Here we go, gotta start somewhere...
Wed night...hugging nephews, getting beat at Mancala, eating stupendous food, watching Messi be BRILLIANT GO BARÇA and Madrid...you were NOT playing hockey, though maybe that passed you by. Also laughing so hard my stomach hurt. Good good good. (By the way Barça, you played like crap the second half today, you cannot win if you try and kill time by passing back to the goallie for 45 min, you earned today's loss. Bronx cheer to you!)
Thursday walking the boys to school, pain au chocolate, delicious sandwich for breakfast, Museum of Modern art, Van Dongen exhibit...meh. There were some INCREDIBLE pieces in their permanent collection....like this piece by Jesus Rafel Soto...then to the Orangerie, but the queue was huge, the Jeu du Pomme was closed....a gorgeous statue in the park there by Dubuffett....the Louvre, I thought, well, maybe, there's an exhibit of Rembrandts', which I love, but it's titled 'Painting Christ' ...gave it a shot, but the half hour line I stood in didn't sell the tickets I needed, message telling me that was a miss. Out onto the Ille de la Cité...and decided to walk to the end of the island...I had to pass a momma duck with all her ducklings tucked under her...I walked slowly, as far away from her as I could with my eyes averted and she stuck! YEAH! The Siene looked ccccooooooooold to me.
Japanese for lunch, what else would you do in Paris, but my brother-in-law was cooking dinner that night and so early sushi was perfect for that light not super full feeling when dinner rolled around!
Musée D'Orsay...giant line. Walked on. The Rodin Museum.
OMG
Before that though, I got caught up in a demonstration complete with French National Police in full riot gear. I hauled the map our of my pocket and tried to look naive....a challenge for me, but no one bonked me with a riot stick, so not too bad.
Don't know who the protesters were, maybe it was a warm-up for May 1? The only sign I saw was for 'autonoms'; in Catalan, that's the self-employed. Now THERE's a dangerous group! What are they going to do, thump you with their blackberries? Maybe the cops are all iphone users and figure those rockberries have no other use????
Onto the very very very best deal in Paris. The Rodin Museum. Now, I am NOT a big Rodin Fan, but
the entry fee for the garden is 1€. YES indeed, 1 small Euro, less than a cup of coffee....and you get into a beautiful garden, dappled with shade, ponds, two sandboxes, you can picknick and there are benches and chairs for the weary tourist, there are even gorgeous and wonderfully comfortable recliners, plus a toilet and cafe with icecream! Rose gardens and about 40 sculptures, which is about as much Rodin as I need to see.
1€!
Onwards....to Nomad's school! YES indeed, Nomad is in art school and I got to see what she's working on and where. SUPER sweet and super talented.
Dinner on mass with my sister and her family and Nomad and hers, wonderful, lovely, funny and deLICious....goodness all around.
Oh, and at one point in the day I trudged past the Ecole Militaire (that looks like it's missing an accent or two and maybe a letter as well, shucks) as I was grinding past there was a totally inocuous older French man walking beside me, beige trench coat, a bad haircut, like his wife had done it the day he finished the chocolate, kind of stooped and in his 60s. Coming towards us was a young soldier in uniform who gave a BIG fat salute and a big smile to this man, who straightened and nodded back as we went by, leaving me wondering what kind of poobah this guy really was?
The mysteries of life.
More later, that's enough for one day...even writing about it!
8 comments:
Sounds like a nice day :). Although you probably meant "Jeu de Paume", as in "Palm", not "Apple" ;).
For the demonstration, I don't know what it was. wasn't there and couldn't find anything. "autonomie" is not about being self-employed, although it can be, but it really is autonomous. So it can be used in several contexts. For school, it can be related to the interference (or lack thereof) of the government in the education system. For a region, it can either be related to "independence" (were they waving Corsican flags?), etc... Actually, if you could see some flags of another country, it could also be a support group totally not related to France. But the French like to demonstrate, and fight for what they think they are supposed to fight (like the Human Rights) ;)
Great - amazing how much you can get done in Paris - what is it about the place? Have you ever been to the Zadkine gallery - it's small and intimate and has a quiet and tranquille little garden. I like his sculptures - agree about Rodin - not really my thing. So, can't wait for part 2 and What you did next. Or was it all flying and airports?
K x
ElP, certainly, messed up on the name there....no national flags at all, and they looked pretty middle aged, no dreadlocks or hippy style, not farmers that's for sure.....whatever...it's a national sport as far as I can tell.
Kate, NO! I'll have to check out the Zadkine next time....it was a lot of flying and airports, but not only.......
hmmm, if it was on Thursday, I think there was a demonstration from the medical staff of the APHP (All Parisian Hospitals), against new laws and the changes in organization that they bring. If it was them, then it's likely they were asking for more "autonomy", and the ability of managing themselves without the government telling them what to do and how to do it.
Oh, and I just remembered: the Musée Rodin in Philadelphia is "pay what you can/want/feel like" :)
ElP, that sounds about right....they could have been medical staff. They certainly didn't look like they warrented riot police, whatever.
What is it with Rodin museums? I'll have to read more about Rodin and see if it has to do with him???
Riot police is standard practice in any demonstration, peaceful or not.
I have no idea why the Rodin museums are so cheap. Maybe in believed in "Art and culture accessible for everyone". If it were me, I'd actually do it. Now, I just need to get famous...
Gosh that must get boring for the cops.....though they'd be in good practice anyway. Go for it, get famous, there is some amazing video art being done these days....you could program it! Wait, I'll post a piece here in a sec....
Here, check this out: http://www.openculture.com/2011/04/flux.html
See? You're on your way!
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