My first full day in Paris started with navigating Paris’ Metro system again. Sadly, bereft of any indecent proposals today!
I did spend 10 minutes struggling to get my ticket to work on the turnstiles until one kindly gentleman told me that the trains were free today due to the pollution. This evening at dinner, I chatted to a woman who divides her time between Boston and Paris and explained:
“Parisians are meant to only use their cars on alternate days, but many are naughty. They’d prefer to pay the fine and continue to use their cars.”
Perhaps its also the many, many, MANY steps you have to take when negotiating the maze of the Metro. The Paris train system is not for the disabled or unfit. I’m certainly going to work off every delicious meal I eat here, just taking the trains!
This morning, I came out of the Metro at the back of the Louvre, a direction I’d not taken before. But, it provided me with some great shots of the glass pyramids against the morning sun as the smog dissipated.
As I approached the pyramids I encountered a unit of French soldiers in full military gear, locked and loaded with semiautomatic guns. For over a year now, since the terrorist attacks in November 2015, they’ve patrolled many of Paris’ key monuments and museum sites. It’s not a sight we Kiwi’s are used to, but it certainly communicates it’s intention: to reassure Paris’ residents and tourists that these places are safe.
Those Egyptians knew how to live… and die
When I was a child I remember our family owning two large encyclopedic volumes from the National Geographic. One of them focused on the funerary collection discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamun. It included stunning photography plates of the gold and jewelled items. I was fascinated by the book’s contents and would spend hours pouring over it. And ever since, I’ve wanted to see these ancient artifacts in person.
So today, I spent the morning exploring the Louvre’s Egyptian Antiquities collection. Spread over two floors, I only had time to complete one floor. I’ll do the rest tomorrow. And of course being the overly organised traveller that I am, before leaving home I’d downloaded the Louvre app to my phone and for a small fee I’d purchased the app audio tours.
From these I learnt that the museum only displays 6000 of a mind-blowing 60,000 Egyptology items in their archives. What they do display is an amazing example of the way Egypt’s elite lived thousands of years ago. The jewellery is intricate and beautiful, and includes many tiny gold amulets, amethyst and enamel necklaces, and large stone rings. I was fascinated by the brass mirrors and cosmetic containers.
In the end, I spent 2.5 hours wandering through the first floor exhibits. Here’s just a small sample of what I saw:
Still making an impression, thirty years later
After a quick lunch of quiche and Coke at the Louvre food court, I wandered down the Jardin des Tuileries towards the Musee de l’Orangerie.
In my Sixth Form *cough*thirtyyearsago*, I took Art History to avoid taking Maths or any science subjects. Taught by my Practical Art teacher, Mr Giles, he was one of those teachers that made a subject come alive. The curriculum focused on the periods of the Renaissance, Neo-classicism, and the Impressionists. We studied key artists of those times and their works.
But I didn’t realise how much of an impression his teaching had had on me until two years ago, when I was sitting at the Louvre with mother, in front of those works, namely Gericault’s “The Raft of the Medusa” and Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People”, that I discovered just how much his teaching had had an impact on me. I could recount many of the details about the politics of the time they were painted and the symbolism buried within them.
So it was again, that I found myself sitting in front of the magnificent panels of Monet’s “Water Lilies” recounting the things I’d learnt about during those Art History classes to a lady from Seattle – how Monet had been fascinated by the recently invented science of photography, how it captured an image based on available light. How he then took that theory and tried to apply it to his medium. How he would sit by that water lily pond and spend hours furiously painting canvas after canvas, desperately trying to capture the colour of the changing light and shadows as they danced across the water, never entirely satisfied that he had captured a true image of it.
That’s how Mr Giles, no doubt a frustrated artist himself, described Monet to us 16-year-olds as we stared as an image from the overhead projector (remember those!) of an example of Monet’s “Water Lilies”. And it stuck with me.
In the 1920s, just before his death, Monet donated eight large panels of his “Water Lilies” collection to the Musee de l’Orangarie, to be displayed in two especially built oval rooms. He wanted to create a place for returning soldiers from the First World War to come and sit at the centre of each room, where they could find peace and solace from the noisey, bustle of Paris.
Today attendants still shush chattering tourists and look in distain at the 20-somethings rushing through, snapping selfies.
Downstairs I discovered the museum displays examples of other artists I studied at high school: Cezanne, Renoir, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani, and Rousseau. Here are just a few examples of their iconic artworks:
Cezanne
Renoir
When I stand in front of a Renoir, I always think of Paris. Somehow, for me, his paintings capture Parisian’s joie de vie.
Picasso
The museum displays some of his early work. You can see the beginnings of his iconic style in these paintings.
Wandering back to my hotel
Although the light wind was a bit chilly, it was very warm, balmy day for December. The afternoon sun was gorgeous and perfect to photograph the Big Wheel at Place de la Concorde, and capture it with the Eiffel Tower in the distance.
I decided to walk back to my hotel, giving me a chance to explore the neighbourhood between the Place de la Concorde and Haussmann-Opéra. It’s a very opulent area, its narrow streets full of shops selling designer handbags, clothes, haircuts, personal grooming, and food – a great place to people watch and get a sense of how the other half live.
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