2019 Photo Sets

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Photo Sets

Here are links to my 2019 Google Photos photo sets. You might enjoy browsing through these by topic, even though smaller versions of most photos have already been included in earlier posts. This will also let you download full-sized images if any are of particular interest (please contact me for permission to publish them, unless you are in the picture, in which case be my guest).

New Photo Sets

• Paris 2019 – People and Food
• Paris 2019 – Streetscapes and Interiors
• Paris 2019 – Fine and Contemporary Art
• Paris 2019 Outsider Art: Hey #4 at Halle Saint-Pierre
• Parc de Bagatelle (2010 & 2019)
• Day Trip to Provins
• Day Trip to Rambouillet
• Day Trip to Parc de la Vallée aux Loups

Updated Photo Sets

• Paris – Street Art and Mysterious Texts
• Impressionism Far and Near
• Paris Then and Now
• Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac
• Art of Belleville, Paris
• Day Trips to Chantilly (2014 & 2019)

One thing I only realized as I pulled this page together is that I did a lot of day trips this year!

This pretty much wraps up my Paris blog for 2019. On with the rest of my life…

More Invaders

Tags

FlashInvaders, Invader, Space Invader, street art

Since 2016, when Omar introduced me to the FlashInvaders app, I have been happily racking up sightings of works by the street artist Invader in Paris, Tokyo and New York. By the end of my 2018 trip, with considerable help from Brian and Sheila Boyle, I had 51 sightings, out of 1,285 total in Paris.

I thought I had “only” 1,234 to go, but imagine my bemusement when I opened the app this year and found that Invader had added more than 100 works, totalling 1,401: I was falling behind!

Fortunately, C.N., Sherard and Jared all got into the game and helped me add another 90 images — despite three weeks without a cell phone — bringing my Paris haul to a respectable 141, 10% of the total.

The newer works are quite varied. Some are big and bold, taking advantage of the fact that Invader is now the toast of Paris rather than someone who has to sneak around in the dark of night to put up guerrilla artworks.

One of my favorites among the new Space Invaders

Here are a couple more really big ones.

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Some are rather cleverly camouflaged.

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Others spell out words.

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Some of the new ones are rather mysterious.

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Others are just plain witty and fun.

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  Beam me up!

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Picard is a frozen food store, so this one is particularly apropos.

One I hadn’t seen before was right outside the window of my 2019 apartment on rue Montorgueil!

There’s only one type of the new artworks that I don’t much like. These are large composite images that spell out a sentence, somewhat like a rebus. I don’t find them artful enough.

“It’s time to take a vacation,” I suppose. Meh.

Sherard pointed out that Invader has an Instagram account on which he posts tantalizing images of newly-added works. It’s fun.

I see from Invader’s web site that he has put up 3,776 images in 78 cities, but only in New York and Miami on the East Coast. Keep your eyes peeled when you go on vacation, however, since he’s been all around the world.

There are a surprising number of faux Invaders in Paris. Some are obviously fake but others look real to my rather experienced eye. Here, just for fun, is a rogue’s gallery of fake Invaders:

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Afterword

2019 was a great petit séjour in many respects, but on balance it was quite good but not quite great.

What Was Great

• The apartments and hosts were all excellent. I’m an experienced renter, so I know what I like, and I’m prepared to pay for it. But there’s always the possibility of a slip-up of one sort or another; this year there was none. There were various tiny glitches, of course, but all the owners were responsive and helpful. The locations were various, but all lived up to expectations; Les Gobelins was particularly charming. My first place had an elevator and the other two were on the French première étage (U.S. second floor) so stairs weren’t an issue this year. 
• My cousins, with whom I lived for the first two weeks, were delightful, and overall in a much better mood than last year. It has been my pleasure these past two years to help facilitate our mini-reunions. 
• My house guests were congenial, and inspired me to amounts of walking that I haven’t done in several years: I averaged 7 miles a day over the entire stay, due in significant part to insatiable walking by C.N., Sherard and Jared.
• It was great to spend time with Zhizhong, and to catch up more briefly with other old friends like Antoine, Elliot and Ali. I also made some new friends, particularly Eugène, who added a lot to the experience. I didn’t repeat the error of befriending anyone — like Theseus last year — who was primarily interested in money. 
• The art was astounding, from the Belleville Open Studios to three visits to the Musée d’Orsay, and everything in between. Another year I might want to spend even more time browsing private galleries, and at least a day at the Louvre, but overall the trip couldn’t have been much better. 
• Partially due to the tastes of my guests, but also on my own, I heard more music this visit than ever before, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I also saw two modest but inspiring theater pieces, though another year I will want to get to at least one opera at l’Opéra de Paris, and perhaps another type of performance, such as dance. I only went to one movie, but that’s because there were always better things to do!
• My health was generally good this year, apart from a cold that slowed me down the first week of June. No problems with my feet (as has happened in two prior years) despite all the walking! And, unlike last year, I lost a bit of weight despite all the terrific food. The one real deficiency was aerobic exercise: I got tons of exercise from walking but rarely pulled a sweat. Fortunately, I was able to pick up my elliptical trainer workouts without an issue after getting home so I don’t think my overall fitness declined too much. 

What Wasn’t So Great

• The weather was pretty awful. Most of May was cold and rainy. So were the first two weeks of June, apart from the first couple of days. I wasn’t too surprised by early May; it’s often chilly in Paris, so another year I’ll resume my practice of going somewhere southerly at the start of my Europe trip. But late May and early June are usually lovely; just not this year. The last two weeks of June were sunny, and the first sunny week really was lovely. But the last week turned into a heat wave (canicule) that was scary and enervating even though it didn’t turn out to be as bad as initially expected. Weather in Boston is highly variable as well. I guess I should move to southern California if I want predictable good weather! 
• It’s getting harder to find the apartments I want, in the neighborhoods I prefer. I haven’t tried to do a direct comparison, since there are so many variables, but I also have the impression that furnished apartments are getting more expensive. We did well this year, but at a price.
• I track sleep with my fitbit, and, like most people, I have to stay in bed at least an hour more than I’m able to actually sleep. I started out strong, hitting my sleep target of 7 hours the first couple of weeks and only gradually slipping until the last week of May, when I slept just 5-1/2 hours. June was better, averaging over 6 hours. Sleep overall was pretty good, but I would hope another year to hit my 7 hour sleep target more consistently. 
• The big events at the end of June that I missed last year were all ok, but not as fabulous as I had led myself to expect. The summer show of the Palais de Tokyo was just ok; the fête de la musique was nice but not the astounding experience of prior years; and Paris Pride felt rather flat, despite the sunny weather. 
• I had no problem with sociability this year; the combination of housemates, unplanned visitors and new friends was just about perfect. But I had a two-bedroom apartment all to myself for two weeks in the 1ère arrondissement in mid-May and again in the 5ème in early June, despite my efforts to encourage Boston friends to join. While this wasn’t a disaster, it was somewhat disappointing. 
• Getting pickpocketed was irritating, and has led me to be more guarded in crowded settings. Doing without a cell phone for three weeks was quite interesting, however, and my preparations for an event like this served me well. While this could certainly happen again it hasn’t significantly tarnished my affection for Paris. 
• I may be coming to know Paris a bit too well. Having spent the better part of a (discontinuous) year exploring its monuments, parks and byways there isn’t much that surprises me. This makes it a comfortable place to spend time, but reduces the opportunities for surprise.
• The gilets jaunes weren’t a big problem but they did inconvenience me on a couple of occasions. The fact that they’re breaking shop windows isn’t really my issue, but I find it irritating that they cause the city to cancel bus routes and blockade streets.
• My flight home was on Norwegian Air Shuttle, because it was cheap, direct, and on the Dreamliner. My chief anxiety didn’t materialize: that Norwegian would go out of business before my flight left, leaving me stranded, like the customers of WOW a few months before. My secondary anxiety, however, did: that there would be “gotchas” that would end up costing me substantially more. I tried to anticipate the luggage issue by paying in advance for my checked bag, weighing it with a handheld scale and throwing out stuff to get it down to 50 lbs (22.7 kilos), the usual weight allowance. What I had overlooked, however, was Norwegian’s stringent policy on luggage weight. Payment for a checked bag only covers 20 kilos, and, worse, they weigh your carry-on items with an absolute limit of 10 kilos. I was a couple kilos over in both categories, which required me to move stuff from my carry-on items to my checked bag, which ended up five kilos overweight. Norwegian charges 12 euros per kilo, for an extra 60 euros. Otherwise the flight was nice but the weight issues caused both stress and expense. 

On Balance

This was on the whole a really good trip, despite falling a bit short of greatness. Tokyo and the rest of Japan are calling me back for another visit one of these days. I’m also curious about a month-long stay in Barcelona. But Paris still has the inside track. 

Mot du jour: « wesh ». According to the Urban Dictionary, it’s street slang in Paris, and especially in its ethnic suburbs (les banlieues), usually meaning “hello,” “what’s up?” or “what’s new?” 

Day Trip to Saint-Germain-en-Laye

Tags

arrowheads, Château, Dame à la capuche, gold necklace, Henry II, Jared, Louis XIV, Maurice Denis, meals, nail clippers, RER, Saint-Germain-en-Laye

Sunday was a lovely day, sunny like every day over the last two weeks, but comfortably warm rather than scorching. Jared and I decided to take full advantage of the fine weather by going on one last day trip. We chose Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which is easily accessible by RER, and which neither of us had ever visited.

The centerpiece of the town is the impressive Renaissance château where Louis XIV — as well as many of his predecessors — was born.

Main entrance of the Château

Courtyard of the Château

View of the Château from its extensive gardens.

While it is quite beautiful in its own way one can understand why Louis XIV wanted something even grander, hence Versailles.

After a walk in the vast forest that was used for royal hunts we circled back to the town and had lunch at a café directly across from the Château. We were pleased to find that we could eat almost as well in the provinces as we do in Paris.

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The Château no longer has its original furnishings, but can be visited since it’s now the national museum of paleontology. It has a mind-boggling collection of artifacts created by prehistoric humans (including Neanderthals). Some fall into the dreaded category of “cracked pots,” but many others are beautiful and/or curious.

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  Arrowheads in the form of laurel leaves

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  La « Dame à la capuche » c. 21,000 BCE

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  Solid gold necklace

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  Nail clippers from the 5th Century BCE

The museum also had a temporary exhibition on Henry II and his family, which was mildly interesting.

Henry II by François Clouet

There are apparently other things to see in the city, such as the home of painter Maurice Denis, but we were satisfied with our trip so headed back in time for the farewell events I described in the previous post.

Pride and Farewells

Tags

Ali, Ari, Baba au Rhum, Eugène, farewells, flight, flight delay, Jared, La Marche des Fiertés, Le Bon Coin, Paris Pride, Zhizhong

Saturday was Paris Pride (La Marche des Fiertés). Jared and I met up with Ari and several of his friends to watch, despite the 95 degree heat.

Bob, Jared, Ari and Ari’s boyfriend at 2019 Paris Pride.

As usual, it was a huge parade. One distinctive characteristic of Paris Pride is that many individual people jump in and walk along, only punctuated from time to time by floats (chars) and groups with banners. My photos this year weren’t that great but here they are for the record. Pride is always somewhat fun, but I’m coming to realize that, like with so many things, one can never recapture the thrill of the first time.

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  Sainte-Chapelle looms benevolently over the march

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  A sea of people

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  A modern couple!

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  I suspect Iels is somewhere between Ils and Elles

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  Raidd — not my fave bar — brought along its shower

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  Bears, but not nounours

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  Happy Pride, Teddy!

I finished my Pride experience by walking back home along the line of almost-stopped floats so I could see everything without having to wait interminably. I was then delighted to get a text from Eugène, suggesting a before-dinner apéro. The drink turned into dinner, at Le Bon Coin, a restaurant I had enjoyed with Jared and Zoltán the previous week.

Bob and Eugène at Le Bon Coin.

The specialty of the house is its Baba au Rhum, which is accompanied by a bottle of rum in case you find it a bit dry!

Jared and I hope that Eugène may be able to visit us in Boston this September, and he will be in Santiago for six months after that…

That evening Jared learned that his flight back to the U.S. on Sunday had been delayed by several hours, so he would miss his connecting flight to Boston. He was faced with a choice: spending the night in some random hotel in Newark and getting home Monday morning, or staying one more night (which we had already reserved) in our cozy Paris apartment, having an extra Sunday in Paris, and getting back Monday afternoon. What to do? Fortunately, Jared made the sensible choice, which enabled us to take a day trip on Sunday (next post), and allowed him to join for farewells on Sunday evening.

The first farewell was when our charming Airbnb host, Alexandre, invited us to a local café for an apéro . We enjoyed learning more about his interesting life, and adding an element of personal friendship to our cordial owner-guest relationship. One particular kindness was his offer to let me stay in the apartment until 3 pm, when I leave for the airport, instead of the typical 11 am checkout time.

Our last farewell was an Iranian feast at the apartment of my friend Ali, also including Zhizhong, who Jared and I both knew independently from his grad student days at Harvard, and who has also been close with both Ali and my cousin Lisa (and her daughter Aya). It was hello-goodbye for Jared and Ali, since they were meeting for the first time, but it was a real farewell between me and Ali and me and Zhizhong, since we had spent time together on several occasions this year (as well as on many prior years).

Bob, Jared, Zhizhong and Ali in a blurry but cheerful selfie at Ali’s apartment in the 15ème.

Jared had to catch an early flight on Monday morning so we had to head home after dinner. We walked Zhizhong over to the métro and finished our farewells there. Jared and I had a mini-farewell on Monday morning, but it was more of a joint farewell to Paris since we will both be back in Boston by this evening.