Paris: The Musee de Rodin and les Invalides

Today's visit was to the Musee de Rodin, which has a huge collection of Auguste Rodin's work and is in the workshop he used to use in the former Hotel Biron.   

The museum has been restored downstairs and gives an indication of what it must have looked like as a hotel, and thus provides a rather grand setting.

The collection of Rodin's sculptures is interesting because it gives the viewer an indication of how he worked on an idea

 and developed an idea.

("Sleep")

It includes works in plaster, clay,

("Young Girl with Flowers in her Hat")

bronze,

( "Bellona")

and marble.  

("The Tempest")

("The Kiss")

The museum also exhibits some of his collections of antique sculptures .  Apparently, he loved collecting Roman, Greek and Asian art, and often was influenced by what had gone before.

Included in the exhibition are some of Rodin's paintings, like "Male Nude Seen from Behind" and this one:

(Golden Twilight)

But the museum also has the works of other artists associated with Rodin.  These include Camille Claudet, Van Gogh' s "Pere Tanguy" , Laurens, who painted this picture, "August Rodin with a Turban", 

Renoir, Maillol and Munch who is represented by "Rodin's Thinker".  He also did collaborations.

This last is a collaboration with Jean Clos, "Camille Claudet with a Bonnet"

As well as the works in the Museum, there are more sculptures dotted around the gardens, which, by the way are beautiful and very relaxing.

This is the famous "The Thinker"

and the garden contains one of the many portraits he did of Balzac as well as the "Monument to the Burghers of Calais".

After that, we wandered across the road to see Les Invalides, which includes Napoleon 1's tomb, the Musee de l'Armee, a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans. We didn't go in, but admired the gardens and the wide avenues leading up to it.

When we returned to Montparnasse, we discovered that the market now contained artists, selling their work to the public.  Some of it was very good indeed.

PS.. The internet is so weak here, I cant download pictures very well.  I'll try to add them at a later date

Paris: Montparnasse market and cemetry, the Eiffel Tower and the Passages of the Grands Boulevards

We are back in Paris, in a new hotel and after recovering from our trip from Rennes, yesterday we decided that we were ready for a bit of exploration.  We started locally, visiting the street market in Boulevard Edgar Quinet in Montparnasse.  The market had stalls of clothes, African artifacts, scarves, shoes, belts, bags and soaps

but the main focus is food.  When we were originally planning our trip, we were going to rent apartments, but the need to be able to cancel our trip at the last moment meant that hotels were safer to book.  This market really made me envious of those with a kitchen.  The most popular stall with a long, but patient, queue was the one which specialised in heirloom tomatoes. I grow some of these but they truly had a formidable collection with huge variations in colour, shape, size, and I dare say, taste.

A lot of the other stalls had fruit and vegetable that we are familiar with in Australia, but there were some things which were on offer which we are less familiar with like green almonds and green hazelnuts

odd shaped peaches and nectarines

purple figs

and a variety of mushrooms

The charcuterie and cheese stalls were so tempting.  I was groaning as I examined what was on offer. 

The poultry and meat stalls were interesting.  The offer a variety of chicken, duck and rabbit breeds.  Plus the cuts are often very different to Australian cuts.

Of course there were artisan bread stalls.

and there were flower and plant stalls

France has had a long history of immigrants from their foreign colonies in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. Of course, as in any society, there has been prejudice, but in many ways, these non- European French have been well accepted in society in the past.  Remember that Alexandre Dumas of  The Three Musketeers fame was the grandson of a slave from Martinique.  France has also provided a refuge for African Americans treated badly in the USA, like the writer, James Baldwin, and the dancer and singer, Josephine Baker.  France is proud of its European/ African or Afro- Caribbean representatives like Jo Wilfred Tsonga, the tennis player, or Caribbean born representatives like the football player, Thierry Henry, or African born representatives like actor/comedian Mouss Diouf.  Many of its politicians are Afro- French.  When one walks through any city in France, one sees French men and women who are obviously of African, Vietnamese and Caribbean descent, and one can see they mix as equals with their compatriots of European descent when one observes them in school groups, the cafes and the workplaces.  There are many mixed-raced families in the streets.  The recent surge in immigration from  North Africa is noticeable since these recent arrivals still often dress in their traditional clothes, may have tribal scars or  seem less integrated in society than those whose families have lived here longer.   Unfortunately, the French of non- European race and these new arrivals may now be suffering from more fear and suspicion and less acceptance because of the larger number which are seeking haven here and because of the activities of a few mentally disturbed individuals and the activities of such groups like ISIS,  however when the children are seen with their local peers, one can see that this is not always automatic.  I thought that the popularity of a stall selling home cooked African fare was encouraging.  It was not just Afro-French who were buying, but also older Euro-French.

After taking the fruit that we had bought home to our hotel, we visited the Montparnasse Cemetary, where many famous people are buried like Charles Baudelaire, the French poet, Samuel Becket, the Irish writer, Henri Fantin-Latour, the French artist, Carlos Fuentes, the Mexican writer, Jean Paul Sartre, the French philosopher and novelist and Simone de Beauvoir, the French philosopher and feminist.

and Eugene Ionesco, the Romanian playwright.  People leave momentos at their favourite celebrity tombs, like the train tickets and cigarettes on Sartre and De Beauvoir's tomb.

However there are other tombs that are less well known but still interesting like that of Louis-Gustave Binger, the explorer who "gave " the Ivory Coast to France

and the film archivist and cinephile, Henri Langlois, whose grave is a crazy collage of film moments.

I also loved some of the art we found in the graveyard, some of it traditional

and some, a bit more unusual:

My favourite is this fish with breasts:

with a rather weird inscription by Berdal

Leaving the cemetery, we made for the Eiffel Tower by an approach through a rather dishevelled and grotty park.

The Eiffel Tower is not my favourite landmark, resembling a meccano set construction in my opinion, but the crowds show that I am in the minority. And, it is a wonderful homage to engineering and the scientists inscribed on the sides.

We should have stopped there, but after seeing collections of red cross stitch on white fabric in our first hotel, I got Bob to escort me to Le Bonheur des Dames  in the Passage Verdeau to buy a kit, my urge to design my own cross stitches like I used to is long gone.  She only had two, but had a lot of other nice patterns and materials, so I wasn't disappointed.  I ended up buying one kit and a lot of embroidery threads, which were beautiful.

Then, we explored the Passage and the other two Passages-  Passage Jouffroy and Passage des Panoramas. These Passages are very avant -garde and have a great mixture of shops - antique, art, stamps, umbrellas and walking stick, old postcards, children's toys, housewares and a museum, cafes and restaurants.  We had a great time browsing.

Becherel and Dinan- lovely towns, each offering something special for the visitor

I never thought that I would get tired of croissants, but we both were craving something different this morning, so we went to the local supermarket, bought enough for this morning's breakfast and headed out of the city.  We found a little country lane, and sat in the car and had our natural yoghurt, fruit, nuts and water while watching a little country mouse in the hedgerow.

Next, we drove along country roads and lanes towards Dinan.  On an impulse, we decided to stop at Becherel and explore it.  What a find!  Becherel has been under siege from different aggressive parties in the past, but today it is a very pretty and peaceful town well worth visiting.  We strolled round the ramparts to take in views of the town and the surrounding countryside.

Then we discovered the Galerie l'Ivre de l'Art, a wonderful shop with etchings, pottery, woven books, photography and much more. We talked to the photographer, Cegolene Frisque, who does  really beautiful work, and had to buy several pieces from a few artists.  She explained to us that Becherel is a book town.  Now, one of the things I like about France is how many book shops there are, and how many people still read real books.  In this town, nearly every shop seems to be a book shop or an artists shop.  We really need to return here another year and spend more time - especially in the main square!

Next we headed for Dinan, a wonderfully situated walled town on the hilltop overlooking the River Rance.  Unfortunately, it turned out to be attractive to other tourists too and we couldn't find a park in the old town.  We descended down to the port, which proved almost as crowded and luckily found a spot to park.  We had moule frites on the water front and then had a quick explore.  Visitors were rowing or motoring up and down the river, cycling and walking through the pretty little port. 

There are lots of restaurants, shops and artists studios. It really is worth spending more time here.

We really loved Brittany.  There is so much variety and interest, the country changes  from seaside to farmland, to  towns, but it is united by a pride in the Breton language and culture, a fascinating history closely linked to that of the United Kingdom, and an atmosphere of incredible beauty and peace.  I really don't want to leave.  The food and drinks are good, the people are kind and helpful, the countryside is so relaxing, the towns reveal a new experience in every street.  I love the stone houses, the crucifixes and alters that unexpectedly appear on country lanes, the thick green woods, the wildflowers and the medieval houses. And, I love the feeling that I haven't even discovered a sliver of what the region has to offer.  Do I really have to go?  I've had so much inspiration here, all I really want to do is get out my art equipment and start painting!  Bob, can we afford to buy a little cottage here?