Paris deconstructed

Mrs. Schott - Part II

2009-07-18T13:50:00.005-04:00

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Lying in the dark in the hotel room I waited for Nancy to finish her conversation on the phone with Mrs. Schott, the woman whose voice sounded mature and strong when I answered. As they talked I imagined her – a stately, “older” woman who sees Europe from the upper floors of five star hotel rooms.

At last Nancy hung up and told me what Mrs. Schott told her that had transpired since she had delivered Nancy’s abandoned passport to the hotel concierge. (See last post.)

“After doing what I thought to be a good deed yesterday for you, what happened today was a surprise. I was heading to a charity luncheon – a charity for children. So on the way, I had my driver stop at the chocolatier to pick up candies for the children. He had to wait in the car at the curb while I walked up the alley to the shop’s door. Suddenly a thief grabbed me, tore the ring off my finger, took my purse, and threw me to the sidewalk!”

The hard fall onto the concrete had broken Mrs. Schott’s shoulder, and she had spent the day at the hospital. A cast not being possible, she had to wear her arm in a sling.

“But I would like to meet you and your sister tomorrow if you have time.”

So Nancy had arranged for us to visit her in the morning in the lobby of the InterContinental on our way out for the day.

Next morning en route the few blocks between our modest little hotel and the luxe InterContinental we remembered a florist near Place Vendome, so we headed straight there to pick up a nice (expensive) arrangement for Nancy’s injured benefactor. She picked the bouquet bottom, center.

At the InterContinental the concierge escorted us to Mrs. Schott sitting in a cool, dark corner of the lobby where it seemed every staff person was attending to her. Tuxedoed men floated to her with trays and greeted her with obvious concern about her injury.

You can’t imagine Nancy’s and my surprise when we saw her. There she was standing up to greet us, a willowy six-foot tall elegant young-ish woman reminding us of Princess Diana (who died two months later just a few blocks from that spot). We spent a short hour with Mrs. Schott and her sweet pooch Redford. We bonded, and she even said she would send her driver around for us later in the week to go out for the day. She also wanted us to come visit her in Switzerland where she and her husband oversaw their European-wide hotel chain.

You can barely see the empty left sleeve of her white sweater gracefully pinned up to accommodate her slinged arm against her chest.

Our hearts were a-flutter when we left, feeling as if we’d met and befriended royalty. If we’d known she would not follow through on her promise and collect us in a couple of days, we would have asked more questions, like which hotel chain? But as we explored Paris day after day for the remainder of our two weeks and waited for a call from Mrs. Schott, it never came, and we wistfully put our visions of a grand European friendship to rest. I have tried in vain to locate a hotel chain connected with the name Schott.

Mrs. Schott - Part I

2009-07-10T11:26:00.004-04:00

"OH NO! I don't have my passport!!"

What should have been a pleasant, relaxing moment to eat croissants and sip café crèmes in the tiny hotel dining room before a day out in sunny Paris turned into panic. My sister was frantically rifling through her bag looking for what couldn't be found. Suddenly she remembered we had stopped at the nearby Hotel InterContinental's bathroom on our way home from dinner the night before, and she had hung her little passport bag on the bathroom stall door! She lept from her chair and ran out the door "I'll be back!" leaving me and my croissant very nervous.

When she came back less than an hour later, this is what she told me.

After running the few blocks to the InterContinental, she slipped into the cool, elegant lobby and straight to the Concierge who was standing at his perch. Before she could utter a word, he said calmly with a welcoming smile, "You must be Ms. Hart, we have been expecting you."

He went on to explain that a certain Mrs. Schott had found Nancy's passport bag hanging on the bathroom stall door and delivered it to him with explicit and emphatic instructions: "Place this passport in the hotel safe, and if you do not see Ms. Hart this morning, we will contact the American Consulate to see if she has contacted them."

With relief and gratitude filling her heart, Nancy asked if he had stationery for her to write a thank you note to Mrs. Schott, a guest in the hotel. She wrote a lengthy, heartfelt message and returned to me in our tiny, shabby hotel lobby where every half minute felt like an hour to me. She held up her passport with a radiant smile.

That night, after traipsing through Paris all day up one side and down the other, our legs throbbing and our eyes drooping, we fell into bed early and slept hard. When the telephone rang suddenly at 10, with a stranger's voice telling me she was Mrs. Schott and could she please speak with Nancy, I was suddenly wide awake and handed Nancy the phone, whispering "IT'S MRS. SCHOTT!"

Next post I'll tell you what happened with Mrs. Schott. I promise it won't take me two weeks to tell the rest of the story.

DAY 3: Toupary restaurant (La Tour Eiffel and Musee d'Orsay)

2009-06-22T14:17:00.009-04:00

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DAY 3 of a week in Paris - Tuesday

La Tour Eiffel & Musee d'Orsay

It's taken a while, but we are waking up to our third full day in Paris. Well, to be honest, I want to skip the day for now and jump straight to evening. I can't wait to tell you about one of my favorite spots in the city. I'll tell you later about the other stops on our itinerary, ok? (I had problems with the HTML for my itinerary, strangely enough, so I am not posting it. I'll figure it out next post hopefully.)

The Toupary restaurant may not be the best reviewed or have as fine a cuisine as Taillevant, for instance (I'll tell you about that Michelin 3-star restaurant one of these posts), but it is one of my favorite spots to eat in Paris. As I've said before, I think my simple palate would be happy with a grilled sandwich at a gas station in France, so maybe you shouldn't trust me. But I do love me some good food. And I am willing to spend money on it if the experience warrants it.

That said, the food I've eaten in my four or five meals there has been superb and the service terrific. But the main reason I chose it in 1997, alone for lunch in the second week with my sister Nancy after we learned in the first week we liked spending our time and money differently, was for the view. It is on the fifth floor of the Samaritaine Department store - which has since closed (is there anything else in the building now, I wonder?).

You can see the Pont Neuf from my table in the top photo, my favorite bridge in the city. It's rather a cliché to love this bridge, as there have been countless movies about it. But that's OK, there are reasons for it. It is at the point of the island for one thing, and it's just so darn picturesque.

When I excused myself to myself (you must be polite to yourself when you go out alone) to go to the ladies room, I was tickled to find this gorgeous view there too. Of course I had to take my camera with me as there was no one to guard it at the table, and wasn't it handy to photograph myself in the mirror that stood in front of this marvelous sight? I nabbed the orange card for my scrapbook.

Again when Don and I went to Paris for our 25th anniversary in 2003, I wanted to eat there to celebrate. Do you see our water glasses reflected in the window?

But below are the glasses we wanted to steal. I don't think I've ever been tempted to steal before this (and later I did steal a Guinness glass from the Guinness factory in Dublin), but this was just too sweet! Because they knew it was our big 25th anniversary, they brought our champagne in this special glass set. We asked if we could purchase one, but they didn't have them to sell. So, we seriously contemplated hiding them under Don's sportcoat. Ha. But we didn't do it, although it might have been fun to meet Inspector Clouseau.

We asked the waitress (rare female in this male dominated profession in Paris) to snap our pic, but this is the result. It's probably not her fault, since the light was behind us.

Champs-Elysées

2009-06-03T08:35:00.003-04:00

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DAY 2 of a week in Paris - Monday

Le Louvre et Champs-Elysées

BREAKFAST: la patisserie below the apartment
Le Louvre
LUNCH: Angelina tea salon. 226 Rue de Rivoli (between Rues d'Alger and de Castiglione)
Tuilleries
Madeleine Church & Place de la Concorde
Place Vendome
Arc de Triomphe - view Paris (daily 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.)
Champs-Elysées - TODAY'S POST
DINNER: La Boutique à Sandwiches. 12 Rue du Colisée (between Rue de Ponethieu and Ave des Champs-Elysées)
Buddha Bar (8 rue Boissy d'Anglais, near Place de la Concorde)

Next on our itinerary after the Tuilleries is the Madeleine Church, which I have posted about here and here.

So today I'm sharing just a little bit about the Champs-Elysées. Because I have never been a person of means - or a shopper (maybe they go hand in hand) - I have not spent much time on this fashionable avenue.

I have already told the story of meeting Catherine, an American woman traveling alone like me. I first noticed her at the café in the photo of me at top drinking a café crème (taken by a Chinese couple who first asked me with gestures to take their picture). Funny how you notice other Americans in a foreign city. Catherine and I didn't speak there, but later in the day when we saw each other in a totally different part of the city, we stopped and introduced ourselves. Has that ever happened to you? You're in one of the world's big cities, and you see the same people in different spots, sometimes even on different days?

This little hour at a café on my solo 2006 trip is one of a few Champs-Elysées memories.

The first happened with Nancy in 1997. We had not yet heard of Sephora, the cosmetics store par excellence. So when we walked into their flagship store on the Champs-Elysées we felt we'd entered a magical realm of womanly dreams come true. What aided that fantasy was a tall beautiful model in a maxi-length black coat and one white glove opening the door for us. Throughout the vast store were many other beautiful male and female models/sales clerks dressed in the same costume. The room's walls were lined floor to ceiling with women's perfume on one wall and men's cologne on the other, then make-up down the center. Any product queen would feel she'd died and gone to heaven. We saw dutiful husbands (or lovers) leaving with pretty little bags that we assumed contained tiny bottles of perfume. In the middle of our browsing, suddenly we were being rushed out of the store. There was a bomb scare! We were able to go back into the store after a few minutes to finish dipping white paper dipsticks into perfume bottles to sample scents. (Imagine how the avenue would have smelled if a bomb had gone off. Ok, somber but fragrant thought.) I was a dutiful wife and bought my husband a bottle of cologne (was it Dior?).

Now, of course, Americans can go into a Sephora in any shopping mall or even JC Penneys. But for us, the experience was part of the Paris mystique.

Don snapped this in 2003

Another Champs-Elysées memory was with Don in 2003. I posted about the gracious French doctor - Giancarlo - who owned the apartment where we stayed on the tiny island Ile Saint-Louis. He refused to settle for handing us a key to the apartment in a café and instead insisted on picking us up at the airport! And not only that. Knowing from our emails that this was Don's first visit to this gorgeous city, he took the extra effort to drive in on the Champs-Elysées en route to the apartment so that Don would see the best and most interesting approach right off the bat. So much for a French reputation of rudeness! On this crazy heart-racing drive he also told us how the city hires cleaners who every night wash graffiti off the city's white buildings, leaving them pristine and fresh every morning. Oh, and one more thing. At Rond-point at Place de Charles De Gaulle the circle around the Arc de Triomphe, suddenly all cars - which had been driving at breakneck speed - slowed to a crawl. Giancarlo explained that in this circle of pavement, insurance does not cover drivers!

One of the happy discoveries while walking with Nancy, in the 1997 photo below, was the Allée Marcel Proust, just at the start of the Champs-Elysées, and parallel with it. It is a pretty park-like walkway, quiet and protected from the hustle of the busy avenue.

We found Allée Marcel Proust just after watching President Clinton's limousine speed by on his way to the presidential palace to see Jacques Chirac. Clinton was in Paris to give a NATO speech.

Jardin des Tuileries

2009-05-20T08:36:00.004-04:00

DAY 2 of a week in Paris - Monday

Le Louvre et Champs-Elysées

BREAKFAST: la patisserie below the apartment
Le Louvre
LUNCH: Angelina tea salon. 226 Rue de Rivoli (between Rues d'Alger and de Castiglione)
Tuilleries - TODAY'S POST
Madeleine Church & Place de la Concorde
Place Vendome
Arc de Triomphe - view Paris (daily 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.)
Champs-Elysées
DINNER: La Boutique à Sandwiches. 12 Rue du Colisée (between Rue de Ponethieu and Ave des Champs-Elysées)
Buddha Bar (8 rue Boissy d'Anglais, near Place de la Concorde)

In most of my trips to Paris, I have sought to stay near the center of the city so that every day's jaunts end up back here, at the Tuileries gardens. It's beautiful in the morning, as the sun rises behind the Louvre, and it's more beautiful in the evening as the sun sets behind the Arc de Triomphe and the obelisk at Place de la Concorde (the direction of the top photo).

At the end of a long day of walking, I feel like the fellow in the statue above - utterly spent and ready for sitting in one of the green metal reclining chairs by a fountain.

There is great people watching, especially the kids who rent toy sailboats and push them around the pool with their sticks.

Of course the flowers are fabulous, as are all the flowers in Paris. I've noticed year after year that the garden designers around the city do unique things each year. One year I was surprised and pleased to see thistle in the Luxembourg gardens. Wonderful!

But each visit there have been irises.

You can buy an ice cream.

You can sleep in the shade.

You can bring your lunch and eat with a friend.

Above is me, and below is my sister Nancy, in 1997, the year our mother passed away with Alzheimer's. We treated ourselves to two full weeks in Paris - my first visit since I studied abroad in college in 1975.

I can't say that after resting in the Tuileries we necessarily felt like doing Pilates, but it was nice to watch this lady doing hers with the Louvre in the background.

I leave you with this final sketch by Fabrice Moireau, from his book Paris Sketchbook.

Angelina Tea Salon

2009-05-06T09:00:00.005-04:00

DAY 2 of a week in Paris - Monday

Le Louvre et Champs-Elysées

BREAKFAST: la patisserie below the apartment
Le Louvre
LUNCH: Angelina tea salon. 226 Rue de Rivoli (between Rues d'Alger and de Castiglione) - TODAY'S POST
Tuilleries
Madeleine Church & Place de la Concorde
Place Vendome
Arc de Triomphe - view Paris (daily 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.)
Champs-Elysées
DINNER: La Boutique à Sandwiches. 12 Rue du Colisée (between Rue de Ponethieu and Ave des Champs-Elysées)
Buddha Bar (8 rue Boissy d'Anglais, near Place de la Concorde)

The little clipping from Access Paris calls this the Rolls-Royce of tea salons, and I imagine it is.

It sits under the shady colonnade on rue de Rivoli - a fashionable and expensive street of touristy shops and hotels. This is where you're likely to pick up a sight-seeing bus for a two-hour tour of the city (a good idea to get the lay of the place). You can find nice souvenirs on this street, even not too expensively. But of course, you have to get off this tourist rue and off into your own discoveries. I have a sweet story to share from this street one day soon, my favorite Paris story.

Angelina is a nice stop after a long day along the Seine. The Tuilleries gardens are just across the street, next to the Louvre, so you can walk over there after tea, sit back in the sun for a while to rest your weary legs, and feel drops from the fountain blown by the wind while you watch children push toy sailboats with sticks.

I wish I had images of Angelina besides the napkin I took away, above, but you can read a lovely post about it at The Paris Traveler. So I will give you instead images I do have from another tea salon, across from eastern-most end of the Louvre.

These little tea stops are wonderful with a friend, but they are equally fine alone. A place to stop on a long stroll up the Seine, to write down reflections on what you just saw - because you know you'll forget. To drink a cup of tea or café crème, maybe nibble on a madeleine or croissant.

Or watch the world go by.

226 Rue de Rivoli (between Rues d'Alger and de Catiglione)
PARIS Métro: Concorde or Tuileries

Day 2: Le Louvre

2009-04-27T09:06:00.003-04:00

DAY 2 of a week in Paris - Monday

Le Louvre et Champs-Elysées

BREAKFAST: la patisserie below the apartment
Le Louvre - today's post
LUNCH: Angelina tea salon. 226 Rue de Rivoli (between Rues d'Alger and de Castiglione)
Tuilleries
Madeleine Church & Place de la Concorde
Place Vendome
Arc de Triomphe - view Paris (daily 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.)
Champs-Elysées
DINNER: La Boutique à Sandwiches. 12 Rue du Colisée (between Rue de Ponethieu and Ave des Champs-Elysées)
Buddha Bar (8 rue Boissy d'Anglais, near Place de la Concorde)

Right next door to the Tuileries gardens, the Louvre sits like a grand jewel in the center of the Paris crown. Dating back to the 12th century when it was a fortress, then a residence, its history is long and complex (of course).

I have us visiting the Louvre on Monday, but in fact Nancy and I visited a second time on the following Sunday in 1997. The reason? We wanted to see more, and we're cheapskates - you can get in for free on Sundays. The downside to that, of course, is that you have to wait in line for quite a while. I think we waited an hour. But if you are in Paris more than a week, it's nice if you can make a couple of visits here, and spread out the vast collections. They say if you stopped in front of each work for 15 seconds it would take a month solid to view every work in the museum.

Personally, I find large museums incredibly daunting, and not too pleasant. Walking the long galleries of the Louvre - as long as a football field or two - is torturous for me. Like mall walking, when fatigue sets in because the pace is too slow. I much prefer the small house museums, such as the Picasso and Rodin.

But you must go, of course, and to see the collections in bite sizes is my recommendation. I never plan to visit for more than two hours, and I set out to see specific works.

On the first visit I recommend "Louvre Lite" - seeing the highlights, which gets you moving at a faster pace, you can even jog between them if you wish:

Mary Magdalene by Erhart on the Lower Ground floor - my personal favorite; read here to see why.
Venus de Milo on the Ground floor
Mona Lisa and Winged Victory on the First floor

The handy map they give you displays the highlights.

Next post: Angelina Tea Salon - a less overwhelming subject.

a tale of two hotels: part II - Hotel du Vieux Marais

2009-04-20T06:54:00.001-04:00

DAY 2 of a week in Paris - Monday

La Louvre et Champs-Elysées

BREAKFAST: la patisserie below the apartment
La Louvre
LUNCH: Angelina tea salon. 226 Rue de Rivoli (between Rues d'Alger and de Castiglione)
Tuilleries
Madeleine Church & Place de la Concorde
Place Vendome
Arc de Triomphe - view Paris (daily 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.)
Champs-Elysées
DINNER: La Boutique à Sandwiches. 12 Rue du Colisée (between Rue de Ponethieu and Ave des Champs-Elysées)
Buddha Bar (8 rue Boissy d'Anglais, near Place de la Concorde)

After spending our first of two weeks in the Hotel Saint-Roch, the shabby not-so-chic hotel I'd found online for us (last post) until Nancy's friend's apartment was available, we threw our things into our suitcases, hopped into a taxi and headed for rue du Platre in the Marais. There is a lot of history and buzz around Le Marais district of Paris, and it's a highly desirable area of residence. My sister's friend who owns the apartment is an opera singer in NYC, and she was lucky to get a prized apartment in this building that also houses the Hotel du Vieux Marais.

As I mentioned in the last post, there are always certain things you expect that don't happen on a trip like this, and things you don't expect that do. When those unexpected things turn out to be life-long loves, they are good indeed.

One of the unexpected things that wasn't so lovely was that this apartment in the Marais was a 4th floor walk-up. We had spared nothing packing our suitcases for two weeks in Paris. We must have been pretending we were Ms. & Ms. Gotrocks, taking dresses and as many shoes as we wanted. So we had BIG suitcases. But since we weren't Ms. and Ms. Gotrocks, we had to carry those suitcases up four flights by ourselves. But once we were up there, it was great, complete with floor length balcony windows (ours is the top floor in the photo above, just hidden under the hotel card, my sister in her own room and me on a futon in the living room with those tall windows.

So I'm getting to my life-long love discovery. Our first morning waking up in the apartment we decided to try out the patisserie in the ground floor of the apartment building. I went for a café crème and a Danish-looking pastry. We sat outside under an umbrella in the spring sun, watching local residents hurry by on their way to work. This is not a tourist district.

We met pretty Ellen, another American from Boston, who was staying in the hotel. We invited her up for some wine and cheese later in the week, another nice reason to stay in an apartment if you can - they cost no more than a hotel per night, and you have a kitchen, washing machine and lots of room. In the photo above I'm not talking to myself, I'm talking to Ellen. In the photo below, Ellen and Nancy are there looking pretty at our table.

All right, I won't keep you in suspense any longer. My life-long discovery. That Danish-looking pastry was called pain aux raisins (bread with raisins). Although I tried to find its equal at many patisseries in Paris, I never found one as phenomenally delicious as at this little patisserie in the Marais. The secret is that within the spiral of dough and raisins is custard. Yes custard. The delicate brioche dough, combined with custard, is the most delicious thing I've ever tasted. The little woman who bakes them is not terribly friendly and doesn't seem to know a word of English, but the woman knows how to bake.

The afternoon before we left Paris after our two week stay, I ordered 18 of these to pick up in the morning, on our way to the airport. I had brought Ziploc bags for who knows what reason. I packaged up my treasures, snuggled them into the suitcase, and took them - a little flatter - to the office two days after arriving home. I shared them with my colleagues, and they declared that even two-three days old, these were the best tasting things they'd ever eaten.

Now, when I return to Paris, I always try to find an apartment in the Marais - not only for the desirable neighborhood, but for this little patisserie and its pain aux raisins.

I found this photo online at a Flickr page. Hope they don't mind.

a tale of two hotels: part I - Saint-Roch

2009-04-13T08:43:00.001-04:00

DAY 2 of a week in Paris - Monday

La Louvre et Champs-Elysées

BREAKFAST: la patisserie below the apartment
La Louvre
LUNCH: Angelina tea salon. 226 Rue de Rivoli (between Rues d'Alger and de Castiglione)
Tuilleries
Madeleine Church & Place de la Concorde
Place Vendome
Arc de Triomphe - view Paris (daily 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.)
Champs-Elysées
DINNER: La Boutique à Sandwiches. 12 Rue du Colisée (between Rue de Ponethieu and Ave des Champs-Elysées)
Buddha Bar (8 rue Boissy d'Anglais, near Place de la Concorde)

My love of travel planning for Paris began in April 1997 when my sister told me she was taking me to Paris in three weeks, for a two week stay. It was just after our mother had died of Alzheimer's, after Nancy and I had cared for her - Nancy particularly, for six months before we found a lovely home for seniors with dementia. When Mom passed away that March after eighteen months in the home, Nancy and Don began conniving secretly about a vacation for her and me, and where would Ruth want to go? First word out of Don's mouth was "Paris" - even though I hadn't really ever talked about it since a 3-day visit there in my college days. I think he just thought of the most romantic destination in that instant.

After my sister stunned me with this news in my office it didn't take long for me to start planning the trip, which she asked me to do. Joy! Nancy had a friend who owned a Paris apartment (located above the second hotel in this tale, Hotel du Vieux Marais - in the photo at the right), but sadly it was only available the second week of our trip. So for our first week I found us a hotel online, Hotel Saint-Roch, which appeared cozy and charming, and was reasonably priced (under $100 a night).

The Hotel Saint-Roch was on rue Saint-Roch, which was named for the historic church of the same name located there. Geographically very close to the Louvre and Tuileries gardens in the center of Paris, I thought it would make a perfect launching point.

Well, certain things about the Saint-Roch were perfection, but the charm was a little ragged, and we found out it was nicknamed by Parisians "St Roach." Some things you plan, and they don't turn out so well. Other things you don't plan, and you are surprised by their astonishing beauty.

In spite of the imperfections of this shabby little hotel, there were perfect things:

* Location. I had been right about this at least, that after a tiring day walking the city, our legs shaking with weariness, we would be glad to be at the center of things.

* The beauty of music. So the thing we couldn't have known or planned was that this little hotel on a narrow street across from a big church would provide a serenade every evening as we walked rue Saint-Roch, exhausted with happy exploration, back to our room. Heavenly music shimmered down on us through the windows of the church. One night choir practice, another organ practice, yet another orchestra. We climbed the winding stair to our room to it, we undressed and washed the street grime from ourselves to it, we climbed into bed and fell asleep to it - our open windows conduits for a Paris lullaby as comforting as la Vie en Rose.

Next week I'll tell you about the second hotel in this tale, where we stayed our second week, and the discovery that would become one of my most important in Paris.

PARIS Métro: Pyramides or Tuileries

Berthillon ice cream

2009-04-09T05:07:00.003-04:00

Day 1 of a week in Paris - Sunday

The Islands: Ile de la Cité - Ile Saint-Louis

Berthillon

Breakfast: Hotel? (not sure if la patisserie is open Sundays)
Notre Dame; tour and climb tower
Place Louis-Lepine - bird and flower market
Sainte-Chapelle; tour and purchase billets for evening concert - LAST POST
Lunch: Brasserie de Isle St-Louis -- Look for the stork!
Walk Isle St-Louis; ice cream at Berthillion; Square Barye - THIS POST
Supper: Sandwich or omelette?
Evening concert at Sainte Chapelle - LAST POST

After reading about Berthillon in my favorite Paris travel guide - ACCESS - then finding the flagship store on rue St-Louis en Ile the main street down the center of tiny Ile Saint-Louis (the smaller "ship" island floating in the Seine, behind Ile de la Cité on which the Notre-Dame sits) and waiting in line for maybe 30 minutes, I was starting to realize that an ice cream cone in Paris was not going to be like an ice cream cone at Baskin-Robbins. Seeing customers leave with their small cone and one or two golf-ball sized scoops, instead of baseball-and-a-half sized scoops a la Baskin-Robbins, I noted that once again, the French culinary experience proved that if you eat smaller amounts of food made with expert skill from fresh, high quality ingredients, you will be satisfied with less.

There are unusual flavors, such as rhubarb, pear and grapefruit, but my favorite (not that I've tried them all) is strawberry, which my sister Nancy is enjoying, above, while she holds mine so I can snap the photo. The flavor is intense - as if condensed, and not overly sweet. One scoop is parfait pour mois.

I skimmed the history of ice cream at this informative site and learned that ices date back to 1100 BC! Berthillon began in the 1950s only. The Italians brought their gelato to France via Catherine de Medici - known as the mother of French cuisine (interesting that she, and it, were really Italian) - in the 1500s. She's the one, remember, who at age 14 married the Duc d'Orleans (who later became Henri II), also age 14.

This page on the Berthillon web site gives locations of the shops around Paris. But you will also find their ice cream sold in patisseries and restaurants around the city.

Here are two last images of Ile Saint-Louis, as this is the last post of Day 1 on the islands. The first is of the Brasserie de Isle St-Louis again, where we had omelettes, and the second is of the Pont St-Louis, the little pedestrian bridge between the islands where musicians, painters, body contortionists, magicians - entertainers of all sorts, set up their shows and hope for a few Euro in their boxes.

I loved the horn player with his child on his back.

Next post we'll move on to Day 2 of a week in Paris.

PARIS Métro: Cité

Day 1: Sainte-Chapelle

2009-03-31T06:05:00.004-04:00

Day 1 of a week in Paris - Sunday
The Islands: Ile de la Cité - Ile Saint-Louis
Sainte-Chapelle
Breakfast: Hotel? (not sure if la patisserie is open Sundays)
Notre Dame; tour and climb tower
Place Louis-Lepine - bird and flower market - LAST POST
Sainte-Chapelle; tour and purchase billets for evening concert - THIS POST
Lunch: Brasserie de Isle St-Louis -- Look for the stork!
Walk Isle St-Louis; ice cream at Berthillion; Square Barye
Supper: Sandwich or omelette?
Evening concert at Sainte Chapelle - THIS POST

Tucked away inside the Palais de Justice is the chapel King Louis IX - the one and only French king to be canonized, St. Louis - built in less than five years, opened in 1248 to house the relics he'd bought, among them Christ's crown of thorns (now in the Notre-Dame and exhibited only on Good Friday - hurry and book a ticket to be there Good Friday, April 10). It is said that what he paid for the relics was equal to the cost of the chapel. The relics were kept in the upper chapel, where the royal family worshipped. The chapel was built without any buttress support, at 67 feet, a big accomplishment at the time.

There is no getting around it. You must visit the Sainte-Chapelle twice - once in the day to see the 1,500 square yards of stained glass windows, with nearly 1,200 scenes - two thirds of them original - lit by sunlight, and again in the evening for one of the small concerts. I like to do both visits in one day, first touring and studying the biblical story told in the windows, then picking up tickets for the evening concert, and finally returning in the evening after a stroll down Isle St-Louis next door, a light omelette and braised potatoes for supper at one of the brasseries, and an ice cream at Berthillon. Or, if you're of the European inclination, eat supper after the concert.

As you can see in the photo below of the upper chapel, the tops of the vast windows are nearly impossible to capture in detail, so bring your opera glasses. One priest apparently came every day all day for two weeks to study each pane of Bible stories. Some of the windows tell the history of the chapel, which is lined with wooden chairs for sitting and viewing the windows and the tourists. Invariably there are uniformed schoolchildren being hushed by their teachers as they shuffle along looking awed by the high color around them.

When your eyes tire from such intense study, leave the chapel, go downstairs and find the ticket office where you can purchase concert tickets for this evening.

Once you've experienced the magnificent colors of the stained glass in the day, coming back for an evening concert feels like a rare privilege. Only a small number of people (100?) can sit in the wooden chairs, now lined up in rows facing a temporary staging area where a handful of string musicians make up a chamber orchestra playing Vivaldi or Brahms.

A few weeks after Don and I returned from Paris in 2003 where we spent a week celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary, I was thumbing through the June 30 New Yorker and was stunned and pleased to find John Updike's poem, above, which I tore out and slipped into the photo album I'd made for the trip. His feelings there show the power of music in such a setting.

We have one more item on our Day 1 itinerary, which I'll post next week: Berthillon ice cream on our stroll down the Isle St-Louis.

photo courtesy Wiki Commons

photo courtesy Donica Detamore

PARIS Métro: Cité

Day 1: Place Louis-Lépine - bird and flower market

2009-03-26T05:11:00.007-04:00

ITINERARY: Sunday Day 1 of a week in Paris

The Islands: Ile de la Cité - Ile Saint-Louis
BREAKFAST Hotel? (not sure if la patisserie is open Sundays)
Notre-Dame; tour and climb tower (last post)
Place Louis-Lepine - Marché aux fleurs (flower market) but on Sundays Marché aux Oiseaux (bird market) - TODAY'S POST
Sainte Chapelle; tour and purchase billets for evening concert
LUNCH Brasserie de Isle St-Louis -- Look for the stork!
Walk Isle St-Louis; ice cream at Berthillion; Square Barye
SUPPER Sandwich or omelette?
Evening concert at Sainte Chapelle

Day 1

The Islands: Ile de la Cité - Ile Saint-Louis

Place Louis-Lépine - bird and flower market

We can look for the flower market on the Île de la Cité, but what is the flower market every other day of the week, becomes a bird market with parakeets and finches on Sundays. They do sell flowers on Sunday too. This market has been in Place Louis-Lépine 100 years.

This square was named for a police chief - Louis Lépine - who armed gendarmes with whistles and truncheons and was world famous as "The Little Man with the Big Stick - known the world over for handling criminal cases." Click on in his name in the first line of this paragraph and look at the archived New York Times article - amazing to find and a real treat to look at - from Feb. 23, 1913 (!) on the occasion of his retirement from the Prefecture, which is just next door. This area of the city was a center of activity when the Resistance rose up against the Nazis in August 1944. Marie Curie's son Pierre made Molotov cocktails as part of the Resistance here. For a fast and fascinating read about this time, read Is Paris Burning?, in which you learn about Hitler's plan to blow up all the great monuments, bridges and artworks of Paris!

This bird-selling gentleman, below, saw me snapping pictures and started gesticulating wildly (unlike one of his caged, docile birds) with his hands. I didn't know enough French to follow what he was saying, but I could see he wanted me to take his photograph and send him a copy. So my sister Nancy snapped this of me with him, below. He wrote down his mailing address - very badly - and I've included it above the image there. In the photo I am re-writing "La Leay" with his direction, which you can also see to the left of his hand-writing. I don't know if he ever got the print, but I wouldn't be surprised if I mis-wrote his address on the envelope. If I'd just photographed it and taped it on the envelope, maybe that would have been better.

PARIS Métro: Cité

Day 1: Notre-Dame

2009-03-19T11:58:00.006-04:00

ITINERARY: Sunday Day 1 of a week in Paris
The Islands: Ile de la Cité - Ile Saint-Louis
BREAKFAST Hotel? (not sure if la patisserie is open Sundays)
Notre-Dame; tour and climb tower - TODAY'S POST
Place Louis-Lepine - bird and flower market
Sainte Chapelle; tour and purchase billets for evening concert
LUNCH Brasserie de Isle St-Louis -- Look for the stork!
Walk Isle St-Louis; ice cream at Berthillion; Square Barye
SUPPER Sandwich or omelette?
Evening concert at Sainte Chapelle

Day 1

The Islands: Ile de la Cité - Ile Saint-Louis

Notre-Dame

The famously painted scene of the crowning of Napoleon took place at Notre-Dame in Paris on December 2, 1804. After taking the Charlemagne crown from Pope Pius VII and placing it on his own head, he then replaced that crown with a gold laurel wreath like those worn by Roman emperors. Then, as the painting by Jacques-Louis David below shows, he took the Charlemagne crown and crowned Josephine as his wife.

The Coronation of Napoleon, Jacques-Louis David

1805-1808, Musée du Louvre

In 1831 Victor Hugo was only 20 when he wrote Notre Dame de Paris, later known as The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

'And the cathedral was not only company for him, it was the universe; nay, more, it was Nature itself. He never dreamed that there were other hedgerows than the stained-glass windows in perpetual bloom; other shade than that of the stone foliage always budding, loaded with birds in the thickets of Saxon capitals; other mountains than the colossal towers of the church; or other oceans than Paris roaring at their feet.'

The contrast between Napoleon I and Mr. Hunchback is striking, no?

For those interested in an extensive history of the cathedral that was begun in 1163, read here.

A good way to start Day 1 - Sunday is at the Notre-Dame cathedral. Between this tourist magnet and the Eiffel Tower, you will eventually have to check it out, so let's get this one on the first day. One good reason to visit on Sunday is to sit in on a morning service. I am very glad Don and I sat through the opening of a service if only to hear the priest and congregation sing. (You can see a clipping from the service's bulletin in an interior image below with mother and child statue, and I have embedded a YouTube of the audio for Donnes-nous Seigneur too.)

In 1997 my sister Nancy and I saw the front of the cathedral with scaffolding for cleaning the exterior, as you see in my photo at the top of the post. Restoration of the building began in 1991 and was still ongoing in 2005, since the cleaning of old sculptures took delicate attention. I well remember the first images I saw of the Notre-Dame, which my brother took in 1970 when it was blackened with soot.

By 1997 the cleaning had already been painstakingly completed on the south and east sides, seen in my photo below. You can just see the scaffolding to the left of the front of the cathedral.

With Don in 2003, I snapped the next two images when we emerged from an hour's browsing in the Shakespeare & Co bookstore, just across the Seine from the cathedral. The sky had blackened (can you scrub a black sky?), and I don't remember where we hid out the storm from here.

The interior of the cathedral is dark, lit by candles and old lamps. It is a disconcerting experience to sit in a service on a Sunday morning in the center of the church, while tourists are quietly - and occasionally not so quietly - shuffling around the perimeter viewing artifacts and the Rose Window. There were plenty of "real" congregants, mostly elderly women.

Below, as I mentioned, is the interior shot, and then the YouTube of Donnes-nous Seigneur, which we sang with the congregation. I wish I had audio of the singing, which was sweet.

Of course the Rose window is among the things to see. Thanks to Donica for the next two images.

Another good reason to visit the Notre-Dame on the morning of your first full day is that you should climb the narrow stairway of the South Tower to the roof (387 steps!) to get a gargoyle-eye's view of the city, and you will still have energy for such exertions.

Thanks to Wiki Commons for the gargoyle image below, taken on the roof of the Notre Dame with a distant view of the Tour Eiffel. I've walked that distance in one stretch, and it's a hike.

Also in front of the Notre-Dame, under the Parvis (sidewalk square), is the Archeological Crypt, built in 1980 to protect the archeological ruins discovered during excavations in 1965. I've never seen the crypt!

On my next visit to the Notre-Dame, I will photograph interior details and learn more about the art and history. There is enough to fill a book or two.

PARIS Métro: Cité

Official Notre-Dame site

According to my itinerary at the top of the post, next we'll visit the flower-bird market.

Ile Saint-Louis - back after 2 years

2009-03-12T11:02:00.060-04:00

No, I haven't been back to Paris, well only in my mind. But as I was writing up a Paris homesickness post at synch-ro-ni-zing, it became evident that I needed to revisit this space. I had run out of digital photos to post, but I still have unposted film images, so let's see how far I can get from two visits captured on film.

In 2003 Don posed on the Pont de la Tournelle above, with the Notre Dame sitting atop Ile de la Cité, one of the two islands that float in the Seine like ships. The smaller island at the stern of Ile de la Cité is Ile Saint-Louis, behind Don out of view. See "Don is here" in the map, below. If you look at the Paris map at the top of my sidebar, the
islands are on the blue Seine river line just between the 4th and 5th arrondisements.

-

With its one central street - rue St-Louis en Ile - two streets on either coast, and a
few streets perpendicular to them, there is a compactness about Ile Saint-Louis
that could feel claustrophobic - or cozy. I choose the latter. We stayed on this island
in an old, historic apartment. My only complaints were the darkness in the apartment,
due to the narrow streets with high buildings, and how expensive the shops were,
including grocery stores. But it was handy to be anchored in the center of the city
in our lodging.

One aspect of apartment rental that's wonderful (besides being more economical
than a hotel) is meeting the owner, which we did, over wine at his place, also on
the island. He is a geriatrics doctor on the staff at Hôtel-Dieu, the oldest hospital in Paris (founded 651!), on Ile de la Cité next to the Notre Dame cathedral. But our host had already gone beyond normal landlord hospitality and rather than just give us a key at a local watering hole when we arrived, he picked us up at the airport and drove us into the city (Don's first time in Paris) along the Champs-Élysées, just for the fun of it! (In my seven trips to Paris, I have had far more pleasant human encounters with the French than unpleasant.)

our host, with Don

rue St-Louis en Ile:

These two views, below, are of the Ile de la Cité, from Ile Saint-Louis. I believe the bridge in the first is Pont d'Arcole.

I took black and white film with us on this trip

because I'm drawn to black and white images of Paris.

On my second Paris trip (first one I was 19 on study abroad in 1975) with my sister Nancy in 1997, we ate a couple of times at Brasserie de Isle St-Louis with its famous stork.

Even an omelette in Paris tastes like food for the gods.

We like the waiters here, who act like gods and have been around forever and whom I recognized on later trips.

Now that I've taken a few loved ones to Paris, planning the itinerary is a real pleasure. I always plan to arrive on Saturday, then spend Sunday, the first real day out, on the islands that float in the middle of the city, then branch out like spokes the rest of the week. A small chamber concert in the Sainte Chapelle in the evening is a perfect ending to Day 1 - its effect is like a lullaby.

I'll post more about Day 1 next week.

Day 1 of a week in Paris - Sunday

The Islands: Ile de la Cité - Ile Saint-Louis

Breakfast: Hotel? (not sure if la patisserie is open Sundays)
Notre Dame; tour and climb tower
Place Louis-Lepine - bird and flower market
Sainte Chapelle; tour and purchase billets for evening concert
Lunch: Brasserie de Isle St-Louis -- Look for the stork!
Walk Isle St-Louis; ice cream at Berthillion; Square Barye
Supper: Sandwich or omelette?
Evening concert at Sainte Chapelle

this photo of Brasserie de Isle St-Louis taken by Donica Detamore

Art Nouveau metro stations

2007-01-27T08:58:00.002-05:00

There is no shortage of information and photos of these remnants from 1900 in the city.

These three views are of the metro station "St Michel" on the #4 line, at the corner of Blvd St Michel and the Quai de Montebello, across the street from the Seine. You can see one of the roof features of Hotel de Ville (City Hall) in the top photo, across the Seine. This nice site shows photos of all of them in Paris.

Color

2007-01-11T16:35:00.002-05:00

I long for color. So I'm posting this of the toy sailboats at the fountain in the Tuileries Gardens from May.

Pont d'Austerlitz

2006-12-09T11:14:00.002-05:00

The first Austerlitz bridge across the Seine was built of iron and commemorated in 1805 for Napolean's victory at Austerlitz (one of his greatest victories, also known as the Battle of the Three Emporers).

But this arch bridge was deterioriating 50 years later and was re-engineered out of masonry by Jean-Marie-Georges Choquet, Guiard, Zoroastre-Alexandre Michal and Jules Savarin in 1854.

It is 174 meters long and 30 meters wide.

Marquis de Lafayette

2006-11-11T10:13:00.001-05:00

This French soldier was a passionate joiner in the American Revolution against Britain. He became lifelong friends with George Washington, even naming a son George Washington Lafayette.

This statue near Quai de Albert I and the Champs-Élysées was erected by the “schoolchildren of the U.S.”

This site says:

"A small subscription magazine booklet: The Mentor, Lafayette by Albert Bushnell Hart published in January 1918. It has a photograph of Paul Wayland Bartlett's statue. The statue is of the identical design to that which was placed at Metz by the Knights of Columbus in 1920. The caption with this photograph reads:

'The Childrens Statue of Lafayette. This statue, designed by the sculptor, Paul Wayland Barlett, was a gift to France in 1908, from five million American school children. It stands in a court of the Louvre, Paris.'

However, the statue was removed a few years back to make space for a modern pyramid of steel and glass cover to a staircase leading to a lower level entrance to the museum. The new location of this statue is along the Cours Albert 1er [right bank of the Seine], between the Pont de l'Alma and the Pont des Invalids, not far from the statue of Bolivar. It served as the focus of one of the 2004 Alliance Day Commemorations in Paris.”

Liberty Enlightening the World (La liberté éclairant le monde)

2006-11-06T05:47:00.002-05:00

Tensions between France and the U.S. have not always existed. For one, there's the help with the American War of Independence.

For another, there is the Statue of Liberty. I have seen two Statues of Liberty in Paris. The top image is the one in the Luxembourg Gardens. The other is a figurehead on a boat in the Seine. Perhaps there are many more?

I did not see the most famous one in Paris, which is mounted next to the Pont de Grenelle, a bridge crossing the Seine, 1.5 km south of the Eiffel Tower.

The Statue of Liberty Revisited edited by Wilton S. Dillon, 1994, page 155 (as quoted here):

"On July 4, 1889 the American community in Paris offered the French people a gift of a bronze replica of the Statue of Liberty; it still stands now, on an island in the Seine River, downstream from the Eiffel Tower. In a symbolic sense, this recently restored American gift closes the circle of gift giving that was launched by the French in the 1860's with the gift of Miss Liberty. In a deeper sense, though, the American replica in Paris serves to extend and strenthen the chain of reciprocity between the two peoples that has existed since before the founding of the American Republic and that promises to continue well into the future.

This magnificent exchange of gifts illustrates a declaration delivered by French ambassador Jule J. Jusserand on the occasion of the 1916 ceremony at which Liberty's torch was first lighted with electricity: 'Not to a man, not to a nation, the statue was raised. It was raised to an idea - an idea greater than France or the United States: the idea of Liberty.'"

Place Dauphine

2006-11-04T14:03:00.001-05:00

If you click on the photo you can see a surprise painted on the roof of the apartment building.

Place Dauphine is a small "square" (more like a triangle) almost at the western tip of the Ile de la Cité, the island on which the Notre Dame cathedral sits, at the opposite end. It is lined with 17th c. houses. There is a wonderful tavern called Henry IV at the opening. Henry IV had this place built and named for the "dauphin" - - Louis XIII. Have you seen "Marie Antoinette" yet?

Place Dauphine by Michel Delacroix

Tour d'Argent restaurant

2006-11-02T16:43:00.001-05:00

I have never eaten at this restaurant. I love how it looks. It is one of the finest restaurants in Paris, sits on the Seine, and from its windows on an upper floor you can look at the sun setting behind the Notre Dame. Enter its web site, and you will experience the extravagance shown in the movie Marie Antoinette that I saw last week. I have been fortunate enough to eat at some fine restaurants in Paris, a once in a lifetime experience for most of us. If you ask me, almost anywhere you eat in Paris is wonderful, even the humblest café. The food is better than anywhere I've been. I have a theory that the omelettes are better in Paris because they do not refrigerate the eggs as we do in the U.S.

Le pont du Carroussel

2006-11-01T12:12:00.001-05:00

I couldn't stay away.

Here are a variety of views of Le pont du Carroussel, the bridge that crosses the Seine from the Left Bank to the Right where the Tuileries Gardens and the Louvre meet.

Click on images for larger views.

Looking north toward the Louvre and Tuileries

Looking northwest
Looking northeast

Looking southwest toward the Left Bank and the top of the Eiffel Tower

Looking west on the walkway down by the Seine

Looking at the Louvre

Hiatus?

2006-10-15T15:03:00.001-04:00

I'm running out of good photographs of Paris since my last trip in May 2006. If you haven't visited Paris Deconstructed before, I hope you'll browse the posts that are here. But for now, I will not be posting until my next visit to Paris, unless I get inspired!

I have much to learn about Paris, but without my own exploration and photographs to post, the sharing will have to wait.

In the meantime, I hope you'll visit my other blogs:

Synchronizing

Flying photoblog

East Lansing Daily Photo

Église de la Madeleine

2006-10-09T15:24:00.001-04:00

Looking north from the Place de la Concorde, past this fountain, you can see the church dedicated to Mary Magdalene, at the end of rue Royale. Louis XVI was beheaded with the guillotine just near here in the square.

The Neo-Classical Église de la Madeleine is affectionately called "La Madeleine" by Parisians. There are 52 Corinthian columns around the edifice.

This statue inside is of Mary Magdalene's ascension. It was built in 1837 by Charles Marochetti.

The painted frieze shows Jesus and the disciples.

I posted about Mary Magdalene in May, just as the movie "The DaVinci Code" was being released. I mentioned this church briefly then.

Two separate plans for this church were scrapped, the first in 1776 and the second in 1790.Then Napoléon thought Paris needed a temple to his army, and commissioned it to be completed as that honorary building. However, that too was scrapped for the Arc de Triomphe instead. In 1814 Louis XVIII decided it needed to be a church, but it was almost redesigned into Paris' first train station in 1837. Since 1842 it's been a church. (Information found at http://www.paris.org/Monuments/Madeleine/)

In 1969 the Catholic Church admitted quietly that there was no biblical basis for Mary Magdalene being a prostitute.

Every day except Monday there is a flower market around the church.

Edouard Leon Cortes(1882 - 1969) Flower Market at the Madeleine, Oil on canvas

Rouge de Paris

2006-09-28T11:58:00.003-04:00

Studies in red. Les études dans rouge.

Warning: I used a free online translator, so if some phraseology is BAD, pardonnez moi!

Click on photos for larger views.

Red curtain - rideau rouge

Strawberries and yogurt - fraises et yogourt

Window dressing on rue Montaigne - la fenêtre s'habille sur rue de montaigne

Petit-pont - Petit-pont

Dinner cruise on the Seine - la croisière de dîner sur la Seine

Red stool in antique market - le tabouret rouge dans le marché antique

Red awning - auvent rouge

Red dress in the Tuileries - la robe rouge dans le Tuileries

Top of stone wall facing Notre Dame cathedral where painters set up small easels - Le sommet de mur de pierre faisant face à la cathédrale de Dame de Notre où les peintres établissent de petits chevalets

Good parking spot - le bon endroit de parking

Trash is trash in any language - les déchets sont des déchets dans n'importe quelle langue

Louvre pyramid - Louvre pyramide

Fancy bike - vélo luxueux

An island: Île de la Cité, part one

2006-09-20T08:13:00.001-04:00

Click on photos to enlarge.

Map of Paris

Map of Île de la Cité

As you can see in the map of Paris, top, there are two islands in the Seine. The larger of the two, the one on the left, is the Île de la Cité. The smaller one, to the east of it, is the Île Saint-Louis. On maps, they resemble ships in the water.

There is so much to be found on the Île de la Cité alone, it's too much for one post. So this time I'm just going to hit on some views of the southern side of the island, mainly of the bridges connecting the Left Bank with the island.

This view is looking east, toward the tip of the island, and at the Pont Neuf. Keep in mind that pont means "bridge," which you probably would figure out after a while. As you can see, Pont Neuf spans the Seine all the way across the tip of the island.

Pont Neuf across the tip of Île de la Cité

The next bridge walking east and on the south side of the island is Pont St-Michel. This view is looking west and shows the Palace of Justice, within the walls of which is housed the Ste-Chapelle chapel, one of the must-sees with its 800-year old stained glass windows. An intimate concert there with a chamber orchestra at night is pure heaven.

Pont St-Michel

Walking east you'll come to the Petit Pont, or "little bridge." In this view, again looking west, you are looking at the Prefecture of Police, where famously the French Resistance held out against the German Nazis in August 1944, the beginning of the Liberation of Paris.

Petit Pont

Then comes Pont au-Double. "The first bridge at this location was built as a two-story building, an annex to the Hötel Dieu ( a hospital). First requested in 1515, it was finally constructed in 1634. The floor that served as a passageway for the hospital staff was envied by pedestrians annoyed by the congestion at the Petit Pont. So the passage-way was opened to the public in exchange for the payment of a 'double-denier' from which the current name was derived.Payment for passage continued until the Revolution. The bridge collapsed in 1709, was reconstructed in its original form, then in 1803, when the smaller branch of the Seine was opened to navigation, was replaced by the existing structure, with a single arch." (from http://www.pariswater.com/ponts/)

Pont au Double, looking east

Pont au Double closeup

When you get to the Petit Pont, the bridge before last, you see this view of the Notre Dame cathedral looking east. The Notre Dame is at the stern of the "ship" of the Île de la Cité.

Notre Dame cathedral with Petit Pont in foreground, looking east

There, you've walked the whole southern (larboard) side of the Île de la Cité!

The Notre Dame looking west:

Shakespeare & Co, part deux

2006-09-12T12:20:00.001-04:00

Click on images for enlarged views.

I posted about Shakespeare & Co in the first post on this blog back in April 2006. Don't confuse this bookstore with the bookstore chain in NYC that is not connected but borrowed the name. My daughter happened upon it this summer.

This one is across the Seine from the Notre Dame cathedral on the Left Bank. Mr. George Whitman is a character and a half in his 90s who has lived in Paris most of his life. He owns this quirky bookstore and keeps it as earthy and vibrant as he seems to keep himself. (Does he really "trim" his hair with flames from a candle?)

George Whitman (photo from the Shakespeare & Co website)

If you click and enlarge this image of a blackboard, you can read what George Whitman has written.

He and his daughter Sylvia run the place. They invite nomadic writers and students to sleep in a bed upstairs and sweep up or tidy piles of books for their keep (and you must read a book a day).

They also invite famous writers to read from their works, Henry Miller among them some time ago.

In May 2006 I visited the bookstore as I do whenever I visit Paris. This time I joined a poetry group upstairs for a reading. The stairs are treacherous. There were probably 30 people in this little room. The pew I sat on against the wall was falling apart. I met a film attorney from LA who said she'd come speak to our film students, and listened to some terrific poetry.

Upstairs room for readings

Cecilia Woloch and a group of her poetry fans and students. (Click on her name and read a poem or two on her site; she's very good.)

Tuileries Gardens

2006-09-05T12:16:00.001-04:00

Please click on images for larger views.

view toward rue de Rivoli

The Tuileries Gardens are where you go to rest your feet after a long, tiring day. That is not to say the gardens are not a prime destination in and of themselves. But the location is so central, it's impossible not to want to sit and rest there after walking Paris. They begin where the Louvre leaves off, and stretch all the way to Place de la Concorde.

Looking toward the Louvre and the Arc du Carrousel. You can rent a sailboat and push it with a stick around the fountain.

Many mythological figures overlook the Tuileries

There is always ice cream.

And lunch breaks.

And naps.

Picasso Museum

2006-08-31T20:18:00.001-04:00

Another of the small "house" museums in Paris is the Picasso Museum. (I wrote about Picasso and the museum a bit May 14, and I posted about the Rodin Museum May 3.) The building that has housed the Picasso Museum since 1985, is Hôtel Salé, 5, rue de Thorigny, built in 1656.

I am partial to certain of Picasso's works in this museum. For instance, of all his paintings, this portrait of Jacqueline is my favorite. I see myself in her I guess, those sharp lines that need softening.

Even more than this, I love Picasso's sculptures built from found objects done in the 1950s.

The goat. See the leather fringe on his side? What do you think his head is made from?

The stork. See the shovel and spigot?

The bull. Bicycle seat and handlebars.

The baboon. Car for a head.

There is something reassuring as well as conservationist in the use of found objects in art. I love the idea of using what already exists, has been tossed aside and is unused, to create something interesting and beautiful. I also find that seeing what is familiar in a sculpture of something else gives me a sense of understanding and connection I might not have found without the object being used that way.

It reminds me of writing poetry. We find fragments in everyday life and put them together with other fragments that no one would think to put together. And they become unified and deeper, if the poet is good.

St. Gervais

2006-08-23T12:33:00.002-04:00

Etching found at http://bseince.free.fr/bfparis/collection.htm

There is a surprising little alleyway just off the Quai de l'Hotel de Ville by the Seine, around the corner from the Hotel de Ville (City Hall) across from pont Louis Philippe, which I first discovered on my last trip to Paris, in May this year. This narrow building, below, pulls you in to the alleyway with its unusual stature.

Just to the left of this building is the St. Gervais church, (there is also a St. Gervais ski resort in the French Alps. I can't find out who St. Gervais was, though!) and the alley that goes up steps next to it, called place St. Gervais. Leave it to the Europeans to take advantage of every open space and set up a café outside on those steps. Brilliant!

The St-Gervais-et-St-Protais Church is among the oldest in Paris. There are records that date back to the 4th century, saying there has been a church on this site that long. But the way it looks now is from the 16th century. (So new.)

The place next to the church used to be called Crossroads of the Elm, for the large elm tree that used to stand there (and still has photos in the church). I guess a lot of money changed hands in that crossroads.

Also, on Good Friday in 1918, during WWI, a German shell fell on the church, killing 100 people.

Heather Stimmler-Hall says, "Today the church is used by the Catholic Community of Jerusalem, whose robed monks and nuns are often seen strolling around the neighborhood. Stop by at 4pm on the first Saturday of the month to hear a free recital on the oldest organ in Paris, built in 1601."

This window faces the place on rue des Barres.

Bookstalls on the Seine

2006-08-14T12:42:00.001-04:00

A favorite pasttime in Paris is walking along the bookseller stalls on both sides of the Seine. You can count on the vendors for books in French and English, German and Japanese, posters old and new, postcards old and new, vintage magazines with photos of Marilyn Monroe or Miles Davis on the covers.

The bateaux glide by on the Seine. Streams of little cars drive by on the quays. Smells of coffee or roasting chestnuts fill the air. Occasional sirens hee-haw in and out. You can hear the sound of the wind through the sycamores and the white chestnuts if you listen.

Rain or shine, the booksellers come out, lift up the lids on their stalls, and set out their papers.

Hemingway in Paris

2006-07-07T15:09:00.002-04:00

Hemingway's passport photo

The Moveable Feast was written by Ernest Hemingway soon before he died in 1961 about his expatriate years in Paris in the 1920s.

Hemingway's apartment at 74 rue de cardinal Lemoine

It is an interesting account of life in Paris with wife Hadley and his relationships with other expatriates referred to as "The Lost Generation" by Gertrude Stein, including Ford Madox Ford, TS Eliot, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda.

I spent some time in May retracing Hemingway's steps between his apartment at rue de cardinal Lemoine and Gertrude Stein's apartment on the other side of the Luxembourg Gardens, 27 rue de Fleurus.

Gertrude Stein's apartment at 27 rue de Fleurus

Ernest and Hadley spent quite a bit of time with the daunting Stein in her apartment filled with original artwork by their contemporary Picasso and others. Stein told Hemingway to invest in art, though he had barely enough money to keep his wife and himself fed.

Here is an excerpt from A Moveable Feast:

"Then there was the bad weather. It would come in one day when the fall was over. We would have to shut the windows in the night against the rain and the cold wind would strip the leaves from the trees in the Place Contrescarpe. The leaves lay sodden in the rain and the wind drove the rain against the big green autobus at the terminal and the Café des Amateurs was crowded and the windows misted over from the heat and the smoke inside. It was a sad, evilly run café where the drunkards of the quarter crowded together and I kept away from it because of the smell of dirty bodies and the sour smell of drunkenness."

Place Contrescarpe in May

Players of a game similar to bocci ball called petanque in the Luxembourg Gardens, which lay between Stein's and Hemingway's apartments

Pont des Arts

2006-06-23T15:27:00.001-04:00

Pont des Arts is the best known pedestrian bridge in Paris. It may be the only pedestrian bridge, but since I haven't walked the Seine all the way to the perimeters of the city, I can't be sure.

Renoir's painting of pont des Arts, 1867

This was Sabrina's favorite bridge in the 1990s version of the movie of the same name.

It was Paris' first iron bridge, erected in 1803.

This fellow dressed up to show off his antler handlebars, and now that I think of it, I'm guessing he wanted a tip. But I was too busy photographing the Pont Neuf to be conscious of it. Oops. He has to make a living, and I didn't do my part.

Here's the view of the Pont Neuf and the Île de la Cité from Pont des Arts, looking east.

Bad things do happen

2006-06-19T11:23:00.001-04:00

Just to keep it real, as they say, Paris is not all beauty and sensual pleasure. Bad things do happen.

I don't know the story about this poor car, but there it sat just a block from my apartment when I went out in the morning. I heard nothing in the night, no sirens, explosions, nothing. Happily, it seems the car was empty of people and animals.

Artist gallery in Places des Vosges

2006-06-12T15:12:00.001-04:00

Petit-déjeuner aux Deux Magots (painting by Denis Fremond)

Sometimes you instantly connect with an artist's work.

This happened to me in the Place des Vosges, strolling around the shops, galleries and restaurants. I've mentioned before that if I had to choose one place in all of Paris where I would "center" myself after an exhausting day, or just go to get filled up, it would be this square where Victor Hugo lived.

The painter Denis Fremond's work was on display in the Sibman Gallery. His cityscapes and roomscapes of Paris and New York are simple, full of interesting plays of light, and always have just one man in them (himself?).

Visit his Web page for a gallery of his paintings.

Figureheads on the Seine

2006-06-06T10:06:00.001-04:00

There are many "Statues of Liberty" around Paris

There are many houseboats and pleasure craft parked along the river Seine. The "Seine" means “sacred source” or “sacred river” – how often rivers are considered a sacred source.

If the river is sacred, then it may also be rife with enemies, for there are many figureheads, traditionally mounted on ships to ward off foes and guard the vessel and its mates.

Warrior with the Louvre behind

Pirate I
Pirate II

Mermaid

a live figurehead

Window shopping

2006-05-26T10:14:00.001-04:00

Click on images to see enlarged views.

If you don’t have a lot of money in Paris – say you spent all your money just to get there, and there’s not much left for shopping – no worries! Window shopping is a very pleasurable pastime. You don't have to spend a centime.

Sometimes I get filled up just looking in shop windows or walking through markets, regardless of my interest, or lack thereof, in the products. The colors, design sense, the aesthetics of Paris can fill you to the point of saturation, even over-saturation. It’s all just so beautiful! After a while I can’t take it all in.

Louis XIV, the Louvre and Bernini

2006-05-23T12:10:00.004-04:00

Click on photos to see enlarged view.

Sculpture of King Louis XIV by Bernini, outside the Louvre

If you study the history of the Louvre (now the world’s largest museum at half a million square feet, but previously French monarchs' royal residence) you will get a pretty good summary of the history of France and Paris.

I, for one, am overwhelmed by all the kings named Louis and queens with “de Medici” at the end of their prenom. It will take time to study it all, but I want to start here with this beautiful sculpture outside the Louvre of Louis XIV by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Some random bits of information:

- The Louvre was first a moated castle with towers on a site called “the Louvre” (origin unknown, though there are theories) commissioned by King Philip Augustus (also known as Philip II, 1165-1223).

- Centuries later Louis XIV (1638-1715), the “Sun King” or “grand monarch,” ruled France 72 years! This is the longest reign of any French or other European monarch in history. It was under this Louis’ long reign that France’s presence was extended to the Americas, Africa and India.

- The sculptor and architect, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) came to Paris from Italy for a few months to design a new east wing of the Louvre for Louis XIV, but the task ended up being completed by architect Claude Perrault. Bernini’s most famous work, perhaps, is in St. Peter’s basilica in Rome.

I’m sorry that’s all I have time for at the moment. It’s not much, but now I know a little more about the Louvre, one Louis, a sculptor named Bernini and his connection with Paris and the Louvre.

New tidbit found today (5-24-06) at http://artchive.com/artchive/B/bernini.html about the statue pictured here:
"the ostensible reason for [Bernini's] visit, was discarded and his great equestrian statue of the king [at top], eventually delivered at the end of Bernini's life, was dishonoured. Louis did not like it, got one of his hack sculptors to turn it into Marcus Curtius Hurling Himself into the Flames, and relegated it to the garden. There it slowly deteriorated until, in 1980, vandals damaged it so badly that it took eight years to restore. Three copies were made, one for the garden, one for the Louvre, and one for Jackson, Mississippi. The original is so weak it is stored away. Happily, Bernini knew nothing of these insults, dying in an odour of sanctity, having just sketched a projected Christ, which he did not live to sculpt. His chisel had not been idle for seventy five years."

Pavillion of the Louvre, at the end of the Denon wing

What does a woman want?

2006-05-18T16:40:00.001-04:00

I think he's got a manual!

Etudes: French blue

2006-05-17T16:37:00.001-04:00

Nautical blue I

Nautical blue II

Wish I had some of those

Irises in the Tuileries seem to watch tourists

Where to put it?

Blue, with hot sauce

Luxembourg Gardens: Women in and out of their element

2006-05-16T15:41:00.006-04:00

Today I met Catherine from Toronto (after seeing but not meeting her yesterday at a restaurant on the Champs Elysees), both of us feeling a bit lonely traveling unaccompanied in Paris for a week, strange women in a strange place (so why does it feel so much like home?).

Luxembourg Gardens

When I met Catherine I was walking toward the Luxembourg Gardens, getting away from diesel fumes on the busy quais along the Seine. I needed quiet, fresh air, and sprawling gardens with birds, men playing ~~bocci ball~~ petanque and kids toddling around, where a palace was built for a non-French-French queen who herself was out of her element.

Luxembourg Palace

Marie de’ Medici, married to French King Henry IV, was from Florence and did not feel at home in France. After her husband was assassinated (1610), she wanted to leave her residence at the Louvre and asked architect Salomon de Brosse to design and build this Florentine-style palace (like her childhood home), now home to the French Senate.

Henry IV's boot and spur on statue of him at Pont Neuf

She was an Italian woman adjusting to Parisian life, but apparently she influenced French culture, from fashion to food. Some say she is the mother of French cuisine!

One of the few surviving remnants of her commissions is the Fontaine de Médicis, in the photo below.

Currently in the still water of the Medici fountain, dusted with seeds floating down from the surrounding plane trees, there is a woman definitely out of her element. (No, I did not photoshop her in. I searched the Web for information about this sculpture~~, without luck~~; ParisDailyPhoto informed me that this sculpture was created by Lotta Hannerz of Sweden.) What would you name her? Do you love her or hate her? (Apparently Marie de’ Medici had lots of reasons to be hated.)

Sculpture in Medici fountain at Luxembourg Gardens

I think I love her. She is a woman learning to breathe in an element not her own. I have no problem breathing in Paris (until I get too many diesel fumes), but Marie did, many women must, and whoever this woman is, it seems that all she does is breathe.

Update: Thanks to ParisDailyPhoto, the artist's name is Lotta Hannerz, from Sweden.

Paired up

2006-05-15T17:08:00.002-04:00

You can click on all images for enlarged view.

Men cleaning under a bridge

Women in Square George Cain

Children in the Tuileries Gardens

Men on a bench near the Eiffel Tower

Man, Woman (and Dog) near Eiffel Tower

Miel & Cheval: Honey & Horse

2006-05-14T14:44:00.001-04:00

1. On rue St-Antoine, a block from where I'm staying, there is a natural honey store, Miel et Nature, right next to a butcher that sells horsemeat, Au Cheval du Marais. I wonder how the natural honey-buyers feel shopping next to this boucherie? I was a bit disturbed just walking by, even though I eat (other) meat.

Frenchmen began eating horsemeat, ”they say, during the Battle of Eylau in 1807, when the surgeon-in-chief of Napoleon's Grand Army, Baron Dominique-Jean Larrey, advised the starving troops to eat the flesh of dead battlefield horses. The cavalry used breastplates as cooking pans and gunpowder as seasoning, and thus founded a tradition.” (from this article)

Ok, stay with me.

Doorway into the courtyard of the Picasso Museum

2. At the Picasso museum in Paris, also in this neighborhood, there is a visiting photographic exhibit of Picasso’s mistress and friend, Dora Maar, with her photographs of him and his work, including the photographic series she took while he painted Guernica. Guernica (below) is Picasso’s anti-war painting against the April 27th, 1937 atrocities perpetrated on behalf of Franco against the civilian population of a little Basque village in northern Spain. By May 1 of 1937, a million protestors against this horrific act flooded the streets of Paris, where Picasso was living and painting. He had been commissioned to paint a mural for the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris Exhibition in 1937. Previously avoiding politics (though disturbed by the turmoil in his home country, Spain), in response to the terrible massacre at Guernica he painted this painting for the Spanish Pavilion. Imagine!

“The central figure in Guernica is a horse run through with a javelin, wrenched in agony. Some interpreted the horse as Franco's Nationalism, with Picasso predicting its downfall. But other, opposite meanings make more sense in the overall context. The portrayal of the people as a helpless animal dying a senseless death, without the light of hope, is certainly a disturbing idea.” (from this article)

It was not until after Picasso's death (1973), and after the death of Franco (1975), who had instigated the massacre in Spain, that Picasso's painting Guernica was sent to Spain, because Picasso wanted it to belong to the Spanish people, but not while Spain was ruled by a dictator. It is now housed in the Reina Sofía, Spain's national museum of modern art.

Bear with me just a little bit more.

3. I also found out today about ATD Fourth World, a non-governmental humanitarian organization based in France that believes everybody, especially society's poorest members, needs culture as well as bread (fundamentally the ability to read and write, but also the arts).

This article in Mondialogo says "That is the basic tenet of ATD (Aid in Total Distress), which was founded in 1957 in a camp for homeless families in the Paris suburb of Noisy-le-Grand by Father Joseph Wresinski. First the priest invited actors to perform Sophocles’ Antigone in the muddy, ramshackle settlement. Then he laid on an exhibition of original works by Picasso, Braque, Miro and Léger. 'Culture is a fundamental right,' said Father Wresinski, 'but the shame the poorest people have to endure cuts them off from that right.' He wanted culture 'to cease to be a privilege' and to help people outside mainstream society 'believe in their own culture and in their intelligence.'"

This is just me responding to a day in Paris when honey, dead horses and Picasso were seen in more than one place.

Children in the city

2006-05-13T15:12:00.001-04:00

When you live in a city like Paris (insert NYC, Mexico City, London, Sydney, Bombay, Tokyo, etc.) you most likely don't have your own yard/garden. So you take the kids to the park. Or you hope for entertainment along the way.

The first two photos are in the Place du Marché Sainte-Catherine, a 15th century square where I'm staying in the 4th arrondisement in the Marais district. The cow is part of the "cow parade" all over Paris right now.

The last two photos are in the Place des Vosges, my favorite Paris park. Victor Hugo lived in this square.

Place des Vosges

Mary Magdalene in Paris

2006-05-08T17:22:00.002-04:00

May 19 the film “The DaVinci Code” will be released worldwide to church controversy. Many will boycott the film, because it goes against traditional church teaching about Jesus’ relationship with Mary Magdalene. (Since when do books and movies have to be based in fact? Well, but when you’re talking about the marriage status of Jesus, the figurehead of one of the world’s great religions . . .)

I had my own Paris adventure with Mary Magdalene in 2004.

That year I was reading the book The DaVinci Code at about the same time I was learning more about Mary Magdalene (MM) from a spiritual teacher I met. Before then I didn’t know, for instance, that MM and others of Jesus' disciples may have escaped persecution in the Holy Land to Provence.

Mary, the name of the spiritual teacher, told me I was a “Magdalene” in a previous life, a follower of MM who joined her in fleeing Israel to France. I don’t accept or deny this claim, nor do I feel any particular attachment to MM, other than to find her story interesting theologically and sociologically. (Was she really a prostitute? Or did church leaders over the centuries misrepresent her because her role in Jesus’ life was outside social norms and thus beyond acceptance and comprehension?)

But because of the claim that I was a Magdalene, and because MM was said to have settled in France after fleeing Israel for her life after her friend and lord Jesus was killed, I set out on an already planned visit to Paris in October with companions with the new intention of visiting the Church of the Magdalene (Église de la Madeleine) and paying attention to any statuary I saw of her elsewhere in the city. Perhaps she would speak to me?

Église de la Madeleine, or simply “La Madeleine” was originally built as a temple to the glory of Napolean’s army in the 1760s. But after the fall of Napolean, King Louis XVIII decided to use it as a church. In the apse there is a statue of Mary Magdalene that looks very much as though she is pregnant, interestingly enough. Unfortunately I don't have a photograph to post here so you can decide for yourself. But believe me, either she is bending back in a limbo position, or she has a large abdomen!

After touring La Madeleine, Ginnie, Donica and I went to the Louvre on Monday, believing we had hours to browse (always check updated “ouverture” – opening and closing times at museums; old travel books don’t always have the current hours). It is said that if you spent 10 seconds standing before every display in the Louvre, it would take two months to see everything. It covers half a million square feet. We had 45 minutes before the museum closed.

We decided to go ahead and do “Louvre Light” (Louvre EXTRA Light) and feverishly dash around to see the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory and Venus de Milo. Just before sprinting off to view these treasures, Donica noticed an enlarged photo of a Mary Magdalene statue on the Louvre map. Of course I had told my travel buddies about the “MM watch” and so we knew we had to go check out the statue.

Gregor Erhart was a 16th c. German sculptor who carved this gorgeous statue out of limewood c. 1500. From a distance, walking up the gallery toward her at the end of a long hallway, La Belle Allemande (as she is also called) is stunning in her life size elegance and quietude. But the true awe comes when you stand below her and gaze into her eyes, or rather, receive HER gaze. The only way to describe it (for when you feel it, it is indescribable) is to say that she comes alive, looks into your soul and communicates love and acceptance. How Mr. Erhart accomplished this I can’t comprehend. But I’m grateful to the museum designers and engineers who placed the statue at a perfect height to allow the effect.

Then, the museum was closing, and we had to leave, pulling ourselves reluctantly from MM’s captivating gaze.

Later in the week, we went back to the museum to see other rooms and displays, spending the two hours we’d anticipated on Monday. In spite of the intimate experience we’d had with her earlier in the week, we all agreed that we didn’t need to see MM again this visit. So we found the nearest elevator and began our exit from the Louvre. Reaching the lower ground floor (from where you enter and exit – under the glass pyramid), coming out of the elevator, we looked both ways to get our bearings, and there we were within a few feet of the Erhart MM statue! There she stood, bronze hair flowing, rose cheeks, mouth half smiling, eyes gazing down at whomever was standing beneath her. Stunned, we agreed that SHE wanted to say good-bye to US, and so, she did.

Photos courtesy Ginnie Hart and Donica Detamore

Rodin Museum

2006-05-03T14:38:00.001-04:00

Musée Auguste Rodin is one of the many small museums in Paris that make museum-going a pleasure.

I am one who rather dreads stepping foot into the Louvre. I hate how that makes me sound like an uncivilized wretch, because after all, everyone who goes to Paris must experience the Louvre at least once (even if it’s just “Louvre Light”: racing around to the biggies such as Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory and the Mona Lisa, among others). But staring at paintings on the walls of a gallery the length of two football fields is not my idea of fun. The Louvre needs to be broken down into bite-sizes. And that’s for another post.

There are small museums scattered around tiny streets and places in Paris, many housed in what were once residences. The Rodin Museum is one of these. The mansion, Hôtel Biron, was built in the late 1720s, and there is a nice history of its inhabitants in the embedded link in the post title.

M. Rodin wanted a museum for his art and gave the French government the entire collection of his own work and others he had acquired, but he died before seeing his dream become reality: his art housed in the Hôtel Biron, which opened as the Rodin Musuem in 1919 (Rodin died in 1917). Apparently the bureaucratic art world in Paris during his lifetime did not easily accept his art. Imagine, he was never accepted as a student into the most prestigious Paris art institute, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, though he applied three times.

On two floors, you can browse and stroll into room after room, where sculptures, sketches, and bronzes are placed. Loving residential architecture as I do, being in this building alone, regardless of the art on display, is a pleasure.

The Kiss

The grounds are also beautiful, and you can see many sculptures outside, including The Thinker and the Gates of Hell. Here is a bronze of The Thinker inside.

Photos courtesy Donica Detamore and Ginnie Hart
(Ginnie: I'm sorry I was not able to upload your favorite sculpture, Danaid, but I lost patience. I'll see if I can get it done later.)

Montmartre: height and light

2006-04-24T14:41:00.001-04:00

When the year turns to April or October, no matter where I am, my mind turns to walking the hills of Montmartre because of the way the sun slides down over the city in a low arc at this elevation (just 430 feet, but it feels high compared to the rest of the city).

The Butte, as Parisians call Montmartre, is the highest point in Paris and is on the Right Bank (north of the Seine). This means a lot of fairly steep uphill climbing to get to the top, often on cobblestones. You can see the hill, and its beacon, the Sacré-Cœur basilica, from many parts of the city. My favorite view of it is through the clock window at the Orsay museum on the Left Bank.

It is in the 18th arrondissement (Paris is divided into 20 arrondissements, each with its own mayoral center) and is where the movie Amelie was set.

Rue Foyatier is a tiny pedestrian street that is mostly stairs as you rise closer to the peak of the Butte (Pl du Tertre). With the Sacré-Cœur basilica (built from 1876 to 1912) in front of you (more like “above” you) you climb the step-street while the shortest and steepest métro line in Paris – the “funicular” -- runs up and down the same hill at your right.

Views from the Sacré-Cœur’s turrets, or from its democratic steps where you sit next to high schoolers playing guitar and resting their young legs, are some of the best in the city.

Traces of the artists who lived and worked in Montmartre (Picasso, Pissaro, Van Gogh, Renoir, Utrillo, among them) can be found in their graves at the small St. Vincent cemetery and the larger Montmartre cemetery (some, not all, were buried here), in houses they painted or lived in, such as La Maison Rose painted by Utrillo and still pink, and the Montmartre Museum where the actor Rosimond lived.

La Maison Rose by Maurice Utrillo

There is a constant reminder that Paris is a city for tourists: the tour bus. I’m not one who enjoys boarding a tour bus or watching buses line up at Paris hot spots. So I go to Montmartre on a weekday and wander the streets without as many tour buses blocking my view.

All photos courtesy of Donica Detamore and Ginnie Hart

Pont Neuf

2006-04-17T12:25:00.001-04:00

Reproduced with permission from The Hector Berlioz Website (www.hberlioz.com)

In the role of Sabrina in the 1995 film of the same name, Julia Ormond said something like, “There are 26 bridges in Paris. You choose one and go to it in the morning with a croissant and coffee to write in your journal.” I believe her bridge was Pont des Arts.

My bridge is Pont Neuf. Although I have never journaled there, I could easily enough, since you can sit down in one of the alcoves that have benches. My brother Jim calls me “Reuf” to commemorate my affinity for this bridge. (I used “pont reuf” as an email address for a while.)

Although its name means “new bridge” it is the oldest existing bridge in Paris, begun by an order from Henry IV in 1578, completed around 1604. At the time, it was unusual for a bridge to be built without houses on it. A statue of Henry IV astride a horse sits in the park at the tip of the island in front of the bridge.

Copyright © 2003 David Monniaux

Even though there are “384 grotesques” – or carved heads, on the bridge, and although Pont Alexandre III is more elaborate, I think Pont Neuf is the most beautiful of the bridges. This can be good and bad. Good because there is a lot of art and photography of this bridge out there. Bad because it is a lot of other people’s favorite bridge, so it feels like a cliché to love it. Being one who always chose shoes the other girls weren’t wearing, this is a bit difficult. But I’m strong, and I’m almost over it.

It crosses the Seine and the tip of the Île de la Cité (on which the Notre Dame cathedral sits) at one of the most picturesque areas of the city. Five arches of the bridge cross the Seine south of the Île de la Cité, and seven arches of the bridge cross the Seine north of it.

From one of my favorite vantage points of the city, the

Toupary restaurant on the 5th floor of the Samaritaine department store, there is a great view of the bridge. (I'll try to get that digital view next trip.)

Pont Neuf stars in a 1991 movie along with Juliette Binoche:“Les Amants du Pont-Neuf” or “Lovers on the Bridge” – a sad story about homeless people who lived on the bridge while it was closed for repairs.

In 1985, Christo, the artist who constructed “The Gates” in 2005 in NYC’s Central Park created “Pont Neuf Wrapped” wrapping the entire bridge in 454,178 square feet of silky fabric.

What I tell myself when I start to ponder the fact that it might be considered a cliché to love Paris: There are a million reasons to back it up! It’s no accident! Mais bien sûr! But of course!

Here is a white chunk of construction detritus found on Pont Neuf in 2003 when it was being repaired and Don and I were in Paris for our 25th wedding anniversary; it now rests on a cabinet in my office.

David Monniaux photographs courtesy of the free usage agreement at Wikipedia.com (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_Neuf)

Writing in Paris: Shakespeare & Co Bookshop

2006-04-12T12:32:00.010-04:00

Photo of me courtesy Donica Detamore 2004

Because I am a writer and have a BA in English, I want the first post on this blog to be about Shakespeare & Co, the bohemian bookshop on the left bank of the Seine.

George Whitman (rumor has it he is related to Walt), now in his nineties, bought the bookstore in 1951, continuing the legacy of Sylvia Beach’s (publisher of James Joyce’s Ulysses) Shakespeare & Company bookstore, which was around the corner. Whitman named his daughter Sylvia Beach Whitman.

me with George Whitman in 1997
after I bought my book of Phillip Larkin poems

The motto of his shop is “Be not inhospitable to strangers lest they be angels in disguise,” which is painted above a doorway with a stack of books that reaches from the floor to the lintel.

Mr. Whitman, an American living in Paris for over half a century, has taken his bibliophilism to a philanthropic extreme by inviting writers through the decades to stay in his upstairs rooms above the bookshop. The Web site says he has hosted 50,000 writers! Aspiring writers help out around the beautifully cluttered bookstore to earn their rest on his pillow.

On a visit in 2004, I sat on a bench in front of the store while Donica shopped, and when Mr. Whitman appeared at his upstairs window, then opened it -- and his arms -- to me and asked “Do you have a place to stay?” it was clear he “knew” I was a writer and was honoring me with his traditional courtesy. (Thankfully my sister Ginnie was there to snap a photo.) I did already have another pillow in Paris, but I couldn’t help imagining what it would be like to lodge with Mr. Whitman for a night or a week, sharing morning conversation over tea and a pancake before descending the stair to sweep up after last night’s reading. I think George Whitman is an angel in disguise.

George Whitman opening his arms and hospitality to me in October 2004

Photo courtesy Ginnie Hart

Famous writers (Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin among them) have met with Mr. Whitman over the years, and some have read in the shop’s weekly readings.

The bookstore is packed with piles of books, without a clear organizational system except for sections of poetry, history, etc.

Each book you purchase is stamped with this logo that reads: Shakespeare & Co. Kilometer Zero Paris.

You can take a virtual tour of the bookshop. You'll notice that the Notre Dame cathedral looms just across the Seine when you exit the bookshop.

Shakespeare & Co Bookshop, 37 Rue de la Bûcherie