Faces on the Pont Neuf, allegedly caricatures of Henry II's advisors
Louvre frieze, along the Seine
Lion, fountain in front of St-Sulpice
Eglise Saint-Maximin à Mondelange (Moselle)
8 years ago
Showing posts with label paris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paris. Show all posts
Friday, June 18, 2010
Details
Details of statues in Paris...
Faces on the Pont Neuf, allegedly caricatures of Henry II's advisors
Louvre frieze, along the Seine
Lion, fountain in front of St-Sulpice
Faces on the Pont Neuf, allegedly caricatures of Henry II's advisors
Louvre frieze, along the Seine
Lion, fountain in front of St-Sulpice
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Details
Details of Paris tables, over and under...
Brocante, near the Cité Universitaire
Les Editeurs, before lunch
La Palette, before dinner
Brocante, near the Cité Universitaire
Les Editeurs, before lunch
La Palette, before dinnerThursday, May 20, 2010
Details
Some more details from Paris, this time from the stained-glass windows Abbey of St-Germain des Prés.
High-Tech Patissier
While some patissiers may have more elegant or ornate displays, and others perhaps have finer pastries, this pastry shop shows its wares in a way I'd never seen before. The pastries and cakes are displayed under individual, counter-weighted bell jars, suggesting, it seems to me, that each item is so special and so desirable that it has its own cover. More than a shop, it's a pastry gallery.
A Brief Visit to the Louvre
Any visit to the Louvre that would do justice to the museum and its collections would, necessarily, not be brief. The Louvre ranks as one of the world's largest museums and its collections include indisputably the world's most celebrated works of art. So instead of a full account, here's a brief report on some aspects of an afternoon's visit.
The Louvre was originally a sober fortress, built along the Seine in 1190 by king Philippe August. The modern (i.e., 16th Century) Louvre on the site of fortress is the south wing of the Cour Carré, commissioned by Francois I. From the Left Bank, you can walk to the Louvre on the Pont des Arts.
Excavations for the 1989 "Grand Louvre" pyramid and associated remodeling revealed the foundations and moat of Philippe August's castle. Today you can walk around the moat and into the base of the Great Tower, some 15 meters in diameter.
The dry moat had served for centuries as a dumping spot for all sorts of discards. The Louvre's extensive exhibition of the building's history displays many of these items, including coins and clay pipes. The supports for the bridge across the moat still stand.
The Louvre's oldest room is the Crypt Sully (or Lower Hall), which dates from the 12th Century. The columns and vaulting were added between 1230 and 1240.
The Cour Napoleon, just west of the new pyramid, is jammed with traffic because the Louvre is a long building, and there aren't many ways for cars, buses and trucks to get across between the Rue de Rivoli and the quays of the Seine.
Other places in the building remain much quieter, even kind of lost. While some of the courtyards have been roofed over and turned into exhibition space for sculptures, others remain unrestored and tantalizingly inaccessible to the public except by looking through windows.
The great public spaces of the contemporary Louvre lie under I.M. Pei's glass pyramid, the emblem of the Grand Louvre project of the 1980s. I've never warmed to this project, which seemed like a space-age intrusion into Paris's largest-scale and most interesting building. After all, it took Versailles to supplant the Louvre as a palace. The pyramid does provide needed light for the museum's main lobby. The glass slopes and their adjacent basins make for some disconcerting views, though. For example, a couple of kids walked in the narrow gap between the pyramid and a basin, seemingly suspended in a futuristic world.
To stick with the museum's more classical aspects, the Louvre's long wings stretch from the Cour Napoleon to the Jardin des Tuileries. These wings house galleries that, for me, define a museum of art. This gallery is luminous and awe-inspiring. It's actually pretty easy to get lost in this vast set of spaces.
The painting collection includes unbelievably famous works, such as the Mona Lisa. You go from room to room, painting to painting, experiencing the shock of recognition, something like seeing a celebrity in a restaurant. For example, Ingres's Odalisque is today an iconic work, even if at first showing it generated controversy--not because of the nudity but because critics thought that the figure had extra vertebra in her spine!
Similarly, Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, in addition to being a great work of art, carries with it both the artist's political message and all of the additional meaning that the painting accumlated through its use as a symbol of freedom.
The Louvre was originally a sober fortress, built along the Seine in 1190 by king Philippe August. The modern (i.e., 16th Century) Louvre on the site of fortress is the south wing of the Cour Carré, commissioned by Francois I. From the Left Bank, you can walk to the Louvre on the Pont des Arts.
Excavations for the 1989 "Grand Louvre" pyramid and associated remodeling revealed the foundations and moat of Philippe August's castle. Today you can walk around the moat and into the base of the Great Tower, some 15 meters in diameter.
The dry moat had served for centuries as a dumping spot for all sorts of discards. The Louvre's extensive exhibition of the building's history displays many of these items, including coins and clay pipes. The supports for the bridge across the moat still stand.The Louvre's oldest room is the Crypt Sully (or Lower Hall), which dates from the 12th Century. The columns and vaulting were added between 1230 and 1240.
The Cour Napoleon, just west of the new pyramid, is jammed with traffic because the Louvre is a long building, and there aren't many ways for cars, buses and trucks to get across between the Rue de Rivoli and the quays of the Seine.
Other places in the building remain much quieter, even kind of lost. While some of the courtyards have been roofed over and turned into exhibition space for sculptures, others remain unrestored and tantalizingly inaccessible to the public except by looking through windows.
The great public spaces of the contemporary Louvre lie under I.M. Pei's glass pyramid, the emblem of the Grand Louvre project of the 1980s. I've never warmed to this project, which seemed like a space-age intrusion into Paris's largest-scale and most interesting building. After all, it took Versailles to supplant the Louvre as a palace. The pyramid does provide needed light for the museum's main lobby. The glass slopes and their adjacent basins make for some disconcerting views, though. For example, a couple of kids walked in the narrow gap between the pyramid and a basin, seemingly suspended in a futuristic world.
To stick with the museum's more classical aspects, the Louvre's long wings stretch from the Cour Napoleon to the Jardin des Tuileries. These wings house galleries that, for me, define a museum of art. This gallery is luminous and awe-inspiring. It's actually pretty easy to get lost in this vast set of spaces.The painting collection includes unbelievably famous works, such as the Mona Lisa. You go from room to room, painting to painting, experiencing the shock of recognition, something like seeing a celebrity in a restaurant. For example, Ingres's Odalisque is today an iconic work, even if at first showing it generated controversy--not because of the nudity but because critics thought that the figure had extra vertebra in her spine!
Similarly, Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, in addition to being a great work of art, carries with it both the artist's political message and all of the additional meaning that the painting accumlated through its use as a symbol of freedom.
Details
All kinds of details of Paris catch the eye. Here are a few details in stone.
Bas-relief on an apartment building
Column at the Pantheon
Bas-relief on the Faculté de Médecine
Bas-relief on an apartment building
Column at the Pantheon
Bas-relief on the Faculté de MédecineBees in the Jardin du Luxembourg
Susie, Sheldon, John and I ran across something entirely unexpected during our walk through the Jardin du Luxembourg: beekeepers. All those flowers in the park must be able to support a lot of bees. In fact, there are stacks and stacks of hives in an area toward the southwest corner of the park. You can see a lot of bees flying around the hives.
It turns out that the park has a school for beekeepers, housed in this wonderful building. The park offers other garden-oriented classes, too.
When we were there, the students in a class on beekeeping were donning their protective gear. The park had roped off the area near the bees so that visitors didn't get stung. The students trooped right in among the hives.
It turns out that the park has a school for beekeepers, housed in this wonderful building. The park offers other garden-oriented classes, too.
When we were there, the students in a class on beekeeping were donning their protective gear. The park had roped off the area near the bees so that visitors didn't get stung. The students trooped right in among the hives.
Marché at the Place Monge
One morning Susie and I went to the marché at the Place Monge, both just to see the market and possibly to find a hat for me to wear while walking around Paris. The Place Monge, one of the least touristy parts of the 5th Arrondissement, still has something of an authentic neighborhood feel. It's about a block away from the Arenes de Lutece.
Unlike many other markets that now primarily sell dry goods, the market at the Place Monge still centers on foods, ranging from seafood to organic vegetables. Yet, luckily for us, pretty much the first vendor we encountered was a seller of hats, Serge, who had recently closed his regular store in favor of selling at marchés. He had exactly the hat I needed, which I bought after Susie and I talked with him for a while. He likes to travel the world to pursue his passion: catch-and-release fly fishing.
Much of the produce is organic ("AB" = agriculture biologique).
The vegetables are great: the eggplants are small and the red peppers are huge.
Want olives? Choose from among a dozen varieties, not just different flavors of the same olive, as you get in California.
The fish, dramatically displayed on a bed of shaved ice, are perfect.
And if you're interested in something a little heartier, how about a portion of this choucroute garnie?
Unlike many other markets that now primarily sell dry goods, the market at the Place Monge still centers on foods, ranging from seafood to organic vegetables. Yet, luckily for us, pretty much the first vendor we encountered was a seller of hats, Serge, who had recently closed his regular store in favor of selling at marchés. He had exactly the hat I needed, which I bought after Susie and I talked with him for a while. He likes to travel the world to pursue his passion: catch-and-release fly fishing.
Much of the produce is organic ("AB" = agriculture biologique).
The vegetables are great: the eggplants are small and the red peppers are huge.
Want olives? Choose from among a dozen varieties, not just different flavors of the same olive, as you get in California.
The fish, dramatically displayed on a bed of shaved ice, are perfect.
And if you're interested in something a little heartier, how about a portion of this choucroute garnie?
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Flowers in the Jardin du Luxembourg
As near as I can tell, the city of Paris is not an official "ville fleurie." Nevertheless, some parts of Paris have spectacular beds of flowers. Here are a few views from the Jardin du Luxembourg on May 8th.
In the Footsteps of My Childhood
As a child I lived in Paris for three years corresponding to the academic years 1953-54, 1962-63, and 1967-68. Of the first year I, understandably, have no memories. I can recall the other two years with great clarity. So with Susie, and our friends John and Sheldon in tow, I set out to revisit some of the places I remember.
In 1962-63 my family and I lived on the Boulevard Saint Germain, just east of the Place Maubert. The building is actually more modern than that in my mind's eye, perhaps because in 1963 it hadn't yet been cleaned. At that time Paris was emerging from a century or more of coal grime. Systematic cleaning of buildings in the Sixties and Seventies transformed the city's color from dark gray or black to the light limestone tan you see today.
Our building had two stores on the ground floor, one of which was--and still is--La Joie Pour Tous, a toy store. The store's sign and display have both changed, the sign from a monochromatic serif font on a dark background to colorful all-caps sans-serif letters on a light background, and the display from a classic range of toys, such as boats for sailing on the pond at the Jardin du Luxembourg to a more crowded collection of boxes and costumes.
Nearby in our neighborhood were a couple of businesses that stand out for me now. One was a Chinese restaurant, called "Au Pays du Sourire," which still exists on the corner of the Rue de Bievre. The other was "Au Vieux Campeur," a outdoor-goods store on the Rue des Ecoles, which seems to be still thriving.
Every school-day morning my dad would accompany my brother Adam and me to catch the commuter train to our school, which was located in a suburb south of Paris. We would walk up the Rue de la Montagne Ste-Genevieve, a narrow, climbing street.
At the top of the montagne, so to speak, we would pass the church of St-Etienne du Mont. I don't recall ever having gone into this building. On this trip, though, we all went inside to find a surprisingly luminous and interesting church.
Across the corner from the church sits the massive bulk of the Pantheon, which we would, of course, also pass each morning.
In 1962-63, the commuter railroad south began at what was then called the Gare de Luxembourg. The RER system wasn't yet in place, and what is now the Luxembourg RER station was the start of the line, which was called the Ligne de Sceaux. The station still looks pretty much like it did in the Sixties.
The Ligne de Sceaux carried my brother and me south to the Parc de Sceaux station. From there, it was about two blocks to our school, the Ecole Nouvelle d'Antony. 
The school still exists. Indeed, in the 1990s I had colleagues from the Paris area who enrolled their children there.
The school's main building, which in 1962 was the school's only building, seems smaller to me now than it did when I was ten. In the spring there was a sort of history day where students gave presentations for the assembled parents. The performers, including me as a Phoenician, stood on the school's steps, with the audience standing below.
The school now has another, newer building, and a nice playground that I don't really remember.
The recess periods I remember the most involved walking as a class over the to the nearby Parc de Sceaux, a vast formal garden built by Le Notre for Colbert.
The park today is a much livelier, well-kept place than it was in the Sixties. Runners follow clean paths beside robust fountains rising from clear ponds. When I was a kid, the park was much sleepier. There were few visitors, the paths were covered with leaves, the fountains didn't play, and the ponds were full of aquatic plants--so much so that for a while I had the impression that the area was a sewage treatment plant. Since then, park has been beautifully restored, with cascades of fountains coming down to the main pond.
When not at school, my brother and I sometimes played in the Arènes de Lutèce, the arena for Roman Paris.
The Arènes are still there, and looking better than ever. Other kids from the neighborhood would come by on afternoons and weekends for pick-up soccer games on the terrain where gladiators fought wild beasts.
A class of schoolchildren visited the Arènes while Susie and I were there.
A third place for recreation was the Jardin du Luxembourg, which are the formal gardens for the Palais de Luxembourg, built for Marie de Medicis and now the home of the French Senate. The Jardin remains hugely popular--perhaps even more so than in the Sixties because the garden's chairs are now free. When I was a kid, as soon as you sat down a person would come by to collect a franc.
At age ten, the big attraction for me was the chance to sail a model boat on the circular pond in front of the palace. For a modest sum, you could rent a boat (and a stick) for an hour and run from one side of the pond to the other to turn the boat around when it reached an edge. I saved up my allowance for many weeks and bought, at La Joie Pour Tous, my own sailboat.
The rental boats today have colored sails, but the fun is clearly still there for new generations of Parisian kids.
In 1967-68 we still lived in the 5th Arrondissement, but this time on the Rue du Val de Grace--fairly near the Luxembourg RER station, in fact.
At the end of our block, on the other side of the Rue St-Jacques, stood the chapel of the Hopital du Val de Grace, an imposing baroque pile. I never saw the inside of that church, either, and I'm not even sure how you'd get in.
Our building still stands on the north side of the street. From our apartment's balcony you could look left and see the Val de Grace.
In 1967-68 Adam and I attended the Lycee de Sevres, which had an international section. Susie and I have friends in Paris with school-age children; these friends indicated that the Lycee de Sevres was still highly popular with expatriates here. Going to school involve a bus ride to the Gare Montparnasse and then a train ride to Sevres. That year, the year of Mai '68, the strikes, Danny-le-Rouge, tear gas, riot cops, burned cars, occupied buildings, and exhilaration, will have to wait till future post so that I can do it justice.
In 1962-63 my family and I lived on the Boulevard Saint Germain, just east of the Place Maubert. The building is actually more modern than that in my mind's eye, perhaps because in 1963 it hadn't yet been cleaned. At that time Paris was emerging from a century or more of coal grime. Systematic cleaning of buildings in the Sixties and Seventies transformed the city's color from dark gray or black to the light limestone tan you see today.
Our building had two stores on the ground floor, one of which was--and still is--La Joie Pour Tous, a toy store. The store's sign and display have both changed, the sign from a monochromatic serif font on a dark background to colorful all-caps sans-serif letters on a light background, and the display from a classic range of toys, such as boats for sailing on the pond at the Jardin du Luxembourg to a more crowded collection of boxes and costumes.Nearby in our neighborhood were a couple of businesses that stand out for me now. One was a Chinese restaurant, called "Au Pays du Sourire," which still exists on the corner of the Rue de Bievre. The other was "Au Vieux Campeur," a outdoor-goods store on the Rue des Ecoles, which seems to be still thriving.
Every school-day morning my dad would accompany my brother Adam and me to catch the commuter train to our school, which was located in a suburb south of Paris. We would walk up the Rue de la Montagne Ste-Genevieve, a narrow, climbing street.
At the top of the montagne, so to speak, we would pass the church of St-Etienne du Mont. I don't recall ever having gone into this building. On this trip, though, we all went inside to find a surprisingly luminous and interesting church.Across the corner from the church sits the massive bulk of the Pantheon, which we would, of course, also pass each morning.
In 1962-63, the commuter railroad south began at what was then called the Gare de Luxembourg. The RER system wasn't yet in place, and what is now the Luxembourg RER station was the start of the line, which was called the Ligne de Sceaux. The station still looks pretty much like it did in the Sixties.
The Ligne de Sceaux carried my brother and me south to the Parc de Sceaux station. From there, it was about two blocks to our school, the Ecole Nouvelle d'Antony. 
The school still exists. Indeed, in the 1990s I had colleagues from the Paris area who enrolled their children there.The school's main building, which in 1962 was the school's only building, seems smaller to me now than it did when I was ten. In the spring there was a sort of history day where students gave presentations for the assembled parents. The performers, including me as a Phoenician, stood on the school's steps, with the audience standing below.
The school now has another, newer building, and a nice playground that I don't really remember.
The recess periods I remember the most involved walking as a class over the to the nearby Parc de Sceaux, a vast formal garden built by Le Notre for Colbert.
The park today is a much livelier, well-kept place than it was in the Sixties. Runners follow clean paths beside robust fountains rising from clear ponds. When I was a kid, the park was much sleepier. There were few visitors, the paths were covered with leaves, the fountains didn't play, and the ponds were full of aquatic plants--so much so that for a while I had the impression that the area was a sewage treatment plant. Since then, park has been beautifully restored, with cascades of fountains coming down to the main pond.
When not at school, my brother and I sometimes played in the Arènes de Lutèce, the arena for Roman Paris.
The Arènes are still there, and looking better than ever. Other kids from the neighborhood would come by on afternoons and weekends for pick-up soccer games on the terrain where gladiators fought wild beasts.
A class of schoolchildren visited the Arènes while Susie and I were there.
A third place for recreation was the Jardin du Luxembourg, which are the formal gardens for the Palais de Luxembourg, built for Marie de Medicis and now the home of the French Senate. The Jardin remains hugely popular--perhaps even more so than in the Sixties because the garden's chairs are now free. When I was a kid, as soon as you sat down a person would come by to collect a franc.
At age ten, the big attraction for me was the chance to sail a model boat on the circular pond in front of the palace. For a modest sum, you could rent a boat (and a stick) for an hour and run from one side of the pond to the other to turn the boat around when it reached an edge. I saved up my allowance for many weeks and bought, at La Joie Pour Tous, my own sailboat.
The rental boats today have colored sails, but the fun is clearly still there for new generations of Parisian kids.
In 1967-68 we still lived in the 5th Arrondissement, but this time on the Rue du Val de Grace--fairly near the Luxembourg RER station, in fact.
At the end of our block, on the other side of the Rue St-Jacques, stood the chapel of the Hopital du Val de Grace, an imposing baroque pile. I never saw the inside of that church, either, and I'm not even sure how you'd get in.
Our building still stands on the north side of the street. From our apartment's balcony you could look left and see the Val de Grace.In 1967-68 Adam and I attended the Lycee de Sevres, which had an international section. Susie and I have friends in Paris with school-age children; these friends indicated that the Lycee de Sevres was still highly popular with expatriates here. Going to school involve a bus ride to the Gare Montparnasse and then a train ride to Sevres. That year, the year of Mai '68, the strikes, Danny-le-Rouge, tear gas, riot cops, burned cars, occupied buildings, and exhilaration, will have to wait till future post so that I can do it justice.
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