Paris Gardens

The Place des Voges was very crowded this afternoon.

Continuing with my impressions of outdoor Paris, I have a number of photos of the gardens and green spaces in the city. Unfortunately for the people who live here, it's really quite crowded despite these beautiful oases.

Place des Voges.

Hotel de Sully, near Place des Voges.

Hotel de Sens, near the river.

Carnavalet Museum garden -- which you can see without going into the museum.

Behind Notre Dame.

The Medici Fountain in the Luxembourg gardens.

Statue of Montaigne near the Cluny museum.

Champs de Mars near the Eiffel Tower.

One more Mona Lisa: an old travel poster in a random shop window.

Paris Street Art and Graffiti

Walking around Paris, I saw lots of wonderful street art, including some very impressive graffiti, sides of buildings with very large murals, and very interesting shop-front ads. Here are just a few of my favorites.

This Popeye is one of the best.

Sometimes there are large paintings on the sides of buildings.

An example: this building near Rue de la Gaite.

Near Centre Pompidou at Place Beaubourg -- 

the side of a building painted with a face.

Shop window on Rue des Rosiers.

Butcher shop decorated with a cow's face.

The metro entrances designed by Hector Guimard are very famous.

Public water tap from 19th century.

Fountain with drinking water -- 

there are many of these throughout the city.

I have many more photos of Paris streets, parks, and gardens, of the farmer's market near our hotel, and of several churches we've explored. Though we've made many visits to Paris, there's always something new to see.

The Centre Pompidou -- Modern Art Museum

The painting on the wall in this room of the Pompidou Center is "Three Figures in a Room" by Francis Bacon.
I captured a moment when the room echoed the painting.

Marcel Duchamp's work is for me one of the many highlights of the Pompidou.
These photos concern one of his "boxes" of artwork, named "Eau & Gaz A Tous Les Etages."

This is a real "Gaz A Tous Les Etages" sign on the apartment building where
one of our friends live. It warns the fire department that there is gas service
on every floor. Marcel Duchamp, in his wonderful way, used it as a motto.
I wrote more about "Gaz..." HERE.

We spent most of the afternoon in the Pompidou, after an unfortunate long wait just after it opened this morning at 11:00. We love the museum's extraordinary collection of art made in Paris in the first decades of the twentieth century -- Picasso (especially early & cubist Picasso), Braque, Matisse, Juan Gris, Picabia, Man Ray, Duchamp, and many more -- I can't begin to show images of all that I enjoyed.

More Duchamp.

"Why not sneeze?" is the name of this work by Duchamp. A family favorite.

At the moment, several rooms in the museum are dedicated to understanding the relationship of famous collectors and critics to the artists they favored. They help one understand how these collectors helped create the reputations of the artists. Though these rooms aren't called out as special "expositions" they did include works borrowed from other museums and private collectors. I found them wonderfully informative and fascinating.

Lipchitz's head of Gertrude Stein was in one of the special
rooms about collectors, with paintings and photos to
show the activities of Stein and her brothers.

The terrace overlooking Paris.

A view from the terrace -- the Eiffel Tower is visible everywhere.

Musée d'Orsay, Impressionists and More

We were inside the Musée d'Orsay by 9:40 this morning -- ten minutes after it opened. As always, we find
the space in the remade railroad station overwhelmingly impressive.

To start the morning, we carefully went through an exhibit about the painter
Henri Rousseau. As always with major art exhibits, the sheer number of works
belonging to museums worldwide was amazing.

On the other side of the huge clock on the fifth floor you can
see the Paris skyline. In the far distance: the Sacré-Coeur on Montmartre.

The Impressionist collections are vast. We remember the series of paintings of Rouen cathedral from the old
Jeu de Pomme museum where they were shown until the Orsay opened in around 1986.

Collections of decorative arts and furniture, especially from the Art Nouveau
era, are also extensive and very wonderful.

Around a dozen Cezannes at least are in the collection. When we were in Provence last week, we thought about this one of Mount Sainte Victoire.

"Dinner" by Félix Vallotton fascinated me because it shows what the people were eating.

After several hours, we walked out of the museum, across the river, and
into the Tuilleries Gardens where a gigantic ferris wheel is in operation.

Beyond the ferris wheel you can see the Eiffel tower.

We had "wine and cheese" at the home of friends this evening: actually a very informal meal similar to tapas, which were delicious. We enjoyed the conversation -- finding out what our friends thought about many of the important political movements and events going on in the world today.

Asparagus Season

Asparagus is in season. We saw it in the market in Arles, and I'm sure we'll see it in the Paris market too, if we get there. I have eaten it several times; the three photos show the most beautiful arrangements on the plate. I imagine I'll eat more.

Nothing but Cookbooks!

The Librairie Gourmande is a bookstore with nothing but cookbooks, old and new, from many times and places.
NOTE: the word librairie in French means BOOKSTORE, not library!

A few photos of the interior of the Librairie Gourmande:

On the second floor: more cookbooks as well as novels with food themes,
sociology, history, and specialized cookbooks.

They even have several copies of Modernist Cuisine.

The two books that I bought:

Recipes from the Ivory Coast, in a book published there.

Moroccan Cuisine: the very knowledgeable store clerk
told me this was a classic.

And in another store, I saw a beautiful Mona Lisa:

... but didn't buy it. I also went to Notre Dame Cathedral, but the cookbook store was the best today.