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15.04.2019

The Notre Dame Cathedral fire that destroyed the roof and spire and damaged much of the inside was a shock to many Parisians. News organizations around the world covered the fire. Estimates indicate that securing the Cathedral will take about 4 months. And the time required for the entire restoration? -- "While Macron hoped the cathedral could be restored in time for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, architects expect the work could take from twenty to forty years, as any new structure would need to balance restoring the look of the original building, using wood and stone sourced from the same regions used in the original construction, with the structural reinforcement required for preventing a similar disaster in the future."

The fire broke out under the roof. By the time it was extinguished the building's spire and most of its roof had been destroyed and its upper walls severely damaged. More extensive damage to the interior was prevented by its stone vaulted ceiling, which largely contained the burning roof as it collapsed. Many works of art and religious relics ("sacred" human bones, if you didn't know) were moved to safety early in the emergency, but many others were damaged or destroyed. The cathedral's two pipe organs, and its three 13th-century rose windows, suffered little to no damage. Three people were injured and the repairs will cost billions. Intense debates addressing spending 2 billion Euros to repair the cathedral were carried out on social media but not so much IRL in France. The money will come from donations and about half of it has been offered by two French billionaires.

Through the night of the fire and into the next day, people gathered along the Seine to hold vigils, sing and pray. Below are some links to videos of Parisians singing near the cathedral. The sights and sounds are moving.

Parisians sing hymns as they watch Notre Dame burning.

Parisians sing as the Notre Dame cathedral burns.

Brief video of mourning crowd singing 'Ave Maria' outside Notre Dame cathedral amid devastating fire.

Horrific fire threatens Paris landmark. It could have been a lot worse. Damage assessment.





24.4.2019

The main thing John and I did this month was visit Paris. I'm still amazed that going to Paris regularly is such an easy thing to do. There's a lot happening in Paris, you know?

As our train approached the beautiful "City of Lights" we saw many kilometers of yellow flowers in the distance. Later we learned that they are rapeseed flowers. The fields of yellow are lovely.

Musée d'Orsay

Musée d'Orsay is a beautiful museum. It's a converted train station with glass ceiling and large windows allowing in abundant light. The special exhibit we saw is Modèles Noirs: De Géricault à Matisse exposition à d'Orsay ( Black Models: from Gericault to Matisse exhibition at d'Orsay). This special exhibit is on display at Musée d'Orsay from 26 March to 21 July 2019. It focuses on 3 key periods: the abolition of slavery era (1794-1848), the new painting era up to the first avant-gardes in the 20th century and modern paintings to the present day. This exhibition explores the way black models have been represented and how that representation has evolved over time. In addition to the dramatic paintings several of the picture frames at this exhibition are ornate and elegant. That's not unusual for a museum exhibition but the art of the frames of this exhibit should not be overlooked. They are truly beautiful.

To learn more about the Black Models: from Gericault to Matisse exhibition please click on the links below.

Musée d'Orsay Le modèle noir de Géricault à Matisse

Video Musée d'Orsay exhibit explores the representation of black models in French art.

Vidéo de l'exposition le modèle noir de Géricault à Matisse, au Musée d'Orsay

Vidéo Le modéle noir" à Orsay: "Une exposition qui mêle histoire de l'art, politique et société.

While we were visiting d'Orsay we also saw Rousseau's Snake Charmer . John's a big fan of that painting. I'm a big fan of Rousseau's work. John originally saw it in 1976 when he was 23. He told me that he "had never seen any painting like it before. It seemed to me to be the subconsciousness lurking just below the surface" He had a poster of it hanging in his office for the next 30 years until it was lost in a move. Rousseau's Snake Charmer wasn't at d'Orsay the last time we visited there. John was so happy to see it again after all those years.

Notre Dame de Paris

We visited Notre Dame 10 days after the fire. After our visit to d'Orsay we stopped by Notre Dame to see what the situation was there. On the way there I stepped off a bus onto a street lined with branches and flowers and an intense amount of pollen. I usually don't react to pollen but I started sneezing like crazy. I had to stop into a pharmacy for non-drowsy antihistamine. After that we encountered a bunch of sneezy, sniffling and coughing people on buses and subways and yellow pollen was piled on the roadsides. Back in Rennes there is no sneezing or coughing.

When we arrived at Notre Dame we couldn't see much exterior damage to the two bell towers but the collapsed roof and missing spire were evident. We couldn't get very close because the police had barricaded the streets around the cathedral ( for public safety. ) The blackened rose window was covered for it's protection. I think its stability hasn't been evaluated yet.

Fajitas

We had lunch at Fajitas, a Mexican restaurant we like and had visited before. Our favorite dish there is the restaurant's namesake dish, the fajitas. The inside of the restaurant is ornate and airy. Very pleasant. Be careful when visiting the WC (pronounce 'dooblay vay say' - or something similar) because the stairs are very steep. I think the French saying WC for toilet is weird because water closet in French is salle d'eau.

Café Procope

On the way to our next stop we passed the Café Procope which opened in 1686. "The oldest coffee shop in Paris" and the most famous center of the literary and philosophic life of the 18th and 19th centuries. It was frequented by La Fontaine. Male intellectuals and artists such as Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, Marat, Robespierre, Napoleon Bonaparte, Balzac, Victor Hugo, Gambetta, Anatole France, and Ernest Hemingway worked from and frequented the cafe. You can find more information and images of the cafe on this Wikipedia page. A map, directions, menu, photos, contact link and reviews can be found on the cafe's website.

King Tut (Tutankhamun) Exhibition - Grande Halle de La Villette I March 23 - September 15, 2019

The area of town where the King Tut exhibit was is far from the Orsay and Notre Dame. The exhibit was a treat in many ways. There were over 150 artifacts but no mummies or relics (mummies and relics are in Egypt). John was mesmerized examining the 3,300 year old items. Many rooms had educational films (in French) covering the history of the era and the nobility.

In addition to the educational films there were films of several King Tut parodies (in English) including the 1978 Saturday Night Live one with Steve Martin. It was all we could do to refrain from dancing.

Please refer to the images below for some of the King Tut artifacts. If you are curious and want to see more images of King Tut's statues and masks please click on the links below.

King Tut Statues and Masks

More links to information about the King Tut exhibit.

Tutankhamun exposition web site

Video - Tutankhamun exposition in Paris

Video Tutankhamun exhibit of artifacts in Paris

Several large sculptures guarded the entrance
to the Musée d'Orsay. 		The glass ceiling of this converted train station makes the Musée d'Orsay such
a beautiful museum. 		After some wandering we found the exhibit
we came to see.
Portrait of the father of Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers. Study of a Man (1818) by Théodore Géricault. Portrait of Madeleine (1800) by Marie-Guillemine Benoist
Study of the Model Joseph (1838)
by Théodore Chassériau. 		The Abolition of Slavery in the French Colonies (1849) by François-Auguste Biard. Why Born a Slave? (1869)
by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux.
Photograph of Alexandre Dumas
by Paul Nader. 		The Captive Slave (1827) by John Philip Simpson. A Study of a Model (1872)
by Jean-Léon Gérôme.
The Black Scipion (1868) by Paul Cézanne. The Wait (1894) by Edgard Maxence. Children at the Tuileries (1861)
by Édouard Manet.
Olympia (1863) by Édouard Manet. Detail of Olympia (1863) by Édouard Manet. The Childish Kiss (1865)
by Jacques-Eugène Feyen
The Snake Charmer (1907) by Henri Rousseau. One of John's favorite paintings. Detail from The Snake Charmer. Another detail from The Snake Charmer.
Portraits of Josephine Baker (1930)
by Paul Nader. 		Lady in a White Robe (1946)
by Henri Matisse. 		Role reversals.
We couldn't see much exterior damage to the two bell towers of Notre Dame. The police had barricades for public safety. Another view of the towers that had some internal damage.
The rose window was covered for protection. We had a great lunch at Fajitas, our favorite Parisian Mexican restaurant. We passed by Le Procope. The oldest coffee house in Paris, established in 1686. Customers included Voltaire, Napoleon and Hemingway.
Le Procope has an Old World elegance and ... ... a sense of it's own history. Sculpture of Tutankhamun on throne.
Food containers for the trip
to the afterlife. 		These vases contained perfumed oils. Lots of future archaeologists were at the exhibit.
Chair and footrest for Tutankhamun. Packing for the afterlife: a wooden backpack. Gilded wooded bed.
Boat model. Ancient Egyptian belief was that in the afterlife these models would emerge
as full sized. 		Gilded wooden "Ostrich Hunt" fan. Solar Hawk Horus and curved dagger.
Ceremonial mace. Stele of Tutankhamun hunting a lion. Figurine of Tutankhamun riding
on a black panther.
Wooden statue of Tutankhamun
entering the afterlife. 		Gilded statue of Tutankhamun
throwing a harpoon on a skiff. 		Horus and Anubis wooden statues.
Gilded wooden statue of Ptah Wooden statue of Tutankhamun
entering the afterlife. 		Coffinette of Tutankhamun.
Symbols of office found
in Tutankhamun's coffin. 		Gold wrappings from Tutankhamun's mummy. Howard Carter and a colleague excavating a tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
Large statue remnant of Tutankhamun. The King Tut exhibition was held in
La Grande halle de La Villette. 		After a long day we eagerly took the high speed train (TGV) home to Rennes.





27.4.2019

Tonight Rennes won the French cup (soccer) final against Paris. Rennes beat PSG in a penalty shootout to win Coupe de France.

I had forgotten about the game until car horns blared for several minutes late in the evening. Although people were excited they were not as boisterous as last year when France won the world cup.

Winning the Coupe du France qualifies Rennes for the UEFA Europe League Super Cup so I guess we can expect more car honking before long.

I don't know when Rennes would compete or how all the soccer competitions work but the number of teams competing is drastically fewer than for the French Cup. I'm impressed that Rennes has such a good team. The French Cup competition started out with more than 8500 amateur and professional football clubs in France, including clubs based in the overseas departments and territories. I'm happy for our neighbors who celebrate the sport.

Rennes beat PSG In penalty shootout to win Coupe de France.





28.4.2019

John and I are going to apply for our permanent residency in about 17 months. They waive the stringent language requirements if one is over 60 but my understanding is that the applicant still needs to be able to have a low level conversation.

John is studying French (written and spoken) for at least two hours everyday. Because of his auditory processing disorder (and age) it's difficult but he practices with the local merchants whenever he can. Today he came home from shopping and bragged "not a word of English the entire time."

We read French newspapers and magazines and depending on the complexity of the article we understand between 30% and 70%, looking up words we don't know (including the pronunciation).

We like it here a lot. John is all jazzed about the history, architecture, archaeology, classical music, varied and bountiful art and other cultural offerings found everywhere we go. I like that we are in France/Europe and first hand experiencing its modern and prolific (at least in cities) transportation systems and it's excellent social programs. The politics here is interesting. The Left and Center-left control most European governments although the threats by right wing (usually racist) factions are real and can be disturbing.

Most of the people we've met here are polite and helpful (although much of the customer service sucks). Travelling in Europe is easy and can be cheap with flexibility and planning and there are SOOOOOOO many cool places to visit. Some of our future travel plans will be in our next blog and will include plans to meet our friends Marion and Doc in Toulouse in early July, and meeting our friends Kathleen and Dave in late July in Quimper (pronounced Campa - approximately) a town not far from where we live. In August Kathleen and Dave will visit us in Rennes, so we can show off some of our new finds in town such as all those churches with classical music that John loves.

France is currently evaluating having free public transportation nationwide. They are also adding new free services for health care later this year (dental and hearing aids) some were added last January (eyes stuff). Amazing, yes? As Kathleen said, "The French don't know how good they have it."