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Evenings in Paris - lovely scenery
and lots of restaurants busy with those eating dinnerThe day after our friends left we decided to visit the Musee Picasso. We have found in the past that we enjoy museums that are specific to one artist as you are able to learn in depth information about the development of that person’s career.
The museum opened in October 1985 in Hôtel Salé which was originally built between 1656-1659. It is a very stately mansion that is an interesting backdrop for the variety of styles of artwork of Pablo Picasso. We knew some of Picasso’s work before this, but did not realize the breathe of his techniques and styles of artwork. It was fascinating to see the development of his work, the various subjects that influenced it and how he was able to switch between techniques at the same time.
What really struck us in the first room that we entered were the portraits and very realistic paintings and drawings that he did. We had never seen any of these before so it was quite a surprise. The exhibit was focused on the impact his wife, Olga had on his artwork throughout his life. They were married in 1918 and at this time Olga was portrayed as his
loving wife and later in numerous mother and child paintings when Paul was born in 1921. As things deteriorated in their marriage and Pablo took on a mistress, there were less paintings of Olga and his mistress started appearing. We found however, that after Olga and Pablo separated (they did not divorce) Olga was still showing up in Pablo’s paintings but this time instead of the idealized forms used previously she was now being represented as a radically deformed figure with violent expressions and attitudes. As we were told Pablo felt that even though Olga was no longer living with him, she still had an influence on his studio (if not physically at least emotionally).
Pablo’s career unfolded through a number of styles – the blue period, the rose period, African influenced, his development of cubism, the use of recycled materials during his surrealism phase, and then realism. He also had a wide range of subjects that he drew from for his inspiration – from his personal life of his wife, mistress and child; bullfighting from his days growing up in Spain; landscapes from the influence of other artists of the time; as well as the circus and its
characters such as acrobats and others that worked there.
For those of you that might not be enamored with Picasso’s work you might still enjoy this museum as it was well laid out and gave a much clearer view of who the artist was with a better understanding of what influenced him. He definitely was versatile in his techniques and styles. When looking at the dates on his works, it was interesting to see that even during the same period of time he would work in a variety of styles which is unusual for an artist. It was a very interesting and educational day out.
Bob wanted to get a rod of stainless steel for a project on the boat. He had looked at the local DIY and wasn’t able to find stainless so the search was on. Paul at the local chandlery came to the rescue in providing him with the name and number of a company that carries stainless. With our lack of French skills the office at the marina helped by calling to be sure they had what we wanted. Sounded like they did, so a road trip (or more accurately a train trip) was
in store. This company has a plastic and a metal division. The metal division was in Ivry sur Seine which was a simple train trip away. Fortunately here in Paris there are numerous train stations, many within a short walking distance. We hopped on the train and walked to the company to find that they were closing for one and quarter hours for lunch. We took a cue from that and decided it was time for us to have lunch as well. We found a pleasant café to have a leisurely lunch and then hiked back to Weber Metaux.
The employee that they found to help us that spoke excellent English had lived in NYC for a while – while chatting with her about living on a sailboat, the man getting us the piece of stainless we needed said something in French. The woman said he said something that wasn’t very politically correct, but explained that he stated that we must continue sailing in Europe for the 4 years that Trump is in office! Comments like his are very common here in Europe. They are listening to the news of what is happening in the US on a regular
basis as well and voice their concern.
On Saturday we took our usual trek to the outdoor market. Not sure why we wait til Saturday as they are open 6 days a week, but find it is the most lively that day which we enjoy. We lucked out by finding both papaya and passion fruit so definitely bought both. We learned while in the Caribbean how well these go together and thoroughly enjoyed them for our Sunday morning breakfast. We are definitely spoiled with all the wonderful fresh fruit and vegetables we get here. Some are local and others are from numerous European and African countries. Distances are closer here and as such we get a wide variety of offerings with excellent prices.
We saw that there was an organ recital in Notre Dame on Saturday night so decided to attend. Even though we had seen the inside of Notre Dame, as Bob said it would be wonderful to hear the playing of the organ. They had an excellent program of Mendelssohn and Bach. An extra treat was being able to see Notre Dame at the end of the concert without the normal crowds which funnel through here
We Enjoyed Papaya and Passion Fruit
that we bought at the market - what a treat during the day. A wonderful evening of music in a magnificent Cathedral.
Our friend, Gitti suggested that we might be interested in the Musee de la Musique so decided to check it out. We were very happy that we did. It is located in a section of Paris called LaVillette which is where the canal that our marina is on (Canal St. Martin) goes up to. In that area there is a large basin and numerous parks and museums. The Science Museum is located there (somewhat like a Discovery Center), the Philharmonie and the Musee de la Musique. It was a beautiful day to wander up to this area of the city and enjoy the musee. It opened in 1997 and now has a collection of more than 7,000 instruments with about 1,000 of them on display in the permanent exhibit. One of the best features was the fact that they had a headset which would play the instrument that you were viewing. Sometimes it was just that particular instrument while other times it was playing with other instruments giving you a mini-concert. It was so well done as it also took you through the history of the development
of the various instruments from the 16
th century to today.
The museum has live performances of various instruments as well which you enjoy. We were fortunate to be able to hear Véronique Piron play the shakuhachi flute. It is a traditional Japanese flute made from bamboo. In fact she played two different ones which allowed her to demonstrate the range of sounds produced. They were able to produce some of the sounds of nature and were used to accompany traditional melodies. It is also used as a spiritual instrument by monks currently. Bob describes it as somewhat like an alto recorder, but by moving the flute in reference to her lips and the fingering techniques she was able to alter the sound produced considerably. Bob states it reminded him somewhat of how Jethro Tull (we are dating ourselves here) played. It was wonderful to have a chance to hear these instruments played. She also showed the sheets of music that were used with the typical Japanese style of writing, not what we would recognize as musical notes that we commonly see. If you wish to hear some of it you can check it out on my YouTube channel (Janice
Waller). Unfortunately I tried to rotate the video, but it didn’t work correctly, but at least you can hear one of the flutes she played.
They also had a temporary exhibit on Jamaican music in a section of the Philharmonie which we checked out. It was very unfortunate that this was not as well done in that they provided headsets that you had to plug into outlets at various parts of the exhibit. There were only 3 plugs provided at each station, while there were wall to wall people trying to get close to plug in. Needless to say this system did not work well therefore we walked through the exhibit reading what we could.
When most people think of Jamaican music the name Bob Marley comes to mind. Bob Marley and the Wailers did play a large part of the display, but it also told of the history of Jamaica and how his “rebel” music came to be. Jamaica was occupied by the Spanish in 1509, but the British took it over in 1655. The island became the hub for slave trade until the 19
th century. It was said that the most rebellious slaves brought from Africa
Many of the old buildings are being torn down
and replaced with the new - this in Ivry-sur-Seine were left in Jamaica, the first stop for those working in the sugar cane fields. New forms of religious were created with a mix of African and Christian and the outcome was song and dance of a new kind. Slavery was abolished between 1834-1838, but it did not end the bitterness of the history of this island which leads itself to the Jamaican Creole music of the 19
thcentury. It was thought to be rural folk songs, but they ranged between that of being devotedly religious to highly risqué. In 1962 Jamaica gained a peaceful independence, but the long history of slavery was not forgotten and became the basis of what was seen as the rebellious music of Bob Marley and others. There was a lot of information about the development of this music into one that became recognized internationally, however, as stated it was difficult to absorb it all with the presentation they provided. Even with that, we did pick up some information about the development of this music.
Our plans have been to leave Paris the first part of May, but it has been quite windy and cold so decided we didn’t have to push to leave. We
Listened to an Organ Concert at Notre Dame
on April 29th - Mendelssohn and Bach - wonderful have also been having some rain showers with the hardest rainstorm on Sunday night.
We have decided that we will take a short excursion to another part of France for a few days so have been working out the details of that. We will only go for a couple of nights, but will at least give us a glimpse of that area of the country that we will not be able to get to by boat. Will update you on that trip in the next blog entry.
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