Just Keep Walking ….

Bienvenue and welcome back to Musée Musings, your idiosyncratic guide to Paris and Art. After all the work we did in the Dordogne, Nicolas and I were happy to just chill out in Paris this week. The museums were free on Sunday, as it was the first Sunday of the month. It’s the one day I avoid going to museums. But we were on our way to one of Nic’s favorite comic book stores and decided to stop at the Picasso museum en route. If there was a line, we would keep walking, if there wasn’t, we’d go in. There was no line, we walked right in. It was the fifth time that I’ve seen this Paul Smith does Picasso exhibition. A celebration of colors and patterns. A polemic free exhibition. When we got to the room with all the riffs on Manet’s Dejeuner sur l’herbe, I reminded Nicolas that we had seen one of these paintings at the Louisiana Museum, north of Copenhagen (the subject of today’s post). (Figure 1) With my cell phone, it was easy to remind him of Manet’s original (Figure 2) as we walked around comparing the variations. I even showed him Manet’s own Renaissance inspiration. (Figure 3) As we walked out, there was a long line snaking around the courtyard. We had timed it right.

Figure 1. Dejeuner sur l’herbe, Picasso ‘riff’ on Manet’s painting

Figure 2. Manet, Dejeuner sur l’herbe

Figure 3. Marcantonio Raimondi, Judgement of Paris - notice detail in bottom right hand side, Manet’s source

Another day we started walking along Canal St. Martin and didn’t stop. (Figure 4) We just kept walking as the quai names and the canal names changed. We began at Quai de Jennepes (on one side) and Quai de Valmy (on the other). I always think of San Francisco’s Painted Ladies when I walk by these three stores, and now I think about Copenhagen’s waterside Painted Ladies, too. (Figures 5, 6, 7)

Figure 4. Canal St. Martin, Paris

Figure 5. Quai de Valmy, Canal St. Martin

Figure 6. Painted Ladies, San Francisco

Figure 7. Painted Ladies, Copenhagen

On the Quai de Valmy side, we walked by the Point Éphémère, (Figure 8) an art center which holds concerts and exhibitions and of course, this being Paris, has a café.

Figure 8. Point Éphémère, Qual de Valmy

When you reach the end of the Canal St Martin, and just before you get to the first Bassin de La Vilette, with Quai de la Loire on one side and Quai de la Seine on the other, you arrive at Stalingrad Rotunda. (Figure 9) Which will remind you of the Rotunda at the Parc Monceau. (Figure 10) Both rotundas and others (of which only 4 are now standing) were designed in the late 1780s by Claude Ledoux as tollgates. They were placed around the walls of the city and until 1860 taxes were collected at them from anyone entering Paris with something to sell. When the Stalingrad Rotunda was built, La Villette was not in Paris but a village adjacent to the city. The rotunda at Parc Monceau is a public toilet now but the Stalingrad Rotunda is home to an art gallery, a café and a restaurant.

Figure 9. Stalingrad Rotunda

Figure 10. Rotunda, Parc Monceau

The Bassin de la Villette becomes the Canal de l’Ourcq with the Quai de l’Oise on one side and the Quai de la Marne on the other. I was able to give Nicolas another art history lesson, thanks to my cell phone, and show him the photograph by Cartier-Bresson of two couples enjoying a leisurely Sunday afternoon on the banks of the River Marne. (Figure 11). And give him a lesson on French work laws.

Figure 11. Sunday on the banks of the River Marne, Henri Cartier-Bresson

There are always places dedicated to pétanque along the beginning of the Second Bassin de la Villette / Canal de l’Ourcq but right now (until early September) it is part of Paris Plages (Paris beaches). (Figure 12) Events are organized and temporary installations set up, including child size versions of the kinds of rides we saw at Tivoli in Copenhagen. (Figure 13) We took a walk along one of the side streets, which, according to one source, has “some of the finest examples of street art in Paris. (Figure 14) In the distance, we could see Jean Nouvel’s Phiharmonie de Paris which always reminds me of an Escher drawing. (Figures 15, 16, 17) And rightly so, its "façade, rooftop and terrace are covered with 340,000 aluminum birds that evoke a flock taking flight.” And then we turned around and walked home!

Figure 12. Paris Plage, La Villette

Figure 13, Carnival Rides for Paris Plage, La Villette

Figure 14. Example of Street Art that Nicolas admired

Figure 15. Philharmonie de Paris, Jean Nouvel architect

Figure 16. Philharmonie de Paris, detail

Figure 17, E,M, Escher ‘Two Birds’

Another day we didn’t do much but since we both both fondly remembered the Choucroute de la Mer (Figure 18) that we enjoyed last year at Bofinger, that’s where we went for dinner. It didn’t disappoint but as Nicolas said, since we were expecting it to be great, it wasn’t as delicious as it was last year when one of us ordered it because we saw four men at the next table eating it!

Figure 18, Nicolas eating (and texting, bien sur) Choucroute de la Mer, Bofinger

Thanks to those of you who took time to write about my (mis)adventures in the Dordogne. Today’s post is about the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Hope it will convince you to put it on your ‘bucket list’ if it isn’t already. Gros Bisous, Dr. ‘B.’