

In 1939 anti-aircraft shelters were dug into the rock under the castle.

Lake Annecy with the Alps in the background

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Public Art in the Jardins de l’Europe

Somehow artists just get it.

A fun fountain in town

I was there when the crowds weren’t too bad, but add more people and I think I would have mistakenly thought I was in Disneyland.

Christmas Season in Paris

 France, Paris
Dec 142021
 

December 2021

Christmas in Paris is Magical.  Lights are everywhere, stores, and neighborhoods get in the spirit, trees grace many windows and interesting decorations pop up here and there.

There are Christmas Markets everywhere with the smells of Christmas and hot mulled wine and roasted chestnuts on most every corner.

Enjoy!

On November 21, 2021 the Champs Elysees closed for the lighting of the trees

Teddy Bear at the Ritz

A restaurant on the Rue de Rivoli

Carousels abound at this time of year

Stores get in the spirit

No small square goes un-ornamented

The lights in my neighborhood

Rue Cler is a great destination for food shopping and dining

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Tubbing at the Hotel de Ville

Trees around the Place de Bastille

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Rudolph at a Christmas Fair

Festival Des Lumières Du Jardin Des Plantes

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Pirouette Restaurant at 5 rue Mondétour

Odds and Ends of Paris

 France, Paris
Dec 142021
 

December 2021

There are always pictures you take, and places you go that never quite fit into the narrative you have chosen to tell on any given day.  Here is a roundup of those things I want to recall but had no place to put them.

What is with the French and their Mice?

If you were a fan of the movie Ratatouie, you might well recognize the name Aurouze, and if not, you should remember this:

In  “Ratatouille,” the father of Rémy, the rat who wants to be a chef, shows him a pest-control shop and tells him “humans do nasty things to rodents”.

Aurouze has been killing rats for 135 years. The dead rats hanging in the window, their necks crushed by steel traps, have been there since 1925.

“We’ll never take them down,” Cécile Aurouze, who along with her brother Julien, runs the business founded by their grandfather in 1872.

A Christmas display in Aurouze

This was not the only store I saw with such displays, this in the 19th, with its rather dirty windows.

The Maillol Museum

The Maillol was having a special showing of Steve McCurry’s photos, but a glimpse here and there of Malloils stunning sculptures could be had if one worked at it.

Maillol is best known as a sculptor who specialized in statues of female nudes. Associated with the Nabis group, he turned to sculpture in his late thirties (due largely to failing eye-sight).  Maillol drew on the narratives of mythology, and focused on sculpting the idealized female figure.

A breathtaking exhibit of the work of Damien Hirst was taking place at the Cartier Foundation, a building, designed by Jean Nouvel, worth visiting all on its own.

The first artwork presented in the Rotunda of the Bourse de Commerce is an installation by artist Urs Fischer, specially redesigned for the museum opening.  It took my breath away.

Marengo

No one ever told me that Marengo hung over the crypt of Napoleon at the Invalides.

Paris Catacombs

Catacombs have always fascinated me and a tour of the Paris Catacombs is a common thing to do, what I did not know is they were originally a quarry with the stones they removed being used in buildings such as the Louvre, there is a fascinating history in those tunnels.

A must-do restaurant if you can

The restaurant Le Enfants Rouge at 9 rue de Beauce is headed by Daï Shinozuka. Hailing from Japan, he apprenticed with Yves Camdeborde and Stéphane Jégo.  The food is amazing and creative.

The restaurant is at the back of the Marche Enfants Rouges, or market of the red children, Paris’s oldest food market, which opened in 1615. The name comes from the children at the orphanage next to the market who were required to wear red uniforms.

Cemeteries

I love cemeteries, and Paris is filled with very historic ones that are well documented in every travel book and blog.  Here are some graves that I found unique despite not being famous.

Passy Cemetery

Opened in 1820, by 1874, the small Passy Cemetery had become the aristocratic necropolis of Paris.  The retaining wall of the cemetery is decorated with a bas-relief commemorating soldiers who fell in World War I.

*Pere Lachaise

Opened in 1804 and with more than 3.5 million visitors annually, Pere Lachaise is the most visited necropolis in the world.

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Montparnasse Cemetery

Created at the beginning of the 19th century, the cemetery has over 35,000 graves and approximately a thousand people are buried here each year

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Le Corbusier

There are several places in Paris to admire the work of Le Corbusier, but I managed to get to only two.

The first, in the 16th arrondissement, is Villa La Roche (10 Square Du Docteur Blanche), which was commissioned by Swiss banker Raoul La Roche in 1923 as a gallery to display his painting collection.  The house is without furniture and not in terrific shape, but a stroll through was interesting to get a real feel for the incredibly small proportions of the house. – I was so underwhelmed, I forgot to take any pictures.

The second I visited was Le Corbusier’s apartment and studio (24 Rue Nungesser et Coli) that he both designed and lived in from 1934 until his death in 1965. Designated as a historical landmark in 1972, the light-filled space still contains a small collection of Le Corbusier’s personal belongings.  Here, I felt the presence of the man, and these photos are all from his own apartment.

Just off his studio is this lovely sitting area

An office space with amazing light streaming in from the out of doors

The only stairway in the house, and a bit iffy to negotiate

Le Corbusier’s studio

In the lobby is a full wall dedicated to Le poème de l’angle droit.  The Poem is a series of 19 paintings and corresponding writings composed by Le Corbusier between 1947 and 1953 and first published in book form as a limited edition of 250 copies in 1955. The Poem of the Right Angle is considered to be his most lucid synthesis of personal maxims

Saint Denis Basilica Cathedral

The Necropolis of the Kings of France

The basilica sits on the site of a Gallo-Roman cemetery where the tomb of Saint Denis is thought to have been.  The first Bishop of Paris, Denis, was martyred around 250 CE.

The Archaeological crypt shows the remains of earlier structures. This was a the location of the tombs of the martyred Saint Denis, Rustique and Eleuthere

In the 12th century Abbot Suger turned the abbey into a masterpiece of what came to be known as early Gothic art.  He rebuilt the structure using new architectural techniques, such as cross-ribbed vaults.  Most of the work was done in the 13th century during the reign of Saint Louis.  The building suffered during wars and the revolution and was restored in the 19th century.

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Much of what the Basilica is known for is its stunning collection of sculpture

Most of the kings and queens of France were buried here from the 6th century onwards.

Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne are represented dead, naked and flayed inside the Carrara marble tomb, and alive and praying on the upper part.

The praying statues of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were commissioned by Louis XVIII when the ashes of the king and queen were returned, the statues were completed circa 1830.

The Bourbon grave holds the remains of Louis XVI and Mari-Antoinette, transferred from the Madeleine cemetery in Paris by Louis XVII, the last king to be buried in the basilica in 1824.

The royal ossuary contains bones exhumed from the royal tombs at the time of the Revolution and gathered together by Louis XVIII

King Dagobert’s tomb is located where he was buried in 639

This black stoned funerary effigy made in Tournais stone had been identified by some as that of Mahaut of Artois. And others attributed it to Blanche of Castille. However some elements make it possible to associate this effigy to Marie of Brienne. Her gloves, her crown and her traditional oriental ring, as well as the dragons located at her foot, associated it with Marie, triumphant over evil.

In the crypt is one of the rarer examples of Romanesque style in the Île-de-France. This area also features several storiated capitals

 

Restaurant to remember:  Grand Couer 41 rue du Temple in the 4th

The 19th Arrondissement

 France, Paris
Dec 142021
 

December 2021

The 19th  is crossed by two canals, the Canal Saint-Denis and the Canal de l’Ourcq, which meet near the Parc de la Villette.

On the Canal de l’Ourcq, one will find a metal lift bridge, the Pont de Flandre, linking the Quai de l’Oise to the Quai de la Marne. Commissioned in 1885 in order to replace an old swing bridge that obstructed the passage of barges, the Pont de Flandre was the first hydraulic lift bridge in Paris and is the city’s only remaining lift bridge.  Both the arched footbridge and the lift bridge were listed as Historical Monuments in 1993.

The Mairie of the 19th was built between 1876 and 1878, and designed by Gabriel Davioud. A Mairie is the government building of the Arrondissement.

Beware of Words, an art installation by Benjamin Vautier in 1993 in the 19th

What the 19th is most known for is its two large parks.  La Villette et Parc des Buttes-Chaumont.

Parc des Buttes Chaumont

The most famous feature of Parc des Buttes Chaumont is the Temple de la Sibylle, inspired by the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, Italy, and perched at the top of a cliff in the center of a small lake.

The park took its name from a vegetation-less hill called Chauve-mont, or bare hill. The area was the site of the Gibbet of Montfaucon, where, from the 13th century until 1760, the bodies of hanged criminals were displayed after their executions. After the 1789 Revolution, it became a refuse dump, and then a place for cutting up horse carcasses and a depository for sewage. The area also served as a quarry.

The suspension bridge of Parc des Buttes Chaumont was built by Gustave Eiffel

The director of public works of Paris and builder of the Park, Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand, reported that “the site spread infectious emanations not only to the neighboring areas, but, following the direction of the wind, over the entire city.”

Work on the park began in 1864, under the direction of Alphand, who also created the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes. It took two years just to terrace the land. Then a railroad track was laid to bring in cars carrying two hundred thousand cubic meters of topsoil, and then a thousand workers turned the park into what we see today.

The second bridge in the park is of stone

La Villette

La Villette is a study in deconstructionism and can be a bit both disconcerting and overwhelming at the same time.

Art abounds within the park. This is Dispatch Work by Jan Vormann

Designed by Bernard Tschumi, a French architect of Swiss origin, in partnership with Colin Fournier, between 1984 to 1987,  the park sits on the site of the Parisian abattoirs (slaughterhouses) and the national wholesale meat market.  The slaughterhouses, built in 1867 on the instructions of Napoléon III, were cleared away in 1974. As part of his design process, Tschumi sought the opinions of the deconstructionist philosopher Jacques Derrida.

There are old-fashioned rides in the park

There are new and modern rides in the park

Since the creation of the park, museums, concert halls, and theaters have been designed by several noted contemporary architects, including Christian de Portzamparc, Adrien Fainsilber, Philippe Chaix, Jean-Paul Morel,  and Gérard Chamayou.  They dot this large expanse called La Villette.

One of the stranger things to be found in the park is a submarine.

This 400 ton submarine was the flagship of the French Navy in the 1950s It was disarmed in 1982 Built in the arsenal of Cherbourg in Normandy, it was  inaugurated under the name Argonaute on February 24, 1954.

The 19th is not all the explored by visitors as it is a ways away from the hustle and bustle of what tourists consider Paris.  But if you have the time, it is a very interesting area to wander.

Once a railroad bridge, this foot bridge crosses the canal

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Art Underground

 France, Paris
Dec 142021
 

December 2021

I am all for walking in Paris, I love getting lost, I think that is what Paris is all about.  If I need to get crosstown I prefer the bus, you can look out the windows and see the world.  But…sometimes the Metro is the only way to get where you are going, and if you stop to enjoy the art in some of the stations, and underground ride can be great too.

So much has been written about the entryways to most of the Paris Metro Stations, so here is the stuff people don’t write about.

Bastille Metro Station – Line 1

The Bastille was taken in July, 1789 and torn apart stone by stone.  What now exists is the Place de la Bastille.

The Bastille Metro station was inaugurated on July 19, 1900 with the opening of Line 1

The tiles that line the platform of Line 1 are by ceramists Lilian Belembert and Odile Jacquot, done in 1989 to commemorate the bicentenary of the French Revolution.

Concorde

Line 1


On the platform of Line 1 in the Concorde Station is the first public artwork of the International Network of Human Rights Projects by artist Francoise Schein, done in 1991.

The subway is covered by the text of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen from the French Revolution.

All of the spaces and punctuation is removed making the piece a giant puzzle of arbitrarily placed letters.

“Men are born and remain free and equal in rights”. – Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen of 1789.

Tuileries

Line 1

The Tuileries station is covered with photos covering the past 11 decades, honoring major events in French history.

If you have more than a little time between stops, and can walk both sides of the tracks you will find the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Josephine Baker, Charles de Gaulle, Carl Lewis, and Nelson Mandela, as well as the Concorde, The Airbus A380, Chanel 5, Game Boy and Darth Vader.

The photos were installed to celebrate the Centenary of the Metro Parisien.

Pont-Neuf Station

Line 1


The Pont-Neuf station is near the Paris Mint, and is known as Pont-Neuf-La-Monnaie.

The decorations include oversized reproductions of coins that have been issued over the centuries.

There is also an old coin-making press

 

Liege Station

Many tourists don’t get as far as the Liege Station and it is difficult to navigate.  There is only one track, one platform, and two trains, so one needs to really know what they are doing to navigate their way.

The tile murals are on the other side of the tracks from the platform and have to be viewed through a protective glass wall or the windows of the train if you are fortunate enough to sit on that side while riding.

This station was originally built in 1911 and  called Rue de Berlin before WWI, it was renamed to honor the Belgian troops heroism in the Battle of Liege.

Nine monuments from the city of Liege grace the walls.

Porte de Pantin

Line 5

The musical notes on the walls of this metro station are related to the Cite de la Musique and Philharmonie de Paris, both located in the nearby Parc de la Villette.

Opera

I have already discussed the drawings found throughout the halls of the Opera Metro, but they are so fun I wanted to give them a little more due.

Titled Secrets of the Opera there are nearly 1000 silhouettes, inspired by the professions of the Opéra national de Paris.  Randomly placed are QR codes, which sends you to a site where you can enjoy opera music.

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Arts de Metier

Line 11

The platform at this station is entirely covered with riveted copper plates, and the portholes feel like a peek into Jules Verne’s Nautilus.

The station was rehabbed for the bicentennial of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers. It is the work of Benoît Peeters, French screenwriter, and François Schuiten, Belgian designer, authors of the series Les Cités obscures.

On the station’s ceiling, a series of large cogs evokes the Musée des Arts et Métiers.

On the platforms, a series of portholes open onto small scenographies, centered on the museum’s collections.

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There are two museums, the Louvre and the Rodin that have also decorated their perspective Metro stops, but that is easy, to create what is above, takes a leap of faith, a sense of fun, and artists.

There are stops I missed, and stops yet to be decorated, but I enjoyed this little adventure underground.

Parisian History in Bits and Bites

 France, Paris
Dec 112021
 

December 2021

The Panthéon

Architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot designed the Pantheon to fulfill  Louis XV’s wish to glorify the monarchy in the form of a church dedicated to Saint Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris. The church was to also house her relics.

The domes of the Pantheon

The building was placed in the center of the Place du Panthéon which is how it got its name.  Neither Soufflot nor Louis XV lived to see the church completed.

The remains of Voltaire

The tomb of Rousseau in the crypt of the Panthéon

By the time construction was finished, the French Revolution had started; in 1791 the National Constituent Assembly voted to transform the Church  into a mausoleum for the remains of distinguished French citizens.  The idea was modeled on the Pantheon in Rome which had been used in this way since the 16th century.

In 1851, Léon Foucault conducted a demonstration of diurnal motion at the Panthéon by suspending a pendulum from the ceiling.

A copy of Foucault’s pendulum swings from the same spot that Foucoault’s original experiment took place.

Since 1885, the year of Victor Hugo’s death and burial in the Pantheon, it has been the last resting place for the great people who have helped to create the history of France. The crypt houses the tombs of such illustrious figures as Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile Zola, Alexandre Dumas, Pierre and Marie Curie.  The latest person to be honored was Josephine Baker on December 1st of 2021.

The cenotaph of Josephine Baker with a wreath from the City of San Francisco

Les Arènes de Lutèce

Although much of the Arènes de Lutèce is a recent reconstruction, it is one of the most important Roman archaeological remains in Paris. Obviously an amphitheater, with an elliptical shape, the nine niches that formed the back of the stage are still visible. As are some of the animal cages that would have opened directly onto the arena. The amphitheater was constructed in the 1st century AD, and is thought to have seated some 17,000 people.

The destruction of the amphitheatre started during the sack of Paris by the Barbarians in 280 AD. A large amount of stone was taken to the Île de la Cité to build fortifications. It was filled in at the beginning of the 13th century, having briefly been a cemetery.  Building in the 1860s unearthed the monument, and Victor Hugo spearheaded the campaign to save and restore the amphitheater. It was reopened as a public square in 1896.

The Coronelli Globes

The Globe of the Earth presents a complete cartography of the world and its wealth available to the Sun King at the height of his glory.

In the 1680s  Louis XIV was the king. His ambassador to Rome, Cardinal César d’Estrées, commissioned Vincenzo Coronelli, a Franciscan monk renowned for his maps and atlases, to create two massive globes.  One shows the known world and the other represents the skies on the day of the Sun King’s birth.

Seventy-two constellations appear on the globe. In addition to the forty-eight constellations described by Ptolemy, there are others discovered after improved telescope lenses came about.

The globes have their own website that tell the story of all of the images found on these huge and magnificent pieces of art.

Louis XIV entrusted the globes to the Royal Library, and thus they were removed from the palace, and escaped destruction during the French Revolution.  They can now be found in the François-Mitterrand Library, also known as the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Images of the Library Buildings:

Bibliothèque nationale de France  is located on an open plaza punctuated at the corners with four towers shaped like open books. The buildings house seven floors of offices and eleven floors of storage.

The library with the globes is below the street level

The building that houses the globes is built around a garden

These were very out of the way things to do in Paris and worth the time, if you have it.

The Halle Freyssinet

Very close to the Library is a place called The Halle Freyssinet.  Designed between 1927 and 1929 by the engineer Eugène Freyssinet, it is made of pre-stressed concrete. The Halle Freyssinet was listed as a Historical Monument in 2012.

The building was initially conceived as a transshipment hub for trains and trucks and was connected to the Austerlitz station. The building is now a hub for startups with a rather large space for dining.  There are stands where you can take food to random tables as well as restaurants.

The Halle Freyssenet

Lunch in the Halle Freyssenet: I highly recommend the Italian Restaurant La Felicitá, it is truffle season, and their truffle pasta was divine.

Dinner: Cafe des Musées for their Beef Bourguignon – 49 Rue de Turenne

 

The Art World of Montparnasse

 France, Paris
Dec 112021
 

December 2021

While Montmartre was the center of the art world of the late 1800s, it moved to Montparnasse in the early 1900s.

In the early 1900s Paris was the home of the avant-garde with the advent of Cubism, Surrealism and Dadaism – Picasso and Matisse, Chagall, Giacometti, Miró and Calder, Man Ray and Foujita all spent time in Montparnasse, then, one of the most prosperous and prolific art colonies of the 20th century.

“I aspired to see with my own eyes what I had heard of from so far away: this revolution of the eye, this rotation of colours…that could not be seen in my town. The sun of Art then shone only on Paris.” – Marc Chagall writing about these Années Folles (the Crazy Years).

Although times and Paris have radically changed one can still trace the footsteps of many of these artists in todays Paris.

Villa Vassilieff with all of its history still works as an artist colony today specializing in promoting female artists

It is easiest to begin with Marie Vassilieff. A Russian artist who moved to Paris around 1911 and opened her own atelier at 21 Avenue du Maine. Soon the likes of Henri Matisse, Nina Hamnett, Amedeo Modigliani, Ossip Zadkine, Olga Sacharoff, Juan Gris, and Chaïm Soutine were dropping by for conversation and occasionally to draw.  Eventually her atelier was filled with paintings by Marc Chagall and Modigliani, drawings by Picasso and Fernand Léger, and  a sculpture by Zadkine.

The studios of Villa Vassillief

By 1913, her studio was so widely known that Fernand Léger gave two lectures there on the topic of Modern art.

What this fascinating woman is most remembered for, however, is her canteen that operated before and during World War I. Through her work as a nurse in the French Red Cross she could easily see how badly artists were suffering financially and how little they had to eat, so in 1915, she opened a canteen providing a full meal and a glass of wine for a few centimes.

Villa Vassilieff

The cafes of the area provided much the same atmosphere, bread left on the street corner for a little while before being taken inside, should an artist in need stroll by.  A table where one was allowed to sit all day with just one drink, and not be shooed away or asked if they would like another.

Jean Cocteau once said poverty was a luxury in Montparnasse.

Le Dome

These cafes still exist today, cafés like Le Dôme and La Closerie and des Lilas, and La Coupole, all lifelines to the starving artists.  Places where one could also find Ernest Hemingway finishing The Sun Also Rises, and James Joyce writing Finnegans Wake. 

La Closerie des Lilas

The Dingo American Bar and Restaurant at 10 rue Delambre, now called the Auberge de Venise opened its doors in 1923. It was one of the few drinking establishments at the time that was open all night.

Ernest Hemingway recorded in his book A Moveable Feast, that he first met F. Scott Fitzgerald at the Dingo Bar in late April 1925, two weeks after the publication of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

Others patrons of the Dingo Bar included Pablo Picasso, Aleister Crowley, Nancy Cunard and Isadora Duncan who lived just across the street.

Montparnasse was first settled by people from Britanny. This can be seen in the oysters available in all the cafes, and the numerous creperies that abound in the neighborhood

Tiles on a random fish market in the area

Since so many of the artists eventually became famous, their places of residences can be spotted thanks to plaques outside many of the establishments.

The Hotel Delambre at 35 Rue Delambre

On the same street at #5 you will find a plaque for the Japanese/French artist Foujita.

Gauguin and Modigliani at 8 rue de la Grande-Chaumière

Man Ray had his studio in this stunning building at 31 bis Rue Campagne-Première.  Bis means 1/2 a numbering system used when two units occupy the same lot.

Man Ray lived next door at L’hotel Istria with his muse and love Kiki de Montparnasse. The hotel was the home to many great artists of the era.


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Rodin’s sculpture of French writer Balzac was finished in 1898 and cast in bronze after the artist’s death in 1954. Rodin used photographs of the writer and local physiognomies from a trip he made to Tours, where Balzac was born, to recreate the sculpture. The sculpture is located at the intersection of Boulevard Raspail and Boulevard du Montparnasse.

Honoré de Balzac’s grave in Pere Lachaise Cemetery

Honoré de Balzac died August 18, 1850. He was a long time friend of Victor Hugo who delivered his eulogy; “Henceforth men’s eyes will be turned towards the faces not of those who are the rulers but of those who are the thinkers.” The bronze sculpture of his likeness on his gravesite is  by Pierre Jean David Angers.

This is the grave of Man Ray and his wife Juliet Browner in Montparnasse cemetery.   The gravestone once bore the inscription, “Unconcerned but not indifferent” a second stone added after the death of his wife in 1991 was inscribed  “Together again”  The stones have been vandalized twice, and thus the grave is difficult to find.  A fan has added his name in black chalk, and flowers dot his grave, brought by admirers.   As a Jew, Man Ray fled the Nazis when they invaded France during the second world war but returned from California in 1951 and spent the rest of his life in Paris.

If you are in Paris and looking for a highly knowledgeable guide to take you around I would like to highly recommend Florent.  You can get a taste of his work here, or contact him for a more in depth experience via florentcardinaud@gmail.com.

Random Outdoor and Street Art of Paris

 France, Paris
Dec 112021
 

December 2021

It is rather ludicrous to write about art in Paris since the city is filled with art on every street corner, every building and every park.  There is also great street art if you look around.  There really are too many to even begin to consider writing about, but here are a few pieces that caught my eye.

Musée de la Sculpture en Plein Air

Reinout d’Haese (Belgium), ‘Melmouth’, 1966, in Musée de la Sculpture en Plein Air.

This fascinating guy can be found in the Musée de la Sculpture en Plein Air.  This little outdoor space opened in 1980 in the Square Tino Rossi and features artists from all over the world.  It is perfect to just stroll, enjoy the art, enjoy the Seine and get some fresh air. The park can be found on the Quai Saint-Bernard between the Pont de Sully and the Pont d’Austerlitz.

Rue Chapon

Les Spécialistes

“J.B. & S.B. Specialists” are the artists Julien Berthier and Simon Boudvin

This piece actually has its own Wikipedia Page (in French). The door, the address, and the plaque were all installed in about 30 minutes on a Saturday morning in 2006.  It even has its own fake address “1 Bis.” (“Bis,” means repeat or twice,  and designates addresses for divided lots, like 1B or 1 1/2).

Like so many other facades in the world, it is periodically tagged, forcing the city of Paris to clean it.

La Danse de la fontaine émergente

La Danse de la Fontaine Emergente

La Danse de la fontaine émergente is a (presently non-working) fountain on Place Augusta-Holmes on rue Paul Klée,. Designed by French-Chinese sculptor Chen Zhen, who died in 2000, it was completed by his wife Xu Min in 2008.

La Danse de la fontaine émergente

The fountain, designed to resemble a dragon, is constructed of stainless steel, glass and plastic, the dragon’s transparent skin is meant to show the water flowing inside.

 

Le Passe-Muraille Sculpture

Writer Marcel Ayme lived in the Montmartre area of Paris and in the 1980s the Place Marcel Ayme was dedicated to the author.

The sculpture is based on a story by Marcel Ayme.  A man named Dutilleul was a lowly civil servant from Montmartre who discovers he can walk through walls.  At first he uses it against co-workers that had humiliated him, but eventually moves on to burgling , leaving notes signed, “Garou-Garou” — it does not translate well “Garou” is part of the French word for werewolf.  English translations of the story have him calling himself either “Wolfy,” or “The Lone Wolf”. But to continue… Dutilleul gets caught and thrown in La Santé prison, where, of course he escapes. He even went to a cafe had lunch and then sent the bill to the warden. In the end he has an affair with a married woman.  You can guess the next, the husband comes home, Dutilleul flees through the wall, and at that very moment looses his magical powers to be forever stuck in the wall.

Paris Sewers

One can take a tour of Paris’ sewer system, and it is quite informative and worth the time.  If you are observant you will find this guy around a corner and down a hall.

This fellow is by artist Blek le Rat who started using stencils in his Paris street art in the 1980’s. He was inspired by the stenciling technique used by Italy’s fascist propaganda machine during World War II. Blek le Rat started a whole new movement in street art with the use of stencils.

Welcoming Hands at the Jardin des Tuileries

A series of intertwined hands lay on five granite stones in the Tuilleries at the end of the park near the Place de Concorde.  They vary  in size from 20 to 30 inches wide and high and are the work of Louise Josephine Bourgeois.

I could find nothing about this piece at the corner of Rue Victor Considerant and Rue Victor Schoelcher.  However, it appears to be a popular spot to be creative as I have found photos of other interesting pieces of street art that have graced this wall before.

So easy to miss, there are nearly 1000 silhouettes, inspired by the many professions of the Opéra national de Paris, on the walls of the metro station that bears its name.

Swimmers and dancers appear above the street signs of Paris randomly all over town

Place Michel Debre

This interesting piece is by Cesar Baldaccini and sits on a traffic corner in the 6th Arrondissement. César was at the forefront of the Nouveau Réalisme movement with his radical compressions and fantastic representations of animals and insects

He was obviously very proud of it, as he had a similar piece placed on his gravesite in Montparnasse Cemetery.

This little music box at L’Olympia hall (28 Boulevard des Capucines) actually works and honors famous French singer/songwriter Georges Brassens. Music boxes like this, installed by Atomik Nation, can be found all over town.

Making Historic Connections

 France, Paris
Dec 042021
 

November 2021

It is difficult to write about Paris, as the city and its sites are so famous, but there are always little unknowns.  Take for example the guillotine, Lafayette and the US Revolutionary War.

The guillotine is a well known instrument of death.  Physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin did not invent the machine, he simply suggested it as a more humane manner of carrying out executions in France.  Guillotin was against the death penalty, and was horrified by the gruesome methods of execution of his time, such as the breaking wheel.

Lafayette Meets Washington

Lafayette, or, Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, was born into a noble family. He had already inherited an immense fortune by the time he married Adrienne de Noailles, and became part of the court of King Louis XVI.  Desiring to find glory as a soldier, Lafayette  traveled at his own expense to the American colonies where he made history.

Lafayette fought in the Continental Army with the American colonists against the British in the American Revolution. Once he returned to France he became a leading advocate for a constitutional monarchy, and one of the most powerful men in France during the first few years of the French Revolution and during the July Revolution of 1830.

Lafayette was interned next to his wife at Picpus Cemetery.  At his burial his son placed a handful of dirt from Bunker Hill atop him. An American flag flies consistently at his gravesite.

Lafayette is buried with his wife in the Picpus Cemetery in Paris, and that is where the guillotine comes in.

Adrienne de Noailles (1759–1807), married Lafayette when she was 14 years old. She was introduced to Lafayette through her father, a French nobleman named Jean de Noailles.

After Lafayette’s return from America, his politics found him imprisoned at Olmütz. On July 22, 1794, with Lafayette at Olmütz, Adrienne, her grandmother, mother, and sister Louise were arrested and sent to prison to await the guillotine. Adrienne, after watching the executions of her family, was spared by Elizabeth Monroe, the French did not want to upset her husband James Monroe.

Once free, Adrienne sent her son, 16-year-old Georges Washington to America. She and her daughters then travelled to Vienna where she requested that she and her daughters, Anastasie and Virginie, be allowed to join Lafayette. They joined Lafayette at Olmütz 1795.  Their lives continued to be torn asunder until the family was able to return to Paris in 1800. Adrienne died in 1807 after a long bout with health problems. Lafayette died of pneumonia in 1834.

The gravesite of the Noilles family

Beheading by guillotine has a long and gruesome history in France, but for this story we are discussing the final days of the Reign of Terror when the guillotine was moved to Place de la Nation. Between June 13th and July 28th, 1794, 1,306 people were executed at this location. The 1306 people were from various social backgrounds and aged between 16 and 58. They were accused of petty, absurd or imaginary crimes.  After execution their bodies were dumped in a mass grave, in the middle of the night, in the garden of a requisitioned former convent. When that grave was full, a second was dug beside it.

The execution of Revolutionary leader, Maximilian de Robespierre, on July 28th 1794, brought about the end of the reign of terror.  Robespierre, was guillotined by his co-horts who were afraid they were to be the next victims.

The unmarked graves of the guillotine victims in Picpus Cemetery

Shortly after the executions victim’s families met and located the graves thanks to the help of a woman who had followed the carts containing the bodies as far as the Picpus wall. They purchased the land and a few lots around it. Today, the Picpus Cemetery is the only active private cemetery in Paris. Only descendants of the 1,306 victims of the Reign of Terror at Place de la Nation can be buried at Picpus Cemetery. That edict still holds today.

 

You can still see remnants of the macabre machine of death.

The indentations in the street are all that is left on one of the guillotines.  Built at the entrance of the now destroyed Prison de la Roquette, these slabs held together the machine of death.  From 1851, when the guillotine was opened at the prison, until 1899 when the prison was shut down, 69 public beheadings took place here.

I understand you can still see a guillotine blade at the Le musée de la préfecture de Police

The US and Paris history knot does not end there.

The treaty that ended the American Revolution was signed between Great Britain and the American Colonies in the Hotel D’York on September 3, 1783.  John Adams, John Jay and Benjamin Franklin from America and a delegation sent by King George III participated.  The hotel at 56 Rue de Jacob, has long been torn down, and a plaque commemorating the site comes and goes.

The more you travel, the more you appreciate how the world is connected.  We may be individual countries, but we are simply one world.

Chez Gudule – Duck Confit – 58 Blvd de Picpus in the 12th

Religion, Science and Madness

 France, Paris
Dec 042021
 

November 2021

Notre Dame du Travail

The exterior of Notre Dame du Travail looks like any church in any town built in this time period, but it was the interior that brought me here.
 The parish that served this area was originally known as Notre Dame de l’Assomption de Plaisance. When the quartier became part of Paris in 1860, the parish was renamed Notre Dame de Plaisance.

Montparnasse then a growing gateway to Paris, was struggling to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding number of working-class residents, this included a church large enough to hold all of the new residents.

In 1886 Abbe Soulange-Bodin was appointed parish priest of the parish of Plaisance. Father Soulange-Bodin was responsible for building this church for the then 35,000 parishioners.  From the first moment of its inception Father Soulange-Bodin wanted to build something that would honor those who were building this ever expanding city.  He felt the church should reflect the workers and therefore had the church built of materials they understood, iron and wood. The churches name translates to Our Lady of the Labourers.

Father Soulange-Bodin  chose architect, Jules Astruc (1862-1935), to design this structure, that while it is a church, it is a church like no other.

Work on the church began in 1897 and it was completed in 1902.  this was the time of the Universal Exhibition of Paris on the Champ de Mars when many of the workers building the Exhibition’s attractions lived in the 14e arrondissement of the city.

It is believed that the steel hoops used for the vaulted nave were recovered from the roof of the Palais de l’Industrie that was built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900.

Saint Luc, patron saint of artists

Guiseppe Uberti and Emile Desouches painted the murals of the lateral chapels. Some depict scenes from the life of Sainte Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris. But fittingly others illustrate the different trades and their patron saints.

Arago and The French Meridian Line

This sculpture of Arago is by Wim Delvoye a highly controversial Belgian Conceptual artist

The French Meridian Line was established in 1667 and revised/extended several times, most famously by François Arago. It was in use until 1884.

In 1884, at the International Meridian Conference in Washington DC, the Greenwich meridian was adopted over the French meridian as the prime meridian of the world. The Meridian Line is the Prime or Zero Meridian whose data is used to measure all things longitude.

François Arago (1786-1853) was a French physicist who discovered the principle of the production of magnetism by rotation of a nonmagnetic conductor. He also devised an experiment that proved the wave theory of light and participated in research that led to the discovery of the laws of light polarization.

Arago is best known for his part in the dispute between his protege U.-J.-J. Le Verrier, and English astronomer John C. Adams over who actually discovered Neptune, thus who got to name it. Arago had suggested in 1845 that Le Verrier investigate anomalies in the motion of Uranus. When the investigation resulted in Le Verrier’s discovery of Neptune, Arago proposed that the newly found planet be named for Le Verrier.

Dutch artist Jan Dibbets created an homage to Arago with 135 bronze medallions dotting the streets of Paris along the path of the Paris meridian from north to south. Each coin bears Arago’s name and the letter N(north) and S(south) to help you determine your path should you decide to follow them all.

Jeannot’s Floors

This is an art installation that can be found outside of Saint Anne’s Hospital in Paris’s 14th Arrondissement.

Jeannot le Béarnais was a farmer in Bearn France.  He was physically abused by his father, who went on to commit suicide in 1959.  le Béarnais began to suffer from schizophrenia after his father’s death while he continued living with his mother and sister.   In 1966, Jeannot opened fire on his neighbors’ dining room, after voices told him to kill them.

In 1971, a vet found his mother dead in her armchair. Jeannot insisted she should be buried under the kitchen stairs, with a ball of wool, knitting needles and a bottle of wine.

Jeannot moved his bed to the dining room, next to the stairs, and began carving up the oak floor.  It reads:

‘Religion has invented machines for commanding the brain of people and animals and with an invention for seeing our vision through the retina uses us to do ill (…) the church after using Hitler to kill the Jews wanted to invent a trial to take power (…) we Jean Paule are innocent we have neither killed nor destroyed nor hurt others it’s religion that uses electronic machines to command the brain.’

Seven months after his mother was buried under the stairs, Jeannot starved to death.

This art installation was met with outrage from opponents who found it to be exploitative or in bad taste. However the floor found a home at Saint Anne’s Hospital after being displayed in several galleries. It stands as a powerful statement regarding mental illness.

Jannot's Floors

With these floors is a long description from the hospital about the fact that Jeannot was suffering in a time where drugs for mental illness were in their infancy, and this shows what happens when people are not able to receive proper care.

Dinner:  Jiji – Japanese take on French food – fabulous! – 57 Rue Turenne – the 3rd

 

One last walk through Paris

 France, Paris
Sep 292021
 

September 2021

Today I spent the rainy morning at the L’Arc de Triomphe Wrapped, but the afternoon was spent walking more of this glorious city.

The day began with a downpour that lasted quite a while, but eventually the skies cleared, Paris unfolded, and the day truly began.

A sundial by Salvador Dali

Did you know that Paris has 120 sundials scattered across the city?  They are found in each arrondissement except in the 17th. This interesting sundial is found at number 27 rue Saint-Jacques. It was designed by Salvador Dalí as a present to his friends who owned a boutique at this address.

The cast concrete sundial shows a face in a scallop shell. The scallop shell refers to the “Way of St. James”.  Pilgrims passed through rue Saint-Jacques,  Paris’s oldest street, which was named for the pilgrimage made to the Santiago de Compostela or Saint-Jacques de Compostelle in French.

Gnomon of Saint-Sulpice

The Gnomon of Saint-Sulpice is an astronomical measuring device.  It is designed to cast a shadow on the ground in order to determine the position of the sun in the sky. These were fairly common throughout Europe.

Saint Sulpice is the second largest church in Paris, after Notre-Dame  The gnomon system is built around a meridian, a line which is strictly oriented along the north-south axis, represented by a brass line set in a strip of white marble on the floor of the church.

36 Rue St. Sulpice

Appropriately, or ironically, depending on your point of view, 36 Rue St. Sulpice sits directly across from the church.  What makes this building unique is the use of the different colors in the address, they are not the standard Parisian dark blue and white.

In the era of the Belle Epoque these differently colored faience plates served as a signal to those looking for a  maison close, or politely put, a house of pleasure.

This particular building was Miss Betty’s brothel, specializing in “dominatrix role play.” The brothel was said to be very popular among the ecclesiastic crowd of the Saint Sulpice area. Priests were apparently particularly drawn to the “crucifixion parlor” and the “Satan’s Hell” torture room.

The Original Standard Meter – 36 Rue Vaugirard

The “mètre étalon” is a small shelf of marble installed beneath the arcade at 36, rue Vaugirard, right across from the Senate at the Palais du Luxembourg. It’s one of 16 that were installed after, March 26, 1791, when the Académie des Sciences defined the meter for the first time. There is one other survivor in Paris, but the one here at Vaugirard is the only that remains in its original location.

The Wall of the Drunken Boat Poem – 4 Rue Férou

Along this wall is Arthur Rimbaud’s (October 20, 1854 – November 10, 1891)  lengthy masterpiece, “The Drunken Boat,” written when he was  a teenager.  The location for the poem is near the site where Rimbaud first recited the poem around 1871.  The poem was painted on the wall in 2012 with funds raised by the French Government and a Dutch foundation of poetry lovers.

Rimbaud was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes.

The first stanza of the poem reads:

As I was going down impassive Rivers,
I no longer felt myself guided by haulers:
Yelping redskins had taken them as targets
And had nailed them naked to colored stakes.
The rest can be read here.

The Hotel Latetia – 45 Boulevard Raspail

Deco ornamentation on the outside of the Hotel Latetia

The Lutetia was built in 1910 in the Art Nouveau style and designed by architects Louis-Charles Boileau and Henri Tauzin. It was founded by the Bon Marché department store. Famous guests over the years have included Pablo Picasso, Charles de Gaulle, Marianne Oswald, André Gide, Peggy Guggenheim and Josephine Baker. James Joyce wrote part of Ulysses at the hotel.

In the late 1930s, the Lutetia was a frequent gathering place for the anti-Nazi German exiles, among them Heinrich Mann, Willi Mutzner and Willi Brandt. In the Nazi regime’s propaganda of the time, these exiles were called disparagingly “The Lutetia Crowd”.

When Paris was liberated in August 1944, the hotel was abandoned by German troops, and taken over by French and American forces. From then until after the end of the war, it was used as a repatriation center for prisoners of war, displaced persons, and returnees from the German concentration camps.

As Paris returned to normality, the Lutetia was restored to its previous state as a luxury hotel. It was acquired by the Tattinger family in 1955.  It is no longer owned by the Tattinger family, but is still considered a premiere hotel property.

Hotel Latetia Front door Deco awning

Monument to François Mauriac at Place Alphonse Deville

Across the street from the Hotel Latetia I spotted this little sculpture, but was not able to find much about it. The statue is of Councillor Alphonse Deville (1856-1932), president and dean of elections of the City Council of Paris. the piece is by sculptor Haïm Kern, whom I also could find very little about, but the sculpture grabbed me none-the-less.

More random photos from around Paris

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Fountain Palatine

The chairs of Church St. Sulpice

Interestingly placed nude statuary

The remains of a romantic evening? If you do not see what I mean, look where the sidewalk meets the wall.

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First, London, for its myriads; for its height,
Manhattan heaped in towering stalagmite;
But Paris for the smoothness of the paths
That lead the heart unto the heart’s delight. . . .

Fair loiterer on the threshold of those days
When there’s no lovelier prize the world displays
Than, having beauty and your twenty years,
You have the means to conquer and the ways,

And coming where the crossroads separate
And down each vista glories and wonders wait,
Crowning each path with pinnacles so fair
You know not which to choose, and hesitate —

Oh, go to Paris. . . . In the midday gloom
Of some old quarter take a little room
That looks off over Paris and its towers
From Saint Gervais round to the Emperor’s Tomb, —

So high that you can hear a mating dove
Croon down the chimney from the roof above,
See Notre Dame and know how sweet it is
To wake between Our Lady and our love.

And have a little balcony to bring
Fair plants to fill with verdure and blossoming,
That sparrows seek, to feed from pretty hands,
And swallows circle over in the Spring.

There of an evening you shall sit at ease
In the sweet month of flowering chestnut-trees,
There with your little darling in your arms,
Your pretty dark-eyed Manon or Louise.

And looking out over the domes and towers
That chime the fleeting quarters and the hours,
While the bright clouds banked eastward back of them
Blush in the sunset, pink as hawthorn flowers,

You cannot fail to think, as I have done,
Some of life’s ends attained, so you be one
Who measures life’s attainment by the hours
That Joy has rescued from oblivion.

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Come out into the evening streets. The green light lessens in the west.
The city laughs and liveliest her fervid pulse of pleasure beats.

The belfry on Saint Severin strikes eight across the smoking eaves:
Come out under the lights and leaves
to the Reine Blanche on Saint Germain. . . .

Now crowded diners fill the floor of brasserie and restaurant.
Shrill voices cry “L’Intransigeant,” and corners echo “Paris-Sport.”

Where rows of tables from the street are screened with shoots of box and bay,
The ragged minstrels sing and play and gather sous from those that eat.

And old men stand with menu-cards, inviting passers-by to dine
On the bright terraces that line the Latin Quarter boulevards. . . .

But, having drunk and eaten well, ’tis pleasant then to stroll along
And mingle with the merry throng that promenades on Saint Michel.

Here saunter types of every sort. The shoddy jostle with the chic:
Turk and Roumanian and Greek; student and officer and sport;

Slavs with their peasant, Christ-like heads,
and courtezans like powdered moths,
And peddlers from Algiers, with cloths
bright-hued and stitched with golden threads;

And painters with big, serious eyes go rapt in dreams, fantastic shapes
In corduroys and Spanish capes and locks uncut and flowing ties;

And lovers wander two by two, oblivious among the press,
And making one of them no less, all lovers shall be dear to you:

All laughing lips you move among, all happy hearts that, knowing what
Makes life worth while, have wasted not the sweet reprieve of being young.

“Comment ca va!” “Mon vieux!” “Mon cher!”
Friends greet and banter as they pass.
‘Tis sweet to see among the mass comrades and lovers everywhere,

A law that’s sane, a Love that’s free, and men of every birth and blood
Allied in one great brotherhood of Art and Joy and Poverty. . . .

The open cafe-windows frame loungers at their liqueurs and beer,
And walking past them one can hear fragments of Tosca and Boheme.

And in the brilliant-lighted door of cinemas the barker calls,
And lurid posters paint the walls with scenes of Love and crime and war.

But follow past the flaming lights, borne onward with the stream of feet,
Where Bullier’s further up the street is marvellous on Thursday nights.

Here all Bohemia flocks apace; you could not often find elsewhere
So many happy heads and fair assembled in one time and place.

Under the glare and noise and heat the galaxy of dancing whirls,
Smokers, with covered heads, and girls dressed in the costume of the street.

From tables packed around the wall the crowds that drink and frolic there

—–Alan Seeger

L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped

 France, Paris
Sep 272021
 

September 2021

Sunday night September 26th

Christo and partner Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon’s latest project, L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, came to fruition  a year after Christo’s death, 12 years after Jeanne-Claude’s death, and 60 years after it was first imagined.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s nephew Vladimir Yavachev, who had worked with the couple on various art projects, made L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped a reality, and fully financed the project – worth 14 million euros – through the sale of various pieces of art by Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

What I found most impressive was seeing the L’Arc de Triomphe as a single structure, and appreciating its geometry and massive scale.  I love L’Arc, with its sculptures and symbolism, but strip those away and you truly appreciate the mass of the monument as a whole, its perfect placement within the City of Lights, and the fact that it is so often ignored in the rush of life.

Saturday, September 25th

In Paris, Christo became part of the Nouveau Réalisme art collective, but his journey did not begin in Paris.

Born in  Gabrovo, Bulgaria, in 1935, Christo moved to Sofia in 1953 where he began studying at the National Academy of Arts. There, he was taught to paint realistic works and communist propaganda, which he found to be tedious and uninspiring.

Being asked to complete his military service was more than Christo could bear, and with the help of connections he made at the academy, he travelled to Prague and in 1956, he fled the Eastern Bloc.

Christo went to Austria, to study at the Vienna Academy of Arts, and gave up his Bulgarian passport seeking political asylum. In 1958 he was granted a visa to settle in France, and in the same year he first began completing his signature works which involve the wrapping of various objects, which progressively grew in size and complexity.

Monday, September 27th

While I thought this was the last of the Christo projects, I later learned that Vladimir Yavachev plans on completing is a 150-meter-tall pyramid-shaped mastaba in Abu Dhabi, using blueprints created by the couple.  I understand the desire to continue the legacy, and expose new people to the works, but  in fact it is most likely simply a way to make money off of a deceased artist, a long held tradition of family members of great and successful artists.   One of the highlights of these installations was catching glimpses of Jeanne-Claude and Christo, she with her massive mane of red hair and he with his mop of white,  walking along the streets engaging with whomever they saw and happily discussing life, the project and art in general.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

In 1920, two years after World War I, the tomb of the unknown soldier was placed under the arch. The inscription on it reads: “A French soldier dead for the homeland 1914-1918.” And with that is an eternal flame. The presence of the tomb made it impossible for military parades to pass under the arch, showing the futility of war.

During the project the tomb was carefully respected. And the team that tends the tomb sang praises of the installation crew for that respect.

From the top of L’arc looking towards the Eiffel Tower

The Flag was only flown for 2 days during the installation for ceremonies. I was fortunate enough to be there for those 2 occasions.

On Monday the barriers come down and traffic resumes in the circle, and the flag is gone.

On Monday the 27th the clouds rolled in and the rain began, making L’arc a gray object against a gray sky

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The fasteners for the ropes holding the fabric down

The folds of the fabric were mesmerizing

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Sacre Coeur from the top of L’Arc on a rainy gray Monday

At every Christo installation there were guides ready to answer questions and hand out small squares of the fabric.  It was always worth seeking them out, to walk away with a souvenir that actually had meaning.

As you can see, the blue pops through every once in a while when you stand and look at the piece, especially at the folds that stand against hard surfaces.

Regarding the fabric, it is recycled, but the story doesn’t exactly end there.

In a blog post from June 2020, Christophe Catsaros, freelance art and architecture critic, summed up the problem inherent in the duo’s work: “Master packager Christo is nothing more than a symptom of this disposable world where, as long as you recycle, everything is fine.” 

“In truth, so-called recyclable packaging in France is not recycled: lack of channels, infrastructure … A large part of the fabrics are exported to South East Asia, where they end up in landfills.To find out more, you can read the book by Flore Berlingen, director of Zero Waste France: Recycling, the big smoke. The work of Christo has at least the merit of underlining the contradictions of our time which wants to be in transition while keeping the glance fixed on values ​​of the last century.”

As someone who has written about the effects of our actions on Climate Change, I understand the difficulties in every action and reaction.  There are not easy answers, if in fact, there are answers at all.

It would be so easy to say, sometimes, you just have to turn a blind eye, but we can no longer afford to do so.  Another reason why I think this should be the last of Christo’s installations.

Where the fabric met the hard surfaces of L’Arc

 

The L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped was truly magnificent, awe inspiring and worth the trip to Paris to see.  It is also hard to put into words how I felt while seeing the project.  I saw it over three days, and it changes from moment to moment, as does your reaction.  It was so large and so overwhelming, that you couldn’t take small bites, and yet, what you were handed visually was hard to consume, you wanted small bites, but they didn’t exist.  The feast was huge, you just had to agree, you were going to gorge yourself, and hope your absorption rate didn’t overwhelm you.

This is a short lived installation, being there for the world to see from September 18th to October 3rd, 2021

Walking and Walking and Walking Paris

 France, Paris
Sep 262021
 

September 2021

Covid is keeping me from doing many activities indoors in Paris, but there is still so much to see and do.

First Arrondissement

18 Rue de Louvre

The Duluc Detective Agency is the oldest private detective agency in France. It is still family run, the current head, Madame Duluc,  inherited the agency from her father, who in turn inherited it from his father — a former policeman in the “La Sûreté Nationale” (the detective branch of the civil police force in Paris at the time). Most will know it by its appearance in “Midnight in Paris”.

2, rue de Viarmes

As a huge fan of architect Tadao Ando, I had hoped to get into this new Paris museum. Sadly, I had not planned well; I assumed it would be more difficult to enter museums in Paris than it actually turned out to be. This is why we must always return to some of our most beloved cities.

Francios Pinault renovated the Bourse de Commerce for his collection.  Pinault hired the Japanese architect Tadao Ando to breathe new life into the building.  The Bourse de Commerce is one of the most emblematic buildings in Paris, including the free-standing column erected for Catherine de Medicis, a circular granary dating back to the 18th century, and a metal and glass dome designed in 1812.

In Tadao Ando’s words:

“I was to revive the building, honouring the memory of the city inscribed in its walls, and slot another structure into its interior, inspired by the concept of Russian dolls. The idea was to design a lively space that would foster a dynamic dialogue between the new and the old, which is what a site dedicated to contemporary art should be. The architecture was to serve as the link between the threads of time, the past, present, and future, as was the case in [François Pinault’s] Venice projects […] The circular design respecting the urban symmetry comprises a central Rotunda, and within it I inserted a nine-metre high concrete cylinder with a diameter of thirty metres […] the spatial layout of the Bourse de Commerce consists of concentric circles and is designed to create an intense and more subtle dialogue between new and old”.

Wandering the First Arrondissement

59 Rue de Rivoli

This mid-1800’s Haussman style building became an artist squat after Credit Lyonnaise abandoned the space.  A group of artists calling themselves the KGB (Kalex Gaspard and Bruno) began squatting in the building in 1999. Even though it was illegal it was receiving 40,000 visitors a year.  In 2006 the city acquired the building and created  30 legal artists studios, and decided to collect minimum rent.  The facade changes over time, and the studios are free and open to the public.

2 Boulevard de Palai

The Conciergerie clock is France’s first public clock.  The Concierge was the first French King’s Palace before Charles V moved to the Louvre in 1364.

After that move, Conciergerie was used as a jail. During the French Revolution, the Concergerie was also used as the Revolution Justice Palace. Marie-Antoinette (Louis XVI‘s wife), Robespierre (defender of human rights during the French Revolution) and thousands of citizens were judged in Conciergerie jail before their heads were placed under the Guillotine.

 

Fountain of the Innocents in the place Joachim-du-Bellay in the Les Halles

Originally called the Fountain of the Nymphs, it was constructed between 1547 and 1550 by architect Pierre Lescot and sculptor Jean Goujon in the new style of the French Renaissance. It is the oldest monumental fountain in Paris

5th Arrondissement

Rue du Chat-qui-Pêche

Rue du Chat-qui-Pêche is considered the narrowest street in Paris. It is only 5 feet 11 inches wide and is 95 feet long. It runs between Quai Saint-Michel and Rue de la Huchette.

Around the neighborhood:

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37 Rue de la Bucherie

George Whitman opened this bookstore in 1951. He arrived during World War II to study at the Sorbonne on the G.I. Bill and never left.   Originally called “Le Mistral”, it was renamed  “Shakespeare and Company” in 1964 on the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth.

George Whitman, opened his shop to a new generation of writers, including Allen Ginsberg, Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, and Ray Bradbury. William S. Burroughs is said to have studied Whitman’s collection of medical textbooks to research portions of Naked Lunch and gave its first reading there before it was finished.

Square Rene Viviani

In the 6th century this was a burial ground for the adjacent church Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre. It was later renamed for the Prime Minister of France during a period of WWI – Rene Viviani.   The fountain in the center of the park was created in the mid 1990s by George Jeanclos depicting the legend of St. Julien.   Julien the Hospitaller apparently lived in the 4th century. It was said that his father witnessed a coven of witches putting a curse on his child.  Later it was said that Julien had a vision he would kill his parents. He came home one day, saw two figures in his wife’s bedroom, assumed it was his wife and her lover and killed them, only to find out it was simply his parents visiting his wife. Julien devoted the rest of his life to doing good deeds.

The park sits on the other side of the river from the burned shell of Notre Dame.*

More of the 5th Arrondissement:

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The 4th Arrondissement

Most everyone knows, or at least has seen pictures of the Pompidou Center, which anchors the 4th Arrondissement, but there is so many wonderful alleys filled with treasures, to explore.

The Stravinsky Fountain

The Stravinsky Fountain  is a whimsical public fountain with sixteen pieces of sculpture, moving and spraying water, representing the works of composer Igor Stravinsky. It was created in 1983 by sculptors Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle. It was under repair at the time I took these photographs.

Behind the fountain are some wonderful pieces of street art and murals.

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Third Arrondissement

The Defender of Time at 8 Rue Bernard de Clairvaux.

This interesting piece has been allowed to go into a sad state of disrepair. Created by French artist Jacques Monestier in 1979, a metal man with a massive sword wages war with a dragon, a rooster, and a crab.  The animals represent the ground, the sky, and the sea, respectively.

51 Rue de Montmorency

Built in 1407, this is thought to be the oldest stone house in Paris. The house was built by Nicolas Flamel after the passing of his wife Pernelle to house the poor.

The Flamel  house is ornamented with some interesting symbols on the columns and across the lintels

The highlight of my day was visiting the Carnavalet Museum.  Primarily for the Bed of Proust, sadly not his entirely cork lined bedroom, but as a fan of Proust, even the bed was rather a novelty.  The second highlight was the the reconstructed interior of the Fouquet Jewelry store designed in 1901 by the Czech artist Alphonse Mucha, one of the leading names in Art Nouveau. Having already collaborated on jewelry pieces together, Fouquet asked Mucha to design all the interior and exterior decorations of his shop at 6 rue Royale. Fouquet donated his rue Royale shop in its entirety to the museum, and it was reassembled as it was.  I will say no more, the photos say it all.

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The top of the above piece is work overlaid with leather

 

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Proust’s Bed

Man Ray’s portrait of Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein and the recreation in the museum.

Shots from the Exterior of the Museum

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A handful of photos from the day that just seemed to be Paris no matter the Arrondissement:

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Staying Outdoors in Paris

 France, Paris
Sep 252021
 

September 2021

Covid is still running rampant around the world and the Delta variant is making life even more difficult, so right now, when visiting anywhere it is safest to do so by planning as much as possible out of doors.  Here is a little bit of fun around Paris.

Tunnel du Pont de l’Alma

The 12 foot tall Flame of Liberty is a full-sized gilded copper replica of the torch of the Statue of Liberty.  It was paid for by donations raised by readers of  the International Herald Tribune to honor the centenary of the newspaper’s publication in Paris.

The International Herald Tribune unveiled the monument in 1989.

The commemorative plaque placed at the foot of the Flame reads as follows:

“The Flame of Liberty.

An exact replica of the Statue of Liberty’s flame offered to the people of France by donors throughout the world as a symbol of the Franco-American friendship.

On the occasion of the centennial of the International Herald Tribune.

Paris 1887-1987.” 

The story does not end there.  The flame stands on a small square above the tunnel where Princess Diana was killed.  The monument has now become an homage to the late Princess and is covered with flowers and photographs becoming a makeshift monument to her memory.

McDonald’s at 119 Rue Saint-Lazare

After France lost the Alsace region to Germany in the Franco-German War of 1870, many left the area to settle in Paris. In keeping with their beer brewing heritage they opened  dozens of brasseries in the city.

Built in 1892 and named Au Roi de la Biére (“The King of Beer”), what was originally one of these Alsatian brasseries is now a fanciful McDonald’s.

Deemed a historic national monument in 1997, many of the original features remain including the  large statue of Gambrinus—a legendary European folk hero and the eponymous “King of Beer”—as well as beer steins, tobacco pipes, and a stork perched on the building’s chimney.

Parc Monceau

Park Monceau was established by Philippe d’Orléans, Duke of Chartres, a cousin of King Louis XVI, fabulously wealthy, and active in court politics and society.  In 1778, the duke decided to create a public park and employed the writer and painter Louis Carrogis Carmontelle to design the gardens.

His intention was to create what was then called an Anglo-Chinese or English garden, on the earlier model of Stowe House in England.
 Carmontelle employed a German landscape architect named Etickhausen and the architect of the Duke, Bernard Poyet, to build the follies and stated that  “It is not necessary for gardens or nature to be presented in the most agreeable forms. It’s necessary instead to preserve the charm that one encounters entering the garden, and to renew it with each step, so that the visitor in his soul will have the desire to revisit the garden every day and to possess it for himself. The true art is to know how to keep the visitors there, through a variety of objects; otherwise, they will go to the real countryside to find what should be found in this garden: the image of liberty.

On any given weekend, the park is filled with both picnickers and athletes honing their skills and staying in shape with personal trainers kicking their clients’ buts.

3 Place Du Général Kœnig

After a long walk, I needed a sit-down.  I found this small, delightful park near the Port Maillot, which was anchored by this rather impressive sculpture.  It is a monument to French general Marie Pierre Koenig (1898 – 1970). The inscription reads, “General Koenig, know that you are the pride of France”. Multiple dates on the monument refer to his accomplishments during WWII.

Kœnig commanded a Free French Brigade at the Battle of Bir Hakeim in North Africa in 1942. After the war, he served with French forces in Morocco.

Louis Vuitton Foundation Bois de Boulogne

The building was designed by Frank Gehry. According to the Architect:  The design responds to the setting of the Jardin d’Acclimatation, evoking the tradition of 19th-century glass garden buildings, the role of the Jardin in cultural memory (especially the work of Marcel Proust) and the desire to create a contemporary art museum that will be attractive and welcoming to the children and families who frequent the Jardin.

The structure of the glass roof allows the building to collect and reuse rain water and improves its geothermal power.

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Constructed on the edge of a water garden created especially for the project, the building comprises an assemblage of white blocks (known as “the icebergs”) clad in panels of fiber-reinforced concrete, surrounded by twelve immense glass “sails” supported by wooden beams. The sails give Fondation Louis Vuitton its transparency and sense of movement, while allowing the building to reflect the water, woods and garden and continually change with the light.

Skiing Courchevel

 Courchevel, France
Mar 132015
 
Standing at the top of the world. Skis are off so we could walk to this spot. Notice it is warm enough to ski without a parka.

Standing at the top of the world at Val Thorens. Skis are off so we could walk to this spot.
Notice it is warm enough to ski without a parka.

Courchevel is the name of a ski resort in the French Alps. It is a part of Les Trois Vallées, the largest linked ski area in the world. Courchevel also refers to the towns of Courchevel 1300 (Le Praz), Courchevel 1550, Courchevel 1650 (Moriond), and Courchevel 1850, which are named for their altitudes in meters. That has been confusing to me, because their weather reports are different.  We are at Courchevel 1850.

Courcheval

Les Tre Vallees

The original resort was planned during World War II  by the Vichy regime (the government of Marshal Philippe Pétain 1940–44, based in Vichy)  by  town planner Laurent Chappis. It came about because the General Council of Savoie wanted to boost the economy of the area. Chappis was an architect who essentially wrote the book on ski resort design.  Courchevel 1850 was significant, as it was the first resort in France to be constructed from scratch, rather than based around an existing village.

Meribel

Meribel

One interesting fact I read was that Courchevel is renowned as having some of the most difficult black runs in the world, I can not say that I agree with this fact, I have regularly skied Birds of Prey at Beaver Creek, but this is also a huge resort, and it would take years to see it all.

Now, a point that is driving me absolutely insane. The French ski WRONG. They have adopted the parabolic skis, they would have to as they don’t make the old straight skis anymore, and yet, they ski with legs and skis tightly together and their weight back. This completely defies the physics of the parabolic ski, which requires a wider stance and a lower center of gravity.  Parabolic skis changed the concept of the turn, you use the turn to accelerate with a parabolic ski, you use a turn to slow down with the old type of skis, so I am not sure how they are using the execution of their turns.  Yes, they look stunning, but I would absolutely never take a lesson in this country. Their ski school qualification tests are some of the hardest in the world, so they are highly qualified, but they have decided, I guess, screw technology. Which of course is silly because fighting physics makes it just that much harder to look stunning.

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These two sculptures are by Richard Orlinski and are polystyrene.  They were at the top of Saulire, the art changes annually and is put there by one of the art galleries in town.

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Regarding ski prices at Courchevel, I purchased a three day ski pass, which included insurance for 182 Euros, this covered all three valleys.  To give you that in dollars for all of you living in the United States that is equal to $195.  That is, I repeat for THREE days. We purchased just three days to see how we would feel, the next two days will be just a few Euros more per day.  I am renting high end demo skis for 5 days, and that will be $150 for all 5 days.

Skiing here is worth the airline flight, for no other reason than the vastness of the area, but the crowds are really too large.  While there are so many lifts you don’t have much wait time, the hills are fairly crowded.  The rudeness of the French translates to the hill, so it can be a war zone out there.  That being said, we have a boarder with us, she took a horrible fall, three skiers stopped and directed traffic around her and a doctor stopped and checked her out.  While there is a ski patrol it is nothing like what those in the US have come to expect, you are pretty much on your own, so with the large crowds on the rather narrow hills, unless you are skiing off piste, it can be a rather unnerving experience.  You take out insurance when you buy your ticket and that covers the cost of search and rescue and your first transport of the hill, as I said, their ski patrol is not what we have grown to expect in the U.S..

You can go parachuting or hang gliding off the hills if skiing is starting to bore you.

You can go parachuting or hang gliding off the hills if skiing is starting to bore you.

There is an air show every day the weather is good

There is an air show every day the weather is good

Raclette at Hotel Courcheneige

 Courchevel, France
Mar 122015
 

Food at the Hotel Courcheneige is excellent, and we walk away from dinner every night astounded and sated, however, one night we decided to vary from the normal fixed menu and have Raclette. What a fun evening!

Our Raclette Heater

Our Raclette Heater

Raclette is a Swiss dish which is also indigenous to parts of Switzerland. It is also the name of the cheese itself that is used in the meal. The Raclette cheese round is heated, either by simply being set in front of a fire or by a special machine, then scraped onto plates; the term raclette comes from the French word racler, meaning “to scrape,” due to the fact that the melted cheese must be scraped from the unmelted part of the cheese onto the plate.

Placing the Raclette cheese into the machine

Placing the Raclette cheese into the machine

Traditionally Raclette is accompanied by small firm potatoes (Bintje, Charlotte or Raclette varieties), gherkins, pickled onions, and dried meat, such as Prosciutto, Speck, Jambon, Salami, and Chorizo.

Scraping the Cheese

Scraping the Cheese

I had never heard of Raclette cheese, so I needed to do some research. Raclette is a semi-hard cheese made on both sides of the French and Swiss Alps. Valais Raclette or Fromage a Raclette, as they are traditionally called, are made using ancestral methods with unpasteurized cows milk from alpine meadows.  The cheese guru states that the cheese has a thin, brownish-orange coloured rind and a pale yellow pate with a few and scattered open holes. It is has a very distinctive pleasant, aromatic smell with a creamy texture, similar to Gruyere cheeses, which does not separate even when melted. The flavour can vary from nutty, slightly acidic to milky.

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Look at that gooey goodness

Apparently Switzerland supplies 80% of Raclettes, and French Raclettes are slightly softer with a smooth and creamy flavour. Ours had a very orange rind and the flavor was very mild.

Accompanying meats

Accompanying meats

There is nothing new about Raclette, it was mentioned in medieval writings, and in texts from Swiss-German convents dating from as far back as 1291.  It was mentioned as a particularly nutritious meal consumed by peasants in mountains of Switzerland and the Savoy region of France. At that time it was known in the German-speaking part of Switzerland as Bratchäs, or “roasted cheese.”

Traditionally, Swiss cow herders took the cheese with them when moving cows from the pastures to the mountains. In the evenings, around the campfire, they would place the cheese next to the fire and, when soft, scrape it on top of bread

Potatoes

Potatoes

We enjoyed ours on top of potatoes, bread, and by the spoonful.  It was really a great way to spend an evening with friends!

Miscellaneous thoughts on Courchevel

 Courchevel, France
Mar 112015
 

Winter 2015
The Airport

The airport at Courcheval

The airport at Courchevel

Courchevel’s airport stops you in your tracks. It has a very short and steeply sloped runway, which is only 1722 feet long and has a gradient of 18.5%. The airport approach is through deep valleys, which can only be performed by specially certified pilots. On landing there is merely a very steep hill and then you are the end, in other words, no radar support.  The airport once saw larger planes such as Twin Otters and Dash 7’s that carry up to 50 people but over the years these have been phased out and smaller Cessnas and helicopters are all we have seen.  The History Channel’s Most Extreme Airports, ranks it as the 7th most dangerous airport in the world, and it sits right outside my room!

Our Hotel

Hotel Courcheneige

Hotel Courcheneige

We are staying at the ski-in, ski-out Hotel Courcheneige. The hotel sits on the Bellecôte Ski Slope, at an altitude of 6,500 feet. It is an older Chalet style hotel.  There are three of us in a room that has four single beds and the cost with half board (breakfast and dinner) is 3450 Euros  ($3750US on March 2015) for a Saturday to Saturday package.  The food is really spectacular, dinner has always included three courses that were delicious with a dessert groaning board guaranteed to pack on extra pounds.

The rooms and the hotel itself are spartan, so it is not what one thinks of when you hear of the select clientele of VIPs, wealthy people and royal families, including Prince William and Kate Middleton that frequent the area.  They, however, are more likely staying at the 5 and 6 star hotels in the area. Courchevel has 11 hotels with a 5-star ranking. In 2011 France introduced a 6th star ranking for hotels, named “palaces”.  The palace  ranking is only awarded to the most prestigious, exclusive and luxurious hotels in France. There are only eight hotels in France that have this rating and two of those are in Courchevel.

The Town of Courchevel 1850.

The town of Courchevel 1850

The town of Courchevel 1850

Our hotel, the highest in the valley, is above the town of Courcheval 1850.  I took one day off from skiing and spent the day in this very small town.  It is filled with the high end shops of Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Valentino, Prada, Bulgari, and others, but also some smaller stores filled with good food and pastries.

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We did the classic horse drawn carriage tour (40 Euros for 15 minutes – ridiculously expensive).

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Courchevel is known to be an expensive resort. One of the reasons for this are the high prices of residential and commercial property. Courchevel 1850 is the 6th most expensive place in the world with an average square foot price of $3600.

The town of Courchevel 1850

The town of Courchevel 1850

Courchevel 1850

Courchevel 1850

Courchevel 1850

Courchevel 1850

Courchevel 1850

Courchevel 1850

One odd thing I have noticed is that there are a lot of hotels named after items in the Himalayas, such as Hotel Annapurna, the Hotel Le Lana and the Hotel Kashmir.  I really have no idea why or what it means, but I came across this tidbit in some of the Three Valleys Public Relations pieces : The mountain has 62,000 metres of cumulative vertical drop equal to 7 times the slopes of the Himalayas…

Courchevel 1850

a hotel in Courchevel 1850

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The Olympics and World Cup

During the 1992 Albertville Olympics were held in Albertville the Nordic and Ski Jump events took place in Courcheval.  The World Cup will be held here, in Maribel, the week after we leave.

Leaving Courchevel

IF you are taking the train, DON’T.  We had two bags per person, and one person with a wrist in a cast.  We were going to Geneva.  You begin with the train from Moutiers and then transfer in Chambrey.  We had 15 minutes to make the transfer and that meant going DOWN a set of stairs and UP another.  Yes there is a lift, but with all of our luggage we made it with exactly 15 seconds to spare.  Spend the extra money and take a private automobile service to Geneva.

Paris – March 2015

 France, Paris
Mar 072015
 

Eiffel Tower

It is hard to believe that I was in India just a mere 5 days ago, it is days like this that I know I am a very lucky gal.  I am here in Paris with two very, very dear friends Julie and Kristen, it is a three day stop on our way to skiing at Courcheval.

We arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport at 10:30 this morning, after checking into our VRBO at 12 Rue Malar we headed out to stay ahead of jet lag.  We decided to walk the Seine to Ile de la Cite for a bite to eat and an audio tour of Notre Dame.

Art work along the Seine

 

The thing I love about Paris is that art is everywhere.  Sure there are the most magnificently ornamented buildings and statues every 3 feet, but there is also art that just randomly pops up.  These blue dots were on the quai as you walked along.

Quai Voltaire

Farther down the Quai, you found more random patterns.

Artist Evol

And then these….The sign read:  Berlin-based Evol, is best known for transforming everyday features of our cityscapes into miniature concrete tower blocks through the medium of paint.  Inspired by architecture, which he sees as a mirror for society, he paints directly onto the surface of electric enclosures, concrete planters and other familiar elements of the modern city.  Many works by Evol refer to the postwar socialist architecture of the former East Germany. Although originally constructed with the ideology of a socialist utopia, areas of this city are, architecturally a far cry from the original vision.  Many of the LEGO-like buildings Evol depicts are grey functional and in a style that has fallen out of favor, yet they have a brutalist monument appeal.  The artists draws our attention to the striking geometry of the suburban architecture, bringing it back in the more picturesque memory of the city centers, installing there small monuments of a social dystopia.

I was in LOVE with these, notice the satellite dishes and the air-conditioning units, they are magical.

Bridge of Locks Paris

Pont des Arts

 

This is the bridge of locks (so to speak). I have seen these “Love padlocks” all over the world, but never quite such a large agglomeration.

Basically, a couple writes their names on a padlock and locks it onto the bridge. They then throw the key into the Seine as a symbol of their undying love.

Last year, the locks on the Pont des Arts were cut off, reportedly by the government, a futile gesture, as the locks can now be seen on two Paris bridges: Pont des Arts and Pont de l’Archevêché.

Lunch at Square du Vert Galant

Lunch at Square du Vert Galant

What would ones first day in Paris be without a bottle of champagne, a couple of baguette mixtas and some macarons.  It was pretty windy and cold, but fun none-the-less.

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Next stop, Notre Dame.  We took a rather confusing audio tour, possibly more because jet-lag was really starting to set in, or maybe because the accompanying map needed work, but the real reason we were there was to light candles and say a little prayer for absent loved ones.

Notre Dame Cathedral

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Notre Dame Cathedral

 

Julie and Kristen headed back to the apartment to catch a quick nap before dinner, and I met my Paris friend Natalie Titley for coffee.  She showed me where, absent the brass plaque, the center of Paris is, right in front of Notre Dame Cathedral.

If you look for the missing bollard - you will find the center of Paris in front of Notre Dame Cathedral

If you look for the missing bollard – you will find the center of Paris in front of Notre Dame Cathedral

Dinner tonight is Les Bouquinistes, absolutely amazing dinner.

Suckling Pork Belly with Lentils

Suckling Pork Belly with Lentils

Tuna crusted with walnuts on a bed of shitaki mushrooms served with diced razor clam

Tuna crusted with walnuts on a bed of shitaki mushrooms served with diced razor clam

Foie Gras

Foie Gras

And a final evening stroll

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How to Exhaust yourself in Paris

 France, Paris
Mar 062015
 

Tour de Eiffel

When you only have three days in Paris, there are just a few things that have to be accomplished, and no matter how many times you have done the Eiffel Tower, I think it is a must for every trip.  I am sure that many would say it is cliche, but I just think it is magical.  Did you know that the Eiffel Tower was supposed to be a temporary installation?  It was built in 1889 and slated for demolition in 1909, but was such a great radio tower it was granted clemency.  The Eiffel Tower is the most visited site in the world. During World War II, the French cut the cables on the Tower so if Hitler wanted to go up he would have to climb the stairs.

 

DSC_0492There are 20,000 light bulbs on the Eiffel Tower, and presently it glitters on the hour. There is about 50 tons of paint on the tower, equal to the weight of about 10 elephants.

We stopped on the second floor for coffee, and proceeded to the top for a peek into Eiffel’s private office and breathtaking views of the city.

Kristen on the 2nd "Floor"

Kristen on the 2nd “Floor”

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Trocadero Gardens

Trocadero Gardens

A walk across the Seine to one of my favorite spots. I have always loved this little portion of the the Trocadero Gardens hidden away to the side of the great fountains.  The faux bois steps and railings are just so beautiful

Restaurant David Toutain

Restaurant David Toutain March 5th 2015 Lunch Menu

Our highlight today was lunch.  A 5 course meal at David Toutin, 29 rue Surcouf.  You have the choice between 3 courses, 5 courses or 7.  You are not given any other choices, but you are allowed to mention dislikes or allergies, after that the food simply arrives.  We enjoyed the entire thing first, with a glass of champagne, and then with a lovely bottle of Vouvray.

A vegetable stick with a cream dipping sauce

A vegetable stick with a cream dipping sauce

Parsley Puree wrapped and served with herbs from the French mountains

Parsley Puree wrapped and served with herbs from the French mountains

Spiced egg with a small cornbread crouton

Spiced egg with a small cornbread crouton

King Crab finessed into several different textures

King Crab finessed into several different textures

Asparagus Spear served with Parmesan Cream

Asparagus Spear served with Parmesan Cream

Black Sesame and Apple Puree with Smoked Eel

Black Sesame and Apple Puree with Smoked Eel

Cod with Carrot, Chervil and a touch of Ginger

Cod with Carrot, Chervil and a touch of Ginger

Pork Back, Smoked Pork and Turnip

Pork Back, Smoked Pork and Turnip

Cauliflower with White Chocolate Ice Cream

Cauliflower with White Chocolate Ice Cream

Orange Flower Cake with Hidden Chocolate Truffles

Orange Flower Cake with Hidden Chocolate Truffles

Lemon and Marjoram Tart with small marshmallows

Lemon and Marjoram Tart with small marshmallows

Coffee

Coffee

For those that are interested the charge to my credit card was 131.00 Euros, and yes there are more than 5 course there, it was a very amazing meal. Oh, and YES, YES, YES, I would do it all over again.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking it off.

La Madeleine

La Madeleine

We began with a visit to the church dedicated to Mary Magdalene, the La Madeleine at the Place de la Madeleine.  Started in 1764, but not finished until 1845 it is based on Barthelemy Vignons design for Napoleon’s Temple of Glory.

Charles Marochetti's Mary Magdalene Ascending to Heaven. This statue is behind the high alter and shows Mary Magdalene pregnant.

Charles Marochetti’s Mary Magdalene Ascending to Heaven. This statue is behind the high alter and shows Mary Magdalene being lifted up by angels which evokes the tradition concerning ecstasy which she entered in her daily prayer while in seclusion .

 

The half-dome above the altar is frescoed by Jules-Claude Ziegler, entitled The History of Christianity, showing the key figures in the Christian religion with — a sign of its Second Empire date — Napoleon occupying centre stage.

The half-dome above the altar is frescoed by Jules-Claude Ziegler, entitled The History of Christianity, showing the key figures in the Christian religion with — a sign of its Second Empire date — Napoleon occupying centre stage.

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After a nice period of reflection we headed out for shopping.

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We had a great time wafting in the joy of Macarons at La Duree, savoring the joys of Fauchons and wandering the aisles of Hediard.

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As exhaustion was truly setting in, a final stroll through Passage Jouffroy, built in 1845 by a private company headed by Count Felix de Jouffroy-Gonsans (1791-1863), who gave his name to the passage, and M. Verdeau, who gave his name to the passage that was built as a further extension, the passage Verdeau. The passage was built by architects François Destailleur and Romain de Bourges.

The Passage Jouffroy is indicative of an important stage in the technological evolution of the 19th century and the mastery of iron. It is the first Parisian passage built entirely of metal and glass. Only the decorative elements are wooden. It is also the first passage heated through the floor.

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Passage Jou

Passage Jouffroy

We enjoyed a few glasses of wine with an old friend and expat from San Francisco, skipped dinner and headed home.

You want to go where in Paris?

 France, Paris
Mar 052015
 
Angelinas 226 Rue de Rivoli

Angelinas
226 Rue de Rivoli

Morning began with perfection and one of the world’s biggest sugar rushes, Chocolate Chaud at Angelina’s.  The chocolate comes in a great big pitcher with a side of whip cream for you to add at your discretion.

My discretion

My discretion

A walk through the Tuileries to catch the 69 bus.  These gardens were once the formal gardens of the old Palais des Tuileries. They are part of the landscaped area running parallel to the Seine from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe.  Laid out in the 17th century by Andre Le Notre, gardener to Louise XIV, they have undergone a recent restoration and what looked to me a new sculpture garden addition.

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We were joined for the day by my friend Norm McIntosh, expat extraordinaire

We were joined for the day by my friend Norm McIntosh, expat extraordinaire

DSC_0558Our destination near the Bastille was to be La Coulee Vert also known as the

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The Coulée verte René-Dumont or Promenade plantée (French for tree-lined walkway) or the Coulée verte (French for green course) is a 2.9 mile elevated linear park built on top of obsolete railway infrastructure in the 12th arrondissement. It was inaugurated in 1993. It follows the old Vincennes railway line. The parkway rises above the surrounding area and forms the Viaduc des Arts.  That being said, it is easier to say I wanted to see it than it was to find it.  We walked for a good 45 minutes and then said – screw it – lets eat!

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We had passed the canals and found ourselves at the Gare de Lyon.

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DSC_0587So we walked across the street to the L’European at 21 boulevard Diderot and slap bang into an oyster bar.  Heaven reigned down upon us.  Oysters from France, duck, and a wonderful side of bone marrow, all accompanied with a delightful Petite Chenin Blanc, and we were restored.

bone marrow

At that point, we were able to find the walk and what fun it was.  It is just that, a walk, originally it had all the intention of being an art walk with art studios, but I believe the economy but a kibosh on that, but it is a great thing to do none-the-less.

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At that point I said goodbye to everyone and headed to Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise.  This is Paris’s most prestigious cemetery, I always love the cemeteries of the rich and famous because they hire the world’s most famous sculptors to make their headstones.  This is not necessarily the case at Pere Lachaise, but it is an amazing place historically.  The property was once owned by Louis XIV’s confessor, but in 1803 it was purchased by the government under order by Napoleon and laid out as a cemetery.  It was expanded six times during the 1800’s due to its popularity.  It contains such luminaries as Honore de Balzac, Chopin, Jim Morrison, Marcel Proust, Sarah Bernhardt, Oscar Wilde and Edith Piaf.  Sadly, due to the fiasco of looking for the Coulee de Vert, I only had one hour to explore before closing.

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Georges Rodenbach, Belgian writer and poet of the 19th century, is perhaps most famous today for his novel Bruges-la-Morte. This work was later turned into the opera Die Tote Stadt

Georges Rodenbach, Belgian writer and poet of the 19th century, is perhaps most famous today for his novel Bruges-la-Morte. This work was later turned into the opera Die Tote Stadt

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We finished off our three days in my old haunts Le’Odeon for dinner at Relais St. Germain.

menu*

Euf de poule coulant, fricasse d'asperges vertes lard croustillant et anguille fumee

Euf de poule coulant, fricasse d’asperges vertes lard croustillant et anguille fumee

Coquille Saint Jacques roties, risotto de celeri et Granny Smith, cruble parmesan

Coquille Saint Jacques roties, risotto de celeri et Granny Smith, crumble parmesan

Faux-filet Normand mature 2 mois, grenailles au foin, cresson, anchois de Palamos, mousseux de raifort

Faux-filet Normand mature 2 mois, grenailles au foin, cresson, anchois de Palamos, mousseux de raifort

Plateau de fromages de Frace de la fromagerie Sanders

Plateau de fromages de Frace de la fromagerie Sanders

The entire thing ended with a Tarte au citron and was accompanied with one bottle of fabulous red and one bottle of fabulous white and one bottle of fabulous champagne.  A great way to end three amazing days in Paris.

Tommorrow – A train ride and the beginning of our ski trip!

 

Random Thoughts on Paris

 France, Paris
Mar 042015
 

The Tuilleries ParisA LITTLE SHOPPING

We really had absolutely no time for shopping, but I do love the individual neighborhood shops of Paris. I had walked by a small store in the morning that I could tell, simply by looking in, Kristen would love. She was looking for a new bag and found a stunning one in this store – Catherine Loiret. The bags are custom made by the woman that sold it to her, and she could not have been more delightful. The address is 21 bis rue Amelie, if you have a chance, check them out. Catherineloiret.com The quality and leather are both spectacular.

Macaroons in Paris

DOGS

Dogs, who doesn’t love dogs, including the Parisians. What is so funny is the fact that despite the French being French, if you lean down and talk to their dog in English and say “aren’t you the sweetest thing” the Frenchman will reply “Yes I am” in English. Always funny and sometimes an icebreaker.

Dogs in Paris

MONEY

The economy is good in Paris despite what you hear about the Euro overall. The streets are spotless, the stores appear to be doing a brisk business and the only place we saw the homeless were in the subway, and they are allowed to sleep there due to the cold.

I would like to digress just a tad here, and talk about the extra 5 pounds we all carry around in change. France is on the Euro, and the smallest Euro bill is a five, so you have a lot of $1 and $2 Euro coins, but you also have a LOT of stupid small change coins, and they weigh down pants pockets and purses. The problem is getting rid of them. Waiters are their own bank, so if you pay your bill by dumping a bunch of your small change on them, you not only suffer their wrath because then they have to carry it in their pocket for their entire shift, but god forbid you need change, because you are going to get it in the smallest possible denominations they have.

The lesson from this is don’t use cash. Norm explained that this is a relatively new phenomenon in France, the French use credit cards for EVERYTHING. Cash is absolutely unheard of now. This is something that will take some getting used to for me as I like to take a certain amount of cash, go through it, and know that I won’t be slammed with credit card bills when I get home. Alas the world is a changing. In the meantime, anyone know a small boy and two elephants that are willing to carry the forty pounds of Euro pennies I seem to have accumulated?

 

A lovely business suit, a gorgeous camel over coat and a bottle of good bordeaux, perfect business gentlemen.

A lovely business suit, a gorgeous camel overcoat and a bottle of good bordeaux, perfect business gentlemen.

GETTING AROUND

I asked Kristen some of her thoughts, as her last visit was when she was 15, and her overwhelming sense was lack of direction. When we stood atop the Eiffel Tower and looked at the winding and curving streets she understood. I, however, find the metro the easiest way to get around and find it second nature, but am embarrassed at how simple my friend Norm hops the bus system, it all just takes time.

PEOPLE

Kristen also just loved the amount of playful, polite and fun loving teenagers that seemed to occupy our neighborhood. They tended to congregate on the streets but with no menace about them, they were smartly dressed, smiled and seemed to have an innocence that is lacking in the U.S.

 

Metro Entertainment

Metro Entertainment

MY THOUGHTS

The French are still French. There is an innate superiority that amazes all that meet them. However every once in a while we could get them to crack their armors, and I was even able to out French our waiter on the last night with an eye roll and a snap of my wrist about my champagne glass. I believe even he had a smile on his face by the end.

To me this is a phenomenon of Europe overall. It is an ennui that comes from years and years of corruption, red tape, nepotism and difficult economies. I find it charming rather than off putting and leads me to further mull over the idea how young Europeans tend to try to come to the U.S. for a better life, and older Americans attempt to retire in Europe for the exact same reason. It is not a conundrum, just a strong indication of how we all want such different things at different points in our lives.

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Europe still has architecture and art at every corner that takes your breath away. Europeans live artfully. By this, I mean, that everything is done with beauty in mind first. We do everything with economy in mind first. Yes that means that our economy is better, but I don’t necessarily think it means our lives are richer for it.

I would like to see fewer pairs of $200 Lululemon yoga pants on women walking down the streets in San Francisco and a little more thought to style.

I would like to see fewer value engineered steel and glass repetitive architecture down Market Street and a little more curvature and unique doors and windows.

And instead of a Gap store on every corner, it would be nice to see a few more displays of stacks of macaroons and chocolates with fresh flowers gracing the windows of our streets.

That is what I mean by living artfully, and that is why I think more people, as they retire are drawn to living the expat life in Europe, they want richer and more artful senior years.

 

There are 381 of these “mascarons” on the Pont Neuf. Their function is to scare away evil spirits.

There are 381 of these “mascarons” on the Pont Neuf. Their function is to scare away evil spirits.