Cleaning is also not difficult because Susanne does a wonderful job of keeping up with things during our stay. The landlord complains that she is doing his job.
So we had time to walk over to Ile St. Louis to the Polish Cultural Center & their Chopin museum. He spent most of his productive time in Paris, lived a short life (1810-1849) dying from a chronic lung condition that was thought to be tuberculosis though now some think was cystic fibrosis.
But in those 39 years he produced a great body of work, had a long standing affair with the French author Georges Sand who was a serial mistress to a number of prominent Frenchmen at the time. He had a great friendship with Franz Liszt who outlived him by scores of years (1811-1886).
The Polish Cultural Center has been in its location since 1858. We made our way upstairs and entered a large room. In the center was a seated young lady armed with a cash box. For five euros each we could walk through the doorway on her right to enter the Chopin Museum.
This we did, discovering that the Chopin Museum was one room, smaller than the ante-room but loaded with Chopin memorabilia.
The best Chopin portrait turned out to be on a poster at the doorway of the Center, a teaser for sure.
In one case was a cast of his left hand, smaller than mine. A lock of his hair and a copy of a daguerreotype, the only known photo of him.
A collection of busts done at various times in his life.
A chair taken from his apartment at the time he died. A sign in French said, in effect, "Chopin sat here but you're not going to".
There was a flyer on the wall announcing the public sale of his personal effects. If only I'd been there to buy up the stuff, then save it for Ebay.
Chopin's funeral was held at the Madeleine Church (relatively new then, being completed in 1843) attended by over 3,000.
At the time, it was common for wealthy patrons to hold "salons" in their very large homes. A small group of friends would attend and composers would play their works.
This piano is said to be one on which both Chopin & Liszt played, separately & together. Although it looks like a grand piano, it is very much a baby grand & hard to imagine two men playing side by side.
We were not supposed to take photos in this room. So I had to use natural light which turned everything yellowish, probably by design. Since the portrait below was B&W anyway, I changed it back.
Franz Liszt in one of his best known portraits. Not only was he a great composer but he is considered the greatest pianist of all time.
As Jeffrey Siegel put it during one of his Keyboard Commentary performances, "...the greatest concert piano performer who ever lived or ever will live."
There's a certain conclusive finality to that claim.
And lastly we come to Georges Sand, the pseudonym of Amantine Lucille Dupin (1804-1876). An author in her own right, this lady had a long and active life, married & divorced young (two children who lived til the end of the century), then on to brief (a year or two) flings with several famous at the time Frenchmen before a long 10 year affair with Chopin.
These pieces don't do her justice (facial proportions are inconsistent) so I took an image from Wikipedia, below.
The affair with Chopin began in 1837, this piece was done in 1838. I'd say she was quite beautiful, making major allowances for the incompetence of her hair dresser.
There is a chain of restaurants in Paris called Indiana with an Indian head as the logo. Has nothing to do with our state, but the name of Sand's first novel.
The affair ended in 1847 on less than good terms. She went on to a reputed affair with another woman. Chopin, horribly ill by now, died in 1849. Sand was not among the sad 3,000 at the Madeleine.
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A complete change of subject. Anyone who has been to Paris is familiar with the alternating two-tone siren sound of an emergency vehicle, police, fire engine or ambulance. For years I've been trying to capture it on video but I didn't have the camera with me or didn't have it ready cuz they go by so quickly. But that afternoon on Ile St. Louis, I got lucky. Here it is, all 14 seconds of it.
Website version HERE.
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