Sunday, May 1, 2011

Next day

Some things were the same, walking my nephews to school, pain au chocolate, a delicious sandwich...

Some not, saying goodbye to my sister for instance.

Headed out with time to spare.  Nomad had recommended La Maison Rouge, a contemporary art gallery.  I set off walking.  (no guff)  I fortunately didn't get caught up with the National Police in Riot gear, but had a lovely long walk.  Wandered through the Luxemburg gardens, which were lovely, and into the Saint Sulpice church - escaping rain and having a break for my feet.  Past the Natural History Museum in the Jardin de Plantes, honestly it would be frustrating living in Paris, you would constantly feel that you couldn't keep up with all that was going on.  Anyway, I crossed the river on the Pont Austerlitz and went into La Maison Rouge.  They had a major exhibition on about Cannibalism that rocked Nomad's world, but left me kinda flat honestly, but they also had an exhibit by Chiharu Shiota, she had two installation pieces, the first one took my breath away, five elongated victorian nightgowns enmeshed in a mass or woven webbed strings, with tunnels for the observer to walk through....well, you can see it on the site linked above and there is an interview with the artist, and an amazing video piece that she completed was on view as well.  That was worth the walk and the 5€ alone.

Onwards!!!  I wandered over to the Hotel de Ville, just outside La Maison Rouge though, there is a canal filled with vessels, most of them motor boats but also canal boats all with people living on them.  Now if you know me at all, you know I spent a fair length of time leaning over the parapet gazing at the boats....

La Hotel de Ville had an exhibition about Paris at the time of the Impressionists.  Mostly paintings of Paris and Paris culture at that time, though it was better than I thought it might have been, partially as the Musée d'Orsay is undergoing renovation so some of their work is on loan.  I was meeting Nomad for lunch at 1:45, so I had to move on....I wandered back over to the left bank, and got a crepe sucre, something I HAD to do, then ran out of time and hopped the Metro make it on time.  We had delicious Korean and talked and talked and talked till it was time for me to go.

Trip out to the airport was fine, flight delayed an hour.  Long enough for me to miss the last bus out of BCN, so I took a train to somewhere nearby and missed the last bus from there.  45 min walk from the station and got home well after midnight.

DOG tired, but glad to be home.

Now to send the man!!!!

5 comments:

Jan said...

Goodness I'm worn out just reading about your week. It sounds amazing!

Anonymous said...

Glad you enjoyed! Yes, in Paris, there are always so many things going on that it's virtually impossible to see everything. So people eventually get used to missing out on stuff...
Have you ever taken one of those boat-trips on the Canal Saint Martin? They're explaining quite a lot of things, including movie-related information about the buildings and places that were used in movie classics :)

Helen said...

Busy weekend!

oreneta said...

'Twas lovely! Just what I needed.

ElP, you must have to get used to it, still, it would frustrate me. The canal trip on Saint Martin? GOING to have to do that next time....no questions asked!

Helen, indeed and a whole lot of fun!

Tiffany at Patheya said...

Seems like you packed in quite a bit. That Crepe thing sounded something I need. Sorry about the missing the train/bus connections!!!