Fête, Parks and Art

Tags

10ème arrondissement, art, Ayoung Kim, Bart van der Leck, Caminito, Canal Saint-Martin, Délices de la Lune, Doanier Rousseau, Fashion Week, Fashion week models, Fête de la musique, France, Henri Rousseau, In This Vessel We Shall be Kept, Jacques Grinberg, Jane Café, La Baraque A, Le Petit paysan en bleu, Les Nymphéas, Marais, meals, Men's Fashion Week, models, Monet's Water Lillies, Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Musee d'Orsay, Palais de Tokyo, Parc Montsouris, Parc Sainte-Périne, Paris, Paris Fashion Week, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Seurat, water lillies, weather

Tuesday was June 21, the Fête de la musique, a summer solstice street festival that’s a big deal in Paris and some other francophone countries. I have had a good time at the festival since I first stumbled on it in 2011, including barhopping with Jared W, Geoff and Hugues in 2013 and doing it on my own in 2014, with the most amazing time being last year (2015) when I enjoyed it with Sawyer and Seth.

This year I was on my own again. Instead of focusing on the Marais, as in prior years, I decided to stroll over to the 10ème arrondissement, around the Canal Saint-Martin, to see what the festival was like over there. La Baraque A is a mild-mannered coffee shop the rest of the year, but it hosts an electronic dance party for the Fête. The music was just starting up when I arrived so I had a beer on the terrace of a café, then strolled further on.

La Baraque A hosts a dance party at la Fête de la Musique

When I looped back later it had become quite a scene: La Baraque A Dance Party in Full Swing.

There were similar crowds outside restaurants and bars all around the quarter, in each case racially mixed, often multi-age, but with a consistently lefty/hip/hippie vibe. I didn’t notice much of a Muslim presence, and I suspect that this is the Achilles heel in the “melting pot” character of the neighborhood.

Blues at Jane Café in the 10ème on la Fête de la musique

I found the 10ème quite sympa, and I would consider staying there another year. But after a couple of hours on my own I headed home and got a good night’s sleep instead of partying until dawn.

When I got to Paris this year I noticed a new restaurant on rue des Petits Carreaux, Caminito, an Argentine bistro. I passed it by initially since South American cuisine is largely red meat, which I try to avoid.

Caminito on rue des Petits Carreaux in the Village Montorgueil

But on Wednesday I noticed that the plat du jour was fish so I had lunch there, which I quite enjoyed.

Pollock lunch at Caminito

That afternoon I headed out to find a park to do some reading in. I first went to a completely new area, Parc Sainte-Périne in the 16ème, but it just seemed like an enormous playground. Great for bourgeois kids but not inviting to an adult reader. Disappointed in my exploration I hopped the tram over to tried-and-true Parc Montsouris in the 14ème. I had brought an umbrella just in case and found that I needed it at times even though there were also welcome intervals of sunshine. This year’s summer started out looking a lot like its spring!

Rainy moment at Parc Montsouris

Raindrops on a rose at Parc Montsouris

The temperature had gotten up to 80 on Wednesday and on Thursday it was actually hot for the first time this year — high 80’s! Instead of sunbathing my thoughts turned to air-conditioning, so I decided to check some museums off my list. I had expected to visit the Musée d’Orsay a few weeks earlier with Sherard, but the Great Flood of 2016 put paid to that idea. Consequently, I headed over to see the Doanier Rousseau exhibition, and revisit the permanent collection. The title refers to the fact that Henri Rousseau started painting as a weekend hobby while working as a customs agent. I was mostly familiar with a few of his weird jungle scenes, and an iconic image of a family in a carriage.

I hadn’t realized, however, that he was self-taught, and was (initially at least) more of a folk painter than a professional artist. His portraits have that weird quality of looking straight out at you that you see in the works of American folk artists. He did have a good eye for color and could put paint on the canvas, but those skills alone wouldn’t have gotten him anywhere. What made his reputation was the weird and wonderful imagination that populated his jungle pictures. He never left Paris but had a rich vision of a fecund and brutal imaginary world.

The permanent collection of the Musée d’Orsay is always a delight, especially the impressionists on the 5th floor. I always notice something I hadn’t appreciated before, in this case a blurry little portrait by Seurat:

Georges Seurat, Le Petit paysan en bleu, dit aussi Le Jockey, around 1882 at Musée d’Orsay

I was also reminded of the fact that real people can be at least as fabulous as those depicted in the artworks.

Real person at the Musée d’Orsay

The Orsay admission also includes the Orangerie museum in the Tuileries, so I walked over there and revisited Monet’s two immersive waterlily rooms, as well as the impressive impressionist and post-impressionist collection on the lower level.

Monet, Les Nymphéas (water lillies) at l’Orangerie museum

Monet, Les Nymphéas (water lillies) at l’Orangerie museum

One observation I’ve often made about the finest impressionist art is that you can appreciate most any small section of brushwork as an abstraction as well as enjoying the entire work from a distance. I finally got around to posting a photo set putting forward this idea: Impressionism Far and Near

Thursday evening I had a Breton meal at an old favorite, Délices de la Lune on rue Poissonnière. (I was surprised to see that the Fork offers a 40% discount for advance bookings. This seems like gilding the lily since their prices are so modest anyway!)

On Friday I decided to check out the new shows at the edgy contemporary art museum, Palais de Tokyo, which I have sometimes loved and sometimes loathed. Although I liked several of the shows I saw there in mid-May the current crop left me stone cold, except for a few individual pieces and a wonderful sonic work by Ayoung Kim called “In This Vessel We Shall be Kept”. The concept of the work is crazy but remarkable: We are asked to take refuge in an ark against another great flood, but the ark in question is the Palais Garnier!

Ayoung Kim, “In This Vessel We Shall be Kept” (detail)

There are some graphics explaining this conceit and giving the text of an immersive choral performance, which is the heart of the work. These texts are from various sources, including the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Bible and the Koran, which all exhort a chosen few to build an ark to survive a flood. You experience the choral work in a comfortable seat in a dark room, surrounded by eight speakers. I posted a clip to give you a taste, but you need to hear it for yourself!

As in prior years, I stumbled on some Fashion Week models at Palais de Tokyo; cute and emaciated as always, but this year with strikingly kookie hairdos.

Models at Palais de Tokyo

Model at Palais de Tokyo

Since it’s right there and free (except for the temporary shows) I also stopped in to the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. I ended up paying for two of the shows, which were both pretty good: Paula Modersohn-Becker and Albert Marquet. Modersohn-Becker’s early portraits had a naive aspect reminiscent of Henri Rousseau, but her skills advanced rapidly, until her untimely death. Photos aren’t permitted in the shows, but I noticed this grisly little picture in the permanent collection, which is quite good even though overshadowed by the Pompidou.

Jacques Grinberg, l’Enfant (the child), around 1963, at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris

And this eerie group scene:

Bart van der Leck, Au Marché, 1913, at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris

On My Own Again

Tags

Aarchna, art, banlieue, Belleville, clouds, Danube, Eiffel Tower, flâneur, France, Il faut se méfier des mots, Ivy covered cottage, Jordain, Kristoffer, la Mouzaïa, Nausicaa Favart Amouroux, One must mistrust words, Opéra, Opéra Garnier, Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, Paris, Pré Saint-Gervais, quartier d’Amérique, Rosa Bonheur, rue de Belleville, rue de Crimée, rue du Télégraph, semaphore, Télégraph, Un Tapis de Poésie, villas, Water towers, weather

On Sunday morning I saw Kristoffer off on the Roissybus at Opéra. The ticket machine at the bus stop was broken but he was able to buy a ticket from the driver (since he had prudently saved 11 euros in cash).

Opéra Garnier looking lovely, in a rare moment of sunshine

Paradoxically, you have to stand at a traffic island in the middle of rue de l’Opéra, where the sides are blocked by other buildings, to see the full dome, and the pitched roof over the main theater.

In prior years I’ve just sent departing guests out the door with detailed instructions, but a Boston friend has taught me how nice it is to see someone off. This is especially true when I’ve been handling navigation issues for my guest while we’ve been together, so he may not have gotten particularly comfortable with the métro, etc. How I have remained oblivious to this all these years is a mystery, but it’s not too late to teach this old dog a new trick! (Though note that I didn’t go all the way to the airport and back; let’s not get carried away here!)

This year’s sojourn has been very sociable. A series of old and new friends have stayed with me for several days each: Jared R, Sherard, Omar and Kristoffer, and I’ve spent a lot of time with other visiting friends, including Jared W, Craig and Arturo. As in other years I’ve seen a lot of Zhizhong, and I’ve started catching up with other French friends as well. Earlier in the trip I stayed with Charlie and Markevin near Toulouse and spent a couple of afternoons with Grégory in Bordeaux, not to mention my new Korean friends. This has been great fun, but it has also left me with less alone time than in prior years, and has greatly changed the blogging dynamic. From a discipline that I followed (almost) every evening in 2010 it has become a binge project that gets a week or two behind, then takes me a day or two to catch up! All a long way of saying that it’s different, but quite OK, to now spend a few days alone.

Sunday afternoon I headed over to Rosa Bonheur for old time’s sake. The weather has continued to be a mix of sun and rain, but there was a pretty good crowd on the terrasse. I didn’t get into any deep conversations but I did exchange a few nice words with a young woman who was there with her young son and older mother.

Rosa Bonheur, finally open and busy

After finishing my beer I strolled over to the area of little “Villas” to the west of the Park des Buttes Chaumont, which I now see is called la Mouzaïa or the quartier d’Amérique. I added a few shots to my Picasa/Google photo set on la Mouzaïa then continued on to see some of the open studios in an area I had not previously visited, the city of Pré Saint-Gervais, a banlieue!

As usual there was a lot of so-so art, but I really liked several pieces by Nausicaa Favart-Amouroux.

Painting by Nausicaa Favart Amouroux

I also enjoyed a poetry reading accompanied by violin at Un Tapis de Poésie.

Pré Saint-Gervais itself seemed to have something of a Turkish tilt, but otherwise seemed quite Parisian and not scary, except for an abandoned building, covered with graffiti.

Scary abandoned building covered with grafitti in a banlieue!

Somewhat less scary in the context of its spanking new neighbors

I had actually encountered a scarier scene earlier within the city limits at Danube.

Bucolic scene at Danube. Oh, wait…

I had a nice Indian dinner at Aarchna, on rue du Télégraph back in Belleville. I was interested to learn that the « télégraph » was actually one of the earliest lines of visual semaphores, which in 1794 allowed a message to be transmitted from Paris to Lille in three hours that previously took three days on horseback. That’s why it was placed on the highest hill in Paris, also why there are now water towers on the same spot.

Water towers on rue du Télégraph

After dinner I walked down rue de Bellevile as the sun went down (around 10 pm!). Here are a few atmospheric pictures from my day as a lone flâneur.

Ivy-covered cottage on rue de Crimée, near sketchy Place des Fêtes

“Beware of words.”

Doorway at Jordain, rue de Belleville

The other Paris: the Eiffel tower from rue de Belleville

Lovely clouds behind a dome on rue Réumur

All day Monday and Tuesday morning I did literally nothing but catch up on my blog. Enjoy!

Mot du jour: banlieue, literally, “suburb,” but many of the inner ring of cities just outside Paris are ethnic, depressed and at times dangerous so in France the term has a sketchy resonance.

Kristoffer in Wonderland

Tags

Alice de L'Autre Coté du Miroir, art, bar rôti, Bassin de la Villette, Bouillon Chartier, Canal de l'Ourcq, France, Frenchie, Frenchie Restaurant, Kashink, Kristoffer, Le Grand Train, Le Pavillon des Canaux, Le Pavillon des Merveilles, meals, mouarff, neighborhoods, Paris, Rosa Parks fait le mur, rue Ordener, rue Rique, street art, Through the Looking Glass, weather, Yunpeng

In 2014 Kristoffer (Chinese name Yunpeng) and I took a chance on each other. We had been chatting for many months on line but had never met in person. I invited him to visit me in Paris for a long weekend and we had a lovely time. We did the same thing in 2015, and again this year. No longer a gamble now, since we know each other rather well.

Kristoffer grew up in China, but has been working on his Ph.D. in Norway for several years. This year he got a permanent job at Norway’s public health agency, with the Norwegian equivalent of a green card. He has toyed with variants of his western name but has settled on Kristoffer, the Norwegian spelling of Christopher.

He arrived late Thursday evening. We didn’t have a meal since he had eaten at the airport. On Friday, however, we set out to have our first real Parisian adventure.

We started out with lunch at an old favorite of mine, Bouillon Chartier, which we both enjoyed.

Kristoffer at at Bouillon Chartier

Bob at Bouillon Chartier with his bar rôti

We then headed up to La Villette to catch an Imax movie about the South Pacific at the spherical Géode theater at the Cité des science et et de l’industrie.

(In another life I negotiated the contract with Imax on behalf of the Boston Museum of Science for the similar theater there. At that time the spherical theaters, which project an image that extends directly above the audience, were called “Omnimax,” but that term has evidently been retired.)

The movie wasn’t Gone with the Wind but its immersive images were gorgeous, especially the aerial and underwater shots.

Inside the Géode showing the structure behind the spherical screen

After the movie we wandered down along the Canal de l’Ourcq and the Bassin de la Villette, with interruptions to shelter from intermittent rain. The street art along the canal was appealing.

Street art along the Canal de l’Ourcq

Street art along the Canal de l’Ourcq

We wanted coffee but passed up several options as not being quite to our taste, until what did we encounter but Le Pavillon des Merveilles (the Pavilion of Marvels)! This charming café — normally known as Le Pavillon des Canaux — had been transformed by the Disney folks into a clever promotion for their new movie, Alice de L’Autre Coté du Miroir (Through the Looking Glass). We had been lucky enough to stumble upon it on its last day.

Le Pavillon des Merveilles

Inside Le Pavillon des Merveilles

Clocks at Le Pavillon des Merveilles

Kristoffer at Le Pavillon des Merveilles

After enjoying coffee and pastries we headed across town to a place I had read about, Le Grand Train (the Big Train). This was about a mile away, along rue Riquet and rue Ordener. (Not an area I would wander around alone at night, but it seemed normal, albeit populaire, in daylight.) We saw some amazing street art along this route.

Vincent considers doing something drastic, rue Riquet

Tiny sample of Kashink’s contribution to the longest street art wall in Paris, Rosa Parks Fait le Mur, rue Riquet

Le Grand Train is both a substantial train museum and an agglomeration of a dozen bars and restaurants of many different types in an enormous disused train maintenance facility. It will end forever in October and years of construction will begin on an entirely new neighborhood, including lots of public housing and supporting facilities.

Pano of street art at the entrance to Le Grand Train

A big train at Le Grand Train

The view out the back of Le Grand Train

After a couple of beers at Le Grand Train we headed home to take a short nap and get ready for Kristoffer’s birthday dinner, at Frenchie. I had made the reservation — not easy to get! — a month before, on the first day reservations opened for June 17. The meal was delicious, but the light was too dim for good non-flash photos so I have to refer you to my meal last month with Jared W and my meal last year with Matt and Chris.

Kristoffer’s birthday diner at Frenchie

After dinner we were ready for bed. It had been a very full day!

Mot du Jour: « mouarff », “ha-ha”.

First Days With Sherard

Tags

art, Arturo, Experimental Cocktail Club, France, Gaîté Lyrique, Galerie Linz, Lucas Talbotier, Marais, meals, Montorgueil, Nanashi, Open Café, Paris, rue Montorgueil, Seine, Sherard, weather

Sherard arrived on Wednesday morning for a week-long visit to Paris, his first. After he got settled in I asked what he particularly wanted to see or do here and he gave me a short, straightforward list:

• the Louvre,
• the Musée D’Orsay, (most famous for its unparalleled collection of impressionist works) and,
• the Pompidou Center (the national museum of modern and contemporary art).

“No problem!” (I thought!) Because it was closest, and in the gay-friendly Marais, we set out that afternoon to see the Pompidou Center, the national museum of modern and contemporary art.

At the café atop the Pompidou Center

We started with an exhibition about the life and work of Paul Klee. It was large and comprehensive, although I was surprised not to see some of his most iconic images. These were a few pieces from the show that caught my eye.

Paul Klee, Green X Above Left, 1915

Paul Klee, Mask Fear, 1932

Paul Klee, Snake Paths, 1934

It’s always a pleasure to revisit the Pompidou‘s permanent collection but I’ve blogged about it many times before so I won’t repeat myself here. I did get a decent video clip of a rotating op-art piece I’ve always liked, however: Nicholas Schöffer, Spatiodynamisme (visions condensées), 1958

Also, I hadn’t noticed this piece before, which embodies the absurdity of some branches of conceptual art.

George Brecht, Three Arrangements, 1962 / 1973 / 2015

That evening we strolled down to the Seine. The recent rains had caused the river to rise higher than I remembered seeing it. I took a photo, but didn’t give it much further thought…

The quai at the tip of Île Saint-Louis on June 1, 2016, at the start of the Great Flood of 2016.

We ended the evening with cocktails at my old favorite, the Experimental Cocktail Club.

The next morning Sherard was kind enough to give me moral support at a coffee date with Arturo, a guy I had been chatting with for a few years but had never met in person. He turned out to be great — handsome, smart and sweet! We made a plan to meet again for drinks that evening and continued on our way.

We got our art fix on Thursday from less mainstream sources. First was a quirky show at the Gaîté Lyrique, a former theater that is now the neighborhood cultural center for the 3ème arrondissement. The show started out with some cute-ish computer enhanced image manipulations, then developed into a meditation on information gathering and surveillance, and on our mostly-futile attempts to protect ourselves.

We had lunch at an old favorite, Nanashi in the Haut Marais. We both enjoyed our  meals as well as the handsome and friendly waiters.

Sherard with our Bento boxes at Nanashi in the Haut Marais.

We spent the late afternoon seeing galleries participating in Les Jeudis Arty (Arty Thursdays) in the Marais, which now happens just three times a year.

This exhibition space was as interesting as the works (which were on plastic tables suspended by wires from the ceiling struts).

This piece was one of Sherard’s favorites.

Sherard with Memory Drift, 2015, by Nicholas Dhervillers at School Gallery Paris

Painting by Lucas Talbotier at his Biome show

I liked several pieces by Lucas Talbotier at Jola Sidi Gallery.

I was pleased to learn that the handsome young artist will be spending a semester at Rhode Island Institute of Design (RISD) starting next January. We exchanged contact info and I hope I’ll have an opportunity to show him around Boston next winter.

My favorite gallery of all was the Galerie Linz, hidden at the back of a courtyard. I liked almost everything but my favorite piece was a remarkable balanced stone sculpture.

After a minor SNAFU we met up with Arturo and had a beer at the Jeudis Arty after party at the Carreau du Temple, then decamped for cocktails at Le Mary Celeste.

Arturo and Bob at Le Mary Celeste. (Photo credit Sherard)

The drinks were fine and the atmosphere was nice but the service was lackluster. We then tried the Experimental Cocktail Club, but we couldn’t get in because it closes at 2 pm on Thursdays. By this point we were close to home so Sherard and I invited Arturo up to the apartment and we ended the evening with a few glasses of wine.

First Weeks – 2016

Tags

art, assessment, Barcelona, Bordeaux, Buenos Aires, challenge, exercise, France, health, heel, Jared, Lisa, Nice, Paris, Sherard, sociability, swimming, thrill, Tokyo, Toulouse, Vélib, weather, Zhizhong

I’ve been in Paris for 2-1/2 weeks now, and in France for almost a month. It’s time for an assessment.

Overall it’s been a good trip, with many fine moments and no big problems. The only real issues have been my heel and the digestive upset of the past few days. They each had some impact, but I’m hoping that they are both behind me. I’ve stayed in pleasant places throughout, and I’m very happy with the Paris apartment. There’s been variety and stimulation, and nothing like the letdown I felt last year after arriving in Paris.

My initial trip through the south of France was pleasant and interesting, especially the stay with Charlie and Markevin near Toulouse. Of course it didn’t afford the level of stimulation and excitement of Rome and Venice, but what could? Nice, Toulouse and Bordeaux, though all among the top ten French cities, seem different in kind from Paris, a bit like Boston relative to New York City. They are fine to visit for a few days but don’t come close to the richness and variety of the capital.

I’ve seen a lot of good art this year, and I plan to see more. I’ve had consistently good food and some truly wonderful meals. I explored quite a bit in Nice and Bordeaux, and with Charlie all around his region, but I haven’t done as much walking as usual in Paris, due to weather and my heel. I hope to get out more later in my stay. I haven’t been swimming at all yet this year, and I need to build that into my routine. I have been using the Vélib bikes a lot more this year, and enjoying — when I don’t get snagged by availability issues — their convenience and efficiency.

One big surprise was the level of sociability in Paris this year. I didn’t have a scheduled house guest until June, so I was prepared to be mostly alone the first part of my Paris stay, except for seeing Zhizhong once or twice. I had offered accommodations the last week of May to two indecisive friends, but they eventually decided not to come, leaving me with no planned house guests in May. But instead of relative solitude I have been pretty continuously sociable, with new and old friends. Jared W is here for a month as a scholar in residence and we hung out quite a bit on my arrival. Then Jared R arrived for a week; the original plan was for him to stay with Jared W but he ended up sleeping on my sofa bed for four nights, and exploring Paris with me for a couple of days. Then there were my new Korean friends from Bordeaux, Craig, Manu, and the dinner party. I’ve enjoyed this social whirl but it came as a surprise after being ready to amuse myself for a couple of weeks. I’ve still managed a fair amount of alone time, however, and I expect to have more in the latter part of June.

In part because of all the visitors I’ve been slow to reconnect with my Parisian friends, except for Zhizhong, who I’ve seen several times. He’s moving apartments, however, and has a big project at work, so will be quite occupied for the next week or so. Since Sherard arrives Tuesday I’ll probably wait until he leaves to try to schedule time with my other French friends, in which case it may be hello-goodbye rather than a richer social engagement. My cousin Lisa — a stalwart companion during my first five visits — is still in Uganda.

Like last year, Paris has been chilly in the last half of May, and this year often rainy. This is presumably just random variation (unless the Gulf Stream is rerouting!) but it undercuts my strategy of spending the first half of May somewhere warmer, then getting to Paris in mid-May. The first part has been working fine — especially last year in Italy — but Paris has in recent years stayed mired in cloudy weather through the end of May. Another year I might stay away all of May and arrive here at the start of June, even though I much prefer the luxury of six weeks in Paris over four, and I don’t want to brave the heat and tourists of July.

Not being in Boston for two months has always been part of the Spring in Paris experience. These long trips disrupt my habits there and test my friendships. There’s a downside to this, but there’s also a bracing aspect, in that both I and my friends feel the effect (or lack thereof!) of my not being there. It makes me appreciate the things I like about Boston even as I’m enjoying the different pleasures of Paris (or wherever). These factors have played out somewhat differently these past two years: One friend has vociferously critiqued my trips here, and pointed out how much fun I’m missing in Boston. Yet I’ve also been able to spend quality time here with so many other friends from Boston that it almost seems like being at home.

One factor of earlier trips is almost completely gone: the thrill and challenge of spending such a long time living in a foreign country, speaking a different language. I’ve become so comfortable in Paris that these trips have themselves become more routine than adventurous. My petits séjours are so pleasant that I’m reluctant to change the pattern, but it would be more exciting to stay next year somewhere less familiar, such as Barcelona, Buenos Aires or Tokyo.

The weak euro has continued to make travel in Europe a lot more affordable in dollar terms than in earlier years. The cost of the trip is happily not an issue for me, but my Yankee soul is gratified when I get value for money.

Cool Spring Days

Tags

apartments, architecture, art, Bastille, Concert Hall, Conciergerie, Conservatoire de Paris, crepes, flowers, France, fruit de mer, Jared, language, Madame Bovary, meals, Metro, parc de la Villette, Paris, Philharmonie de Paris, Picard, Promenade plantée, shellfish, violin recitals, weather

We’ve had a few intervals of sun, but for the most part the weather has been cloudy and often rainy this year, and it’s still downright cold (53 degrees at 10 am on Wednesday). This hasn’t greatly dampened my enjoyment but I’m looking forward to better weather. This reminds me more of April my first year here than May in other years.

Sunday morning I caught up on my blog, then went to see an exhibition at the Conciergerie. The enormous portrait photos were powerful, and the juxtaposition with the medieval-style arches was striking, but overall the aesthetic experience was just ok.

Photo exhibition at the Conciergerie

I was more interested in the architecture of the building itself, in the reconstructed prison rooms, and in the presentation about the French Revolution.

Somewhat unwelcoming courtyard at the Conciergerie

Restored guard room at the Conciergerie

Marie Antoinette was famously imprisoned in the Conciergerie before being guillotined. Much is made of this at the museum, and in general the interpretive material strikes me as being from a rather Royalist perspective.

The nearby flower market was colorful despite the clouds and rain.

Flower market on a rainy day

On Monday I met up with Jared R at the Grand Palais for Carambolages, an amazing art exhibition that I’ve documented in a separate post. Jared R’s initial plan for the week had been to stay with Jared W, but it turned out that Jared W had been given a rather cramped apartment so Jared R decided to spend the next few days at my place instead. On Tuesday morning he brought his stuff over, then we headed to the Conservatoire de Paris to sit in on violin recitals by a couple of graduating students. These recitals are quite a big deal, performed before a jury of five professors and also open to the public. We were impressed by the performances and moved by several of the pieces. These go on, for various instruments, almost to the end of June and I hope to get over to recitals once or twice more during my stay. After the music we walked around the two concert halls, then through the Parc de la Villette.

Lobby of Concert Hall 1 at the Philharmonie de Paris

Finally, we took the tram over to Porte de Vincennes, then strolled along the Promenade Plantée back to the Place de la Bastille.

View from the Promenade Plantée

I took the métro home, since my heel was hurting by this point (possibly related to walking more than 10 miles?). After a quick shellfish pasta dinner (based on an amazing fruit de mer package from Picard) we met up with Jared W at Montparnasse for a musical interpretation of Madame Bovary. Jared R, who majored in French literature, followed most of it, while Jared W and I got the overall gist but were pretty much at sea with the spoken French. It was nevertheless a moving performance, even for those of us who didn’t understand that many of the words. Afterwards we had crêpes, then headed back to our respective homes.

Mot du jour: « fruit de mer », shellfish.

Arrival 2016

Tags

apartment, art, Foodi, France, Jared, Keith Haring, meals, Montorgueil, Paris, rue Montorgueil, TGV, train à grande vitesse, weather

Thursday morning I took the fast train (TGV, train à grande vitesse) from Bordeaux. Overall it was stunningly easier than flying: the train station is in the center city, you just have to get there five or ten minutes before departure, there’s no security, there are no issues about liquids or sharp objects and you can move around the train if you want.

I did encounter a moment of confusion that you might benefit from knowing about: I waited at the main level for the track number to appear on the arrivals screen, then went down to the appropriate platform. I knew from my ticket that I was in carriage 20 but I wasn’t sure which direction the train was coming from (trains generally run on the left side in France even though you drive on the right) or how long it would be so I wasn’t sure where to wait. It turned out that I had missed a screen on the platform which showed the composition of the train. It’s important to check this since the carriages were not in numerical order! Once I found it I understood the letters along the platform — after you found your carriage you could see what letter to wait near. Even after I got that sorted there was a moment of confusion because the carriage numbers are on tiny LCD screens by each door, one of which was broken. Due to all this I was one of the last to enter my carriage. Seats are reserved but the easily accessible luggage racks were already filled. Happily, another passenger helped me hoist my huge suitcase onto the rack above our heads.  The train took about 3-1/2 hours but I gather that improvements are in the works that would cut that to around 2 hours!

My 2016 apartment was very much as expected, with just a few variations:

• On the minus side there’s no drier even though the listing explicitly said there would be one. Also, the drying rack is risibly small; the smallest of any apartment I’ve rented, including those with driers. I’m deciding how hard to press this issue. [Update: The washer has a strong spin cycle and everything dries quickly on the rack (and with fewer wrinkles), so I didn’t press this and I may not even look for a drier in future years.]
• On the plus side there’s a microwave oven even though it wasn’t in the listing. This is nice since last year I bought one, and I didn’t want to have to do that again.
• I had hoped that a table I could see between the kitchen and dining area would serve as a desk and in fact it’s perfect.
• I had realized that there was something funny about the back window since it was partially blocked in all the pictures. In fact it opens on a pleasant enough urban space — and gets afternoon sun! — but the problem is that there’s a flat roof going right up to the window sill, making it way too easy for someone to step in.
  

  The view out the back window is very Parisian. Just too bad about the adjacent roof!

  Fortunately there’s a honking metal security screen but unfortunately you have to close it before you go to sleep, certainly if you have the window open and probably best in any case.

  

  No uninvited visitors after this is closed! Also no view and not much air. But again I knew there was something weird so I have no real complaint.

• Everything else about the apartment is absolutely up to snuff, and there have been lots of pleasant little surprises, since this was clearly furnished as the owners’ pied-à-terre, not just for rental. For example, the listing showed a blank wall in the bedroom…
  

  Bedroom in the listing

  …where there are now three cool Keith Haring prints. (The owners are apparently a straight couple, but they have taste!)

  

  Keith Haring prints in my bedroom

• The apartment came with an espresso (expresso in French) coffeemaker. It’s fine for a quick little cup but I bought a regular coffeemaker (just 19.99 euros at Darty!) for my morning coffee.
  

I knew the neighborhood already, so its mild drawbacks came as no surprise. Rue d’Aboukir is dominated by wholesale clothing and fabric stores, as was the area on the other side of rue Montorgueil that I lived in last year. The ambiance is uninspiring but harmless.

My uninspiring doorway is between the former Miss Papillon and Djena. My windows are on the first ones above Djena.

The street is pretty busy in the daytime. Normally this is fine but there can be a honking traffic jam if a delivery truck stops up traffic on the narrow street. The area is quiet at night. This is good for sleeping, although I sometimes miss the happy buzz from the cafés of rue Montorgueil. All that excitement is, however, just a few blocks away!

As always, it’s fun to buy the consumables I need for my stay. I don’t know exactly why a task that would be a chore in Boston is a thrill in Paris, but so it is. At the start of every petit séjour it’s all about the future!

It was rainy when I arrived. I just got necessities and crashed, after a nice bento box at a nearby restaurant, Foodi.

Bento box at Foodi

The next day I did my serious shopping, laundry, organizing, etc. Then Jared W. came over for an apéro, but that’s another story…

Afterword – 2015

Tags

Antoine, apartment, art, Chris, Elliot, flâneur, Gerry, Gordon, Lisa, Mariage Frères, Matt, meals, Montorgueil, Mustafa, Paris, rue Montorgueil, weather, Zhizhong

My sixth petit séjour in Paris was terrific in several respects, quite good overall, and  disappointing in just a few ways.

My apartment was simply wonderful. It lived up to the site’s description with only a few tiny glitches, and in several respects was even a bit better than I expected. Ironically, its only real deficiency was the fact that it was so comfortable that I sometimes stayed home — reading, blogging or resting — instead of going out into the world! It was wonderfully quiet for sleeping, yet steps from all the animation and food of rue Montorgueil.

I had realized when I reserved the apartment that it was located on a street of fabric shops, but there was one odd detail I hadn’t fully anticipated: during the day several porters waited across the street, ready to transport bolts of fabric. They weren’t unpleasant or threatening, but I couldn’t help being aware that every daytime departure or arrival from my apartment was closely observed by guys with little to do but watch and gossip within the tight-knit fabric community (pun intended). I long ago gave up most ideas of privacy, but I couldn’t help noticing that this particular location so thoroughly lacked the anonymity that is a general feature of urban life.

I had a tiny anxiety that I would end up taking the elevator too much, since this was the first apartment I have rented that had one. But in fact I used it only to transport my big suitcase on arrival and departure, and a couple of times for big loads of groceries, etc. The rest of the time I scampered up and down the three flights of stairs as I have in prior years — with the exception of my first year when I found the five flights of stairs in both apartments psychologically distancing.

When I first arrived in Paris I didn’t feel as energized as in prior years. This was a principal subject of my post on May 28. I’ve had slow times for a day or two on all my visits, but never before when I first arrived. I’m not sure about the reason, but a few hypotheses seem plausible:

• This year I had just spent ten days as a vigorous tourist in Rome and Venice. By the time I got to Paris I was tired! It was lovely and relaxing to just spend time in my new home-away-from-home. I puttered around setting up housekeeping, but didn’t feel as motivated as in prior years to hit the Parisian pavement.
• In contrast to Rome and Venice — which were both new to me — Paris seemed awfully familiar at first. Paris was charming as ever, but it no longer seemed to offer the same thrill of discovery that I had experienced every day in Italy, and my first few years in Paris. When I thought of going somewhere I had usually already been there, and the idea of going again seemed uninspiring.
• Zhizhong and Elliot were great but Lisa and Alexis were away and my other Paris friends were pretty much no-shows in May. As in prior years I worked the social networks looking for new friends, but (in part perhaps because I had been spoiled by a happy experience in Boston this winter) the last two weeks in May I never found anyone quite interesting enough to meet.

Visitors helped me recover from my lethargic mood. Brian and Sheila and their friends were lively companions on two days, and when Chris and Matt arrived the first week of June I was back in business. From then on a stream of visitors — and a few new French friends — kept me almost continuously engaged. Showing friends around lets you see a city through fresh eyes, and regain some of the delight of discovery.

Several of my visitors were especially talented flâneurs: Yunpeng and Matt and Chris come first to mind, though Brian and Sheila and their friends were also keen explorers.

I had several wonderful meals. My favorite was Frenchie with Matt and Chris, followed closely by Hélène Darroze with Taka and Nick.  Métropolitan with Gerry, Bofinger with Gordon and Musatafa and Tintilou with Elliot didn’t disappoint either. Mariage Frères was more of a mixed bag, though, because of the lamentable service.

I saw some excellent art, as usual mixed in with less inspiring stuff.

I went on several fine excursions outside Paris, with Zhizhong, Brian and Sheila, and Matt and Chris, as well as a visit to Senlis by myself.

Two street festivals were fabulous: La Fête de la Musique with Sawyer and Seth was absolutely wonderful, because of the opportunity to meet and hang out with them as well as the giddy atmosphere of music and celebration. Paris Pride with Zhizhong and Guillaume started slowly but ended up being quite festive and sociable.

The weather was ok in May, but on the chilly side. It was quite good in June. It never got really hot until the week after I left, when it hit 103 degrees at one point. The cross-ventilation in my apartment worked great, and was pleasant on several occasions. But it wasn’t really necessary this year during my stay.

Blogging was an important part of my experience, as in prior years. In the first few years I would blog in the evening after getting home, even if it meant staying up quite late. But this year I would more typically spend a morning organizing photos and writing several days’ posts. It felt as though this took more time away from exploration than in prior years. But I continue to enjoy the process, and the result. My life in Paris is examined far more intimately than my life in Boston.

Parisian friends have been a big part of prior trips. This year I enjoyed several memorable outings with Zhizhong, including a posh evening at the home of the American Ambassador followed by crashing an even posher private party. It was great to reconnect with Antoine this year, starting with a delightful dinner party catered by Matt and Chris. Others were away or elusive, however, and until the very end of the trip I didn’t meet anyone new. Fortunately, in the last week I caught up with Martin and met Guillaume, so I felt somewhat reconnected with the Paris social scene.

I walked a bit less than in prior years: an average of 6 miles a day instead of 7. That’s still twice what I do in Boston, but it’s odd. I swam just twice during the stay, and relied mostly on walking and stairs to keep fit. My weight stayed the same and I was at the same level on my elliptical trainer when I restarted regular workouts, so all seems good. I just flossed since I had abandoned my Paris Waterpik, and that seemed to work fine as well.

The dollar was so strong! This made euro prices much cheaper in dollar terms than in prior years. While on the one hand I had never let the cost cramp my style, on the other hand affordability warmed the cockles of my Yankee heart.

There was a lot to like in this year’s stay, but another year I may change the program a bit. I might pick another city instead of or in addition to Paris, such as Barcelona or a city elsewhere in France.  I might finally rent a villa in the Italian or French countryside for a couple of weeks, or even do a bike trip or charter a canal boat! Stay tuned…

First Two Weeks

Tags

apartment, collapsing building, euro, flowers, friends, metal rooftop barriers, mood, Paris, restaurants, visitors, weather

My first two weeks in Paris have been reasonably good, and there have been some pleasant surprises, but my own mood has been somewhat ho-hum. Here are some high and low points:

• My apartment this year is simply fabulous. Not only is the decor lovely, which I could see from the pictures, but everything is well-designed and functional, and it’s squeaky clean. The through ventilation (street to courtyard) will be terrific when it gets warm. The location is convenient to all the shopping and energy of rue Montorgueil but the immediate neighborhood is very quiet at night, so excellent for sleeping. The washer-drier actually dries! All this has been such a pleasure after last year’s disappointing (though ultimately ok) place. (There have been tiny glitches: a slow drip from the water heater and a couple of things I decided to buy for the kitchen — a set of sharp knives and a colander — but really nothing to complain about.)
• Playing house. Feel free to laugh, but one of the pleasures of these stays has been shopping for food and all the other supplies that make life comfortable. Everything is a bit different here, so there’s a little challenge in finding the right item the first time you need it. But mostly it’s just fun to fill a big shopping bag and walk home with your groceries the way real Parisians do.
• It’s been chilly. The highs have typically been in the 60s and the lows in the 40s. That isn’t terrible — and it’s often been quite nice in the sun — but it certainly isn’t sunbathing weather! I had encountered similar weather at the start of May in prior trips so I cleverly spent the first two weeks of May in Italy. That worked great — it was lovely in both Rome and Venice — but the cold weather returned just as I got to Paris.
• Visitors. My first house guests — Matt and Chris — arrive on Saturday morning. I’m looking forward to the energy (and cooking!) they will bring. But already there have been several unexpected visitors: I caught up with Mustapha for dinner — he and his partner are expected visitors towards the end of June but his May visit was a surprise. I met up with Taka and his partner for dinner at a Michelin star restaurant. And I had a walk, a dinner and a day trip with my cousin Brian, his wife Sheila, and their travel companions Rick and Cheryl. Various other formerly-unexpected visitors have surfaced over the last few days so the rest of the stay looks to be even more sociable.
• Old Paris friends. As I feared, my cousin Lisa’s absence (in Uganda!) has left a real void; every other year she has been a big part of my welcome. Zhizhong has been great, and I had a cozy dinner last evening with Lisa’s partner Ali. I also have a few meals with other friends coming up. But the French guys I’ve met on prior trips have been elusive this year. I’m sure I’ll catch up with some of them before my stay is over, but I’m reminded that after all my visits my friendship community here is still pretty thin.
• New Paris friends. Part of the adventure of spending time here has always been the possibility of meeting new friends, typically through gay social networking sites. This year, despite a lot of chat, I haven’t actually met anyone new! It’s possible that I’m being more selective, or less seductive, but for whatever reason social networking has this year not repaid the time and effort it has absorbed.
• Favorite Restaurants Disappearing. I was shocked this year to find that Le Loup Blanc had closed, as Le Marsangy had last year. I was warily pleased yesterday to see on The Fork that Le Marsangy had reopened so I booked for dinner. My heart sunk when I saw “cheesburger” on the menu, and it turned out that the chef whose cuisine I loved had retired and the new cook was not up to the job.
  

  This would have been an ok meal as part of a 14 euro prix fixe menu, but it wasn’t worth 25 euros, especially since the leeks were undercooked.

• The Weak Euro. The dollar is much stronger against the euro than it has been during any of my prior stays. I can afford the trip either way but my Yankee soul exults in how much cheaper everything is, starting with the apartment itself and continuing through eating out, etc. And things that seemed cheap in prior years now seem like ridiculous bargains: bread, cheese, wine.
• My Mood. Despite the good features of these first two weeks I’ve been in an odd mood, less excited and adventurous than in prior years. I’ve spent more time at home than usual, and when I’ve ventured out it has tended to be day trips to the provinces rather than going alone to gay bars or engaging artists in conversations, as I did at the start of last year’s visit. I’m not sure why this is, but I certainly hope my mood improves!

Finally, here are a few photos I’ve taken over the past several days.

Metal barriers to discourage people from crossing between adjacent roofs are common but this one takes the cake.

The left side of this building, across from my apartment, seems to be collapsing!

Flowers in the park surrounding the Tour Saint-Jacques.

First Days Back in Paris

Tags

apartment, arrival, art, Aya, Charile Hebdo, Italy, Le Village Montorgueil, Marianne, Montorgueil, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Place de la République, rue Montorgueil, weather, Zhizhong

My first days in Paris have been pretty good, though different from other years. Normally I arrive in the morning after an overnight flight from Boston; my first day in Paris is also the start of my vacation, and my first day abroad. The drama of arrival was muted this year, however, by the fact that I began my holiday with ten days as a tourist in Italy. The Italian part of my trip was busy, strenuous and filled with art, architecture and food. After the short flight from Venice to Paris I was more interested in resting at my new home than in hitting the ground running!

Fortunately my rental apartment is just as beautiful as it appeared in the listing, including many little details that I couldn’t know in advance: afternoon sun, deep quiet for sleeping, an eclectic collection of DVDs and music CDs, a washer-drier that actually dries (!). In sharp contrast to last year, everything works and the place is squeaky clean. The immediate street — as I knew when I made the rental — is a somewhat uninspiring row of fabric stores, but I’m just a few short blocks from all the food, animation and charm of rue Montorgueil, one of my favorite Paris neighborhoods.

The first couple of days I mostly just settled in, and bought the food and other consumables needed to change my rental apartment into my home-away-from-home. I got out to a couple of good art exhibits, however. The first was the Salon de Montrouge, an annual show of contemporary art by young artists that I had enjoyed last year, which is on until June 3, 2015. I once again found it fresh and cutting-edge, even juxtaposed with the Venice Biennale that I had seen a few days earlier. The second was an impressive series of installations by a Haitian artist at the VnH Gallery in the Marais, through 20 June 2015.

Installation by Pascale Marthine Tayou.

Installation by Pascale Marthine Tayou.

Installation by Pascale Marthine Tayou.

One striking absence this year is my cousin Lisa, who has added so much to my other stays in Paris. She and her daughter Aya are in Uganda, where Lisa is working on a book and on her PhD. (They will be here later in the summer but I will unfortunately miss them.) One of our old favorite restaurants is also gone: the gay-friendly Le Loup Blanc is no more! Fortunately, our mutual friend Joël Zhizhong Yao is still here; we have gotten together several times already, including a day trip to Auvers-sur-Oise that I’ll report on in my next post.

The most striking moment of this year’s visit was when I first saw the statue of Marianne — symbol of the French Republic — in the Place de la République. After many months of work a gorgeous renovation had been unveiled in 2013:

Statue of Marianne, symbol of France, in the Place de la Republique, after its renovation in 2013.

But the Place de la République was the site of the protests after the Charlie Hebdo murders in January, 2015. Their graffiti has been left as a tribute to the victims. I found it a very sad symbol of the way in which evil can so easily destroy the fruits of civilization.

Statue of Marianne, symbol of France, in the Place de la Republique, after demonstrations against the Charlie Hebdo murders in January, 2015. (Photo May, 2015)

Graffiti since the Charlie Hebdo murders in January, 2015, on the base of the statue of Marianne in the Place de la Republique. (Photo May, 2015)

The weather had been perfect in Italy the first two weeks of May — 80s by day and 60s by night, with scarcely a drop of rain. Apparently it had been similar then in Paris, but it turned cloudier and cooler the day I arrived. As usual, there have been stretches of sun every day, and moments when it felt really nice. But overall the weather has been so-so, and at times downright chilly.