Musee, Musee

May was and June continues to be high season at our chambre d'hotes (French name given to rooms rented as bed and breakfast accommodations in private homes --great way to travel!) We have enjoyed everyone's company and our opportunity to re-visit favorite places. (Although the weather has not been what I want spring time in Paris to be --but I am in PARIS-- so how can I complain???) The opportunity to return to these great places is a luxury --I have been to the Musee d'Orsay 5 times (our membership was a great investment as we can go in the member's entrance and avoid the lines!)
The first time that you visit a great museum, you really are taking inventory (and some visitors chose to catalog that inventory by photographing every single piece on display! do they EVER look at them when they get home???? Imagine sitting through that evening of "let's look at my vacation pictures..."). But honestly, you are so enthralled that you are actually seeing the originals of art work that you recognize, and being introduced to pieces that you do not know, that you do not have the time (or brain capacity) to look into the piece and absorb its flavor (this is France --and it is always about the food!) And the sense and process of taste is exactly what you need to emulate when looking at these artworks --their presentation, their perfume, their texture, their taste as it lingers, their terrior...(of course, we Americans are probably confused about taste --how would you describe the taste or terrior of a vente iced soy carmel latte with an extra shot and whippped cream???? And those, and more complicated drinks of COFFEE get ordered and imbibed daily!!! Well... maybe twice a week now since you have to DRIVE to Starbucks...)
But it is the return visits that give you the chance to understand and experience what makes these masterpieces. You can also be more discerning... and decide that greatness does not always mean that you like the works.
In my last visit to the Musee d'Orsay, I was wandering around the Impressionist galleries as my friends were looking at the paintings of Monet, Renoir, Pisarro, Cezanne and the others. I made an observation --Monet must have painted in his sleep! I realize that he lived a very long life, but he painted hundreds of pieces --the familiar ones of the Rouen Cathedral, the British Parliament, Venice, the countryside just outside of Paris, the monumental Les Nympheas-- The Waterlilies from his garden in Giverny-- we all know of these. But there are many others that equally magical. And you simply must be across the room to really see how masterful they are (so those thousands of digital shots taken to every corner of the globe are impressions of impressionists!) I was particularly taken by Monet's treatment of water and reflections. In his pieces Yachts, Argenteuil and Regatta, Argenteuil, the water from a distance looks mirror like. At close inspection it is merely white lines (okay, merely MONET's white lines!) One of my other favorites is the Magpie, which is a magpie sitting on a gate in a snow covered landscape as the sun creates those blue tinted shadows after a new snow fall. It gives you that sense of stillness and sparkle that you see and admire those mornings after a heavy snow fall (before you have to shovel and drive to work in that post-snow storm traffic!) But let's not forget the magic of that moment!

My other observation is that Pisarro and Sisely are under-appreciated in the States.

I have taken almost no pictures of these paintings. So --you will have to come to Paris to see them-- and I will get to see them again... and I will let you borrow my Carte Blanche so you will not have to wait in line... but no Starbucks!
But these are my impressions from Jardin, Jardin the Paris "flower show" held in the Tuileries this weekend.



The title, 'Musee, Musee' is a play on the name of a Richard Serra (American sculptor) work, 'Clara, Clara' on display in the Tuileries, while his installation, Promenade, is in the Grand Palais. Monumenta 2008 is the second Monumenta --an artist is invited to make an installation in the large exhibition hall of the Grand Palais. Promenade is composed of five huge COR-TEN steel slabs that you walk through to experience... David as you might imagine loved the works!