15 posts tagged “monuments”

Remember this?

Well, this past weekend in D.C. I wandered across this statue while I was en route to my meetings on Saturday morning, walking from the hotel to the Center.

A nice little green space, not quite a park, with this statue in the center.

Yes, George W.--the original one, the Founding Father, the good guy. In this statue, he is in full regalia, apparently looking out over the troops, ready for battle.

It was a gorgeous day.

George is surrounded by beauty in this square as well. Tulips...

...and cherry trees in bloom.

But his expression...

Rather grim. Perhaps it was all the construction, or the many, many homeless people I saw all over town (and even in this little square), looking for a place to sit, to rest, to find peace.

Maybe it was simply concern about the spot we've gotten ourselves into in this lovely place he worked so hard to make free and equal.

Pearl

 

 

This is a delightful statue of the poet and fable writer Jean de La Fontaine, to be found in the 16th arrondissement, near the Musee Monet-Marmottan. La Fontaine lived and wrote in the 17th century, but his work is still popular. Like Moliere his family expectations pointed him toward law, but he chose another path, that of the arts.

At La Fontaine's feet is the crow and on the steps the fox, of his fable "The Crow and the Fox," wherein the fox sweet-talks the crow out of the piece of cheese held in her bill. Wily Fox. Vain Crow.

It is a charming statue found in the delightful park found between the Metro stop La Muette and the museum. Notice the stone bench running behind the statue, where you could sit and read, or enjoy a conversation. Very Parisian.

Pearl 

This is the figure of Harmony above the Palais Garnier. As you can see, on a sunny day the statue gleams very, very brightly.

Pearl  

This is one of the many pictures from Paris I did not get a chance to feature in a blogpost while I was there.

This is George W, the good one, George Washington mounted atop his steed and raising his sword to heaven... right in downtown Paris.

This monument is in the midst of the plaza where the Musee Guimet is located. On the same cloudy December day I went to see the Musee Galliera's fantastic costume exhibit on the crinoline, I snapped this.

It is a great reminder how closely the history of France and the history of the US are connected. Not only because they both had revolutions starting only 13 years apart, but because both countries have pursued the "rights of man" in their own ways, more alike than not.

Sure, the British pushed the French out of our territory with the help of this very man, back when he was a redhead (I remember that haircolor note vividly from history textbooks of the junior high variety) during the French and Indian War, where G.W. picked up the mad skills to be a leader, a guerilla general, and, perhaps, our first President, but apparently the French held no grudges.

This monument was installed in 1900.

At any rate, at six months away from the U.S. and four months in Paris, it was nice to see a reminder of my home nestled right in among the French. It is a serious monument--and by that I mean G.W. is serious. Look:

 

Makes me feel safe, although I personally have always felt that G.W. had a wicked sense of humor.

Pearl 

The Musée Carnavalet is one of the great neglected museums of Paris. It houses a collection of objects and art that trace the history of Paris through the centuries.

Like many other good things, the Carnavalet is located in the Marais section of Paris. The building itself is made up of two aristocratic hotels, the hôtel Carnavalet and the hôtel Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau. There is a beautiful though small formal garden that one cannot visit without visiting the museum, and even then it is difficult to get out there.

Walking along Rue des Francs Bourgeois, I walked across the south side of the garden and took this picture.

 

Then I looked more closely: an angel.

 

The museum can be a little frustrating because certain items are only "open" on certain days. One must know the schedule, or a visitor can miss Proust's cork-lined writing room, say, transported whole from his home and plunked down here. It is a fabulous sight, but only open on certain days of the week... as is most of the 19th century wing. Another installation is the marvelous jewelry boutique of George Fouquet, a spendiforous little space of Art Nouveau architecture and design intended to showcase jewelry of the Art Nouveau style.

In the courtyard, before one arrives at the ticket booth, is a statue of Louis XIV.

 

Behind Louis, you can see a drape of some kind: the entire 17th century wing was shut down the day I visited for some kind of construction or repair.

There are rooms of furniture, some complete installations, some simply showcasing period style. There are signs, sculpture, painting, photography, and many fascinating things. One room holds nothing but period sculptures and statues of famous French men and women of their period, some caricatures and some not.

Besides the glorious permanent collection, the Carnavalet holds short-term exhibitions, and I saw the most recent one on Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, which just closed this weekend. The exhibition followed the way in which Hugo used specific sites in Paris in the novel. Since the novel covered two different times in Paris--separated by the central portion of the story--the exhibition used maps, engravings, photographs, and all sorts of objects to demonstrate the way Hugo took his story from real life... and the parts of Paris Hugo used are still there, if one would like to walk them.

The Carnavalet is only a short walk from Hugo's own museum, housed in the Place des Vosges, but it is also close to the Musée Picasso, the Archives Nationales (which holds exhibitions focusing on the documents of French history), and multiple other museums, as well as the Rue des Rosiers, a great street to find inexpensive, delicious restaurants and take-away Jewish and Middle Eastern food.  

The Carnavalet is located at 23, rue de Sévigné; Métro St. Paul or Chemin Vert. Like most other museums, it is closed Monday but open Tuesday through Sunday, 10am-6 pm. It also has a great gift/book shop; one can buy gifts for friends or browse the excellent collection of art and history books, featuring quirky as well as academic styles. The shop can be visted without paying a fee or going into the museum, but both museum and gift shop often shut down (or nearly) at lunch time. 

What I am saying is that it may take several visits before you can see all of the good things the Carnavalet has to offer. Go back, often. It is rarely crowded, so go on a Sunday while you are strolling through the Marais  or combine it with one or two other museums for a full day--a pleasure!--but I warn you, it is stuffy in summer.

Pearl

I realized that the last couple of entries have no photos, so for those of you who need pictures (God knows, I do!) here are some from the recent past and present.

 

The monumental size of Tolbiac, in Paris.

 

The back garden of the BnF at Richelieu.

 

A curious butterfly from the gardens in Oxford.

 

No need to say more.

 

A morning stroll.

 

Current screensaver.

 

Chocolate delights.

 

One view from Tolbiac's deck.

My tiny studio.

Back home.

Pearl

 

Before leaving Paris I took a trip to Montmartre to visit Sacré Coeur and photograph that church. Even though it was a chilly, cold, frosty December morning/afternoon when I was there, there were good-sized crowds. As you already know, I don't take lots of pictures of crowds, so most of these are solely about the church.

When I was on sabbatical previously, I lived in the 18th arrondissement, way up north by the périphérique, "behind" Sacré Coeur. I loved living there, in a thoroughly non-tourist neighborhood. A relatively short walk up the rue de Mont Cenis (and I mean "up" as the street ascends just as much as it moves south toward Sacré Coeur) and I could be there, in the heart of tourist mania.

I had been up to Sacré Coeur in September, with my friends Stephanie and Bob, while they were visiting. We even walked throughout Montmartre, by the Moulin de la Galette and along rue Lepic, by the house where Van Gogh lived before moving south. That day it was sunny and bright, and pictures would have been great.

Sigh.

But instead I have a few from this cold, cold day. Which are great in themselves. The basilica is so iconic, so distinct in the way it looks that the details are often missed. Built on the great hill of Montmartre overlooking the city, the church itself is a marker about Paris's mixed emotions about the events of the late 1860s and early 1870s, including the Franco-Prussian War, the siege of Paris, the establishment of the Third Republic, and the Commune. It is a beautiful white building dedicated to the worship of the Sacred Heart. Unlike earlier cathedrals, it has round towers--avoiding echoes of the gothic Notre Dame and the romantic Madeleine.

 

Even the figures posted on the church are different. And rather military. The tiny figure here (although tiny is relative) is Saint Michel. 

And on the front, by the same artist, Sainte Jeanne d'Arc and Louis IX, king of France and saint.

 

 Sacré Coeur is a beautiful church, inside and out, always filled with tourists and worshippers (like Notre Dame it is a working church, used every day by locals). Around the corner are some of the most famous sites of Montmartre, including the Place de Tertre where artists sell their original pieces daily. Sacré Coeur also has one of the best views of the city, given its location and height. It is rarely peaceful even that early in the morning, and rarely deserted. If you want to have a quiet moment there, come up the front (from the Métro stop Abbesses, for example) to get the full effect of the lower plaza with its merry-go-round (if you've seen Amélie, you know what I'm talking about), then walk up to the higher levels. Once you are at the top--church level--definitely go inside, walk around, and see the amazing mosaic ceiling, the gorgeous interior construction. Then come out and walk around to the back (ignoring the temptations of Montmartre, the crowds, the "statue" mimes, etc.) and then, well in the left-hand rear of the church is a lovely garden. It is generally very quiet, or at least like other Paris garden-parks, filled with children, mothers, and nannies rather than tourists. If you want even more quiet, follow rue de la Bonne down the hill. In spring through early fall, this is a lovely garden full of roses and lavender.

The basilica is a great place to start your tour of Montmartre, but be certain to include the only working vinyard still within Paris's city limits, the mairie (town hall) that includes windows by Utrillo, the home of Erik Satie, the Musée Montmartre, the winding streets and staircases where Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Valadon, Utrillo, and other figures of the great 19th century artistic rebellion (prior to the city's absorbing this village into itself) lived and worked; also be certain to see the working-class neighborhoods that are still vital here--not solely the tourist spots. It is a great area to walk, to find a little cafe and enjoy a glass of wine or a coffee, and to simply see the city in its diversity and variety. Perhaps more so than any other area of the city. 

Pearl

Today I went out and about in the 6th arr. and at the southern end of the Jardin du Luxembourg, I found this:

As you can see, the trees are bare (which allows one to see exactly how they are perfectly trimmed to give a controlled line of greenery), but that is not my point. The ground is brown and bare, as well... but that too is not my point.

Wait, let me give you a closer view.

Or, maybe, even a closer view.

Yes, that is ice. The curious part is that when I left the 'burb it was barely snowing, but when I came up from beneath ground here at RER B/Port Royal, the precipitation was not only a combination of water and slush, but the fountain was in this condition. And the temperature had dropped at least five degrees.

Here are some further photos of the fountain and the attached pool that it spills into.

 

 

And just in case you weren't cold enough yet, here's the fountain in action.

Notice the combination of ice and water in the pool, and the totally frozen look of the turtles spewing water upwards. Obviously, since the water is flowing in all directions, it is not quite cold enough--yet--to freeze solid. I am not certain that won't happen tonight.

Pearl

Saturday morning I deliberately got up early to take the Métro to the Place de la Concorde in order to walk westward up the Avenue des Champs Elysées. The morning was chilly but sunny, and as you can see the sun was coming up just as I got to Concorde.

To the right of pedestal for Cleopatra's Needle you can see the Arc de Triomphe. That was where I was headed.

Looking back across the Tuileries toward the Louvre, the sun is sort of visible.

In Concorde, there is a huge Ferris wheel, apparently for the pre-Christmas holiday season.

 

 

Along the first part of the Champs Elysées, there is also a little winter village, of sorts, again in the Xmas mood. There are a series of little cabanas of varied sizes, alternating with some of the saddest little trees I've seen. I was there too early for any of these displays to be open, but they were decorated in suggestive themes.

I really liked this one: it had a family of department store mannequins dressed in winter wear replicating a family. I couldn't get a very good shot of it, but it was Christmas Creepy.

This little tree wore a ribbon on top that said Feliz Navidad: confusing. It was one of the few standing upright.

And this was what I was really after. After I walked all the way up, I veered off to Boulevard Haussmann to the Musée Jacquemart-André. This time I did see the exhibition of Van Dyke portraits--absolutely gorgeous--as well as the house/museum itself.

Pearl

In my first post on the Basilica of Saint Denis, I wrote about the Gothic architecture inside and out. Here, I am adding the material about what makes a visit to Saint Denis so interesting for most people: its history as a necropole, or burial site, for the kings and queens of France.

After seeing the interior of the church itself, I exited and re-entered, after paying my 6.50 euros, entering through the south facade into the ambulatory, where the various burial monuments have been relocated.

The monuments come in two forms. Most of them are termed gisants, meaning the reclining form of monument, carved in stone to resemble the dead person. There are some kneeling in prayer, termed priants. Most appeared to be in white stone, probably marble, although the earliest ones were of a much rougher stone.

The earliest monument was to Clovis I, a 5th century ruler who brought together all the tribes termed "Franks" under one king for the first time. The monuments date almost chronologically from the 10th century to 1789, and all but three were originally buried here. Since that time, however, monuments and memorials for more than these have been brought here, including marble statues and tombs for Louis XVI and Marie-Amtoinette.

The gisants and priants are grouped around the ambulatory and behind the altar by period.

 

 

Most of the monuments have their feet resting on an animal. For kings and queens, that would be a lion. For nobility, it is often a dog. Or two.

As well as these simpler monuments that would have been laid on top of a grave, there were several grand tombs. These, like the one below for Francois I and his queen, Claude, were large enough for multiple bodies. Both Francois and Claude were buried here. On top of the marble square, are the kneeling figures of the king, queen and their three children. Below, in the open space, are the marble "bodies" of the king and queen, found naked and in a very human kind of repose. Around the tomb are scenes from Francois's reign.

 

 

There are several of these grand tombs, all from the Renaissance.

One can also go into the crypt, where the royal bodies were interred and where the digging still goes on. The crypt is located directly under the raised nave, behind the altar. Here, too, Gothic architecture can be seen, albeit with much lower ceilings.

 

Down here are the Bourbon tombs, as well as the interrment of royal body parts. The tradition of the king as having a spiritual as well as royal body made the heart and other organs valuable; after death they were removed and stored separately, as here.

In this gogeous site, even the floors are beautifully decorated.

Pearl