@ Home, Catching Up

We’re back, long but uneventful return trip.  Air travel ceased being enjoyable years ago.  It is now becoming less & less endurable.  We pay extra for more legroom but the seat recline is still inadequate.  The number of toilets per filled plane is inadequate.  The food...well, it probably meets the caloric minimum but that’s all.

OK, returning to the blog.  I went to the Carnavalet Museum again looking for Napoleon & finally found him.  The room devoted to this hero of the early 19^th century had shrunk to the bare minimum.  Yes, there was a grand portrait of him but Josephine was nowhere and my favorite portrait of him after all his defeats was put back into storage.

Here's Napoleon in 1809, a very good year for him (read...he won a bunch of battles).  All 5'6" of him.

The only other item related to him was his armor, not very interesting so I didn't shoot it.

However, if you want to have a peek at a very attractive early 19th century lady, 16 years old but already a favorite among the big shot men of the time (Napoleon among them), I give you Juliette Recamier.

Elsewhere in the museum, this painting struck me because of the fineness of the detail.  It was as if I was looking at a photo, not a painting.

It's difficult to see that with this photo, but I took a second shot by zooming in on the lady in the white bonnet.

As I went nose to nose with her, I saw the cracks were larger than some of he brush strokes.  Doing an entire painting this way had to be a long, difficult process.

I have come very late to appreciate history, only in the last five years or so.  French history is fascinating because so much happens, especially in the 19th century.  There were constant revolutions (1789 was just the start), leaders being deposed, sieges, uprisings, the lot.  Two paintings caught my eye only because of the subject matter and the date they were painted.

I've taken many photos of the Bastille Column...the French refer to it as Colonne de Juilliet, the July Column commemorating a three day uprising on July 28, 29, 30, 1830 and the people who died, each of their names on the column by day.

Here's a painting from 1851, another uprising.  This event took place on rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine, a street we walk down often in Paris.  Notice the July Column in the upper left.

I got three of the dimensions right, probably walking through the very place where this event happened.  It's only the time dimension that's off by about 163 years.

Another painting fascinating to me (and maybe me alone, but you're stuck seeing it).  I've mentioned many times that the Paris City Hall, L'Hotel de Ville, is my favorite, favorite Paris landmark of all time.

Here is a portion of a painting of L'Hotel de Ville done in 1851.

It's hard to see so I'm going to zoom in on a piece:

Note the statues, something that fascinates me about the HdeV seen today.  EXCEPT, today's HdeV was built from 1873 - 1892 to replace this one that was destroyed by the Paris Commune in 1871, also wiping out records from the 1789 revolution.

(As an aside, history portrays the Paris Commune as bad, bad news.   An uprising of vandals that set about ravaging everything, killing indiscriminately, & finally defeated.  Not all revolutions are good.)

Anyhow, what this painting revealed to me for the first time is that the statues I love so much now are an attempt to re-create the earlier HdeV.

OK, one more painting, then we move on.  Musical history-wise the years 1825 - 1850 were glorious ones for Paris.  Two of the world's finest composers, Frederic Chopin & Franz Liszt were hard at work.  They were colleagues, held "salons" together.  This is where the rich would have a gathering of friends & these two young fellas gaining in musical popularity would play for the small crowd.  It is known that they would also play together, four hands on the piano.  (If I had a time machine, this is one place/time I'd like to be.)

Liszt was not only a composer, but one of the finest (according to present day Jeffrey Siegal...THE very finest) piano soloists around.

Chopin lived a short life, 1810-1849, a chronic lung disorder got him early.  Liszt lived much longer, 1811-1886.  Liszt was the rock star of his time.  Women swooned.  Think The Beatles.

Here's an undated painting from when he was young, you can see why the swooning regardless of his musical talent.

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OK, back to present day reality.  We saw school kids being marched around probably to see some of the local landmarks,  Here is a grand idea of a safety precaution, put a vest on each youngster.

Exploring a new street on our last day in Paris, as we walked down Rue Bretagne we passed by this floral display, a riot of colors.

And finally, three of Susanne's shots showing the Paris edition of a worldwide phenomena, cell phones everywhere.

I'm convinced that 90% of all mobile phone calls are made not because they're necessary but because you can.

Last dinner in Paris; at Le Petit Bofinger (that's "bo fan jay" but swallow the 'n', not "bo finger").  Food good, service OK, wouldn't go back cuz of lots of other unexplored places.

One more post coming, a looking back on the trip.