Trip to Paris

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by JCF

Shaun, you should have taken the train out to Auvers. He and Theo are buried there.
And the village is very much the same as it was. The cafe he lived and died in is a tourist draw of course and along the lanes are markers where Vincent set up his easel to paint.
Very powerful feeling to walk to the edge of the village by the church h did a painting of to the cemetery on the edge of the cornfields...

Also; go to Arles and Aix en Provence - in late spring or summer when it's hot - you will see that Van Gogh and Cezanne did not exaggerate the landscape all that much. It really does look and feel like it does in their works.

Agree and I'm definitely going back for a longer trip to drive into the countryside and make my way down to Nice.

[Bob Kontak]

Enjoying the thread. Thank you.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

I'm enjoying your comments of Paris as viewed by you, like anywhere in the world the actual is quite a bit different than is reported in the press

If you're really into you're art then the Hermitage in St. Petersburg would take some beating

Or if you ever want to plan a European driving tour. I'd be glad to help you put a route together to suit what, where you want to see

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

If you're really into you're art then the Hermitage in St. Petersburg would take some beating

That is a huge museum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermitage_Museum

On a side note, I did get to visit the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in the mid 80's and learned about no flashes when some poor fool used his. At the Tate Modern you cant take pics period. I learned that one the hard way.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

I'm enjoying your comments of Paris as viewed by you, like anywhere in the world the actual is quite a bit different than is reported in the press

If you're really into you're art then the Hermitage in St. Petersburg would take some beating

Or if you ever want to plan a European driving tour. I'd be glad to help you put a route together to suit what, where you want to see

Thank you Captain, I will certainly take you up on your kind offer. I had this dream of shipping my M491 over and driving that around for 2 weeks but instead will be renting a car on my next long trip. Hopefully this fall.

[jyl]

Thank you for taking the trip and then taking the time to bring us along.

Paris is truly a special place. I will share a couple of my memories.

I lived in Paris when I was 5 and 6. My dad was off doing whatever mathematicians do, often in Strasbourg. My grandmother came to live with us and take care of me. She was old even then and spoke no French. I was in school, spoke French like a native kid, and was essentially a latchkey child. I had a large supply of Metro tickets and spent hours exploring Paris, going to every Metro station, wandering the whole city, the sketch parts and the glorious parts, completely alone and unsupervised. Think of a 6 year old with freedom to go anywhere in a great city, and think of the city where a 6 year old could do that with nothing at all happening.

Much later my wife and I lived in Paris with our 2 year old daughter. I was now the one in school and Mary took Kate out every day in her stroller to explore. Paris is very urban but it has tiny parklets everywhere and they are tidy, carefully tended, with little play structures and grassy spots, and the city has an army of park tenders who maintain these little oases. That's just a little example of what makes Paris a place to live as well as visit. It's not just about packing people in and extracting their money. The things that make miles of dense buildings and busy streets a humane, lovely, welcoming place to live are on display in Paris in a way that most cities, including most in the US, aren't doing.

Around that time we went to a New Year's eve party at the apartment of some French people in the 1ere, not far from the Arc de Triomphe. At 2 am we left to return to my friend's tiny apartment that was on the other side of the city, in a much less prosperous arrondisement. There were no taxis, because French cab drivers don't pick up street hail rides at 2 am on January 1st, and this was pre-Uber, and the Metro was closed. So we walked for, I'd guess, five miles through the city at night, carrying a two year old, from about 2 am until around 4 am. We felt no unease at all. This wasn't just us being naive Americans, as my Parisian friend was walking with us and he confirmed, what we were doing was perfectly safe. By the way, champagne and Paris at night make a long trek like walking on clouds.

For your next trip, I'd recommend Marseille. It is my favorite large city in France, actually. Very different from Paris - I wouldn't necessarily walk through Marseille at 2 am - but it is amazing too.

[stuartj]

Oh well, if we're allowed.....

One thing about Paris is the small format, almost 'pop up', concerts, recitals, art displays, little temporary museums. You for instance can go into any Church after Mass on Sunday, even Notre Dame, and hear an organ recital. One day we saw a poster for a concert that would occur in Sainte Chapele that night. Its a little church which lies within the Justice Complex, dates from the 12th century, it was the royalty's private church. Sainte Chapele has "the best stained glass" in France. Each window stories a complete book of the Bible. Its very famous as one of the most spectacular churches, small too, in all France. We found a booth in the back of a cafe where tickets were being sold, and the lady convinced my wife with a wink to spend another 3euros (on maybe a 12euro ticket) for "good seats". We arrived, entering through full Court security even after hours, and went to the Chapele. At the front of the little Chapele a rope was lifted and we, stunned, were taken to seats 1A and 1B. We sat, almost in touching distance the lead violin of a septuplet of strings + harpsichord and listened to a recital in full of the Four Seasons, and other Vivaldi pieces. The late evening sun streamed through the glass. My wife started blubbering at the 5min mark and didnt stop for 2 hours.

Then in Nov 2016, we lucked onto an after hours tour of the towers and bells of Notre Dame. (if youre going, google this) We arrived at the allotted time. Small group only allowed, 12 people. Us and a family/friends group, most of whom were not in such good shape. We know the climb into the towers, I had a plan. We got a the head of the line, behind the guide. The guard opened the door, a little way up, the tour guide was already struggling. We asked if we could go on ahead. We bolted. The result was, we got to the top of Notre Dame on a perfect Paris evening and had nearly fifteen minutes up there all alone. Also, it was the Eve of the Day of the Dead. We were on the gantry of the South Belfry, where the two giant bells (Marie and Emmanuel) are housed, while the bells arrayed in the North Tower peeled out for the Day of the Dead. Truly amazing.

These are two of my favourite Paris moments. What a city.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

John and Stuart, rich, brilliant stories, thank you for posting!

[recycled sixtie]

Speaking of France a bit over fifty years ago I worked at the Chateau de Montculot near Urcy about an hour out of Dijon. I attended the hill climb to watch all kinds of cars climb the big hill. Over fifty years later they are still doing it. If you google Urcy France hill climb there are some impressive videos of them.

Thanks Shaun for this thread. Brings back memories of France.

[JCF]

I lived here (Place 18 Juin) in the 80's - also lived in the
Marais and on the Ile St Louis.....Was living in NYC before that, and Paris felt like a little village in comparison.
It grew in my heart every day i was there. I could never walk past Notre Dame without pinching myself that it was actually really materially there...
I loved most the layers of history, beauty and tragedy on every street - "Ici Est Tombe Pour Le France...", "Ici Vecu Georges de la Tour..", sometimes multiple layers like the Obelisk on the Place de la Concorde which besides being stunningly powerful as art from ancient Egypt, brought there by Napoleon and being near where the guillotine was placed during the Revolution, and pockmarked by war damage from the Liberation....
The cemeteries are overwhelming history lessons and full of pathos...want to know what the Great Wars cost France without all the military pomp ?....and GO TO THE CATACOMBS!!!!!! - "as we once were...."
One day I opened the windows in my apartment, looked out and saw tanks going through the square...another cold blue dawn, hearing bells I looked down to see a flock of sheep being led to the Jardin de Luxembourg...
One week terrorists were blowing off bombs all over the city and I passed inches by the biggest at Chez Tatti less than a minute before I heard and saw it go off....
The people are wonderful once they trust you, I think for the Parisians it is a serious thing to be a friend and so don't offer their friendship lightly...but once you gain their trust you are family.
And falling in Love has a different feel there...

Thanks for the memories...so many

[JCF]

Originally Posted by jyl

Around that time we went to a New Year's eve party at the apartment of some French people in the 1ere, not far from the Arc de Triomphe. At 2 am we left to return to my friend's tiny apartment that was on the other side of the city, in a much less prosperous arrondisement. There were no taxis, because French cab drivers don't pick up street hail rides at 2 am on January 1st, and this was pre-Uber, and the Metro was closed. So we walked for, I'd guess, five miles through the city at night, carrying a two year old, from about 2 am until around 4 am. We felt no unease at all. This wasn't just us being naive Americans, as my Parisian friend was walking with us and he confirmed, what we were doing was perfectly safe. By the way, champagne and Paris at night make a long trek like walking on clouds.

Ha - almost the same story...after a party in Bobiny Pablo Picasso, walked with a friend all the way to Montparnasse - virtually across the entire city. Arrived home at about 5 in the morning - with the french flag waving in the window of the pic above...Won't say where I got it...

[stuartj]

Originally Posted by JCF

I lived here (Place 18 Juin) in the 80's - also lived in the
Marais and on the Ile St Louis.....Was living in NYC before that, and Paris felt like a little village in comparison.
It grew in my heart every day i was there. I could never walk past Notre Dame without pinching myself that it was actually really materially there...

Lovely post. I recall my first sight of Notre Dame, walking in from the direction of the Bastille, and sighting the flying buttresses. And later, looking at apartments adjacent and wondering if, throwing open the curtains each morning, you could ever take that sight for granted.

Which ofcourse, brings us to this....