medieval things

(post written in May 2019... because I'm a slacker and didn't get it done earlier.)

We went to the Musée de Cluny, which is an excellent museum of the middle ages.

musée marmottan

(post written in July 2018 as I sort through old photos and discover I never finished the Paris trip).

I mysteriously have almost no photos of this day. I think maybe I decided to just look at things and not photograph it all? Based on a couple of blurry pictures, it looks like we went to the Musée Marmottan Monet.

They have a bit of an eclectic collection - medieval illuminated letters (most of which look to have been cut out of larger pages, which is too bad), the personal collection of art, furniture, decor of Mr Maromottan (in whose house the museum is located), various impressionist works, as well as a collection of Monet pieces that had been kept in the family - the feel of these pieces is a bit different from what one often sees in more famous works. Luckily for me, the website of the museum has many photos of the artwork on display, so it's ok that I didn't take pictures.

The only photo I have from the interior of the museum.

They also had a Pisarro exhibit, which was really interesting, though crowded (we were in the last days of the exhibit).

That is also the day we went to Les Halles and stopped at Muji.

petit palais, sacre coeur

(post written July 2018 as I sort through photos and discover I hadn't quite finished writing up the Paris trip...)

Looks like it was raining in the morning.

We went to the Petit Palais in the morning and looked at art in a cool building.

The front door of the Petit Palais

 Emile Gallé, ~1878. Vase decorated with Chrysanthemums and Praying Mantis. Enamelled glass.

Eugène Feuillâtre, ~1912. Vase "La Mer." Translucent enamel over copper.

Greek vases

The Grand Palais across the street

Lunch was at Angelina... again...

And then we discovered that next door to Angelina, there is a bookstore... one that carries English books. How we missed it after passing by so many times, I don't know...

The weather cleared up, so we headed towards le Sacré Coeur.

We walked up the front stairs (and stopped for a bit for a snack and drinks at a café with a brilliant view of the building)...

We enjoyed the view from the top...

The building itself, both outside and in (though I don't think we went up to the top, I think it was too late in the day? I don't remember).

We went around the corner to take a look at the other church, St Pierre de Montmartre.

Then we walked down the side stairs...

Dinner was with friends at an Ethiopian restaurant. Giant (I think the plate was a foot and a half across) flat soft crepe-ish thing, with various foods. Tear off a piece, scoop up whichever glop you wanted, eat with your fingers. Quite tasty.

shiny gold

We went to Versailles without much of a plan. We knew, because I'd looked it up beforehand, that there was some kind of equestrian performance, and that tours existed.

history and height

Arles

A few weeks ago, I was with some friends, and the conversation turned towards things in the general region that should be seen/done/visited. My contribution to this, as always, was the flamingos of the Camargue - a good three-plus hour drive to the east of Toulouse, but I think it's worth it to see wild flamingos. I mentioned to one of my friends that maybe G's parents would let us stay with them to allow us to go on a field trip. I asked G, who asked his parents, and after a bit of discussion, a date was set.

walk like an egyptian

Despite the date on the post, this post was actually written 27 July 2015 because I got behind on posting from the Paris trip last summer, and then I kept not doing it even though it was the last post, and then the guilt hung over me for not doing it so I avoided the blog entirely, and now I am finally doing it because I want to be able to post things again. This means that a lot of the details of the day are fuzzy, but I think I remember enough to give an idea of what we did :)

many instruments

When I was last in Paris, as part of my university's orchestra tour celebrating Berlioz during the summer of 2003, we spent a day at the museum of music at the Cité de la Musique. I remember feeling like I hadn't had enough time there, and that it was really interesting, and wanted to go back.  So G (a nonmusician) indulged me, and we did.

trees, cows and naked ladies

When we arrived at the Musée D'Orsay, about 20 minutes before opening, nobody was there yet. We decided to go around the corner to a café for something warm to drink and a croissant to fortify us for the morning of art. When we came back round the front of the museum at 9:30am for the opening, there was already a moderate line - but luckily we were still in time to not have to wait long.

Musée D'Orsay