Paris - End Notes

Love locks (this one photographed by Sacre Coeur) are either
 a form of vandalism, or pollution, or a source of income for
the guys who sell them by all the touristy places in Paris.
Maybe all three.

Leaving meta-narratives to the historians and conspiracy theorists, I offer up the following impressions of our trip to Paris.

Life Imitates Art 
A sentimental painting hanging in Musee D'Orsay is me on the day my body told me it didn't care for oysters.

And a Burgher of Calais stands in for the poor woman on the plane home who had to be carried to the First Class cabin she was so sick. This is her on the way back to her seat. 

She had clothes on of course. And she's going to be fine (unlike this fellow).

Accidental Self Portraits

Sometimes you get caught in your own photos, especially with all the reflective surfaces around.

Me, superimposed on a famous Yves Klein statue,
at the Centre Georges Pompidou.

Me reflected in windows going every which way (the lower two panes on the right). 
Notice that my top half is pointed one way, my feet another.

Precocious Kid Moment

A three-year-old girl walks into a crowded gallery of Chagall works at the Centre Georges Pompidou. She looks to her right and says to her mother and the forty other grown ups in earshot "Regardez, mamman! Icare!"

Precious Airport Moment

To beguile the waiting at Charles De Gaulle Airport, there's a small installation of the art of Jean Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp. This is almost but not quite the most French thing we saw.

Most Ubiquitous Person With A Wide Following

Sylvie, our guide in Tours, told us how she found St. Martin everywhere she went. This stained glass is in the church of St. Sevarin, just across the Seine from Notre Dame.

As for me, the saint I find everywhere I go is Harry Potter.

14 Rue du Commerce, Tours.

Top Three Small Sculptures

In a Tours garden featuring characters from Balzac.
This is Le Pere Goriot. He's not quite three feet tall.

From the decorative arts display at the Musee D'Orsay.
It's less than three inches across.

A sundial by Salvador Dali, 
27 Rue Saint-Jacques, 75005 Paris

Statues with the Best Stride

Charles De Gaulle

Naked Balzac

Proof, If You Need It, of the Genius of Rodin's Portraiture (Jack Layton added to show scale)

   

  

All of the above made for memorable moments during our visit, but the single most French thing I saw was a road sign mounted on the Basilique Saint Martin in Tours honouring Rene Descartes, topped with a tile graffiti of the Ace of Hearts.

Kind of sums it all up.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

 

Third: a recreation of Suzanne Valadon's Montmartre studio.