The Louvre

The Louvre is probably the most famous art museum in the world, and for good reason. I've been there more times than I can count, often when guests come and want me to accompany them. Even at that, I still have not seen the whole place nor even a portion of its holdings. Everyone, of course, wants to see the Louvre's most famous of all inhabitants, the Mona Lisa. Luckily, I got to see her up-close-and-personal before they roped off the area, placing her about 20 feet from the nearest person and behind a protective glass. She's got fantastic eyes that follow you as you pass. I remember spending several minutes going back and forth directly in front of her just to watch her eyes follow me, I also said a few personal words to her as if we were old friends. Unfortunately, those days are gone with the hordes of people who jam shoulder-to-shoulder to get a glimpse of her before they have to move on to allow someone else time to take a photograph. But, I have to say, the Louvre has so many stunning works of art that the Mona Lisa is really just one among thousands.

The history of the Louvre is long and rich with characters from the pages of French textbooks. Words like enormous, monstrous, gigantic, etc., just don't seem to adequately describe its size, importance, or character. Luckily, it has survived the test of time to give all who visit a genuine sense of its place as a world monument. One enters through the famous pyramid, designed by I.M. Peï and opened in 1989, then quickly descends into a grand welcome center directly under the pyramid. This is the heart of an underground complex that spiders out into the various museum galleries, conference rooms, auditoriums, snack bars, restaurants, a bookshop, as well as into an upscale shopping center that connects directly with Line 1 of the Paris subway. After entering the through the pyramid, the eyes are drawn automatically back up to the glass ceiling where surrounding building facades oversee the museum's daily visitations. At dusk, this vision is truly magical when the entry hall is darker than the twilight sky above. Outside surrounding the pyramid are several triangular shaped reflecting pools that are about knee-high and aren't even visible until close approach. In the day-light these add radiance to the entrance and in the evening they provide dancing displays from nearby light sources. There are 3 smaller pyramids positioned at points where the walkways join, providing a window to the outside from below. The Louvre's website is excellent where one can discover lots about the place without ever going. http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home.jsp

The Louvre hosts many cultural events besides art exhibits. In the past month, we have been there a couple of times to concerts in an auditorium that is acoustically wonderful and small enough that every seat is a good one. Wednesday night we heard a choral concert of baroque music that was stunning, with some 12 singers and about the same number of musicians. The concert started at 8pm, it was raining outside and chilly when I left the apartment. I took the bus and got off just across from the Louvre. The arched entrance into one of the Louvre's interior courtyards that I would normally take was blocked due to construction so I had to walk around to another entrance. As I acrossed the uneven, wet stones of the courtyard I looked up at the four surrounding walls and had the distinct feeling of what it must have been like walking that same path in the 17th or 18th century. That courtyard connects to the Cour Napoléon, where the pyramid is, through an archway the length of that building's wing. It was dark but bustling with people and off to the side a cellist played a classical piece of music for public enjoyment. It was a sensual moment and I felt truly blessed to be living in such an artistically rich part of the world.

Grand Palais

Last weekend was very busy, beginning with a visit to the Grand Palais.  If you have visited Paris but have not been to the Grand Palais, you have missed a truly beautiful piece of architecture built in 1900 for the World's Fair.  This is the world's largest glass structure and it literally takes your breathe away when you enter it.  The Grand Palais hosts lots of fabulous temporary exhibits and I have been fortunate in seeing some of the worlds many masterpieces there. You can visit their site to see where you need to plan for the next time you're here  http://www.grandpalaisparis.com/  

Last Friday we went to see an installation by a contemporary French artist, Christian Boltanski.  I had no expectations nor did I know I was going to see an installation, I thought it was an exhibit of abstract painting.  At the entrance, there was a long, tall row of metal boxes stacked so that one could not see into the larger space.  The boxes gave the impression of a long wall that reminded me of one in a mausoleum.  The metal was in all shades of brown and rust with hughes brightened or darkened by the light coming through the glass ceiling.  From within came a vibrating sound that appeared to be a rhythmic drum beat, which I later realized was the beat of human hearts.  As I rounded the corner, the huge floor space under the glass dome lay before me and I was awe-struck by the installation.  Throughout were square block areas of clothes lying on the floor with florescent lights suspended about 4 feet above each.  Between the rows was enough space to walk, giving the impression of the grid of a city or the rows of a cemetery.  The eye immediately went to the central point of the space where a huge crane with a scoop mechanism was dropping onto a gigantic mound of cloths, picking them up, raising them to the ceiling, and them dropping them again onto the pile.  I stood transfixed watching this process over and over again, each time feeling the motion was more dramatic.  Part of the intention of the artist was to show the randomness of death, which he accomplished with great effect.  The clothes were like skeletons of people and the mound made one think of all those who died in the Holocaust, as did the squares of clothes that could easily have represented the death camps. Then, of course, the constant sound of the heart beat reinforced the dramatic moment in life when that stops. It's difficult to explain the impact that art can have on oneself since it's so personal and intimate but Boltanski created an incredibly emotional experience.  There's an interview with him at the Grand Palais on YouTube so check it out.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv7tatnhFAc&feature=fvw

Snowing for day 2

For the second day in a row, we are having snow in Paris.  This is a very rare event since the weather here is very temperate so it really rarely snows much less for two days in a row.  Earlier the flakes were huge so I got out my camera and snapped a few photos from the apartment which is located on the 4th and top floor on rue du Faubourg St. Antoine between the famous Place de la Bastille and Place de la Nation.  The snow only lasted a few minutes and melted quickly so later I walked over to the Marché Alégre, our local farmers' market, to shop for fresh fruits and veggies.  On one of the adjacent streets is a wine bar called Le Baron Rouge so I stopped in to pick up a bottle of their organic Côte de Rhone to have on hand in case we want a glass for dinner sometime soon.  Most people think that everyone here drinks wine at each meal but it's not true, it is true though that it's normal for people drink a glass at one of their meals.  Unlike in the States though people normally just drink at meals and only a glass or 2 at the most.  The Barron a quaint, rustic place with about 6 large wooden barrels of different types of wine at the entrance.  People often take their own containers in there and the staff fills it from the barrel of their choice. A litre of wine is about 4E80 if you bring your own container and 50 centimes more without. 

I'm back home, had lunch and it's started to snow again. Although it's pouring, I doubt that it will last very long. There's not a lot to get excited about with the snow but it's really nice while it is falling. 

This is the first time in my life of living in a city where everyone lives in apartments and where individual family dwellings is non-existent. I don't know any of my neighbors except our next door land-lady and the woman downstairs who chain smokes so much that we get constant whiffs of it in our place that has a well-placed NO SMOKING sign, doesn't do any good in this case. Our neighbors are basically strangers who inhabit all those windows on the buildings surrounding us. Our building has 5 other apartments and a restaurant on the first couple of floors.  Mind you I've never eaten there but I daily smell their plats du jour, although I have had coffee with a croissant there.  It's a cafe/tabac so is a sort cheaper version of a brasserie.  We have 2 grocery stores on our block plus several shoe shops and various other businesses.  It's definitely a big city environment and popular area of Paris for shopping and for night clubs for young people. 

Going to the movies

One of my great distractions and loves in life is going to the movies, I've always preferred films seen in proper big screen theaters. I particularly love foreign films and was an avid attendee of Portland's annual International Film Festival and looked forward to seeing lots in Paris.  However, in France, I end up seeing mostly English language films because everything that is not filmed in French already is obviously subtitled in French so all the international films are a bit of a challenge, something I had not thought through before arriving. But I have to say that I now try to keep up with reading the subtitles in French with the English films so I can acquire a bit more vocabulary.   I, of course, have seen quite a few French films as well as some Italian and Spanish ones with Gabriella's translation help. As I get better in French, I'm seeing more of those although I certainly still need some help understanding but I keep trying.  Some movie theaters only show movies dubbed in French so there's no need from the French to read the subtitles but I really hate dubbed anything, about 1/2 the TV shows here are dubbed American series, so we avoid those theaters. Paris is a huge movie-loving city.  There are large cinemas as well as tons and tons of very small, quaint places showing everything from the first silent films to the latest blockbusters. Paris is also a destination for the study of film where there are universities dedicated to this as well as  large collections of films for example at the Centre Pompidou < http://www.centrepompidou.fr/ > and Le Forum des Images < http://www.forumdesimages.fr/ >, but also bookstores dedicated to film, and just about anything else dealing with film one could hope to find in one place.   The experience of going to the movies is a bit different in Paris.  Once you have purchased your ticket, most often from a person inside the theater, although Les Halles is an exception with its new self-service kiosks and everything is inside and underground, you have to go outside and wait in the elements, standing in line until they are ready to let you inside. They most often don't open the doors until the actual time that the movie is supposed to begin or close to it.  It's very annoying when it's cold or rainy or you're just tired.  When they finally open the doors everyone then races in to get a good seat.  Most theaters do not sell anything to eat or drink, which was a real shock to me since eating popcorn at the movies is part of the movie experience for Americans.  I guess it saves on staff and cleanup time and definitely the cost of the film for movie-goers.  We did eat popcorn once at one of the few cinemas that sells it and believe me it will be the last time!  That was the worst stuff I've ever eaten and I just couldn't figure out in which of the last 3 decades it had been popped? Another annoying feature of Parisian cinemas is that the rows of seats are placed so close together that you cannot more your legs during the whole movie.  It's actually worse than being in the economy class on airplanes, which is hard to beat. I try to sit on the end of the rows so I can at least stretch out one leg. Even with the obstacles I've mentioned, going to the movies remains one of my favorite things to do and this weekend we saw Up in the Air and Sherlock Homes.  

Paris Metro

When I first moved here I vowed to find ways to avoid using Paris' underground transportation system, known here as the Metro. Subways have always reminded me of those ant farms some kids had when I was younger, hundreds of tiny creatures moving from one place to another through a series of tunnels. I really detested the idea of joining the swarms of people crammed into the train cars that carried them to unknown destinations. But low and behold, the time constraints of waiting for a bus, transferring several times and then additional walking to reach a place, have helped me to form a new attitude about "taking the metro." So, every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings, plus many other times during any given week, I join others coming from every direction as I rush to get to school. I take the line #1 from the Bastille three stops to Chatelet, one of the busiest stations in the heart of Paris, transfer there to the line #4 in the direction of Porte d'Orleans to the Alesia station. Here I walk or catch a bus to the international school run by the city government of Paris. After class I reverse myself and return home by 1:30 to eat lunch.

I always think of the subway as a whole other city that exits directly below the Parisian streets so famous the world over. First of all, there are constantly thousands of people down there buzzing from one location to another. One can shop for many of the same things that can be found above ground. Larger stations always have fresh produce and fast food places, as well as magazine/newspaper stalls, but you can also find jewelry, camera, phone, clothing and other types of shops. The smells in the subway also mimic the exterior world where you can cross into neighborhoods where fresh bread is baking or beer is being brewed, however, with a great amount of difference between the types of smells above/down below. The strongest. and one no one forgets, is the ubiquitous smell of urine. At first, I used to ask the question, who pees in here so much? Until one day I saw a man with his dog (oh and the French do love their dogs who accompany them everywhere) and the dog was lifting his leg right on the wall of the platform where I was waiting for the train. But the most memorial afternoon was when Gabriella and I had just entered a station to catch a train back to our apartment and we noticed a very tall young man facing the wall of the tunnel. As we got closer we noticed he was holding his "thing" and peeing into the little trough that borders both sides of most tunnel walkways. As each person would pass him, he would look directly at him/her and say "Désolé!" (Sorry!) Well, you certainly can't fault the French for being overly polite! After those episodes, I stopped wondering where the pee smells came from.

There are always tons of surprises in the subway and those can either interest or amuse you or make you question reality itself. It's home to many homeless people, some of whom are mentally unstable, some of whom are alcoholic, or some of whom are just down on their luck. There are beggars who sit in certain locations day-after-day with their hands out and they become as familiar as the posters that line the walls advertising exhibits, movies events, stores, etc. Most people don't talk to each other in the metro, sort of like the quiet moments we experience in elevators with the strangers who cram in with us. One can always hear groups traveling together because they do talk to each other, mostly loud and a lot in English. But there are moments of stranger-to-stranger interactions, mostly when someone offers another his/her seat or a woman needs help getting her baby carriage up the steps. My favorite people in the subway are the many musicians who either set up in certain locations like big intersections or at the end of long hallways or the ones who directly board a car to play a few tunes between stops. One can hear any type of music from classical to hiphop but I've notice that the majority of music is traditional and comes from all over the world. The sound of these musicians never fails to lift my spirits or to brighten the drab subway environment so I always try to keep coins in my pocket to drop in their boxes, hats, cups, instrument cases or other creative containers for these are truly hard working do-gooders.

It's quite liberating to live without a car, especially in a place where traffic is always jammed, where vehicles disregard the lines that separate lanes, where everyone is in a hurry, where most streets end at round-a-bouts making logical navigation impossible, and where motorcycles constantly squeeze between lanes to get ahead of the line. One of these days, I'll describe what it's like to ride my bike in Paris, which I do often.

Birthday Dinner

For my birthday dinner on Monday, I chose to go to a pure vegetarian Indian restaurant, Knishna Bhavan, at 21/24 rue Cail near the Gare de Nord. (Unfortunately, there's no website available.) This is a very small, completely informal place that serves great simple Indian cuisine. The menu has a wide selection of the fast dishes that you find in southern India such as dosas, but I especially like fermented rice bread called idli that is usually served with sambar, soup. I got the house thaali that comes on the large metal dish that has several little compartments for small portions of different dishes. Gabriella and I had invited our friends Adele and Bruce to join us so after eating we all walked back to their apartment where we had champagne and a delicious chocolate cherry cake from a bakery down the street from us on Faubourgh St. Antoine. It was a very simple but lovely evening and we were back home before 11:30pm.

Birthday e-card

Tom, a friend here in Paris, sent this to me today since it's my birthday....and the day I am officially qualified to get my Social Security from the States....YIPEE!!!  I never thought that 62 would feel so good.  I will write more after I get back from my birthday dinner.