I guess I got it wrong about the height of the season being the re-entry period in September, as it really seems to build and build to a crescendo at Christmas, and we were lucky enough to be there for an unseasonably warm late November, and Paris was really happening. Lots of our compatriots had the brilliant idea to come to Paris for Thanksgiving too, so there was an awful lot of American English in the street, which took me aback a bit, as I always like to think that I might be the only one (ha ha), oh well! I had great pals in town, and they kept trying to go to a museum in the afternoon, and were daunted by long lines several times, finally going at 10am on Sunday which was much better. That’s definitely a problem in Paris – crowded major museums, so my solution is to go to the lesser traveled museums, and there are plenty of super interesting small ones to visit.
Here’s a great thing one can see instead of going to the Beaubourg, again. The European Photography Museum in the Marais is having a fantastic exhibition of the tenure of VU Magazine, the first visually oriented magazine, created in 1928 and running monthly until 1940, with absolutely stunning graphics and photography, and very intense social content as well – there is an entire room devoted to their coverage of Hitler and WWII from the early 30’s until 1940! Paris always has stuff like this to see, and it is by far the most satisfying way to spend a morning, though the Maurice Denis Show at the Musee D’Orsay is fabulous, I can only spend an hour or so in that place before I run out screaming, between the crowds and the intrusive and distracting architectural features, and the closure or unavailability of fave rooms or pieces,
I’m out of there after seeing one section! And they have the only Strindberg in Paris, and no one there can tell one where it is!
Here were the high points of a 6 day trip: the Maurice Denis paintings, dinner at a fave spot, L’Avant Gout, with our great friends from Boston, which included chestnut soup, wild boar, and great chocolate desserts! There was a cool Jean Loup Sieff photography show, and also Anselm Kiefer in a most felicitous gallery space that so favorably affected the pieces that I really liked them for the first time! Take a look at my photo album to see it. Saturday included lunch with friends at a restaurant introduced to me by a local pal who has a great store around the corner with pet acoutrements. We had steak tartare (almost always good to have here – so flavorful), warm pate with field mushrooms and salad, a classic kind of lamb stew, marrow bones, beautiful salad of course, a bottle of maybe chateau neuf de pape and half a camembert and also the chocolate fondant for dessert. Yes, you guessed it, we spent a few hours there, and it was the perfect Saturday lunch with dear American friends in Paris.
Sunday we went to the Centre Du Monde Arabe for a fantastic Venetian show, it was especially interesting to see Christian, Moorish, and Jewish imagery from Venice in that marvelous building that doesn’t include Israel on their map of the world, only Palestine! We had a great cous cous for lunch there – which I am also finally starting to like, as it has such varied ingredients, and is so perfect for Fall. Afterwards I went to the 16th Arrrondisement for a Art Nouveau (particularly Hector Guimard) walk, recommended by a fabulous design historian friend, I was completely in heaven (see pics). That night, a visit to the Palais de Tokyo contemporary art space (open ‘til 12 every night) in a great old building completely took me by surprise, as I loved it instead of hating it, and it was topped off by that old Paris by Night ride, including a stop at the Eiffel Tower, which never fails to blow my jaded mind!
Oh, I almost forgot the auction preview of modernist furniture displayed in a very groovy adventurous way in an old mansion – proving yet again that contrast illuminates objects, including paintings and prints, far better than harmony. To wit, there was a terribly disappointing show of Atget photos from the collection of MOMA where the frame color had been painstakingly chosen to match the plummy sepia tone of his photos, and the mat mismatched their warm whites, further exascerbated by the cold white walls and light of the classic minimal gallery space – the 8 x 10 photos were all but invisible in this setting!
Winding up the trip was a clothing auction at Drouot, a visit to Pere Lachaise in the rain, and an all but empty Sacre Coeur (go on a rainy day), the VU exhibit I mentioned, and lunch with a friend from LA at other French friend’s fave neighborhood restaurant in the 11th on the most perfect day with amazing light, take a look at that beautiful picture of Laurie in red, and check out her blog – a fascinating compendium of blogs about Paris in english. We can’t help it, we heart Paris!
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