February 22, 2008 Jenn's Birthday! Greetings from Paris

Jenn, this is your day in Paris!
The weather was cloudy, but in the 50's. These pictures were taken at the Louvre, the little garden with the statue of Voltaire is behind the Institut de France across the Seine, the Fountaine de Medicis at Luxembourg, the newly turned flower beds at the Jardin du Luxembourg, a view of the Seine looking down to Ile de la Cite. The petit gateau --in your honor!-- comes from one of the best patisseries, Gerard Mulot on Rue de Seine, in Paris according to our friend Philippe (and we agree!).
Hope your day is as much fun as I had on your behalf--Bon Anniversaire!

Comme d'habitude

Just in case you think that all we do is walk all over Paris, visit museums, and try to learn French--both the language and the lifestyle!--we really do have the everyday "faire le menage" and "faire les courses"--do the housekeeping and run the errands! And they are a little different than what we are used to.
Our apartment is in an older building (you know I love old buildings!) in this wonderful area one block from the Tuileries in the First Arrondissement.

If you are not familiar with the layout of Paris, the city districts--Arrondissements of which there are 20-- were created by Baron Haussmann in the 1860's as part of his grand transformation of Paris. He is responsible for the wide boulevards and the grand vistas, for example the view from Louvre up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. These arrondissements circle the Ile de la Cite in a clockwise concentric spiral. Of course, he is also credited with the destruction of old Paris with its winding streets and neighborhoods--the French urban renewal! Boston did not get Haussmann-like amenities like tree lined streets and a city hall plaza like Paris in its urban renewal!

Where we live in the first, we might be in the center of high end shopping, but we still carry home our groceries! Grocery shopping for us is a combination of the neighborhood boulangerie (we had bread withdrawl when they closed a week for vacation--we LOVE their bread and are already worrying about their plans for August!), the local boucherie, the marche on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and the Monoprix. The Monoprix is a department store about 6 blocks away that has some housewears, some cosmetics, some clothes, some toys, and small grocery. It has quite good quality produce and cheeses and is where we buy our staples like sparkling water and laundry soap. Hauling water--which is sometimes what it feels like!-- requires the use of the pull cart and I wait for David to navigate that vehicle over curbs, steps, and pedestrians!
The marche is our favorite place to shop and we already have "our" cheese stand, "our" produce place, and the woman who sells us flowers every week knows that I love the lillies. I have to say that I had not appreciated how much work these markets require of the vendors. For example, there is a grocer who sells Italian products like Italian cheeses, proscuitto, fresh pastas, etc. They essentially create a shop on the sidewalk! Refrigerated cases, slicing machines, display cases, the goods--there are electrical connections in boxes in the sidewalk and everyone has their own spot. And when the 6 to 8 hours are over, they have to disassemble the whole place and take it to the next market the next day. On Sunday we walked through the marche at Place de la Bastille as they were closing and cleaning up--it was like a bee hive!
Our friends from Lyon, Timothy's other parents, came for the weekend last Friday and we had a wonderful time walking and eating! Philippe is from Paris and showed us lots of places--like the two best patisseries--and the Rue de Seine with all of its art galleries. We are off on an adventure with them next Tuesday to Toulouse where we are going to learn to make confit du canard and foie gras!
There is a lot to be said for living in an apartment--there is less to take care of and time to go out! So, all we do is walk all over Paris, visit museums and try to learn French--but David does work!

Les Femmes du Jardin des Tuileries

As I have told many of you, I walk several mornings a week in the Jardin des Tuileries as part of my exercise routine. There are not many women--particularly my age!--who exercise there in the mornings. There are an increasing number of runners now that the weather has gotten nicer. It is a wonderful place to walk--I go around 9am so that I am finished by 10 am and not in the midst of hordes of tourists--although I know that I must be a number of Tuileries pictures taken home to Japan!
Les Jardins des Tuileries have been restored recently although their layout as designed by Le Notre (he also designed the gardens at Versailles) is mostly unchanged. There are flower beds, gardens, and a collection of magnificent statues throughout the garden. (daffodils, crocus, hellebores in bloom, magnolia buds swelling!)
"Les Femmes", as I have come to call them, are a collection of nudes by Aristide Maillol. As I walk by and around them many mornings, I have developed a great interest in them--they are wonderful. There are other sculptures as well by Henry Miller, Rodin and others as well as some more classical style pieces throughout the gardens. However, I find that the Maillol collection has a presence and impact that is almost a structural part of the garden. They evoke emotion and their larger than life size draws you to them. They do not disappear into the landscape.
I have thought a lot about why I am so drawn to them. I have decided that they display physical strength and strength of being.

My inspiration for more information came as I walked among these women Wednesday morning, which was sunny and with a winter bright blue sky. I did not know anything about the artist, Aristide Maillol but I have great internet access!
I discovered that the woman who was the model for many of these had created a foundation and museum --Musee Maillol on one of the streets right across the Seine from where we live. It is on a street, Rue Grenelle, that I walk by on the way to Alliance Francais where I am taking French. The museum is diagonally across the street from David's favorite wine shop!(I guess we never looked past the wine in the window!) Since I did not have a three hour French class on Wednesday, I visited the museum.

The museum and the foundation were started by Dina Vierny who was the model for many of his sculptures. It is a former 18th century convent that has been both historically renovated and re-designed to create exhibition space for the large pieces. The front of the building has a well known fountain created in the 1740's by Edme Bouchardon, "Fontaine des Quatre-Saisons".(His other famous piece, a statue of Louis XV was installed at Place de la Concorde, but taken down and destroyed during the Revolution.) The museum literature states that the museum contains all of Maillol's work plus the private collections of both Maillol and Dina Viernay which include drawings by Matisse, paintings by Picasso, Gaugin, Kandinsky and others. Maillol was friends with a number of these artists. I found this story amusing--
Matisse was recovering from surgery in the spring of 1941, he had cancer, and trying to get back to work. In the fall, Maillol sent Dina Viernay to him with the message " Je vous prete la vision de mon travail, vous la reduirez a une trait." Essentially -you can take the vision of my work and reduce it to a line"--and that is what Matisse did! There are some of his familiar line drawings of Dina with a bracelet, with raffia sandals!

I particularly enjoyed the number of sketches for Maillol's sculptures. There are also small clay models of many of them. He was interested in many forms of art-there are tapestries that he wove (he actually founded a workshop in Banyuls that was famous), clay vessels and water jugs that he made, and paintings. His subject matter is nearly always women. His sculptures are displayed mainly on the first floor. Dina Viernay collected many contemporary pieces after Maillol's death in 1944 (car accident) and remains the president of the foundation according to their website. My favorites of Maillol's "femmes" are those for which Dina was the model. She must have that "strength of being" that drew me to the figures in the gardens in that she not only inspired them artistically, she was also the force behind the creation of the museum and foundation.

The area where this museum is located is one of our favorites--it is an area inside the triangle created by Rue de Bac, Rue Grenelle and Boulevard Raspail. There is a fabulous poissionere--more fish and shellfish than I can identify! And in addition to the wine shop, a cheese shop that must have at least a hundred varieties of cheese.
Yesterday I bought "couers de chevre" for Valentine's Day!

Le printemps est arrive?

The last few days have been sunny and in the 50's! Everyone has been out sitting in the parks and enjoying the sun. Wednesday I wanted to take full advantage of the wonderful day and walked up to Parc Monceau. The park was originally developed by the Duke of Chartes in 1769 and half of it remains as a lovely meandering landscape and is not the formal, symmetrical style of French gardens. Witch hazels, crocus and berginia where in bloom! An interesting marker informs you that the first silk parachute drop happened there in 1797 when Andre-Jacques Garnerin jumped out of a hot air balloon. The whimsy of the French! The park is not far from the Arc de Triomphe and is in the 8th arrondissement.
I mentioned that the park is only half the size that it was originally. The other half was sold as building lots for the construction of large mansions.
Several of these mansions are museums and open for visiting. I visited the Musee Nissim de Camando, named for the son of the owner who was killed in WWI. Count de Camondo was from a banking family from Istanbul and an avid art collector. Following the death of his son, Count de Camondo gave the house and its contents to "Les Arts Decoratifs" of France and it is open as a museum. It overlooks Parc Monceau. The house was modeled on the Petite Trianon at Versailles and is full of wonderful paintings and 18th century furniture and furnishing. There is for example a set--hundreds of pieces--of Sevres porcelain decorated with birds displayed in a room walled with glass cabinets. de Camondo originally owned the Parc Monceau series painted by Monet which are now in the Musee d'Orsay.
The story here has a tragic ending--the de Camondo family was a Sephardic Jewish family that owned one of the largest banks in the Ottoman empire. The count's daughter Beatice, her husband and two children were deported to Auschwitz and the family perished. She made no attempts to leave France as she was French.

The other grand house that I visited was the wonderful Musee Jacquemart-Andre on Boulevard Haussmann, in the same area. Edouard Andre was a banker and Nelie Jacquemart was a portrait painter. He was an avid art collector and after their marriage (and yes she did paint his portrait before they were married!) they built this magnificent house for their art work. And for entertaining! The walls in the salon, an entry, which are carved oak, can be mechanically sent to the basement to open up the first floor as a large room. What a great idea! The salon has a loggia that is open from the first to second floor; the musicians for their soirees used to be installed there. It was said that the music floated down as if from the heavens--which by the way had Tintoretto frescoes adorning them!
The most magical part of the house was at the end of the salon--it was a winter-garden and this is where the two double spiraled staircases reached the loggia and the second floor. The winter-garden is two stories and has an opaque glass roof; it is sheathed in marble with marble benches and plants so that you get an outside feeling. But it is the staircase that is the wonder! The story is that the architect, Henri Parent lost the bid to design the Opera to Garnier. He designed the staircase to essentially show Garnier up as all of the same people who visited the Opera, came to this house. I have not yet seen the Opera, but I have seen the staircase!



(17 juin--I inadvertently took some photos while visiting with a friend and David before David reminded me of the "pas photos" sign! Why waste the pictures when I can share!)
The audio guides available at both of these houses were exceptionally good. For example, you could get more detail on furniture construction (which is quite specialized the joiners made the frames and the "ebenistes (think ebony) and marqueteurs" did the finish work, veneering, inlays, etc., the architects, etc. in addition to a description and explanation of each room. The guides also have glimpses into the lives of the owners.
These families collected not only for themselves and their personal surroundings, but for the French museums. As they had more money to spend than the museums, they often made purchases for the museums or refrained from bidding up the prices at art auctions where a museum as bidding. They were also called upon to fill in gaps in the museum collections and they did. Nelie Jacquemart and Edouard Andre were travelers, being away often 6 months of the year, and had extensive contacts in the all the art houses. One interesting example is manifested in the Italian Rooms that Nelie had installed. During the unification of Italy, many of the wealthy Italian nobility had to sell their extensive land holdings and houses. She purchased della Robbias, Donatellos, and other Renaissance and Venetian pieces --including architectural elements like doorways and ceilings.
It is places and days like this that make Paris such a wonderful place to be! Both of these houses and their stories can be googled for more information--and pictures of the interiors and surroundings.
And remember the parachute jump? Thursday morning, David and I had to go to the Prefecture de Police for our "Carte de Sejour"--card for staying and working here--on Ile de la Cite (the island in the Seine where Notre Dame is) we were leaving and walking over a bridge and a crowd was looking in the water-which by the way has a very strong current. There were divers in the water and a police rubber boat. The policemen were training and JUMPING off the bridge where we were standing! And by the way--doing back flips!
It's a wonderful sunny Friday morning and just perfect for a walk in some other direction!

It's already February!

Bonjour mes amis!

I can hardly believe that we have been in Paris for nearly 6 weeks! Although, we do feel like we are at home here---and we love being here!

We spent most of January organizing the necessities of life--cell phones, internet and cable access, bank accounts and paperwork for the apartment and David's position at Ecole des Mines. Since it was all compressed into this one month, it felt bureaucratic--and many said "it's France, there's paperwork!" but the reality is that at home, we have not moved since 1985--so we added things like cell phones and internet over a much longer period of time.

Everyone we interacted with was most helpful and we have great service from all. Our bank, however, is worth mentioning. It is one of the 6 private banks remaining in France, and their service is impeccable! For example, if you go to the bank to cash a check or ask a question, your banker speaks to you in a private office and takes care of the transactions for you! We chat, she gave me some suggestions of places to visit in the winter months and I emailed her about ground hog day! That is not my experience with our personal banks at home! But they have Euros, they can afford to be nice!

I have been taking French at Alliance Francaise and it has been great fun--and I am re-learning French. The class is very diverse--students of all ages, nationalities, and reasons for studying. I have become friendly with several students and I look forward to going. The format is 3 hours a day, 3 days per week--the 3 hour format seems formidable, but you really need it to get your brain in "french mode". I have been surprised at the number of students from Central and South America. Of our class of 14, 7 were from places like Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela. I have become friendly with a woman from Tehran and a young woman and young man from Damascus.

Prior to coming, a friend in Boston put me in touch with her friend David Witter who gives classes about French wines here in Paris. We met David and attended a "class" with 3 other Americans and we had the most enjoyable evening. We are planning to go again-he pairs a number of wines with small dishes and we discuss them and lots of other things! We are also going to attend a couple of wine salons --tastings- with him. And I promised an evening of Italian food which I need to schedule!

Our weekends have been busy! We celebrated New Year in Lyon with our friends--almost family!-Jacqueline and Philippe. They are the couple with whom Timothy lived in Lyon the semester he studied here. And as those of you who have heard us speak about them, you know that we ate extremely well! Philippe is one of the best chefs we know! Jacqueline always loves it when Philippe and I cook! She makes the most wonderful confiture and ratatouille--we had a great time a few summers ago cooking for days!

Other weekends in Paris, we have been taking advantage of the city. We have visited several museums--the Musee d'Orsay, Musee du Louvre des Arts Decoratifs, Musee Rodin, and the new anthropology museum, Museede Quai Branly. Last Saturday we attended a wonderful concert at the church of the Madeliene close to our apartment. The orchestra was "Les Violons de France et Les Trompettes de Versailles" along with a soprano, Cecile Besnard. The program was Vivaldi, Handel, and Mozart--Cecile Bernard sang Ave Maria. The church has wonderful acoustics and is just beautiful.

And the shopping! Everything is just so exquisite! As many of you know, there are small shops everywhere and each one is different. And of course there are the "grands magasins" of Galleries Lafayette and Au Printemps as well le Bon Marche on the rive gauche. The middle of January through next week are the big winter sales "soldes" and we have done a bit of shopping! The real fun is just looking!

France has survived the trauma of no smoking in restaurants, bars, and cafes. Smoking is allowed outside at the tables, but not inside--we love it! Although it is amazing to see people sitting outside in the cold with a cafe just to smoke!

This is a long winded start--but I wanted to create the setting for you to know how much we are enjoying being here. The weather is mostly in the 40's to 50's and quite cloudy--although this is a beautiful sunny morning. Spring is already starting, the hellebores and primroses are blooming and I have seen my first daffodil!