Pere et Filles

There is a brasserie across the river named "Peres et Filles" --David thinks that it is named for the mis-matched aged couples that are common here in Paris-- a great French pun. I do not quite see the humor, but then I have not seen a bar named "Meres et Fils"!
Since the first of May, there have been two long holiday weekends, and we have had (and will be having) visitors. Timothy came for a week, and our friends from Lyon came up to spend the long weekend with us and to see him. The weather, I hate to tell you, was summer! Glorious sunny and warm days --and light until almost 9:30pm! And we enjoyed every minute!



Versailles is a 45 minute train trip from Paris. (I am sure that it seemed too short for Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette when they were forced to return to Paris!) While the palace is certainly beautiful and opulent, it is the gardens that were the highlight for me. While there is a marvelous vista from the palace, the gardens of different themes are laid out on a grid with tall hedges defining and enclosing each one so that you able to enjoy each one without the temptations of the surrounding ones!
In more of English garden style is the King's Garden --it is less formal and thus a more relaxing place. (I cannot imagine how these French kings relaxed with all the protocols they had in place --and it was worse for the queen having to even give birth in public so that there was no doubt that the child was hers-- but was it his??? Peres et filles...)
Today is the 29 mai --so I have been remiss in new postings-- but I have been using my hard earned experience as a hotelier with friends visiting over the last few weeks. I do enjoy having guests as it gives me an excuse to return to some of the museums and other places that I had visited. As I had mentioned in an earlier post about the Rodin Museum, we did see the Camille Claudel exhibit at the Musee Rodin. Pere et filles...
Camille Claudel (for those of us who had never heard of her) was a young woman who became a student of Rodin and a great sculptor in her own right. The exhibit is a retrospective of her work and her life and includes some pieces that had not been exhibited before. She was a young woman when Rodin became obsessed with her and their work was often intertwined --and thus she has been overshadowed by his greatness and fame. However, her work is wonderful --and is quite emotional in both subject matter and execution. She did leave the relationship and descended into depression. She was institutionalized --and remained so for the last 30 years of her life. When the doctors suggested to her family that she was well enough to come home, they refused to take her. Thus she remained. Her brother, Paul sang her praises after she died and blamed Rodin for all of her problems. He visited her 17 times in 30 years.
The exhibit was crowded and did not allow pictures...but the Musee d'Orsay has a couple of her pieces in the Rodin gallery --it is worth looking on the web for more information about her.


These are of L'Age Mur (Maturity) and is said to depict Rodin being taken from Camille by his mistress, Rose Beuret who is portrayed as death... look for Vertumne et Pomene and La Valse by Claudel... and the sweetest head of a little girl, La Petite Chatelaine...

1 mai et les muguets

After all the time that I have spent attempting (which is all you can do) to keep lilies of the valley --les muguets-- out of my flower beds, I found myself actually BUYING some yesterday. I bought some for us (they do smell wonderful, I admit) and gave a small nosegay to our gardienne, who has been most kind to us. We read in the daily paper yesterday that there is a shortage of muguets due to weather, and that their production is off by 30%. The quote by Jacques Petard, who is in charge of the "commission muguet" for the "maraichers" (truck farmers) of Nantes, and who grow 85% of the muguets in France:

"Les producteurs de muguets ne sont pas des horticulteurs, ce sont des maraichers."
I should find out how they failed! Might save me from a few doses of Advil!


The tradition of giving a stem of muguets on May 1 to wish "bonheur" was started in 1561 by Charles IX. The tradition was forgotten until the beginning of the 20th century, and became associated with the "Fete du Travail" on May 1 (which was started in 1889 and was NOT started as a Communist holiday for parading weapons through Moscow as many American have been led to believe!).
Donc, c'est la France, et demain est vendredi....le weekend a quatre jours!