Janet and Janet Take on Paris

Thursday, October 18. My mother's birthday.

La Greve. A transportation strike today, protesting some of the reforms that Sarkozy wants to implement. So no metro, trains, or buses. Don't know whether it will be one day or more.

Janet from Philadelphia arrives today as scheduled but her friend Debbie from Newport missed her connecting flight to Newark so is hoping to arrive on Friday. Janet calls and says she will walk to my apartment, and she does! We have lunch at the Cafe Beaubourg. I'm getting to be a regular there!

Place Vendome. We head off from the square in front of the Centre Pompidou to walk to the Place Vendome. We pass la Fontaine des Innocents, Les Halles, St Eustache, down to r. de Saint Honore to the Palais Royal, through the gardens, then wind around a few little streets to end up on the Avenue de l'Opera with a great view up the street to the Opera Garnier. Up to r. Cassanova where we see a very large, very contemporary, all-glass market building with a pedestrian mall right through it. We decide to explore: it contains auto showroom and other high end shops. On the other side is the Place du Marche St Honore and then we end up back on the r. Saint Honore to the Place Vendome. There's an amusing contemporary sculpture installed in the square: Pommes d'Adam (Adam's Apples). Several shades of pink. Bizarre. We look in all the windows of the fancy jewelry stores, then down to the r. de Rivoli and the:

Jeu de Paume. This small building (it matches L'Orangerie on the other side of the Tuileries Garden) is part of the Louvre and, when I first came to Paris in the 60s, it held their Impressionist collection. Following the renovation of the Gare d'Orsay into the Musee, that became the respository for the mid-to-late 19th c./early 20th c. painting, drawing and sculpture, and the Jeu de Paume now presents special (temporary) exhibitions. It is currently showing an Edward Steichen (1879-1973) retrospective, called Lives in Photography. This turns out to be true, as Steichen went through a number of transformations during his very, very long life. Literally hundreds of photographs.

Early on, along with Alfred Stieglitz, there was an emphasis on bringing out the "painterly" qualities of photography in an attempt to establish it firmly as one of the fine arts. Later he broke with Stieglitz and moved in different directions. He was very active during both World Wars. Later, he was the chief photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair. And in 1946, he was made the Director of Photography for MOMA. He was nonetheless a controversial figure in the world of photography because of his interest in illustrative and commercial photography. The range of his interests and talents was phenomenal as is easy to see from this exhibit. He was even involved throughout his life in horticulture, especially the cultivation of delphiniums. So many wonderful photographs, especially the portraits (he seems to have photographed everyone who was anyone in the early to mid 20th century. My favorite photograph is probably the flatiron building in NYC but I also love his portrait of Norma Shearer.

By the end of this exhibit, Janet and I are both completely awash with museum fatigue. I honestly don't know how she's holding up along with the inevitable jetlag (although there was that little nap she took during a 16-minute video interview of Steichen shown as part of the exhibit! Frankly, it was a snoozer anyway.)

A Moment to Remember. When we come out of the museum and walk into the Jardin des Tuileries, there is the most beautiful lavender sky in the east. With the wispy tops of bare trees over the classic Parisian architecture and the garden in the foreground, it could be a painting by Pissaro, and we are frozen in the moment. As we walk along, the pinks and blues in the sky become even more intense.

Les Ministeres. We cross the river over to the Left Bank to find place for dinner and choose a restaurant called Les Ministeres on the r. du Bac. We share "entree" of leeks, Janet has the bar grillee and I have the penne with cepes as they are now in season. We share dessert of tarte aux pommes et rhubarbe. An excellent dinner. The maitre d' is a little snooty (maybe he had a bad day what with the strike and all) but our waiter is very very nice. Lovely Belle Epoque interior.

We continue down r. du Bac down to the Blvd St Germain and over to r. des Saints Peres where Janet is staying in the Hotel Pas de Calais. As we're walking along, Janet tells me about the time she was traveling somewhere without her husband, Alan, and saw something she wanted to buy him. It was, however, quite expensive. "He's worth it," she said, "but I'm too cheap." I laughed out loud. Later, we see some beautiful barrettes in the shape of bows. I consider buying one for Eleanor until it turns out they cost 22 euros. "She's worth it," I say, "but I'm too cheap!" This will become our refrain for the weekend.

I walk home. Without my pedometer, I feel as though I'm not getting "credit" for all this walking! :)