Toussaint

Thursday, November 1. It's All Saints Day today, a national holiday, so many things are closed, including the Alliance Francaise. Since I'm going to be in the neighborhood, I wanted to pick up my results from the test I took in September but no such luck. I'll have to go next week.

Un verre a l'Horizon. At 4:30, I meet Shwu, Daniel, Camille at L'Horizon for coffee. Daniel is the first to arrive, then Shwu. Camille is a little late but arrives on a Velib! We have a great time chatting for more than two hours. This is one of the real pleasures of Paris, sitting in a cafe, drinking coffee (or tea or hot chocolate or wine), and being with friends (and, in my case, not having anything else pressing to do!).

Daniel and I decide to go together to the new Cite de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine, which is open late on Thursdays. So we take the metro from St Placide to Montparnasse, walk approximately one mile within the station (!) to change to Line 6 for Trocadero. This metro station lets you out right in front of one wing of the Palais de Chaillot. The two curved pavilions of this 1930s "palace" are linked by the Place des Droits de l'Homme, a large open space from which is the most splendid view of the Eiffel Tower. When we arrive, it is exactly 7 p.m., so the tower is twinkling.

Cite de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine. This brand-new museum (March 2007) combines the collections of the Musee des Monuments Historiques (formerly in this space) and the Institut Francais d'Architecture, and presents France's architectural heritage from the Middle Ages to the present. By way of this museum, you can travel all around France, visiting cathedrals and many other architectural treasures, both old and new.

They don't call it "Cite" for nothing. Like the Louvre, it is vast and you can't take it all in at one time. It is 23,000 square meters of floor space on a total of 6 floors: -2, -1, 0 (the ground floor), 1, 2 and 3, although the bulk of the permanent collection is on the ground floor and the second floor. And there's lots of room for expansion!

We walk through the Romanesque, the Gothic and the Renaissance on our way to the Modern and Contemporary Architecture. There are vast reproductions of arches, statutes, portals and other architectural features along with many cut-away maquettes of cathedrals from all over France, some as taller than I. There are two glass cases filled with at least 20 wooden arch supports from various Romanesque and Gothic structures showing the differences in construction. The Modern and Contemporary section is mind-boggling. I could have spent the entire time in one small section describing various urban building projects that are going on all around France. Hundreds of models, audio-visual displays, textual descriptions. It's sensory overload time! I simply have to come back.

After two hours, Daniel and I are both exhausted and hungry so decide to have dinner at one of the little cafes surrounding the Place du Trocadero. We choose the Cafe Kleber. Daniel has the warm goat cheese salad and I have a cheese omelette with salad. After dinner, we fall into the metro entrance just in front of the restaurant, change at Franklin Roosevelt to pick up Line 1 which will take both of us home. Daniel alights at Chatelet (his apt is in the 1st), and I continue on to Hotel de Ville. A lovely evening.

Interesting factoid: Daniel read that when they designed the interior of the museum, they covered the windows because the view of the Eiffel Tower was too distracting! Actually, the windows are covered only by a fabric that filters the light. At night, you can see the Eiffel Tower shining through it.