Day 14, Rain, Rain, go Away!

The rain pattering on the skylights in my penthouse apartment made me roll over and go back to sleep for three more hours!  I must have needed that. Once up, and with no sign of abatement, I trudged out with umbrella in hand.  It was a good day for another museum. But, alas, it is yet another public holiday in France... Pentecost.  Out of my fourteen days here, seven of them have been holidays or weekends, which means crowds.   I say, Go to Work, France!

I was bound for L'Orangerie Museum just inside the Tuileries.  Huge queue. I stood an hour or longer in the rain determined to go, since I had made the trip and was dressed for the weather. Once inside,  I was not expecting the number of paintings/artists. I knew it housed the huge lily pad/pond paintings of Monet but the Renoirs! Cezannes! Gaughin! Modigliani! Matisse!  es.  I am in reverence. 

Monet's exhibit here is an experience. He planned this museum with these paintings in mind. The two rooms are oval shaped and the paintings are curved, four of them in each room, with one on each curved side. The total square footage of these 8 paintings is larger than the square footage of my home. natural light is filtered through ceiling openings.  An exquisite effect.

This is a good video to watch if you want to see the rooms and how these paintings are displayed. Very unusual!  

Representation from L'Orangerie:  The captions will have to be added when I get home. ( I was very surprised that photography was allowed in all but the Monet part of the museum. I also noticed that all the paintings had glass protection.  I guess that is why the public can get up close enough to touch.)

All in all, this museum was an A++for me.  

Picasso

Renoir

Day 13, Wandering Mostly

I found myself needed to do some laundry, cleaning the apartment,  being domestic this morning.  It was the latest that I've gotten out and about.  About noon, I headed for Starbucks.  Its a good mile to get there.  I must say that Starbucks does a GOOD business in Paris.  I've been told it only arrived here a couple of years ago, there are only a few and wide spread apart, but they are C.R.O.W.D.E.D.  Starbucks needs to get busy and open some more.

I almost turned back and went "home".  I dislike crowds and Montmartre was a-crawling with masses. But, I have the itch to walk every day and see new sights.  So I took a subway or two to the east end of town to a stop on the Seine and found myself across the street from the Jardin du Plantes.  Well, I had to go see.  Sure enough,  plants, but no competition to Giverny.  I saw that there was a zoo there too, but I was wanting to be walking the river, so I took a quick walk through the gardens and hit the road.  Love that there are so many free gardens and parks to enjoy!

This is me

eating this

and looking at this

A cute little riverside park.  Gray day and cold.  The rains did come.
This was my  walk for the day....

Only 12,000 steps today, probably due to my late start.

Anyone have a GUESS what this depicts?  SO WEIRD!  
Other sights from today:

emergency vehicle

I'm thinking I could have done this!

Le Jardin du Plantes

Poppies!

Day 12, Marmatton Museum

This day started with a short walk up to the Funiculaire below the Sacre Coeur and a then jaunt through La Rue du Abessess to Starbucks across from La Moulin Rouge. Call me silly or crazy, but I am getting tired of eating freshly made flakey delicious pastries every morning.  Must be self-preservation.  But I still need my coffee.  A quick coffee and yogurt pick-me-up while planning my Metro strategy for the day is a great way to start.  Figuring out Metro routes is sometimes tricky. So far, anywhere I want to go has been no more than two metro lines (one transfer) away. But  it takes some study to figure out which stop to get off to make the right transfer to my destination.

Today's plan was to find the Marmatton Museum on the far west side of town. Off the beaten track, but in  a delightful area with a grand park along the way. Children playing,  ponies to ride, (real ones) picnickers and people enjoying the bit of sunshine.  Since Parisiens live in tiny apartments surrounded by stone and concrete, the many parks are appreciated, or so it seems.  (They do not confide in me much, well maybe never)

What inspired me to visit the Marmatton, besides a recommendation from my sister, was my visit yesterday to Giverny.  I wanted to see more original Monets and knew this place had a large collection.

(Blogger note:  this post ends abruptly because of my usual Ipad issues, so I will be fixing that when I get home.  It only lets me add things earlier in the post, once I've added the pictures... so,  the pictures I've used here are from the Marmatton Museum website, since photography is not allowed in the Museum.)

A special exhibit of the work of French painter Marie Laurencin took up the entire bottom floor. I had never heard of her, but learned she is quite famous, from the first half of the 20th century.

This piece is representative of her work, entitled Le Baisir. (The Kiss).

                   This piece of above of Monet's is called Impression: Le Soleil Levant. (Sun Rising

Monet's "Le train dans la neige". (the train in the snow)

There were also many paintings by Berthe Morisot.  I was not familiar with her 

but really enjoyed her style.  The one above is called Le Bois du Boulogne and the next one is my favorite,   Eugene  Manet et sa fille.  

Gaughin's Bouquet de Fleurs  

     

Alfred Sisley 

Printemps aux Environs de Paris  

Oh, solovely!

Day 11, Trip to Giverny.

I was thinking about making this trip next Monday, but was looking at the weather report last night and today was determined to be the most promising for the next week.  It is confusing because my weather app for Paris said no chance of rain, and Yahoo weather gave weather warnings with 40% chance.  Nevertheless, it was better than the future forecasts and I've come to not worry very much about them at all.  Coming from Seattle, we do forge on.  As it turned out,  the day was mostly sunny, maybe the nicest I've had so far.

  I got up early and took the subway down to Gare St. Lazarre, where I needed to (supposedly) get in a long line to purchase a ticket to Vernon.  Kicking myself for not having planned ahead and picked up a ticket earlier, I roared down there hoping to catch the 8:20 train. No line, Bang! I was on the 7:20 AM train for a 45 minute ride.  France has it down. Those RER trains go like lightening.  I arrived in Vernon about an hour and a half early. Oh well.  I drank some cafe creme, (terreeble) at a cafe close by and then mosied around Vernon before catching a shuttle to the gardens. 

I was not prepared for how stunning they would be. I've been to scores of gardens, always love and appreciate them, but this one....Oooolala. Whereas Butchart Garden is stunning in its  carefully planned and groomed way,  these were like an impressionist's painting. Splashes of color, a riot of color, mixed palettes yet always pleasing, and acres and acres of meadows of plants. and then the water gardens. A total different feel. 

I was there early enough that I was able to catch little spaces to photograph and to "be" without people nearby, but there were 
hoards of people. I dont imagine there ever is a  time where there is no one on the bridges during open hours.  Nonethess, it was a privilege to be able to walk where Monet walked.  I can so well see how he was brilliantly inspired!  

The icing on the cake that was my day was that I met a California couple waiting for the shuttle (for an hour!) back to Vernon and it was a pleasure to spend a couple hours speaking English with delightful folks. 

For those of you with Facebook, (everyone except Beth?) these picture may be a repeat of the ones I put in an album there.