After I dropped Laurie off to sing in the choir at the early service, I went over to UNM and photographed the ducks and the architecture. The clouds were building up over the Sandias on my way home, so I stopped at the jetti sculpture on Coors and got the shots of the Sandias, clouds and sculpture.
I drove through north Corrales and all access to the river and bosque are closed. People say we are in a drought, but really we are experiencing what is more normal for arid New Mexico. So if the bosque and state parks and wilderness areas are only going to be open when we have above normal rainfall, New Mexico may end up being closed for longer than most of us will live. Rosencrantz was hanging out in the bamboo looking smart, and René was having a bad hair day after I gave him a shower.
We spent our last day in Paris getting ready to leave — checking in for the flight, cleaning the apartment, preparing food and packing. We went out for a walk in the Tuileries got our last look at the Louvre in the late afternoon sunlight, and I took random photos in the Tuileries and on the street walking back to the apartment. We are leaving for the airport at 6:30 this morning.
The rain started falling during the night and continued all day yesterday. Our museum pass had run out, so we planned to go to some of the sites that were not on the pass, but we didn’t want to walk to them in the rain. There’s the metro, but then Laurie got the idea to take the Batobus which is run by one of many companies that run tourist boats on the Seine. The batobus’ route runs from the Eiffel tower to the National History Museum and Gardens with six stops in-between. Once you buy a pass you can get on and off the boat as much as you want throughout the day. We got on the boat at noon, got off at the National History Museum (flowers and frog photos are from the garden) and Grand Palias (the last Crystal Palace built in 1900 before wide-use of electricity made the architectural style obsolete), and then we rode the boat for a couple of laps, because the views of the monuments from the middle of the Seine are unique and were magical in the misty air and rain. We got off the boat and headed home about 8:00 pm. One person told us the Seine was 2 meters above normal — the current ran fast and the water was rough, so the ride was exciting at times. There are a lot of interesting boats on and along the Seine — many different types of tour boats, including large restaurant boats. Many barges make their way up the Seine, often sitting very low in the water as they move their loads up river; and many boats of various sizes and styles that people live in are moored along the river . The many bridges that cross the Seine looked like a labyrinth through my telephoto lens; the Eiffel tower was lacy in the misty rain, and the Palace of Justice and Notre Dam looked particularly medieval under the gray sky.
One project of Henry IV was to extend the Louvre along the right bank of the Seine and join the Louvre to the Palais des Tuileries (the Palais des Tuileries was destroyed in the upheaval of the Paris Commune in 1871). The resulting addition was more than a quarter mile long and 100 feet wide making it the longest edifice in the world at the time. After the addition was completed Henry invited artists to live and work in the spaces on the lower floor, a tradition that continued for 200 years until Napoleon III put a stop to it. Today King Henry’s addition is part of the Denon Wing that houses a lot of the permanent collection, including the Mona Lisa. We made another trip to the Louvre yesterday afternoon, and the photos today include interiors, staircases, ceilings and selections of artwork from the French master’s in the Sully Wing (oldest remaining section of the Louvre) and the “Grand Format” paintings in the Denon Wing. I also included photos of two more installations by Michelangelo Pistoletto near the “Grand Format” paintings. The first one (2nd photo) shows Laurie and I in the mirrors that represent the Law (Judaism) in an installation that represents the four major world religions. The second one (4th photo) shows the world religion installation from its outside, and the third Pistoletto is the last photo in the series.
On our way to the Center Pompidou, we found Rue de la Ferronnerie, the street Henry IV was assassinated on. The Louvre has its contemporary elements, but they are very formal compared to the Pompidou, whose skinless superstructure is as much of a bike locked to a fence as it is a building. I also notice that once you are in the gallery spaces inside the Pompidou, you and everything else in those spaces become part of the art and exhibits: the guards who watch the exhibit spaces in their informal dress and hairstyles, the visitors, the views, the elements of the building, the sculptures and the paintings all interact to make the Pompidou a dynamic, contemporary art space.
While the Pompidou works well as a contemporary art space, it’s not the best when it comes to circulation and comfort — especially the tubes on the west side of the structure that contain the escalators that give people access to the different levels of the building. They look cool from the outside, but the are very hot, and not much fun to be in on a sunny afternoon.
The second and last photos are contemporary elements of the Louvre — the light structure of the pyramids and the heavy X of the escalators are so well ordered and formal compared to the pipes, cables and tubes that make the Pompidou look rather a mess.
In the afternoon we walked to the Cathédrale Sainte Croix des Aemeniens about 3 km east of our apartment to attend three recitals. Along the way we saw a lot of interesting triangular buildings, some women on a building holding up a balcony, and we walked through a large flea market before we got to the church. The church was old and not in the best repair, but the acoustics were phenomenal. The first recital was Youn Soon Lee on piano. She played Beethoven so well her playing was like listening to an orchestra. The pieces she played were light and showy with lots of flashy runs and arpeggios that she would build up, pull down, build up, pull down and build up again until she brought the pieces to their explosive climaxes. Ms Lee’s performance was magnificent.
After the first recital we walked down to a restaurant/bar and got coffee before the next recital. The area we were in had a lot of art studios and private art galleries, the bars were filled with people, and the streets bustled with people walking, riding bikes and navigating cars through the crowds making their way to and from the flea market.
I didn’t think we could hear much better than Ms. Lee’s performance, but Miran Dévétak’s interpretation of List and Fauré was nothing short of phenomenal. List was heavy, complex and melodic, punctuated with fits of quick runs and dynamic, loud sets of chords. Fauré was a little lighter with a modern (1900sh) rhythm, and very quick, complex fingerings that Mr. Dévétak executed flawlessly.
The third recital was a violin/piano duet by Eun Bi Gang on violin and Jean Dube on piano. They were also fantastic performers. Ms Gang started by doing a solo of Martinon Sonatine No 5 op 32. The piece had some amazing secondary rhythms that she played under the melody, which was really remarkable. Mr. Dube accompanied her on the piano on Bach’s Sonate 2 Andante, Mozart Concerto No 5 1st Movement and Tchaikovsky’s Concerto op 35 1st movement.
On our way to Notre Dame in the morning, we came across a bird market that had cages and cages of small parrots, parakeets and finches. While I was photographing flowers (the poppies were huge) and roses in the garden behind Notre Dame, I came across an early bird getting worms.
We went to an organ recital at Notre Dame by Henco De Berg last night. Notre Dame’s organ is the most famous pipe organ in the world, according to the handout. Mr. De Berg played pieces by Charles -Marie Widor (1844-1937), François Couperin (1668-1733), Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) and then he played an improvisation on 2 gregorian themes. Several people in the audience couldn’t take the heavy, modern pieces and improvisation, but I found them interesting a quite fun to listen to. There were a lot of sustained, very low and dissonant chords, but when I closed my eyes, I could hear the other notes played under the sustained cords and there was a slight stereo effect as the higher notes swept back and from one side of the pipes to the other. Since the organ sits about 30 feet about the floor, the organist is quite anonymous. Even when he stood to acknowledge the applause, you could hardly see him in the low light against the background of the organ.
Before we went into the recital, I got a photo of one of the roses blooming behind Notre Dame.
On our way back to the apartment,the sun was low and very orange over the Seine, and it cast a soft orange light on the town hall that complemented the orange turf they had in front of the building. The bicycles in the fifth photo are all over Paris in what they call “Stations Velib'”. The city is promoting use of these bikes to help reduce pollution. There is a central pay station that allows you to get a bike. The first 1/2 hour is free, then it costs 1 Euro per 1/2 hour with a max of 4 Euros for 4 hours or more. There are 24 Stations Velib’ in our arrondissement.
Laurie wanted to take a different route home, so we walked up to the Pompidou center and headed west towards Opera. We walked by some modern buildings and a site where a giant shopping center is under construction. There were a lot of young people getting ready to party, others were just hanging around, while others were skateboarding at a fountain. Among the many activities along the way police argued with a group of young men, people who looked down and out walked around collecting stuff off the street, other groups of people off in doorways argued and yelled at each other — activities that made it seem like it wasn’t the safest area to be in at 10:00 pm — so we dropped down to a main street that took us back by the Louvre and connected with Opera.
We got out first thing this morning and walked back to Notre Dame to attend the 8:30 service. On the way back the apartment we popped into a couple of churches and listened to the music for a few minutes. We dropped into Eglise Saint Germain l’Auxerrois during the offertory, and the organist played a fantastic piece that sounded heavenly. Then we stopped in L’Oratoire du Louvre, which turned out to be a Protestant church that goes back to 1611. They were finishing a baptism and then a guy sang a solo accompanied by the organ.
While Laurie was planning our “assault” on the Louvre, she read that it began as a fort in 1190 to watch for Vikings coming up the Seine. They somehow heard we were coming, because police were everywhere dressed in full riot gear, blocking all entrances to the Louvre when we got there. Lots and lots of people were walking around trying to find a way in, to no avail. We wondered if there had be a threat or other incident, then Laurie asked one of the policemen who told us it was closed because the president of Holland was visiting. So we went back up to our neighborhood, a ten minute walk on crowded streets in the rain, and explored the neighborhood. Today’s photos are shots of fashion on the streets and store windows in the area around the Opera. The area is pretty upscale, with fine clothing and jewelry shops and a variety of ethnic restaurants. There are a lot of tourists from all over, but there seems to be a large concentration of Japanese and Chinese in the area, and there are several Japanese restaurants and an oriental food store on the three streets that border the building we are in.
Laurie and I stood in line and got tickets for Handel’s opera Guilio Caesare, and then walked the Champs Élysées for our 31st wedding anniversary. Our walk was from the Opera down one side of Champs Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe, a loop around the Arc, a shot of the CBD, the a walk up the other side of the Champs Élysées through the Jardin des Tuileries and the Louvre and back home. Along the way we saw the latest Renault Dezir on a showroom floor, and an old Citroën 2CV driving by. On the way to the Arc de Triomphe the sidewalk was covered with people as far was you could see, and the Champs Élysées had a constant flow of bumper to bumper traffic. The many cafes and restaurants lining the sidewalks were full of people and there was a mix of tourists gawking, street venders hawking, and well dressed business men and women making their way through the hustle and bustle.
Bathroom stops are quite interesting — you have to pay to pee in Paris, and you certainly can’t pee in peace, because there is always a woman in the men’s side cleaning. We stopped at the restroom at the entrance to the Jardin des Tuileries, and there was quite a line. There were several attendants keeping order on letting people in and out of the bathrooms. I got waved through, payed my 50 cents, and was standing at the urinal when I heard “Pardon!” in a female voice and felt a nudge against my shoulder. The cleaning woman was mopping making me and the guy next to me step over and around the mop while we were trying to pee. When there is a constant stream of people, she just cleans around them.
We got back to the apartment from our walk around 7:00 pm, then we went out to the Monoprix (a French Corte Inglés) and got food. Laurie made a pizza with bread, lardon (a cross between bacon, ham and salt pork), creme fraiche, eggplant and a medium aged Cantal cheese for dinner that was really good. You can see the outside of our apartment on the building in the last photo. The tiny window in the roof is the kitchen and the main room looks out the gabled windows on either side.
Off Center & Not Even 