Went back to the sculputre hall of the Musee D’Orsay yesterday to draw (graphite and ink wash). The Musee was built in 1986 out of an old train station. Very nice and a very large impressionist collection. It’s also a good place to draw, though most of the “seating” is behind the sculpture rather than in front of it. Aside from being distracted by groups of French children gathering around me to watch, I could see the guards are bored to tears, looking for things to do rather than reading the paper and chit chatting with each other. First they told me I couldn’t bring in drawing materials. After some discussion they decided it was ok. Then, while I was drawing, a guard spotted my eraser, a pen and another pencil in a little container on the bench next to me…. a leather bound case. I usually use more than one pencil or pen when drawing. She insisted I put them in my back pack. “Hey buddy, put them in or you’re outa here (my liberal translation of her French). . I tried to explain that I needed them to draw. Tough shit. Heck, I’ll bet the’yd chuck Degas out on his ass on the sidewalk if they found him drawing in there. Outside the musee were about a dozen artists selling their work. All ink line drawings of the Eiffel Tower, the Champs, etc… in dayglo colors. I think they do this because that’s what people want to buy. My guess is that they are pretty good painters, but these colored pens and watercolor on paper is cheap and sells.

So, did an ink wash of a stature of Pan being attacked by wolves (Pan et Oursons) by Emmanual Fremiet (shown at the 1864 Salon) and one of a very large bearded fellow from down below – I was looking up at him under his chin: Anacreon by Eugene Guillaume, shown in the Salon of 1852. These were practice exercises, and not finished drawings. Considering the distractions I’m happy enough to have gotten something done, though sitting on hard marble blocks for 4 hours was uncomfortable for this old man. Can’t draw outside. Wet and rainy weather precludes that.

Rebecca is over her cold. Today we are going shopping for Clare’s lunch, to a concert at La Madeleine (Liturgical Chant), a church known for weddings of the rich and famous. Hopefully also to some galleries around the Picasso musee. We also will scout out a restaurant where Rebecca is taking me to dinner for year number 68.

Stunning work that really can only be described by posting pics, which I can’t do…booo. They wouldn’t even let me TAKE pics in this museum, the first place that would not allow camera use, even without a flash. It is only a few blocks from our apartment. After we finished there we went hotel hunting for Marilyn and found one. The apartment she found had no phone and was a bit far away and required a lot of keys and codes to get into. We are all set for Clare’s visit for the weekend. She is coming under the channel (tunnel) on the Eurostar rail, 2.5 hours from Paris to London. What might that have done during the French revolution?!!

Just wandering about, and only a few blocks from our apartment, I found this really big medieval looking church. Thought I’d take a look inside and, amazingly, found the Musee des arts et metiers, devoted to science and technology… about the history of scientific instruments, materials, construction, communication, energy, mechanics and transportation. Holy Moly… what a collection. The history of the bicycle, the telescope, the crane, the clock, and on and on…. from 1750 to 1950. Imagine if you can a large canvas winged early plane hanging INSIDE at the top of a 4 story room surrounded by stained glass. Not just one, but dozens of them. Also a replica of the Statue of Liberty, a remote sensing robot for a planetary mission, and a Foucault pendulum. Kind of a hodge podge, but TONS and TONS of stuff. The early mechanical devices were astonishing.. so much brass work, gears, and fine craft work.

The best part for me was a room devoted to Lavoisier, the “father” of chemsitry. L. was one of the first guys to quantify chemical change. The musee had all his lab stuff. His equipment was huge. I thought it would be small but it wasn’t. The flasks were 3 feet in diameter!! So.. the chemist meets the father of chemistry.

So… why should YOU care? Well think about this (I’ll try and keep it non technical): Long ago when candles and logs burned up, they seemed to disappear!! Magic! What happens? Where does all that weight (mass) go to. Antoine (Lavoisier) actually found out. He collected all the invisible gases and weighed them —> the missing weight! Well he didn’t do this with candles and logs, he did it with something else. But to keep it simple, think of a candle burning and disappearing.

Antoine bought his equipment with francs from his job as a tax collector, and when the French revolution occurred, he (literally) lost his head. So did his wife Marie. Terrible. The excesses of the revolution. We talked tonight at dinner, wondering how long, if at all, it hurts to lose your head in this way. Maybe 2 or 3 seconds?

After my visit to Antoine’s lab I wound up on rue St. Denis, which appeared to be a “red light” district. Saint D. would NOT be pleased. Then walked into the giant 4 level underground shopping district of Les Halles. Left quickly. Supermall – ugh.

Today we are checking out an apartment for Marilyn who should arrive on the 4th.

Notre Dame was beautiful, both outside and inside.  Not too crowded.  Can’t say the same for the Louvre.  Entrance and underground architecture by I.M. Pei was fantastic, but the commercialization around the entrance, shops, crowds (in February!), and size were all daunting.   I think there are about 25 miles of halls and 10′s of thousands of exhibits.   We stuck mainly with French oil painters, and I got to spend time with a lot of original Corots and other early French landscape painters. 

Rebecca wanted to see the Mona Lisa, so we went into the Italian painting section (am not used to seeing 500 square foot oils lined up by the dozens and dozens) and found it.  The crowd was about 15 feet deep in a large semicircle around a line of guards.  Behind them was the Mono Lisa (under several layers of Lucite and glass) bathed in flashes from all the cameras in the crowd.   Somehow I think many of these folks -at least 200-  were there for reasons other than the art itself.  Reminded me of what Graceland might be like, though I have not visited there.   On our quest to find a coffee shop we passed a lot of sculpture by Michelanglo, engravings by Van Dyke and too many other things to mention.

I think, if one spent several years, all the work in the Louvre might be examined.  I may return again to draw, maybe not.  Time is flying by.  Clare arrives from England on Saturday, and Marilyn may indeed make it here from California right after that.

 This morning we got a card orange, which allows us to use the metro for a week, with as many rides as we want.  We may explore more of Paris with it in the next week. Rain is predicted for tomorrow.  So far we have really lucked out with the weather.  

 The end of the day was spent at the Monoprix where we shopped for food which will last the next 4 or 5 days.  Rebecca brought her small suitcase on wheels and filled it up.  I put all I could in my backpack.

Last night we met a poor, tired little old lady in our courtyard who forgot the combination to her door.  She was exhausted and scared a bit.  Rebecca found a fellow who helped her.

Began the day at an Israeli restaurant with a plate of falafel, tahini, hummos, cucs/tomato and pita, and then walked to the museum of paleobiology, mineralogy and the museum of evolution (which wouldn’t fly in Kansas). The lines were so long that we walked back along the Seine back and forth across bridges looking at shops along the left bank. We visited a memorial to all those deported from France (mostly Jews) to the death camps by the Nazis and the Vichy government of France. It was a very somber place.

Ended up in a cafe in the Latin quarter where we talked at some length with an aging rocker, expat, setting up his band for the eve. He and his buddies and lady friends directed us towards the Trocadero exit from the No. 9 Metro and the plaza in front of the Tower Eiffel. We went. We were two of 10,000. The sun was out and it was about 62 degrees so all of Paris was with us. Many outdoor entertainers again. We walked the Tuleries back to the Ecole de Militaire and took the Metro home.

The evening was partially spent trying to figure out our combo washer dryer. After two hours of strange noises and groans and swishes, the clothes were still wet. Rebecca gave up and made a line in the bathroom where things are now drying.

Tomorrow we may attempt to visit a tiny corner of the Louvre (which will probably take 8 hours!)

Think of four football fields stacked on top of one another, the top two covered end to end with modern art from 1900 to the present. The Pompidou Center itself is a maze of transparent tubes and pipes with escaltors inside them. It has enough art to line Route 89 from Burlington to Montpelier. Rooms and rooms of Braque, Picasso, Kandinsky, Miro, Chagall, Durain, Soutine, Maillol, and dozens more, including all the very modern folks still painting who I’ve not heard of. We looked at least at 500 paintings. Oils, pastels, sculpture (in plastic, metal, marble, bronze, and gum wrappers!) Some of the art was very wild and crazy. SO interesting to see it. Just too much to take in, even in a week. Out in front of the building was a plaza about 50 yards wide and 25 yards deep, with thousands of young people and several acts in progress (magic, juggling, dance, painting, etc.) My 2MB camera chip is probably about filled.

Had “dinner”at the Hippo, a Paris restaurant chain. About 40$ for some chips and dips, tea, coke. Can’t think about it. I’ll just pretend we went to Vegas and lost but had a good time gambling. Sat next to a very talkative British couple (physicians from a place called Lincoln) here for the British – France rugby playoff. We traded lots of stories. They got a little high on lots of red wine and beer. Our red wine is back in the apartment. Sun today again. Temp about 60 degrees. Next week will be showery. Better than what we see in Vermont (on the web.) Success!! (so far anyway).

Clare is coming from London to stay with us for a couple of days. So sorry Marilyn did not make it.

Spent a chunk of the day at Passy, a very upscale neighborhood with markets that make “Weathy Living” in South Burlington look like Wal Mart. A variety of fish at $40 to $50 per pound. EEEk! But we bought bread and cheese from the hundreds and hundreds of varieties. Also some very good French wine, which here is relatively inexpensive.

Spent the afternoon at the Musee Marmottan Monet, a sort of Monet shrine with more Monet than I ever thought existed, including paintings by all of his colleagues, groupies, followers, clan and copiers, up until current times. They also had a display of Monet’s cartoon drawings (I didn’t know he did these) as well as photos of him at various stages of his life. The gift shop included Monet fridge magnets, coffee cups, t-shirts, painting kits, etc., etc., so… they have made a Monet industry of sorts. Egad. Some of the work he did late in life looked macabre (dark, abstract, messy) but most of the work was superb and wonderful, including “Impression Sunrise” which was behind glass, behind Lucite, with guard rails and many guards. No pics allowed!!

We then took the underground home in rush hour. The train was so packed that everyone was courteously crushed. When the doors opened and more squeezed on it was hard to breath. But we had all day passes and the trip was very speedy, dropping us right at our door at Place de Republique. The French continue to be very friendly everywhere, joking about our accent, and coming to help us out when we seem puzzled on the street. I think a large part of this is that Rebecca is with me trying out her French, which seems appreciated. On my own last time, it seemed harder.

Dinner: A really good red wine, olive bread with two different kinds of cheeses, salmon, scallops (here they come with orange necks) and a great salad with an olive oil/vinegar dressing. We made it at home. Out it would be over $100. We don’t eat out much. I took 100 euros out of a cash machine and the computer just now (from my bank) charged me $150.

At the Musee D’Orsay – more impressionist paintings in one building than I could comprehend. A wonderful place. Saw the orginial of the Degas Dancers I’ve been working on (see below.) The first floor is one long hall about 50 yards long filled with sculpture. I’ll go back and draw later.

As I said below, everyone here seems to smoke, so the air is often filled with it, especially in Cafes. The streets are littered with butts. And there is graffiti in places that is upsetting. How it gets all over the subway tunnels is surprising. They must stop running late at night for the youngsters to get down there. We also note that on the subway there are musicians that play, and then ask for a contribution. We’ve spent a little on that. Tomorrow we’ll get a Card D’Orange, to go all over with the underground, and then perhaps a museum card that gets us in to 60 museums for about $70.

Everyone here has been great, even on the street. Folks walk up and ask whether we need help or directions. I think it’s my map, my camera or my lovely wife who attract these generous folks. Rebecca’s attempts at French get her quite a ways along, and most here appreciate her efforts and then break into English. Bravo!

Haven’t had a bad meal yet, though most are heart stopping. The CHEESE IS AMAZING.. gotta cut back. Same with the bread. Rebecca wants to go to the organic market today. I’m snapping good photos as we wander. Wish I could post a few. I’ll work on that later today. Big demonstration on immigration outside our apartment. Don’t quite know the intent of it, but lots of smoke, cops, and crowds.

All have been most pleasant to us everywhere. So the days are still going very well. Walked the Champs E. today, and visited the Impressionist museum for the afternoon (Orangerie.) Damp but relatively warm still. Went everywhere on the underground. We’ve got it down now. Color coded, and easy to read maps. The diversity of the city is staggering compared to Vermont. Egad! So much going on in so many different venues. Like NYC I’m sure.

Today we navigated the Paris underground (subway, not the sewers) and visited the Latin Quarter, the outdoor sculpture garden along the Seine, the Museum of Evolution (closed – I will return in a day or so) and the Museum of the Middle Ages. All the French we met were helpful and kind. No hositility as we expected there might be from reading about the city. It was almost WARM today, and we took off our coats around 1 p.m. as we had coffee on Rue Monge.

The French conserve and do things we in the USA will soon be doing – i.e., smaller cars to conserve gas, small bathtubs to conserve water, smaller toilet bowels to conserve the same, timers on lights in various places which saves electricity. The latter was a shock in a restaurant toilet, as it went pitch black and the only way to get the light on was to leave and come back in. Lots of fumbling around in there!!
Rebecca is still working at getting our cell phones working. That has been a bit of a hassle.

Tomorrow we hope to see impressionist paintings, revisit the Marais for some good food, and wander more. There is SO much!!