Sick Day

Beautiful building; just no Picassos,

In case you're curious, the French for food poisoning is intoxication alimentaires. 

The last time one of us got food poisoning on a trip, we were in Ireland. Bruce got his hands on a questionable convenience store sandwich, and felt pretty bad for a day or two.

This time, it's me. 

I blame the oysters.

Because I am stubborn, I insisted we follow the itinerary for the day anyway, and go to the Picasso Museum and the Carnevalet. Which we did do, even though, once off the subway, I had to stop and barf in a trash receptacle. 

The Picasso museum, sadly, was entirely empty of Picasso works, which are all squirrelled away for a special show honouring the 50 anniversary of his death starting March 7.

But we were thrilled to see the Faith Ringgold show instead, a retrospective of her works from the past fifty years. 

Honestly, though, I felt pretty bad.

At the Carnevalet, I had just enough in the tank to sit next to the 10,000-year-old long, shallow, wooden boat on display there and marvel at how long humans have lived in the area. But in my dehydrated haze I had left the hotel room without my camera battery, and my phone just wasn't up to the task of getting a good photo. Next time,

We Ubered back to the hotel, stopped by a pharmacy to get some anti-nauseant (trade name Vogalib; seems to be working).

Tomorrow we're taking the TGV to Tours.  

I won't forget my battery. And I'm staying away from oysters.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

 

Christianity and Existentialism

We wandered over to the Sorbonne this afternoon for a tour of churches and radical philosophers, starting with St. Germaine des Pres, the oldest church in Paris. 

The oldest parts of St. Germaine, the bell tower and the nave, date back to the 10th century. The site was originally consecrated in the 6th century, but twice Vikings razed whatever was there. Recently, the City of Paris carried out a major restoration of the interior. 

Looks like heaven

Literally across the street from this historic -- some would say sacred -- site are the two cafes where Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre hung out, squabbled, and changed the course of modern philosophy.

Cafe de Flore

Les Deux Magots
(les Magots are the oriental figures)

Sorbonne University where De Beauvoir studied, taught and seduced teenaged girls, is just down the street.

It's all very French.

Tomorrow, the Picasso Museum and the Carnavalet.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

All of the churches in Paris are open to the public;
it tells you something that this sign is in English

 

Dazzle

Post-WWII stained glass in the much older Notre Dame de Montmartre,
built on the site of an even older Roman temple

Two hours inside le Palais Garnier makes the rest of the day seem murky and ungilded. 

The grand hall over the main staircase. 

The reception hall, to while away 90 minute intermissions, three times a week.

On the way from L'Opera to Montmartre, we stopped at Les Galleries Lafayette to top up on bourgeois splendour.

Another travel tradition: photographing Bruce's reflection or shadow.
This time in the display window of Guitar Legend on Rue Jean-Baptiste Pigalle.

And here's proof that if you go to enough museums in Paris, you'll start seeing the same things. 

The Snake Charmer, 1907 by Henri Rousseau, 
Museo de Montmartre

Le Rencontre du 2 bis rue Perrel, 1946 by Victor Brauner,
City of Paris Museum of Modern Art

We're taking it easy today. For example, just after he woke up this morning, Bruce went back to bed.

A bientôt!

Karen

Masque at the opera.

The obligatorily controversial Chagall ceiling at
the opera, under low light conditions.

 

Old and New

It's an old travel tradition ... taking a shot of Bruce
with something coming out of his head.

We learned today about the proud tradition in France where someone introduces something new ... the Pyramid by the Louvre, for example, and everyone complains bitterly, upset about the loss of tradition, the disturbing of the proper order of things ... and then time passes and everyone settles down, learns to tolerate the new thing and, eventually, grudgingly, accepts it. Then someone comes along proposing another change, and the once reviled thing takes on the precious aspect of an icon that cannot be defiled.... and so on. 

So here are some old and new things we saw today.

Palais Royal - Musee du Louvre Metro Station - "Kiosk of the Night Walker"
by Jean-Michel Othoniel. Commissioned by the transit authority in 2000. 

Glass teardrop with butterfly inclusions, suspended from the ceiling halfway to the altar in La  Madeleine. Part of an installation called Tears of Joy, by Benoît Dutour. 103 glass tear drops symbolize the gifts of the Magi. They include butterflies, a 500 euro note and ashes from Notre Dame.

       

The Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. The former is most like a Kardashian, in that it is not all that accomplished, but undeniably famous. The latter is more like Angela Merkel, in that it is not as famous, but really in every other respect the far superior piece of work.

And here's Bruce on one of the Colonnes de Buren, at the Palais Royal in Paris’ first arrondissement. Very controversial when installed in 1986, they are now beloved and will cause a great stir should anyone mess with them.

It was a great day today with its mix of old and new. Tomorrow, the Palais Garnier and a tour of Montmartre.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

There's a Mona Lisa in here somewhere...

Really?

Paris is a treasure trove. The picture above by Claude Monet is entitled Impression Sunrise and is where the Impressionists got their name.

And I was standing right in front of it. And I had the presence of mind to take a picture. I did that a few times today ... realize what I was seeing, catch my breath, try to frame it in a photo.  

As follows:

A statue of Benjamin Franklin by the Palais de Chaillot. 

A plaque on a tumble-down old house, commemorating Olympe de Gouges, famous for pissing the wrong people off with feminist sentiments, and being executed during the Terror.

Bruce by Napoleon's Bed.

Expect more of this. Tomorrow we're going to the Louvre.

Thanks for reading!

A bientôt!

Karen

Jet Lagged and Sleep Deprived - Paris Edition

We actually got some sleep on the plane this time, so we did not arrive as bleary eyed as we have for some other trans-Atlantic destinations.

We did get scammed by the taxi cab from the airport. We willingly surrender that fifty Euros to the tourist gods.

We could not find the little kitchen they promised we would have in our room, and went back to the front desk to complain. We were told to look behind the curtain.

Where's the f**cking kitchen?

Oh. There it is. Very nice. There's a dishwasher and everything.

Tomorrow is a strike day, with a key subway line targeted for disruptions. So, we're playing it by ear.

We're hanging with our dear friends Ed and Judi, which has already made this trip special. If I had to pick what the next best part of day one was, I'd say it was seeing Notre Dame, surrounded by scaffolding and inaccessible for another year, but still standing. 

Thanks for reading!

Karen

In 2015

Paris This Time

Bruce on the Pont Neuf in 1986.

Me at COP21 in 2015.

Here's our experience with Paris so far:

Not long after eleven terrorist bomb explosions between December 7, 1985 and September 17, 1986, Bruce and I visited Paris for the first time in late September, 1986.

Less that two weeks after a series of coordinated terrorist attacks took place on Friday, 13 November 2015 in Paris, and the city's northern suburb, Saint-Denis, I flew to Paris to attend COP21 between November 30 and December 12, 2015.

And now, after mass strikes on January 19 and 31, and after France’s eight main trades unions federations made a joint announcement of fresh strike days on Tuesday, February 7th and Saturday, February 11th, 2023, Bruce and I will be in Paris from February 6 to 16.  

Obviously it takes more than terrorist attacks and wide spread civil unrest to keep us away.

Watch this space for dispatches from the City of Light ... and a day trip to Tours if the trains are running.

Thanks for reading!

Karen