La Fete du Pain

Wednesday May 15, 2012

Every year, around the time of the Feast of St. Honore - the patron saint of bakers - Paris, and all of France holds a bread festival.  Huge tents were set up in front of Notre Dame.  Inside there were huge ovens, lots of space for mixing and forming breads and pastries and lots and lots of bakers and apprentice bakers.  There were smaller tents set up around the perimeter, where they sold the goods being made in the big tent.

It smelled fantastic.....and the bread and plum tart I had were delicious!

Here are some pictures of inside of the big tent, the more mature bakers and the young bakers-in-training.

Le Train Bleu

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Gare de Lyon, the railway station in East Paris, was built as part of the building program for the 1900 Paris Exposition, just like the Grand and the Petit Palais.  The entire station is of the Belle Epoque style, but the most striking and dramatic example of that period is the dining rooms of the restaurant, Le Train Blue, inside the station.

I would have loved to eat dinner there, but it's far too expensive for my budget.  I did, however, along with my friend from Portland, have a salad and a glass of wine.  Here are some of the pictures I was able to get. The restaurant is on a mezzanine level, so these first two pictures are from the ground floor, looking up at the door and the sign.

The first two photos, I took, followed by some from Google Images.....

Jardin des Plantes & Jardin du Luxembourg

Sunday May 13, 2012

After Mouffetard, we went to Jardin des Plantes.  A very large formal garden near the Natural History Museum.  A lot of the flowers looked like they will open soon.........  Some were in bloom....

     Those weird trees, finally getting some leaves.............

This is the entrance to the greenhouse.  Did not go in, but could see there were very large tropical trees and a very moist, jungle-like climate inside.

After this garden, it was off for a second go at Jardin du Luxembourg.  I had been there back in March or April and loved it.  I posted many pictures.  But at that time, the big pond was closed off.  I knew that they had sailboard rentals.....small boats that the kids push out into the pond with sticks and watch the wind take  them away.   I said I'd go back...........

Rue Mouffetard Street Dance

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Rue Mouffetard is a long market street in the 5th arr.  It is blocks and blocks of food stalls with everything you could imagine, from cheese (but, of course), to fish, seafood, produce, wine, bread, pastries and everything in between.  BUT....on Sunday I was there, not for food, but to hear and see Parisians dancing to and singing the old classic chansons, accompanied by a small band, complete with accordian.  They handed out sheets with the words, so that any and everyone could sing along.  While I was there, most of the dancers were folks pretty much close to my age who have been singing and dancing these songs all their lives.  It was a joy to watch.  If you search Mouffetard Street Dance on U-tube, you can hear the music too.

La Sainte Chapelle Concert

also Friday May 11, 2012

In the evening I met up with some people from Portland who were in town for a week or so and we went to the cathedral of St. Chapelle  to hear some classical  music and see the famous stained glass windows.  St. Chapelle was built in the 1200's specifically to house several holy relics acquired by the King.  Over the years I have heard so much about his magnificent  chapel and how the light coming through makes it feel like you are sitting inside a box of precious jewels.  Well, it was beautiful, no doubt about it.  However, at the particular time we were there, it was a very dark, cloudy day.  You could definitely get the effect, but I'm sure it could have been brighter.  Also, apparently they are in the midst of renovations on nearly a third of the windows, so they were blocked off, enclosed in scaffolding and a big box.  Please pardon my criticism, but at 30 Euros, I did feel a little disappointed.  Perhaps I'll return some day and be a little more aware of the particular conditions  in place at the time of my visit.....

The pictures I tried to take did not turn out all that well, so I got some off Google Images so you could appreciate of glory of it all......

These are the pictures I took....you can see the corner of the "big box" to the left.....

Marmottan-Monet Museum

On Friday May 11....

......I knew that in a few days I would be going to Giverny to see Monet's garden and lily pond.  I had seen quite a few of Monet's painting at d'Orsay, but felt there must be more that I could see somewhere.  So a search revealed the Marmottan-Monet Museum....far out in the 16th arr.  It was originally a royalty-owned hunting lodge and in the late 1880's purchased by Marmottan, an aristocrat whose son enlarged it in order to house his considerable art collection.  Upon his death he bequeathed the lodge and his collections to the State and many other aristocratic families donated their collections also.  Among the people donating was one of Monet's sons.  He donated a huge amount of the artist's works.

                                   Here's what the Museum looks like.......surrounded by a park...

Many of  Monet's paintings are of his garden in Giverny and the very unique Monet perspective of the reflections in the lily pond.  I was particularly fascinated by these reflection paintings.  There were others of his painting too....portraits and the like.....but I was mesmerized by the paintings of reflections.  It was a rare opportunity to subconsciously form a focus for my subsequent visit to Giverny.

So, the Monet's are part of the permanent collection.  There was a Special Exhibit of the paintings of Berthe Morisot.  One of the most famous woman impressionists.  She was considered quite a beauty and is another woman artist who was also an artist's model.   She did a lot of beautiful paintings of woman and children, especially her daughter, earlier in her career.  I like her later stuff better, as her style became more and more impressionist.

                                            Self Portrait

               An example of her later, more impressionist style.....

                                                   Portrait of her done by Manet.

The Museum of Romantic Life

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Off the street, down a tree-shaded alley is a lovely house and studio. Among many other treasures and art of the period, it houses an extensive collection of George Sand memorabilia.  The house itself, was owned by the artist Ary Scheffer....an artist with whose work I was not previously acquainted.  I was there to see the objects, art and displays connected with the lives of George Sand and Chopin.  So I was pleasantly surprised to see yet another beautiful light-filled artist studio space.

This photo is, of course, old and more what it looked like years ago, not exactly what it looks like now....since it's a museum now, not an actual studio.  But you can see the wall of windows.....

                    The front of the house/museum....

Behind this wall of roses and flowering trees is a lovely open space and an enclosed, glass tea room.

Along with all the other artifacts in the museum, there was this cast of Chopin's hand....so small and delicate....

In one of the rooms there was a display of watercolor paintings done by George Sand.  I did not know she was a water colorist.  Apparently she had an interesting technique.... here is what it said in the brochure...
"....skillfully invented an original technique of "squashed watercolor" that she called "Dendrites".  She laid pigments with a brush and pressed them while still wet between two sheets of paper, thus obtaining a stain.  "This blotting produces strange ramifications, where I can imagine woods, forest or lakes, and I can paint over these shapes merely produced by accident."  Here are two examples of her watercolors using this technique......one I took at the museum and one from Google Images.