Part 7 Looking at the sun's reflection. Paris

I landed in Paris in the evening. It was getting dark when I got my bag, went through customs and found myself in front of a pay phone, seeking lodging. I found a place on boulevard Saint Michel, which as I found out is the student section of Paris as it borders the Sorbonne. I was very close to the river and from Nortre Dame, I was ½ a block from the Metro stop and across the street was a McDonalds. However I didn't find this out till I got there. I was on the Metro heading out of the airport going the way I'd been told where I met a guy studying at the Sorbonne from New Mexico. I asked if he could tell me how to find the hotel I was going to stay at, He said sure, he needed to go that way anyway. So when we popped up out of the Metro station, he showed me where it was, walked me in, spoke to the lady who ran the place and got me my room. He shook my hand and said “Welcome to the most wonderful city in the world.” and he wished me farewell. I checked in and the fact that I hadn't bathed in a few day and one could tell I hadn't washed my clothes in almost a week became very apparent, the lady manager pointed this out to me...I told her my first order of business was a bath and in the morning find a laundromat, She said She would be delighted to point me in that direction come morning. I was shown to my room, which was small but it looked out unto the street, there were musicians, people milling about, laughing talking; what one might expect to see in a commercial district that caters to college students. I checked in showered and put on the last clean clothes I had, I walked across the street and ordered the french equivalent of 3 Big Mac's, two orders of fries and a large Coke. I hadn't had McDonalds in 10 months, and I doubt that I ever enjoyed a meal more. I was beginning to feel like I was finally being reintroduced to the life I'd had before my time on Bougainville. I walked the streets, stopping occasionally for street performers and a group of street musicians playing New Orleans Jazz. I lingered in front of a a street vender making Belgian waffles, fascinated by watching his manipulation of 5 irons simultaneously, He looked at me, smiled, and without missing a beat grabbed me by the shoulder and dragged me to his side of his operation. He instructed me how to do his job and when I began to get the feel of it, allowed me to do it for him. He found out I was an American art student/tourist and began to relate how much he loved Americans. It was because of the war and he related his memories of the Nazi Occupation of Paris, while he enjoyed a cigarette or two. My payment for running his business for about half an hour was a free waffle-and advice 'art is beautiful, but a trade will feed you.' [he was right.] I began to think I was going to like Paris. It was almost 9:30 before I got back to my hotel, however the party on the street continued. The next morning I was woken up by a single gentle knock on my door. Outside of it was a tray with hot coffee, croissant, some fruit and a small wedge of cheese. I grabbed every article of cloth I had with me and headed out to the laundromat, grateful that I was washing the last of Italy off of me and sending it where it belonged. I returned with my clean clothes and winked and gave my landlady a thumbs up. I grabbed my sketchbook and walked to the train station. I was seeking the opera. My sister had informed me that if I were to go to the American Express Office at the opera, there would be mail waiting for me. There was, a letter from my mother, my grandmother, a cousin, and from my sister. I read the letter from my mother who filled me in all the gossip from the Island and I decided to finish reading my mail at the next meal I'd sit down to have. I took a very quick tour of the interior of the Paris Opera house (that place is incredible, talk about the idea of decorative art taken to the extreme.) But my goal was to get to the Grand Dame of Art Museums: The Louvre. I knew that I would be spending a couple of days here so I wasn't rushed. I walked past the winged Victory of Samothrace , and I began with the the Mesopotamia collection (they had two winged bulls from the temple gate from the Palace of Sargon II) , through the collection of the middle east up to about the 7th centry, the Egyptian, Greek and Roman collections (Including the Venus de Milo and the bust of Alexander the Great), the sculpture from Europe from the dark ages through the Romantic (Includingthe Italian room, with more Michelangelo slaves through the work of Canova) , the collections from Africa, Asia, Oceania (where I'd spent about 10 months) and finally America. , By this time It was getting late in the afternoon, I was getting tired, and I might add hungry. So I headed back to my hotel-stopping by the Mcdonalds on the way. Ya know they don't have ketchup for their Pomme Frittes? However I did have a vanilla shake so that made up for it. As I walked towards my hotel I passed by a bookstore. It was 3 stories tall and had one floor dedicated to nothing but Art Books. I bought about 7 including the “miranda” by Diakonoff and some books about the Jou D' Pomme and the Louvre. The Jou D' Pomme is the unofficial collection of Impressionist and Post Impressionist work that was willed to The Louvre...however at the time the stuff was considered trash so whoever it was that was running the Louvre at the time put forth an edict stating that this collection would never hang in the hallowed halls of the Louvre (and after what I saw I wouldn't know where they'd put it) so they made its own museum. It was a great book store, they even had a boxing and mailing service so I sent the books to me in care of my Aunt In Ohio, I'd pick them up when I got there. By this time it was getting dark. I strolled the streets and watched some street performers. Met a few people and listened to the musicians working the streets to pick up a few Francs. I suppose I should mention here that before the Euro's each country had their own currency, and I found the French Currency to be some of the most complex and beautiful money I'd ever seen. They used at least a dozen inks and the engraving work was untouchable. I returned to my hotel about 10 pm. I showered and slept until the gentle single knock the next morning told me my breakfast was there. My first stop was Nortre Dame, which was just down the street from where I was staying. I was extremely impressed with the place and decided I would attend high mass the following Sunday, My next stop was a church by name of Sainte Chapelle (Holy Chapel) which was just across the bridge, located on the on the Ile de la Cité in the center of Paris (the Ile de la cite was the original village that became Paris, on an island in the middle of the Sein) and is part of the complex that include the prison that held Marie Antionette Sainte Chapelle is a diminutive yet perfect example of the Rayonnant style of Gothic architecture. It was erected by Louis IX, king of France, to house the Crown of Thorns and a fragment of the True Cross, (like most royal church's they sent men to fight the crusades and expected them to bring back relics.) Louis had purchased these in 1239 from the Byzantine emperor Baldwin II, for the exorbitant sum of 135,000 livres (the chapel "only" cost 40,000 livres to build). Two years later, more relics were brought from Byzantium. . The street level chapel appears like a very Romanesque chapel, small windows, thick walls tight quarters. But then one goes upstairs. The stained glass in the this place is absolutely incredible. The walls themselves are to made of glass. The place was describe do me as 'a stained glass flower' and it lived up to the reputation. I was in the heart of Paris... and I could almost hear the past. I spent the morning there and then headed back to Louvre. I went up the stairs this time past winged victory and decided to start with the Dutch school. I wanted to avoid the tourist rush on the Mona Lisa, knowing it would be like that pretty much all day, but not wanting to deal with it just then. I began with the paintings by Rubens of the life of Maria D' Medici. These 24 paintings are huge, and you can see where Rubens had a hand in the first ones but left the later paintings to his students...Maria D'Medici is portrayed as having been heaven sent, the earth being blessed by her presence being proven by the appearance of the ancient gods in most of her adventures..all pretty over the top if you ask me. I went next to the early dutch school early 16th century then the late 16th,. Mostly portraits of those who could afford it and some biblical scenes. Then on to The Rembrandt room, I saw the Bathsheba and as I recall they had about a half dozen of his self portraits from various stages of his life and a few of his landscapes. It was at about this point my brain had hit it's maximum storage capacity. I could look at things and then forget what it was I just saw. I recall I decided to attempt the Italian renaissance collection. The room was packed, all there to see the Mona Lisa. They paid no attention to the Madona of the Rocks, The St. John, The Virgin and child with St. Anne (with the buzzard), the Bacchus, and Le Belle Ferronniere. [As I sit here and contemplate the concept, I've seen the collections in the Vatican, The Uffizi, the Louvre, the National Gallery in London and the National Gallery in Washington DC, of the 15 known paintings that he did I've seen more then half. Amazing.] They were all gathered in front of the Mona Lisa so that they could tell their friends in Nebraska that they did indeed see it, I can recall thinking to myself “Philistines.” I got the full dose of the Madonna of the rocks and made a mental note to see the one in London which is just slightly different but is still one of the most amazing paintings that one man ever put to a board, but that he did it twice! (yeah that's right, Leonardo didn't paint on Canvas, he painted on panel) The man's brush work was just astonishing. So subtle, so controlled. I got a queasy feeling in my stomach wondering if it would me possible to get that good doing it as a part time occupation, (the concept that we have half his known paintings is being optimistic, considering that he was active for more then 40 years, that's less then one painting every three years. He was busy doing many other things.) I moved on. By this time I was getting hungry and my eyes were reeling considering all that I had taken in.
The next day I decided to take a break, I went to the Jeu De Paume, which was the Impressionist and post impressionist collection of the Louvre. While getting there had me walk past the Eiffel Tower, I didn't stop, I saw it from about a block away, that was enough. The museum was originally Napoleon's real Tennis court thus the name, the collection has since been moved to Musee D' Orsay. Its one of the more amazing collections of Impressionist and Post Impressionist artwork in the world, Here's just a small list of the artists represented in this museum: Gustave Coubet, Jean-Francois Millet, Jean Babtiste Corot, Cabanel, Camile Pissaro, Edouard Manet (both the Olympia and The Luncheon on the Grass), Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne (the still life with apples and oranges, some consider this and a few of his landscapes to be the beginnings of cubism) Claude Monet, Odilon Redon, Pierre-Auguste Renior, Vincent Van Gogh, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Bonnard, Andre Derain, and last but not least James McNeil Whistler-Some serious hitters here. I seem to recall a story that this was the private collection belonging to Alfed Sisley (English Impressionist spent most of his life in France) that was willed to The Louvre when he died, but I can't back that up with facts. Needless to say it was a bit refreshing to focus on one period of Art work. In fact I enjoyed it so much I decided to do the Pompidou the next day. The Pompidou is Frances contemporary Art collection. The place looks like a Factory turned inside out and the area around it is like a modern day Medieval Carnival. There are street performers, vendors and mimes around it. Even here the French aren't slouches, Represented here are Dali, Bonnard, Kandinsky, Klee, Francis Bacon, Miro, Alberto Giacometti, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Max Earnst, Leger, David Hockney, Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Dominique Perrault, Max Beckman, Nicolas De Stael, Samuel Beckett, and last but not least Alexander Calder. This is a short list. There was one incident that I found amusing. When I was there the place was all but done. There were a few little things that needed to be done as is usual in an Art Museum. In one of the main Galleries I watched a real electrician working on a floor plug, and he had the area roped off so that people wouldn't disturb his tools and what he was doing. Well, I watched him get a call on his Walkie-Talkie and he decided to take it in the stairwell that was about 20' away. After a few minutes at least a half dozen people that came into the Gallery while he was gone examined the tools and wires coming up through the floor that were on the floor behind the ropes, wondering where the card was to tell them who had created this masterpiece. I had to smile then as I do now, this is what Art has become. I had three days left in Paris, and I wanted to finish seeing the Louvre, I had promised my father I'd see Versailles, and If I had time I needed to see the Musee De Cluny, the medieval museum and of course there was the Rodin house.... So much to do, so little time. I spent the next day In the Louvre Seeing the work of the 17th , 18th century and 19th century, that included Hans Holbien the younger, Anthony Van Dyk, David, Delacroix, Gerricault (the infamous Raft of the Medusa is one of the most memorable Paintings I've ever seen) I can go on and on...The Louvre is considered the Grand Dame of Art Museums for a very good reason, cause it is. The next day was Sunday so I made good my promise to do Mass at Nortre Dame. Unreal. It was High Mass and done in Latin. There were two things that kept me from being convinced that I wasn't the dark ages 1. there was a single electric light bulb above the alter and 2. the idiot next to me was filming the whole thing. And the organ they've got will indeed rattle your bones. After Mass I decided a day in the country was in order so I went to Versailles. Nice house. The Historic significance wasn't wasted on me, However I also remembered why those people were dragged out of there and beheaded. Brutal, however they had lost touch with the concept that Royalty was the servant of the people-a lesson that Mike had related to me and which gave me an entire new perspective on life in Europe. The Palace was a bit much however the Grounds were just what I needed. It had been quite a while since the air around me wasn't laced with carbon monoxide, Thick with the smell of people or feel of man made structure around me. I walked the grounds for about 3-4 hours and decided it was a good time to head back. I decided to deviate from my normal meal from the McDonalds...after all, I was in Paris, I might as well have some French Cuisine. I had asked my landlady if she could point me at a decent place for some authentic French food. She had instructed me where to go and what I might want to try. I settled for the chicken. The next day I decided to see the Musee d' Cluny-which was interesting although nothing stood out as memorable. I had the afternoon left so I headed for the Rodin Museum, it's actually in his house. I wasn't a huge fan before, and even now I can take it or leave it, however it put the Impressionist movement in perspective for me, He would have done well in this time and place. I was fascinated by the "Gates of Hell" I could see it as a source piece, and I found fascinating that in the Studio proper he had drawers and drawers of Human body parts cast in plaster...He would use these as examples for sculpting the clay to be cast into bronze, he could assemble whatever he needed like a tinker toy-I made note of this and have used the concept extensively. On my way back to the hotel I stopped at the McDonalds and headed to find my friend the waffle maker. He and I had a short chat and I told him I was heading out the next day. He smiled and said “Now that you've visited us, I know you'll come back. All artists call Paris Home.”