April in Paris Part I

Good friends who had rented an apartment in Paris for a week were not able to travel at the last minute.  They generously offered us the accommodations as they could not obtain a refund.  How is this view from the balcony during a spring breakfast?

We explored the Jardin des Plantes for the first time.

Bee habitat

One spot we have been meaning to see is the Basilica and Crypt at St. Denis.

IT WAS SOMEWHERE AROUND the year 270 AD when Denis, a Christian missionary and Bishop of Paris, was martyred on the hill we now call Montmartre. Denis was beheaded during the period of Christian persecution under the Roman Emperors Decimus and Valerian. It is said that after his head was chopped off, Denis picked it up and walked six miles or so preaching a sermon as he went. The place where he eventually fell and died was marked by a small shrine which eventually became the Basilique Saint-Denis and the burial place of the Kings of France.

The Basilique Saint-Denis is a medieval abbey church in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris.

In Roman times the site was a Gallo-Roman cemetery but around 475 Saint-Genevieve purchased some of the land and built a church. This became a place of pilgrimage and in the 7th century, Dagobert I had this church replaced with something grander. By the 12th century it had grown to become one of the most powerful Benedictine abbeys in France. The abbot of Saint-Denis, Suger, rebuilt portions of the abbey church using innovative structural and decorative features turning it into a masterpiece of what came to be known as Gothic art. The basilica provided an architectural model for the cathedrals and abbeys of northern France, England and other countries.

Over the years, the Abbey was plunged into decline by wars and the Revolution. During the Revolution the tombs were opened and the bodies were removed and dumped in two large pits nearby and dissolved with lime. In 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte reopened the church and the royal remains were left in their mass graves. Thankfully, most of the tombs survived the Revolution and today they lie resplendently in the much-visited “Royal Necropolis of France”.

Clovis I (465 – 511) and Childebert I (496 – 558)

Henry II and Catherine de Médicis

The fate of King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette of Austria is well known. Both were guillotined in the Place de la Concorde during the Revolution. They were though not initially buried in the Basilique Saint-Denis, but rather in the churchyard of the Madeleine, where they were covered with quicklime. Louis XVIII, the last king of France to be buried in the Basilique Saint-Denis, ordered that the remains of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette be transferred from the Madeleine cemetery and today they lie side by side in the crypt of the Basilique Saint-Denis.

 

The two centre tombs: On the left is Marie-Antoinette and on the right is Louis XVI

In the cache below is the heart of the son of Louis XVI, also believed killed during the revolution.

Spent an evening at the Duc des Lombards jazz club.  Ron felt like he was in 1920's Paris.

A new quest - who has the best profiteroles?

Spent an afternoon with Dan O'Donnell's daughter, Kristine, studying at Sorbonne.

We finally got a table at fabeled Angéline's pastry and ice cream shop on rue de Rivoli.  Every time before, the lines were just too long.

A delectable lemon pastry filled with loads of creme.

French Elvis

We went to our first rock concert in France with our neighbors, Christiane and Monique.  The arena was filled with 8,000 people, many of whom stood in the pit.

Here's a shot of Barbara, Christiane and Monique.

 
The women bought us Johnny Hallyday T-shirts to commemorate the evening.

After a first act, the moment came for the grand entrance of Johnny - inside a huge skull lowered from the ceiling.  It split open and the crowd went ballistic when he emerged.

He is 73 and the French counterpart to Elvis.  He looks fantastic for his age, and he could still rock very well indeed.

The lighting effects were first rate.  Since they were kinetic, you cannot get the full effect from photos.

 

He sang French songs, American oldies in French and even some in English (Summertime Blues and Don't Step on My Blue Suede Shoes).

His anthem "Allumer Le Feu" was crooned by the entire arena. You can see and hear it on You Tube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGfohkNkzPE

Here is a shot of him from 50 years ago

1:12:09

The whole evening was a delight for all of us.

Just to show how welcoming the French can be, we were at Christiane's shop to wish her well on her reopening after renovations.  The florist, Martine, arrived with a bouquet for the event.  A few moments after we chatted, she immediately invited us to dinner at her and Jean François' home.

Of course, Christiane and Franco were invited as well.  Martine and Jean François have a warm lovely home.

Martine made everything herself like most French women.  It's a bit intimidating for someone who rarely cooked previously like Barbara.  She started with la soup - creme de courgettes.

Next was veau blanquette.

And finally a homemade tarte tatin.  Upside down apple cake - very traditional for this region.

Good times abound.

Paris Treats

A quick trip to Paris evoked Spring in window displays

At 11pm at night, people lined up outside the Christian Louboutin boutique

At the edge of the Jardin d’Acclimatation in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne, after more than a decade in the making, the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Bernard Arnault’s private art museum par excellence designed by the starchitect Frank Gehry reigns.  The exposition we saw had several surprising modern art presentations - some of which befuddled us.

We were mystified by a deck chair posed in front of a ticking metronome as art?

Andy Warhol’s Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century (1980) depict renowned luminaries of Jewish culture: Sarah Bernhardt, Louis Brandeis, Martin Buber, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, George Gershwin, Franz Kafka, the Marx Brothers, Golda Meir, and Gertrude Stein. Warhol referred to this pantheon of great thinkers, politicians, performers, and writers as his “Jewish geniuses.” Warhol’s iconic portraits attest to the lasting achievements and fame of these singular figures. Originally published as a portfolio of silkscreen prints on paper, Warhol was so pleased with the commercial success of his Ten Portraits that he decided to create additional versions of the series as silkscreen paintings on canvas.

Isa Genzken, Rose II, 1993-1997 — Hall
Rose II (see page 7) — a second version of a metal rose created between 1993 and 1997
for the city of Leipzig — is a monumentally impressive, and initially private homage to an entire community. Very early on she used the computer as a tool to determine the shapes of her sculptures, turning to direct contact with the material later in the 1980s — first plaster, then concrete, colored translucent resin, and ultimately mirrors, in slender sculpted shapes that echo modernist architecture. Since 1997, her assemblages, partly a fantasized translation of
the urban and social context, have originated from a Pop appropriation of consumer objects that liberates shapes and colors. 

Another work was a film of a naked man ice skating.  Sorry we cannot post videos on the blog.

Then we were off to meet Cindy Niekamp (her second trip during our 4 years here in France) and walk a few miles on the French version of the NY High Line (Promenade Plantée).  She is contemplating renting a place in Paris after her retirement from PPG.

Not only does Paris have its own green haven converted from an old railway line but indeed, it was the original High Line, built sixteen years before the New York model and even served as inspiration to it’s American counterpart. NYC’s planning director Amanda Burden acknowledges that the model for the High Line was in fact la Promenade Plantée in Paris.

Promenade Plantée

We finished with a pause in front of a street performer, who happened to be an operatic soprano.  A very large crowd gathered and showered her with their appreciation.